It's been busy around here

Another weekend, another ear infection.  Yes, Jackson made yet another trip to the pediatrician's this weekend with a high fever only to find out that he has another ear infection.  This makes two ear infections in the last month and a half.  I'm fearing we are headed towards tubes in his ears unfortunately.  He had a bad night on Friday night and woke up Saturday morning with a fever of almost 102.  After a call to the doctor's office, we got everyone bundled up and away we went to get him checked out.  He hated every minute of the exam and was equally unimpressed with more medicine.  Poor little guy!  It will be nice when he is older and can understand that medicine actually helps him.  Anyway, he basically spent all day on Saturday sleeping on my chest.  I felt so badly for him and although I really hadn't eaten all day, I didn't want to move the little munchkin.

The previous weekend was a little more fun for both Jackson and us.  There were all sorts of new things, some good, some he didn't like so much. First, Scott and Jackson had to get their Vikings gear on in the hopes that the Vikings could beat the Cardinals.  Unfortunately the Vikes lost but don't the boys look great?  GO VIKINGS!

Later that afternoon we decorated the Christmas tree and put up the Christmas decorations.

This picture is just precious!  I love my boys!

The finished product...

Our stockings....all hung by the chimney with care.

While Jackson wasn't thrilled to be in his exer-saucer while we were putting up the tree, he was fascinated by it when he got to see it up close.  He loved feeling the branches!  Jackson has really developed a texture thing.  He wants to touch, feel, grab EVERYTHING!  It's not that uncommon for us to wake up in the morning to Jackson scratching at his sheet.  Weird but somehow adorable at the same time.

Finally, Sunday night Jackson got his first taste of rice cereal.  Needless to say, things didn't go quite as well as I had hoped.  He hated the entire thing.  The good news is that I learned that daycare is going to help us in this endeavor.  They will work with Jackson each day and we can try cereal at night.  Hopefully he get used to the texture and spoon thing soon.  In the meantime, these pictures make me laugh!

The first taste....

Mom, what the heck is this gross stuff you're giving me?

Dad, please help me!

Well, we tried again Thursday night and it didn't really go any better.  We'll try again tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that.  Hopefully one of these days he'll decide he likes it! 

Here are some super cute pictures taken right before Thanksgiving of Jackson hanging out in his exer-saucer just because I couldn't resist sharing these with the world.

And here are pictures of Jackson's first Thanksgiving in Iowa.  I was really concerned about how it would go.  He'd never really been around that many people before and I knew everyone would want to hold him.  Boy, was I surprised when people started showing up and he went from pretty sleepy to the happiest little boy in the world.  He loved every minute of it and by the end of the night, try as he might, he couldn't keep his eyes open.  I guess he's going to be quite the little social butterfly when he grows up.  I really wish I had taken pictures of Jackson with everyone but I was too busy just enjoying the day.  Here are a few from our trip though. 

The obligatory family pose in front of the fireplace...

I don't really let Jackson watch TV in our house with the exception of the occasional football game.  While we were in Iowa I let him watch a little more than normal.  Here he is the morning after Thanksgiving watching Curious George for the first time.  He absolutely loved it!

And finally, here is a somewhat unhappy Jackson modeling an adorable sweater given to him by Grandma.

Well, Christmas is quickly approaching and I still have quite a bit of shopping to do.  Winter has also set in here in Minnesota so it's getting a little harder to get around, especially toting an infant.  We're having fun though and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to our first Christmas as a family of three.  I get a little teary just thinking about it!

Fall Picture Time

It seems like I haven't posted any in a while so it's time to play catch up.

In early November we were finally able to take some fall pictures outside.  I had wanted to get this done for about three weeks but the first week Jackson cried the entire time and the second week both he and I weren't feeling too well.  Well, third time is a charm and we were finally about to get some pictures taken outside.  Jackson didn't cooperate as well as I had hoped but I still think we got some good ones. 

So much for using the pumpkins as a prop.  He wasn't able to use them to sit up as well as I'd hoped.  As many of you know, with a baby not much goes according to plan.

I think Jackson was too fascinated by the cars driving by to pay any attention to us.  As much as we tried to get him to look at the camera, all he wanted to do was watch traffic.  Oh well.

Jackson and I had to get decked out in our Iowa Hawkeye gear to cheer on the Hawks as they beat the Minnesota Gophers for the second year in a row.  Yeah!  Jackson is a little Hawkeye in training, if I have anything to do about it.

There are more coming -- some from Thanksgiving and such.  This is just what I had time to do for now.  Stay tuned!

Christmas Traditions

I'm so excited for Christmas this year I can hardly stand it. Just three weeks from tomorrow we will be celebrating Jackson's very first Christmas! Growing up we never had any specific Christmas traditions. We had things that we all liked to do from year to year but it oftened changed as the three of us Blair girls got older. Several versions of traditions included driving around South Sioux City looking at the over-the-top Christmas lights after a yummy dinner at Kahil's. When we were a little older, we would open gifts until the wee hours of the morning on Christmas Eve so we could drive to my Grandparent's house in Indianola, IA on Christmas Day. A few days later we would head up north for the New Year's holiday. I also remember always having a delicious homemade soup on Christmas Eve between services at church. I always liked to go to both the early service (lots of kids which always made me smile) and the late service (lots of Christmas carols, yeah!). There is nothing so wonderful as singing "Silent Night" in a candlelit church on Christmas Eve. Last year I cried thinking about how wonderful it would be celebrating Christmas this year with a baby.

I'm really looking forward to creating family traditions, even if they change a little from year to year. Christmas was always such a special family time for me and I want the same thing for Jackson. Memories are so precious and I want him to have wonderful memories of this special time of year. Here are some of the family traditions that I would like to create.

1. Dropping off Jackson for some Aunt, Uncle, Cousin or Grandparents bonding time while Scott and I go out for dinner and do some Christmas shopping. We actually did this a couple of weeks ago although we didn't end up buying that much for Jackson.

2. Reading "The Night Before Christmas" with Jackson. I remember growing up that I pretty much had this book memorized and could recite it on command. It's such a special book to me and to this day I can recall the worn pages of the book and beautiful pictures. I spent quite alot of time picking out the copy I bought for our family -- looking at the illustrations and hoping Jackson would like it as much as I do.

3. New pajamas for Christmas Eve. This isn't an original idea. I got it from someone else and I think it's wonderful! On Christmas Eve we all (or maybe just Jackson, I haven't figured that out yet) will open up a new pair of pajamas, something comfy to lounge in when we open presents in the morning.

4. Driving around and looking at Christmas lights after dinner. Maybe we will start this tradition when Jackson gets old enough to actually look at the lights. He's still at the point where the car equals sleep. Then again, maybe we will start this year and Scott and I will enjoy the lights.

5. I would also like to have a special movie that we watch every year at Christmas. I haven't figured out which one yet but I'm working on it. I don't know if we'll go classic with "It's a Wonderful Life" or modern with something like "The Polar Express." Then again, maybe we'll let Jackson pick the movie when he gets older.

Ok, so I guess all the traditions aren't set in stone quite yet and I think that will probably be part of the fun too -- letting the traditions really develop as we grow as a family. Can you tell I'm excited and have put some thought into this stuff? This weekend we are putting up the Christmas tree so hopefully I will have some great pictures to post.