A little food for thought

A friend of mine from work had a nice thing happen to her this morning.  As she was waiting at the drive-thru to get her morning fix (aka Caribou coffee), she noticed the young woman in the car in front of her kept looking in the rear view mirror.  Well, when my co-worker got to the window to pay for her coffee and morning treat, the Caribou employee said that the woman in the car in front of her had paid for her order.  Apparently there is a Christian radio station in town that encourages these random acts of kindness.  What a wonderful thing!  I'm glad that there are still people out there that do nice things for others.  It oftentimes feels like we live in a world where everyone is strictly focused on themselves, sometimes to the detriment of others.  Anyway, it's a nice way to start the day and a good reminder that we need to think of others more often.

Now on to the center of our world.....

This past weekend we had some scary moments.  It started on Friday night.  Everything was great -- Jackson had had a good evening, was happy and went to bed easily, and Scott and I were enjoying another Twins victory.  All was calm in the Carter household until about 10pm when we heard some strange noises coming from Jackson's bedroom.  It sounded very odd, kind of like a seal barking, and I thought maybe it was the cats but they were accounted for.  We looked in on Jackson and it looked like he was struggling for air.  We woke him up and the barking noise intensified.  He had a very scared look on his face too.  Even though I had never heard this noise before, I just had a feeling it was croup.  After a quick call to the doctor, we were told to go immediately to the ER.  Jackson was given a breathing treatment and a steriod dose.  We were also told that he has another ear infection, an eye infection and a 102 degree fever.  The poor little boy was in bad shape. 

We were sent home after a couple of hours with some antibiotics and orders to come back if it started up again and couldn't be controlled with a steam bath in the bathroom.  It was a scary night but thankfully he seems to be doing much better.  Jackson has been sick before but watching him struggle to get air really freaked me out.  I'm praying we don't ever have to go through that again.  The one fun thing about the whole night was that Jackson got to have his first popsicle.  The nurse offered him one which I really didn't think he would like but he devoured it and in the process stained his chin orange.  Cute!  I guess I'll have to get some popsicles next time I'm at the grocery store!

Jackson has been doing really well with eating and trying new foods.  He has had the purreed foods from the jar, cheerios, mangos, peaches, pears, pineapple, turkey, cereal bars and pasta.  He generally will eat it all, however, we've discovered that he cannot stand the jar baby food (level 3) with chunks in it.  Here are some priceless pictures of Jackson being fed one of them.  I think it was chicken noodle dinner.  Not a happy camper.

Is this the saddest face you've ever seen or what?

Thank god it's over!!!

Jackson is such a goof ball.  Here are some cute pictures of him playing with his shape-sorter.  I couldn't believe it when he picked it up off the floor, full of all of the shapes, and almost got it all the way up to the table.  Such a strong little guy!  He hasn't quite figured out how to put the shapes back into the box, mostly he just puts them in his mouth.  Oh well.

Look how strong I am, Mom!

A couple of weeks ago we tried to put Jackson down for a nap but he just had no interest in napping at all.  After about 10 minutes of hearing him try to get our attention we walked in to find this...Jackson standing in his crib holding his favorite teddy bear over the side.

Cuddling with his favorite teddy.  I know you aren't supposed to have stuffed animals in cribs but since we put them in there, it seems like he sleeps better.  He is able to calm himself down and uses them to cuddle.  What can I say?  It works for us.

And finally, he has learned to climb the stairs.  Yikes!!  I'm scared for what this means.  This picture was taken just this past Saturday.  He loves to chase the cats up the stairs.

We are headed to Iowa this weekend for Jackson's baptism.  I know, a little late but at least it's getting done.  May is just around the corner too.  That means the countdown to cabin time is really on!!  I'm so excited to take Jackson up there this summer.  He's going to just be fascinated by everything.

Scott and I are doing well too.  Scott is recovering from a diaper bag/eye incident.  The details are a little hazy but I think the diaper bag won.  It resulted in a trip to urgent care and some wonderfully soothing eye drops.  We managed to make it to a Twins game on Sunday which was great!  Target Field, the new home of the Twins, is amazing and it was nice to get out of the house without the munchkin for a few hours.  I think we're planning on taking him to a game sometime later in the season, maybe to a day game during the week when it might not be so crazy.  He loved his first Twins game last August but he's quite a bit squirmier (is that a real word?) now.  

