All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth

So the week before Christmas Jackson turned in to a Fussy McFussy Pants which is not consistently characteristic of his personality.  He developed a high fever while visiting his "G" for Christmas and you could tell he was miserable.  Since we're such expert parents we used our super power of deductive reasoning to conclude that his two front teeth were trying to break through.  They were giving him a run for his money!
A friend of ours recommend herbal teething tablets.  I was skeptical, but these teething tablets have become our "magic pills".  They work like a charm! I'm tempted to try them myself, but haven't gone there yet.  The teething tablets came in handy until Christmas Eve when his first front tooth finally broke through and Jackson was back to his usual self.  Whew! He got lots of new toys, but one of his favorite toys was the "goodwill" toy from his cousins Abby and Emma.  They gave him their little tikes keyboard and he loves to bang on it and make noise.  It's the perfect gift!  Another great gift was also passed down from his cousins.  Pop's rocking chair from when he was a little boy has been passed down to each grandchild and now it's Jackson's turn to have it.  What a special gift!

Jackson Ohana Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! It's official. Jackson has been in the world as long as he was in the womb! He turned nine months old during our very fun trip to Maui to visit Papa Ray and Nana Jana for our annual Jackson Ohana Thanksgiving. This was Jackson's first flight and we are happy to report that he was a little star. He received many compliments for his good behavior (I think he won everyone over with his blue eyes and flirting). Whew! He seems to be growing right before our eyes. Even though he's getting harder and harder to contain, he's ever the little explorer. This month he's been figuring out how to open cabinet doors.......while balancing on his increasingly steady little legs! Putting a rubberband around the door knobs is just the trick to keep him intrigued yet frustrated all at the same time! I have a feeling that walking may be on the docket for next month's post.

Chillin' in the Maui sand with his bucket and shovel. 

Caddying for Daddy on the putting green at Kapalua.  Our little golfer in training!

He had a ton of fun with his Nana Jana! They shared many laughs together.

Papa Ray and "Buddy Ro" crack each other up!

Happy Nine Months!

Lions, Tigers and Bears........Oh My!

Happy Halloween!!Well, there wasn't a bear at Jackson's first Halloween party, but the Lion and he got along great! Our little tiger is crawling all over the place now! Imagine this: his tongue is his steering wheel and he vibrates his lips together like a motor to scoot all over the house. He's most intersted in three main things: the window blinds on one particular window, a return air vent in the living room and Makai's tin of food. These three things will keep him entertained for hours! His world is so much bigger now. He moved up to a new class at school and has done really well eating new things and finally, after 4 months of teething, his two bottom teeth have made an appearance! Next month we have an exciting trip to Hawaii planned to see

Papa Ray and Nana Jana. 

Should be an interesting flight. Stay tuned!

From There...To Here

From there:   

To here:

Our pastor recently talked about this in relation to our spiritual growth.  Whether it's from there to here or from here to there I pray that Chris and I will continue to grow up in our faith and pass that along to Jackson from an early age. My new "from here/there" thoughts came through this week when I picked up Jackson from school.  It was pouring down rain and the owner's son, Chad, was eagerly waiting with a golf umbrella to assist those of us not lucky enough to park under the carport.  It's little things like this that make me think of Jackson and how I pray that he will get from here (a playful tot) to there (a kind-hearted young man).  It's a lofty challenge as a parent, isn't it?!

Switching gears entirely, this month has been about Jackson's new seating opportunities.  He's been a real pro with all of his new endeavors.  New seats include the grocery cart seat, booster seat, tub seat, and his new car seat:

He's assuming the crawling position, but can't quite figure out what to do yet.  It's only a matter of time.  I'm sure month 8 will be full of mobility fun!

Life's a Beach!

Six months is how old Jackson will be next Monday and how long it feels like we've been without a computer at home! We just returned from a very relaxing weekend at the beach with the Sklar family. Chris' brother and his wife invited us to join them at their beach house in Florida for a few days along with our nieces and Pop and Mimi. Turns out Jackson is a WaterBoy! He loved the pool and enjoyed the beach. He actually paddled his way to Daddy as you can see in the video clip. He splashed in the ocean, sat in his Bumbo (the best invention ever) and ate.......I mean played in the sand. We had a great time and here are some pics to prove it:

"It's hard being me!"

Apparently, Pop did not get the memo that the Explorer works better when it's in the WATER!

