Eight Month Sweetness

Sweet Child O' Mine.

Jackson, you are eight months. My-o-my you are closer to a year old than being born. This year has been such a whirlwind.

Some milestones you have hit...

-- You are "army crawling" all over the place! You seem to lead with your right hand so we think you'll be right handed.

-- You sometimes "drunken' crawl" around the house as well (on your hands & knees)

-- You can pick up and place in your mouth all different types of foods (although you have no teeth yet!)

--You imitate other people immediately when they go "ba ba ba" or "da da da"

-- You are babbling more often

-- You grab onto coffee tables, or any low surface & pull yourself up on your own.

-- You have hurt your head more often by rolling over and bumping your head on the wood floors!
(crazy boy! Only YOU could find a way to hurt yourself that you can't actually baby proof against)

-- You love chasing after blocks as we stack them  (or anything dangerous)

-- You are now watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse all the way through (not just watching the songs)

-- You can hold & drink your bottle on your own

-- You hold your sippy cup on your own (for the most part)

-- Momma has learned to change diapers really well while you are in crawling position going after one toy or another.

-- When you get tired, you love to dig your head into my tummy and rub your eyes, and crawl all over me. I love it.

Overall, sweet child, you are as independent as any child could be. You love to play by yourself and you very rarely like to snuggle, even when you're tired. So, I cherish & pray every night I hold you in my arms while you are asleep knowing these moments pass to quickly.

Happy 8 months. (Psst...I'm already planning your first birthday party. Thankfully you don't speak english yet and the theme will be a surprise!)

Photo op

Winding down for a nap watching Mickey Mouse.

Big Boy with shoes on (he took them off pretty much immediately)

Out of a bazillion toys, we chose a water bottle.

Pulls himself up & stands on his own! (with intense supervision of course)

Enjoying Auntie's amazing pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

God is so good.

So many pictures & wonderful memories

I can't even begin to narrow down all of the wonderful pictures I have to share. I mostly have to thank Aaron's dad & step mom for these beauties.

They came and visited us for 3 days. I'm so happy they did. It was so wonderful to see them, catch up & hang out by the beach.

And Jack is one lucky little man that he has so many people that love him. What a sweet blessing.

We ate dinner at our house. His favorite: pumpkins and bananas. Yummy.

We got love from daddy after dinner.

And always...some tickles.

 Another day we ate at Ginas Pizza & walked down to the beach.

 We got a kiss from daddy apologizing for all the tickling.

We fell asleep on nana at the beach from all the tickling & excitement.

 We played with our toy boat in the bathtub!

We dunked some water on ourselves.

And smiled big goofy smiles because we're a big boy now! No more tiny whale tub!

We played with poppy, mesmerized by our toys. 

All in all, such a wonderful time. 

Then, labor day came. My parents flew out and we went to my cousin Mike (& Mandy's) 1 year birthday for their little girl Abby! It was so much fun to celebrate such a momentous occasion with them. Pictures to come later from Miss Mandy!

My other cousin, Kathryn, and her little Ella along with Travis came into town as well. It was so fun to see them interact!

Some cousin love, staring at little toes. 

Such sweetness all around. 

It was a great time! We went down to the beach at the St. Regis, and also at breakfast at our house on Sunday morning, enjoying Lemon Riccotta pancakes & fantastic conversation. 

Work is now starting to get quite busy (as always with this time of year). I also start MOPS on September 20th, a group for Mother's of pre-schoolers. I'm so excited to share fellowship with other Christian moms. I'm a bit hesitant to make the commitment during the week while working from home, taking care of Jack, and keeping the house semi-organized. But, I know that God is calling me to make this connection, no matter how exhausted I may be. 

And hey, a house can be messy for a few days, right? 

Jack is almost crawling (rocking back and forth) we are just waiting with baited breath to see him actually be mobile on his own! I think he's a bit frustrated he hasn't figured it out quite yet. He wants to grab for EVERYTHING around him and just can seem to get there. I'm going to bet within the next two weeks. 

I leave with a peaceful picture of a walk we do quite frequently at sunset to wind down from the day. It constantly reminds me of how blessed we are. No matter how the day has gone, I try to cherish every moment with my sweet one & my amazing husband as this time goes by too fast.