Anyway, until next time we'll enjoy the warmer weather, cheer on the Twins and look forward to cabin time! 

Happy Easter!

What a wonderful Easter!  We celebrated by enjoying a fun get-together with Scott's family.  Here are some pictures of Jackson with his first Easter basket -- a couple of movies, a new Peter Rabbit book, a stuffed animal and a new bib.  Just what Jackson was hoping for!

Modeling his new "big boy" bib.

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this beautiful spring!

Ummm...help!

This is what Scott and I woke up to this morning.  Yikes!

That's right...that's Jackson standing in his crib, happily holding on to the side.  We lowered the crib a couple of weeks ago because he was pulling on the bumper.  After one night of trying to sleep without the bumper (Jackson got his arm stuck between the slats in the crib three times during the night), we decided to lower the crib and put the bumper back in.  Well, looks like we're going to have to lower it again!  Time is flying by and my little boy is growing up too quickly!

Jackson has been pulling himself up quite alot lately.  He can get himself up to his knees and with a little effort he can get himself up to his feet.  It's been so much fun watching him develop and figure out what he can and can't do.  He's still working on crawling.  He "army" crawls and rolls everywhere he needs to go.  He just hasn't gotten himself to crawl on his hands and knees yet.  He comes so close -- rocking back and forth on his hands and knees.  I know they say that some kids skip the crawling stage altoghether and that what Jackson is doing now (the army crawl) is still considered crawling, but I hope he can get it figured out.  I don't want him to miss this stage.

Quite alot has been happening lately.  Jackson has continued with the teething.  Right now he LOVES biting biscuits!!  They are these hard crackers that babies can bite while teething to help ease the pain in their gums.  He can't get enough of them but are they ever messy!!  It's pretty much a given that he will have to be changed after he has one. 

Note how messy his face is getting.  His fingers and face end up covered in the remnants of the biscuits and, of course, so does everything he touches.  Jackson was even nice enough to run his hands through his hair after he was done.  What a mess!!

Did you notice that we switched to a bigger bib in the middle of this episode?  The little newborn-size one just wasn't cutting it.  This one protects his clothes a little more and also prevents him from grabbing (and trying to eat) the straps from the highchair.

Last night we tried to give Jackson a sippy cup.  Well, here are the results...

Ummm...wrong end Jackson.

Not exactly a huge success.  He didn't actually get any of the water that was in it and truthfully, I think he thought it was just another teething toy but oh well.  It's still fun watching him try to figure things out. 

Finally, I just can resist posting these pictures.  As I've said before, Jackson just loves the kitties!  He does the best he can to scoot over to them to play but inevitably they run off before he can get there.  Well, last Sunday morning the kitties were window-stalking a bunny out in the yard and Jackson took his opportunity to hang out with Cappy for a while.  He eventually joined in the bunny hunt.

Cappy wasn't so sure about things to begin with.

She got over it pretty quickly though and she and Jackson continued to look for the bunny.

Enough of this silly bunny -- mom's got a camera!!  Time to be a cheeseball!!

We're off to Iowa on Friday which should be fun!  It's going to be a house full of people with Elizabeth and Reef, Kathleen and Tyler, and us all home at the same time.  I can't wait!

More Great News...

Tooth #2 arrived shortly after the first one, just a few days in fact.  So, Jackson now has two adorable pearly whites (both on the bottom) which he doesn't like to let us see.  We do sneak a peak when is laughs though, which is pretty often.  I think there might be some more on the way since he hasn't wanted to sleep very well lately.  We're back to getting up once in the middle of the night.  I'd forgotten how draining it is to have to get up for an hour in the night since we haven't had to do it much since November.

The other piece of wonderful news came at Jackson's doctor's appointment last week -- for the first time since November, Jackson has NO fluid in his ears!!  YEAH!!  Scott and I did our own little happy dance right there in the office when we heard that news.  Jackson has been battling ear infections since last fall and it hasn't be fun at all.  This was the last appointment before meeting with an ENT specialist if he still had fluid in his ears.  Luckily, we're off the hook for now.  I have a feeling he might still end up with tubes in his ears next fall but at least for now we're good.

