Jackson's 3 year old Pirate Party, visit with family, and 3 year old well visit stats

To start, today we had Jackson's 3 year old well visit. Jackson gave the doctor an earful during the visit! He was talking to her a mile a minute and was being so silly. He did great and we found out that he is:

Weight-32.5 lbs-54th percentile
Height-40 in-92nd percentile
BMI=14.3-4th percentile (doctor says he is perfectly fine and not underweight. She said you typically see this in very long and lanky children)

Now backtracking to Jackson birthday party weekend. We had his party at the Low Country Children's Museum in downtown Charleston. We rented it out after hours to have a private party and it was awesome to have the place to ourselves. Jackson and his buddies had a lot of fun playing and especially loved the water room, the castle, and the pirate ship. We ran out of time to do all of the rooms, but it was a great time. Justin's sister and her family came all the way from Dallas to visit with us, meet mister Rhett, and to be at Jackson's party! It was so much fun seeing them! Jackson really loved spending time with his Aunt Boo Boo,Uncle A, and cousins Kaylan and Kendall. We had fun doing a carriage ride around downtown, spending time at the beach walking around the market, going to the aquarium, eating good seafood, and just visiting together. Here are some pictures from the party and visit with family. I wish I had gotten more pictures at Jackson's party like a group photo with his friends/family, pictures of him playing with more friends and him opening presents, but at least we got some good video on our video camera.

All set for the guests to arrive

Favors!

Lauren was out of town the week of Jackson's party, so we weren't able to have one of her awesome cakes this year for Jackson's party. This was from Publix, but it was still cute.

Jackson loves his Uncle A

Fun with Turner

 Justin's mom and her boys

 The Grandkiddos-love Kendalls face in this-classic!

 My awesome sis in law!

Few Rhett professional photos (taken at 10 weeks old)

These are very late, but our photographer had computer problems and we got them really late! We took them at home in our bedroom, which is exactly where we had Jackson's 10 week photos taken. It was not a nice day outside, and I wish we could have gotten some outside shots. Oh well, I think they turned out nice.

 Check out the finger! My little rebel :)

Jackson is 3 years old!

I don't even know how it is possible that 3 years has already passed since I first held my sweet 6 1/2 lb beautiful baby boy. It is going by too quickly! He amazes me every day with his intelligence, sweetness, and wonderful personality in general. He is so incredibly special to us and as I have said before, he brings us such joy that we never knew was possible. At three years old:

-He is a talker. We have long conversations and sometimes he blows my mind with his amazing vocabulary. He repeats everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that he hears! :) I think I am just so surprised at how much he comprehends at 3 years old. He is becoming his own person more and more every day. He is very outgoing these days and will talk to anybody. Currently he is telling everybody that he sees that he is going to Disney World in October and that he is going to play soccer. People who have known him for a long time keep remarking at how he seems to have come out of his shell in the last few months. He has become quite the little extrovert!

-He is having a ball at 3 year old preschool. His behavior has been great and the teachers say he so much fun in the classroom. Two things: When I went to pick him up from school the other day, his teacher took me aside and said she had to tell me a funny story. She said they were all singing a song they had been learning that had a little dance with it. His teachers said they heard someone singing really loud and it was Jackson and when the looked over he was really into it, so they got tickled and sort of stepped back to watch him. At that point, they said all of the other kids were watching and following him while he was leading them in the song and dance.  Can I just say that I absolutely LOVED hearing this story? All I can say is he got it from his momma! The other thing is that his main teacher is a retired 3rd grade teacher. She said she wanted to show me what he painted. The kids were given finger paints and Jackson make a beautiful picture (if I do say so myself). His teacher asked him what it was and he said it was lava flowing out of a volcano. She said she was shocked at how articulate he is and that he is very creative. I am so proud of my smart boy!

-He is a good eater, although he still wont eat vegetables! Thankfully his multivitamin helps to supplement what he is missing, but I am going to have to start sneaking them in my recipes. I have some great recipe books to help me with that. Some of his favorite foods are: Pulled pork BBQ, Brisket,bacon, rotisserie chicken, macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, cheese poofies, deli meats, chicken nuggets from Chick Fil A, and yogurt. Of course he is crazy about chocolate, ice cream, and cookies...but what kid isn't? He still drinks milk and water only, but we do let him have juice when he goes to birthday parties. The only fast food that he has had is Chick Fil A, but he doesn't really like french fries. He will  not touch vegetables, pasta, or pizza.

-He's really into soccer and riding his bike right now. He will kick his soccer ball all around the yard and down the sidewalks. He loves playing outdoors. He starts soccer on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see how he does. I am just looking forward to seeing how cute he looks in his outfit! :) We got him his big boy bike for his birthday and he is riding like a champ.

-It is wonderful having him potty trained but he has a fear of public restrooms. He refuses to use them.  I changed his diaper many months ago in Whole Foods restroom and it traumatized him. He said the toilets scared him b/c they were too loud. Now he wont use any public restroom. We have tried to get him to at least walk in the restroom, and he will, but then he says "lets get outta here now!" If we dont leave, he will have a meltdown. We really have to work on this before our trip to Disney World. We stayed at the Beaufort Inn recently and he used the potty in our room, so that is forward progress.

