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!