15 Month Dr. Appt

Ok well he's about a week shy of 16 months, but today was his official 15 month well visit.

Weight: 24.4 lbs-43rd percentile
Height: 32.5 in-81st percentile
Head circ: 18.5 in-40th percentile

Dr. Drew said he's doing great! He is healthy and growing and we are so very thankful for that! Jackson demonstrated some of is his new words for Dr. Drew and he was very impressed. He said they only look for babies this age to say 2-3 more words other than Mama and Dada and that since Jackson is saying a whole bunch of words, he is already above an 18 month level for his vocabulary. This made us feel good! Jackson got his 15 month shots (MMR and Chicken Pox). It really broke my heart this time. He was so happy and smiling/flirting with the nurse. When she gave him the shots, he just looked so heartbroken. It was like she had betrayed him and he was just looking at her with the most pitiful face and wailing. It didn't last long though, and he was back to normal in no time!

Ain't that the truth!

I just can't help but love this song for obvious reasons. I love it from start to finish. I have to listen to the whole song every single time I catch it on the radio. Justin loves it too, but changes the chorus from "It's safe to say that I'm gonna get my payback if he's anything like me" to "It's safe to say that I'm gonna get my payback if he's anything like his Mommyyyy" :)

Thanksgiving 2010

Daddy and Jackson napping

Once the kids are asleep-don't ask! :)

Jackson loves Aunt Boo Boo

At Breakfast before catching our flight home:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Dallas this year! Jackson got to meet his Aunt Boo Boo (Brooke), Uncle A (Adrian), and cousins Kaylan and Kendall. We had so much fun getting the kiddos together and catching up with Brooke and Adrian. Justin and I were shocked at how much Kaylan had grown since the last time we saw her 2 years ago. She is getting to be such a big girl! I loved that she still calls Justin "Uncle Bubby" and me "Abadoo", which is what she called us when she first learned to talk. It was also wonderful meeting sweet baby Kendall for the first time. She is such an easygoing and happy baby! Jackson was in love with Aunt Boo Boo and he thought Adrian was the funniest guy out. Everytime they looked at Jackson he got a big smile on his face. Jackson had fun playing hide and seek with Kaylan and Kaylan was so sweet to share her toys with Jackson.

We had a blast going shopping, playing with all of Kaylan and Kendall's toys, going to the playground, jumping on the trampoline, and eating some delicious food. Speaking of food, Brooke and Adrian cooked the most scrum-diddly-umptions Thanksgiving dinner!! Fried Turkey and ALL of the fixins! Needless to say, we were STUFFED at the end of the night. The evenings were nice once the babies went to bed and we were able to kick our feet up and relax. Jackson was a rockstar sleeper while we were in Dallas, although he was up at 6 AM like clockwork every day. He did great on the plane ride there as well.

I have to tell this story, which may only be funny to us, but we sure did get the biggest laugh from this. A little backstory: Many many years ago, we were all over at Justin's Mom's house helping her go through boxes before the move to NC. Justin's mom was on the phone with her sister (Aunt Niece) and Justin let out the LOUDEST burp. Justin's mom got mad and said "DAM*IT JUSTIN!". Of course, we all died laughing which made his mom laugh too. Fast forward to this year the day before Thanksgiving. We all went to a great Mexican place and had a few Margaritas. When we got home and settled, Justin let out a huge burp and I had the idea to call his Mom and Carl to share the love and then hang up...instead of a prank call it was a prank burp (Gross-this is what years of being around my Dad/Brothers/Justin has done to me!) Anyway, Justin (of course) ran with the idea and he and Adrian decided to chug a soft drink so that they could get a really good one going. When they called his mom and Carl, they got the answering machine and so they waited for the beep and then BURRRP!...only Adrian got a little too excited and proceeded to throw up in the cup that he was holding. HAHAHAH They started laughing so hard and then Brooke and I lost it. I laughed so hard I was crying. I guess you kinda had to be there. It was legendary!

THANK YOU Brooke and Adrian for having us and making us feel so welcomed and at home. We had a blast and it was a Thankgiving to remember. We miss you already!!

Just a few family updates-

-We are headed to Dallas for Thanksgiving! We are so excited for Jackson to meet his Aunt Brooke (Boo Boo), Uncle Adrian, and his cousins Kaylan and Kendall! We will be there for five days. We are flying, but we have a direct flight, so we are hoping it goes as well as our flight to Indiana did. We are getting very excited :)


-Justin is nearing completion of his Master's Degree from University of Florida! He will graduate in late April 2011. I can't believe it has almost been two years since he started. I don't know what he will do once he has his evenings back and isn't attending classes/studying/writing papers all of the time. I do know that he will have a proud wife and little boy watching when he walks across the stage to get his diploma! Way to go sweetie!