In the last post I talked about how much Jackson likes to put his feet up on things.  He literally will roll around on the floor until he reaches something to put his feet up on.  Here are some typical Jackson shots with his feet up on the furniture.  He particularly likes to roll under the coffee table and put his feet up on the bottom of it.

I love how he has his feet crossed in this one!

Lately, Jackson has turned into quite a goofball (I wonder where he gets it?).  When he thinks he's being funny he smiles really hard and in a totally weird way.  We've started calling it his cheeseball grin.  Enjoy!

Of course, it's even better when he has baby food smeared all over his face!  What a funny little guy!

And this is the look I get when Jackson has had quite enough of the camera.

Last weekend Aunt Danielle and Zoe came over to deliver our much-anticipated girl scout cookies.  Here are Jackson and Zoe being goofy.  Jackson picked just the right moment to move in the first picture but I think the look on his face is pretty cute.

These two are going to be buddies!

We are going to be pretty busy in the next few weeks.  Next weekend we are traveling back to Iowa to see Elizabeth and her fiance, Reef, who will be visiting from San Francisco.  Can't wait to meet him!!  The clan will try to keep the food-fighting under control.  We'll also be celebrating Scott's birthday on March 31.  Jackson will also be baptized (I know, we should have gotten this done months ago) at the end of April in Sioux City, IA in the church I grew up in.  Another fun weekend with the family!

Big News!!

We have a tooth!!!

It's been a long time coming (I thought he was working on a tooth about three months ago) but Jackson finally has a little tooth poking through on the bottom. He's been pretty cranky and not sleeping well for the past week and I guess this explains why. He's been chomping on everything that comes near his mouth and the drool is just non-stop. It's exciting though!

Jackson will be 8 months on Wednesday. I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying by! He no longer seems like a baby but more and more like a little boy. He "talks" constantly -- mostly making lots of consonant sounds like "da da" and "ka ka." There have been days where it seems like Jackson is trying to have entire conversations with us. He can stand while holding on to something like a table or the couch. One of his favorite things to do is stand against the coffee table and bang on it with his hands. He also loves to roll under the coffee table and put his feet up on it. Actually he'll put his feet up on anything -- the side of his crib, the wall, a chair, basically whatever is in reach. It's simply adorable!

He has really taken to baby food. I was a little nervous about introducing it since the rice cereal didn't go so well. He loves it but he definitely has his favorites -- pears, squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots seem to be at the top of his list.

He is SO CLOSE to crawling! Again, we've been anticipating this for a while. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. He also "army" crawls and rolls aross the floor to reach what he wants. He's also discovered that he LOVES looking in the mirror. It's absolutely adorable! He'll usually see himself in the mirror and just smile and laugh. Here he is in the baby bathtub in our bathroom.  He loves to splash!  Once he discovered himself in the mirror it was like a whole new world.  Unfortunately he's getting a little big for that tub and is going to have to switch to the regular tub soon.

Jackson loves the kitties! He gets the biggest smile on his face whenever they come near him. Unfortunately, he hasn't learned the concept of "petting" yet and Cappy is missing a little fur because of it. He'll get it in time though.

He smiles and laughs alot!!  Jackson is very ticklish (wonder where he gets that?), especially on his feet, under his neck, his tummy and his thighs. He bursts out in giggles that are contagious and his smile just lights up a room.

One of his favorite things to do is to jump in his jumperoo. He can really get it going sometimes! If you happen to be in the basement when he's in it, it sounds like a herd of elephants running through the living room.  Please disregard the noise in the background.  I had something going on the stove.

And these are just because he's so darn cute!  I'm a proud mama!

February flew by!  Grandma and Grandpa Blair were kind enough to watch Jackson for a long weekend while Scott and I escaped to the North Shore for a little R&R.  We had a wonderful time but we missed the little munchkin and were happy to see him when we got home.  Right now we're looking forward to spring and the hope that we can play outside soon.  This weekend Scott is having a boys weekend ice fishing so it will be just Mom and Jackson at home.  Thankfully Grandma Blair is coming to stay for a couple of nights!!  We'll have a great time I'm sure!

Like the new look?

Well, it might not yet be spring but I've got cabin fever and the blog needed a new look.  Hope you like it!

BTW, I will be posting more pictures soon.  It's been a busy month!