Chillin' with Mimi........until Mimi lost her balance due to some fierce waves and went under! We missed our $10k funniest video moment, unfortunately.

Emma's version of boogie boarding. Isn't she the cutest thing ever?

Quickest way to get a grumppopotamous to sleep: a short jog in the stroller is a win-win for us both!

Good night to all and to all a good night!

Jackson is officially 1/3 year old. The general progression has been to say how old he is in weeks. When I lost count of the weeks I progressed to months, but I'm impatient and decided to jump to years this month. He's 1/3 year old..........until next month when I revert back to how many months he is! Here are the highlights heading in to month 4:

1) Started daycare at Oxford Babies and has the best caregivers in the world who love him to pieces! Miss Avis says she picks one little boy out of each age room and Jackson is her man in the infant's room! I think it's the dimple. :o)

2) Got his first "daycare fever" which prompted an ER visit. Hopefully we won't have to do that again any time soon.

3) Had his first swim in the pool at our friends Denny and Ashly's (who are due in August with a surprise!) neighborhood pool. FUN! I've attached a few pics of his day at the pool. Clearly, there was a beginning, middle, and end to the fun filled day!

4) Had his first "sleeps" away from home with his Mimi and Pop. I'm not sure who had more fun, Jackson or Mimi and Pop!

He's starting to grab things and is a bit more purposeful with his movements. He took Daddy by surprise the other night when he grabbed his plate at dinner and almost yanked it off the table. Stay tuned for adventures from month 5!

Saturday Night Fever

When Daddy went to Blockbuster to get movies for Saturday night we did not expect that we'd be having our own version of the hit "Saturday Night Fever" in the Sklar family household! With a temperature of 103 we calmly called Jackson's pediatrician's office who promptly recommended that we take him to the emergency room to have him checked out. You know how people pay other people to hold their place in line for events? Well, the ER has adopted this strategy by offering an online check-in and a guarantee that you'll be seen within 10 minutes upon arrival. After paying $24.99 to hold our place for a 10:49pm arrival, we loaded up and headed to the hospital.

The doctor made a quick assessment and ordered labs, x-rays and IV fluids. The verdict is still out on who was most traumatized by the whole experience: Jackson, his parents, or his nurse, Mrs. Tracey!

Finding a vein on a dehydrated 3 1/2 month old is no small feat, but with five people holding him down he finally got some fluids and they were able to draw his blood and take chest x-rays to rule out all of the worst case scenarios of a fever with an unknown origin. With big crocodile tears and the most pitiful "rescue me" look on his face, we finally made it home around 1 a.m. with one overly tired, too many needle sticks to count, cranky, feverish little man! Fortunately, all of his lab work came back normal and he won't remember the experience. It was determined that he has a viral infection. As of today we are still fighting the germs but his fever is coming down and we got a couple of smiles this morning so that was a good sign! We're sure this won't be our last visit to the ER!

Too cute for words!

Our little champ is killing us with his smiles and pre-giggles!

This will only hurt for a minute......

Yesterday was Jackson's two month check up with Dr. B. He's gained four pounds since he was born! at ten weeks old he weighs 10 lbs. 12 oz. and is 22 inches long. He is going to be vertically challenged just like his parents. His nurse, Christina, was a rock star giving him his shots. She laid them all out and once she started it was wham, bam, thank you ma'am and we were done. Jackson was not very happy about this. I tried to distract him with the pacifier, but it didn't work. As soon as I picked him up and held him for a few seconds he was fine and we were on our way. They told me he may be a little fussy or a little sleepy for awhile and I'm happy to report that we got "a little sleepy" booger.

Some of you have noticed this about Jackson. He snores. It's kind of funny that we don't have the screaming baby that distracts everyone at church on Sundays. No, we have the snoring baby that cracks up everyone on Sundays! When the doctor asked if it was just heavy breathing or legitimate snoring I told her we had expert witnesses who could confirm that it's legitimate snoring. Turns out he may have a little reflux which should be easy to treat!

We've had a lot of fun visiting with family over the past week. Papa Ray and Nana Jana were in town from Maui.

Aunt Sis came down from Charlotte and we went to the World of Coke Museum which was great fun. Jackson met the Coca-Cola Polar Bear, was kissed on by kissy puppies and experienced a 4-D movie.We ended the week with a visit to see Mimi and Pop and cousins Abby and Emma in Rome. Abby treated us to lunch at the country club (thanks to Abby for knowing Dad's membership number) and Emma offered some profound advice to Jackson: "Don't let him get under the toilet with his pacie in his mouth because it will fall in the toilet and he'll cry for like 6 hours. I know because it happened to me." Great wisdom from a 5 year old!