 -He has really warmed up to Rhett and has stepped up as a wonderful and loving big brother. He loves to help me change Rhett's diaper, feed Rhett his solid food, and hold Rhett. When Rhett cries, Jackson will sing him songs and try to make him laugh. He is constantly kissing Rhett and showing him new things/toys. I can't wait until they are able to interact even more. One cute thing that Jackson says is when Rhett has a complete meltdown in the car, Jackson will say "Mommy and Daddy can you make Rhett stop? He is scared-ing my ears!" :) Jackson also loves to help me pump (breast milk) in the mornings. He will come in the room with me and sometimes he plays with his toys, but other times he will "help" hold the pump and put some of the pieces together. He says "Look mommy I am helping you pump your boobies". HAHA Hopefully we aren't messing him up too much :)

-Jackson loves to help me cook and is great at stirring the scrambled eggs, getting stuff out of the refrigerator, and rinsing off the dishes. Speaking of scrambled eggs, he can sing the ending credits from the show "Frasier" (Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs). I love how he gets a deep voice to say "scrambled eggs" at the end. How stinking cute is this!?

-Although the threes seem to have brought a new found sassiness from Jackson, he is still extremely affectionate and loving to us. One of my favorite parts of the day is putting him down for his afternoon nap. He usually asks me to snuggle with him for a minute and when I do, he snuggles in so close to me and says "Awww sweet honey, I love you so much forever and ever" and "Aww mommy you are my best best friend and I love you". Sometimes he will give me a big kiss and says "Do you know what that means mommy? That means I love you so much!" It just doesn't get much better than that.

-The sassiness has been challenging to deal with, though. Some of his not so nice things that he says: "oh no YOU dont tell me what to do mommy!", "I make the rules", "You will never tell me what to do" and "you better think about it Daddy or you will go to time out!". When he gets put in time out, he has been hitting and acting really nasty so now he spends time in his room. We also began taking things away like dessert and toys when he hits and that seems to be more effective than time out right now. He is definitely learning how to push our buttons and talking back a lot these days. I know he is testing us.

-But I cant wrap this up without talking about his amazing memory and sense of humor. First, this child remembers everything and brings up things from the past all the time. He remembers details like you wouldn't believe and he can recite a book back to you after only a few times having it read to him. Now, that, he gets from his Daddy! As for his sense of humor, he is hilarious and loves to make us laugh. He is really clever and comes up with the silliest stuff. He gets so proud when he says something that surprises us and really makes us laugh. He made Rhett laugh the other day and was so proud.

I could go on and on about this boy-he is so amazing and we are so proud of him. I can't believe we have been blessed with two beautiful boys. But since this is about Jackson, I will just say that these past 3 years with just been nothing short of wonderful and as I always tell him every night before bed, he makes me so happy every single day. We are so proud of Jackson and who he is becoming. He is so special to us! Happy 3rd Birthday my precious boy!





Still to come: Jackson's 3rd bday pirate party and photos, Rhett professional pics, and Rhett-5 month update.

Rhett-4 1/2 months old

I am a bit behind on the blog-I still need to write about Jackson's 3rd Birthday party, Jackson 3 year old update, visit with family, and also post Rhett's professional baby photos. I am behind for good reason, though! During my free time in the evenings, I have been planning our vacation to DISNEY WORLD!! We leave in a couple of months. Woohoo! We will be staying for about a week in the Art of Animation resort and we will be in a Cars suite. I have been busy making restaurant reservations, researching how to go about taking a 3 year old and 6 month old on the trip, etc.  I am SO excited to see Jackson's face when we get there. We decided to do Magic Kingdom and Epcot. I think Hollywood studios would be a bit much. Anyway, more on that later! :)

As for Rhett-Our baby is already 4 1/2 months old...hard to believe! Here are some of the new updates over the last few weeks:

-After he got his 4 month shots, he spiked a 102 fever and was so irritable and fussy. His fever went down with tylenol, but then would keep going back up to 102. Justin was out of town that night, so it was a looong night for me up with Rhett. His tummy was upset too. I think maybe it was a little upset from the Rotovirus vaccine. Long story short, I called our awesome friend Dr. Drew (who was on vacation in Vermont at the time, which I didnt know) and he advised me to stop the tylenol and see what the fever did the next day. Dr. Drew called several times to check in on us (what a guy!) and said that although he suspected it could be a reaction to the vaccines, I should probably still take him in since his fever was pretty high and he was under 6 months old. At the dr office, we had a wonderful physican examine Rhett who suspected it was just a reaction to the vaccines since his ears looked fine. To be safe, we decided to take a urine sample to be sure it was not a UTI. Poor little Rhett had to get a catheter twice because they couldnt get urine the first time. I felt so bad for him, but it seemed to be more uncomfortable for him, rather than super painful. Everything came back fine, and Rhett was good the next day so it was just a reaction to the vaccines.

-He is teething in a major way. Some days are better than others, but he just gnaws on the cold teething rings and his hands.