-My job is going great, and I am about to officially become home based. There are four of us that cover the state and two have always been home based, so they are finally transitioning me and another coworker to home offices. This is a direct result of increased HIPAA security/scrutiny with the program that I work for, and the lawyers at American Cancer Society deemed our home offices to be more secure than my current office. I will still be affiliated with the Charleston ACS office and work occasionally in the ACS travel office when I have big projects from time to time, but I am so excited to become home based. By making it official, I will have my internet/phone reimbursed so we are making a little money there too. Sweet!


-We have a BIG trip planned in late Jan/early Feb. We are headed to Hawaii!! ALOHA! Justin has a national meeting in Maui and we are making a family trip out of it. We may be crazy for going on a 9 hour plane ride with a 1 1/2 year old (yikes!), but we are going to prepare like crazy and try to make it as smooth as possible. We did buy Jackson his own seat for the plane. We are going to be in HI for a little under 2 weeks. Half of the time will be in Oahu, the other half in Maui. We are counting down the days. I am anticipating a rough transition for Jackson to the time change over there, but Justin and I figure that if we have a rough couple of days while Jackson gets adjusted, they are still a rough couple of days in Hawaii! We went a few years ago and had a blast, so we are really looking forward to it. We did get travel insurance, though, just in case Jackson is sick or something and we have to rearrange travel. I am hoping and praying that all goes well.

15 Months Old

Check out those curls!

Another month has flown by! Here is Jackson's 15 month update:

-He dropped his first nap of the day, so he is down to one nap a day. He naps, like clockwork, from 1:45-3:45 every day. This has definitely allowed us a little bit more freedom during the days when we are out and about with him. We used to be slaves to the nap schedule, but now we have more time to get out and play, which is great.

-His 4 first molars came in, all at the same time at 14 1/2 months. In the last week, we now see that all 4 of his cuspids (canines) have broken through the gums. This boy has a mouthful of teeth! He hasn't seemed too bad with all of the new teeth coming in. We may have had a few days of discomfort/whinyness, but thankfully nothing major. I have heard the real fun comes when his second molars appear. Also, he loves brushing his teeth. We have his first dentist appt. coming up next month. I hope he does well!

-He continues to surprise us with new words/skills every day. Some his favorite words: UP!, wag (wagon), car, clock, eat, trees, nose, etc. He is jabbering up a storm! He has learned many body parts and loves to say them while pointing them all out: ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, boobies (!), belly button, toes. He has also started trying to mimic what we say lately.

-Jackson is a wild child when it comes to physical activity. During playtime, he is fast at work playing, jabbering, squealing, throwing, climbing, running, trying to balance on his toys, racing his cars around, and pushing his toys across the room. He is also a dancing machine! I wish I could bottle that energy up for myself!

-The biting has stopped. Horray! He will occasionally still try and hit if he is really upset, but that is a rarity these days. Time out has been very effective and he is great at listening and following directions. I am amazed every day at what he understands when I talk to him.

-I think he has inherited my wild dreams. He seems to have very vivid dreams and often squeals, wimpers, talks, and laughs in his sleep. The other night I saw on the monitor that he was sleeping while sitting up in his crib. I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of creepy and I made Justin walk to his nursery with me so that I could lay him back down. Something about watching him sleep sitting up on a night vision camera just didnt sit well with me!

-He has been very open to trying new foods lately. There is still a lot that he wont put in his mouth, but we have been having daily small victories. Some of his new foods: bbq pork, pear chunks, apple chunks, scrambled eggs (finally!), carrots slices, cheesy poofs. He can use a spoon to feed himself now on his own, although it is still pretty messy. He has begun wanting to try whatever is on our plates.

-He is still so affectionate and he loves his mommy and daddy, no doubt about it. We are both extremely blessed to have jobs that allow us to be home with him a lot. Although he still prefers mommy when he is upset/sick, he has his days where he is all about his daddy. He loves to climb all over Justin and he will squeal with such delight when Justin lifts him up and throws him in the air. One of my favorite things that he does is that he will walk right up to one of us and give us a big kiss right on the mouth , totally unprompted. It melts my heart every time!

-He got his flu shot a few weeks ago and he weighed 23 1/2 lbs-this falls somwhere in the mid 30th percentile for weight. His doc said not to worry, that it is normal to see their weight gain slow down quite a bit. He is still growing perfectly, but his is very long and lean. His 15 month well visit is scheduled for after Thanksgiving, so he will actually be closer to 16 months. We will get all of his official stats then!