Smiles, Sleeps, Sticking out his tongue and............Shots

Jackson turned two months old today! Wow! He's a smiling fool and loves zerberts from daddy and mommy. He's discovering his tongue and likes to stick it out from time to time.

But the biggest milestone of the month came last night: he had a whole "sleep" (instead of counting trips in days and nights, my nieces count them in the number of sleeps they will have)!! Although we know infants have achieved this for centuries all over the world it was hard to imagine that Jackson, our child, would ever sleep through the night, but he really did it!

The other milestone for his first two months will come next week when he gets his first round of...............SHOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He Arose!

"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." I Corinthians 15:14. As believers in Christ this is absolutely the most important reason to celebrate the hope we have, that not only did Christ die for our sins, but arose on the third day.

As with most children, my twin sister and I always looked forward to our annual Easter Egg hunt when we got home from church on Easter Sunday. Mom and Dad would hide a single red rose that represented Jesus (because he "a-rose") that was the "golden egg". I don't remember exactly what prize we got for finding the red rose, but I'm sure it was very exciting!

Since Jackson is not old enough to hunt Easter eggs, his GG sent us 3 red roses and a little boutonneire for our little man's first Easter. Next year we'll have fun hunting for the "golden egg"!

Gas and Fast Cars

We're pretty sure that up until this point any inkling of a smile we caught from Jackson was probably related to gas and not because he was actually entertained by anything or anyone. That's beginning to change though. His little personality is starting to come out more and more. Today he discovered his mobile as he gleefully watched the race cars spin out of control above his head!

Lap dance at Pat's

It's not what you think............Jackson and I made our first trip to Aiken this past weekend. Jackson had so much fun with his GG. He also got to meet his great grandpa, Papa Jim, among other family and friends. We surprised Papa Jim Friday morning with a visit to Pat's restaurant and bar where he meets the fellas each morning for a shot of caffeine and a little gossip I'm sure. While we were there, the moment I'd been putting off finally arrived..........the need for a public diaper change! GG and I proceeded to the bathroom (keep in mind it's a bar by night and young kids, much less infants, do not frequent Pat's) and you guessed it, there was no changing station which was almost as disappointing as not being able to find "Expectant Mother" parking when I was pregnant. All three of us proceeded to cram in to the bathroom stall where Jackson had his first ever and hopefully his last ever "lap dance" as GG expertly changed him while he laid in her lap:He also relaxed on the couch and watched cartoons:

I think Jackson and GG have a lot of fun times ahead! Look out Aiken!

Stats

Jackson had his one month check up today with Dr. Beckford. Jackson likes seeing Dr. B...............until next month when he gets a series of shots. She already said she'll have her nurse administer his shots so that he doesn't associate her with them. LOL! He has grown an inch this month and gained almost 1.5 pounds. Today's stats were 20.5 inches long and 8 lbs. 1 oz. which puts him in perfect proportion for height and weight. Oh, and Dr. Beckford also confirmed that his head is proportional as well. It's confirmed. Like so many adults who have inflated egos, thankfully he doesn't have a big head (hopefully he never will)!

Happy St. Patrick's Day (and Birthday)!

Today is Jackson's 1 month birthday! Also, it's the day Chris and I met four years ago. Wow, how the time flies. This past week we made our first overnight trip to visit Mimi and Pop. I had the flu and Chris went out of town for a work trip so Mimi and Pop pulled night duty and gave me some much needed rest so I could get well. I thought grandparents were supposed to spoil the grandchildren, but I felt pretty spoiled as well! What I wasn't prepared for was the inordinate amount of "gear" that a newborn has to travel with. Between the pack and play, the clothes, the diaper bag, the breast pump, his tummy time mat (okay, I probably didn't have to pack that, but I'm a rookie), his nursing pillow PLUS the "gear" for the dog (food and water bowls, bed, treats, etc.) poor Makai barely had any room in the back of the Durango on the drive home. He was a trooper as he laid on his bed squished in between the pack and play and the many bags that we packed! We had a great time and look forward to many more visits. Next visit will be to see his GG in Aiken and I'm already planning on how to consolidate the baby gear for greater efficiency (Chris' brother forewarned us about this dilemna)!