-He is finally starting to sleep a little bit better. I am pretty sure this is due to the fact that he can roll onto his tummy and sleep that way now. I am getting about 3 hour stretches again, so that is nice. We will be moving him into his crib in his room soon, so I wonder how that may change things. Naps are still not as consistent as I would like. He is a little cat-napper. He sleeps every 2 1/2 hours or so for 30 minutes each time. I hope those 30 minute naps will soon evolve into longer naps!

-He eats all of the time! We are going to start solids right after labor day, so he will be 5 months old at the time. I am looking forward to sitting him in his high chair with us at dinner and feeding him. We have already started stocking up on some fun organic baby foods. There is so much more brand variety of organic food than there was when Jackson was a baby.

-He loves being carried around by his daddy in the baby bjorn. He just looks around at everyone and smiles. I love my happy boy. Strangers love to walk up and make him smile. His smile lights up a room!

-He does not enjoy the car as much as Jackson did as a baby. Jackson used to be really easy to take around and would fall asleep almost instantly in a car. Rhett does pretty well, but after a certain point, he gets irritable and fussy. He will only sleep for about 30-40 minutes in his carseat. That may have something to do with Jackson talking and singing next to him, though. With Jackson, he had complete quiet when he was a baby. It will be interesting to see how the trip Orlando goes!

As for me, I am having a raging case of post-partum hair loss. It is so bad! I am getting (almost) bald patches around my temples/forehead. I just got my hair cut to my shoulders a few days ago, so it looks a little bit better, but it has to stop soon. If  not, I wont have any hair left! :)

Church Dedication Pictures

I meant to post these a while back, but here are the photos taken during our baby dedication on Mother's Day. They turned out better than expected considering that Jackson was acting like a caged animal during the whole thing ;) On a related note, I really need a TAN!

Rhett-4 months old!

Wow, has it already been 4 months? Here are Rhett's most recent stats from his well visit last week:

Height: 27 inches-97th percentile!
Weight: 16.5 lbs-75th percentile
Head Circumference: 16.5 in-37th percentile

According to his doc, he is doing great! He is meeting his milestones perfectly and is getting bigger by the day. The pediatrician said we might consider starting solids at this point since he is over 16 lbs. He seems to think that Rhett might sleep better once he gets solids, but we are still going to wait until about 5 months. I don't necessarily think he wakes up to eat-I think he wakes up to be rocked/nursed back to sleep because he is used to it. He is still waking throughout the night every 2-3 hours on average. I.am.SO.sleep.deprived!
I keep doing really stupid things like forgetting the water is running, misplacing things, etc. Tonight I was folding clothes and told Justin that I had three socks leftover without a mate for some reason. A few minutes later he pulled apart a pair of his socks and one of mine was in there with them too. I put three socks together! NO wonder I am missing socks. Duh! :)

Rhett is still getting strictly breast milk and I plan to keep it that way for at least a year. We all know that was my goal for Jackson and I ended up nursing him for 2 years, but I do plan to wean Rhett earlier. Pumping in my car during travel for work is a drag. But it is most definitely worth it. Some new places that I have breast fed Rhett recently: on the beach, multiple restaurants, and on a carriage tour. YES, a horse drawn carriage tour around Charleston. That was interesting to say the least, but hey, it kept from fussing and you know I am not gonna deny my boy food if he's hungry. Of course I use a nursing cover, so I am not flashing boob all around Charleston or anything (like I did in college.... JUST kidding mom! :)

Rhett continues to be a happy, smiley boy most of the time. Sometimes it almost appears as if he has slight dimples, but then again it could just be his sweet little chubby cheeks looking that way right now. He is a drool machine and soaking a couple of bibs a day.

As I have said a few times before, thankfully Rhett is really happy most of time because when he is mad or upset, you better WATCH OUT. The dramatics run high in this one. I told Justin that I am sincerely getting scared for the toddler year tantrums. If his meltdowns now are any indication, we are in b-i-g trouble. Thank God he didn't have colic. I don't know how I would have survived Rhett's screams for hours on end.

He is still a rolly polly and won't stay on his back for long. He also holds his head forward all of the time in his car seat like he is trying to get out. He is exploring more with his hands and grabbing his toys on his toy mat and my face/chest when he nurses.

I catch him sneaking TV when I walk through our living room. I try to keep him from watching as much as possible, but I have noticed that he lights up and starts kicking/jumping when he sees Mickey Mouse. Speaking of jumping, we began putting him in his jumparoo and he really likes it. Jackson showed him how to play with the toys and today Rhett actually began spinning the toys around and making the noises.

Jackson loves his baby brother more and more every day. Many times he will say "I love you soooo much baby brudda. Awww you're so cute!". Also, when Rhett cries, Jackson will say "Mommy, baby Rhett is trying to tell us something. Maybe we should feed/burp/change his diaper". Jackson is such a great big brother. He is now kissing Rhett all of the time and interacting with him more. I hope these two always have a close bond.

Jackson turned 3 years old on 8/8 and am going to work on a blog post about our big boy, his awesome party, and our family that came to visit. Also, we got Rhett's baby photos back from when he was 10 weeks old and I want to post those too. Here are so pictures from the last few weeks:

 Look who found their tongue!