On the mend

As I mentioned in my last post, this week started off a little rough because Jackson's cold turned into a double ear infection. He was also teething so poor little guy did not feel good. But I think the antibiotics are working. He is no longer running fever and he seems to be doing better! We will go to the doctor this week to make sure the ear infection has cleared up since we fly out to Texas this upcoming Saturday! In the meantime, I now have Jackson's cold :) So hopefully we will both be 100% in time for Texas :)

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Naturally Jackson likes to be wherever I am during the day...so here he is hanging out on the kitchen floor.

LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!
Thanks for everyone who prayed about Jackson's EEG. He did great! They let me hold him and he slept the whole time! We also saw the neurologist and she said his results were normal. I really felt like everything was going to be fine, but you always want to make sure. We don't take his health and good results for granted. Praise God!
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They had to wash his hair afterwards because of the stuff they put in his hair. I do not carry around a brush in his diaper bag, but maybe I should :) When I was walking out with him, people kept saying..."look at that baby with curly red hair!"
As I mentioned in my last post, since Jackson has been sick, we haven't been working on his naps and have just been trying to help him get sleep. If he sleeps in his crib, he only sleeps 30 minutes, but if he falls asleep in the car...he will sleep well over an hour.
Such a sweet face!
I guess Jackson has recently discovered his tongue because he has been sticking it out a lot :)
He also sucks on his bottom lip a lot...he is definitely teething. We can see the tip of the tooth poking through.
Jackson with his Daddy!

Having fun!

We tried the pool again this week since Jackson has been feeling better and since it has been so hot outside. We eased him into it which also seemed to help!

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Hanging out in the pool with no water.

Hanging out in the pool with a little bit of water. Yes, he is just wearing his diaper...I wasn't sure how it was going to go over so I didn't want to go to the effort to get him in his bathing suit if he wasn't going to like it :)

Hanging out in the pool with even more water! Yes, he is wearing a onesie :) No real good reason why :)

Jackson has learned how to move forward. He isn't "crawling", but he is well on his way. He gets up on his hands and knees, moves his knees forward and then slides forward with his arms. So he can now intentionally get to something. Thankfully he isn't all over the place yet...so we still have time to babyproof the house!

Jackson has been "talking" more as evidenced by this video

Here are 2 videos of Jackson in the pool. The first video, Jackson is splashing. In the second video, he fell backwards and thought it was fun and was kicking his feet! Looks like he is now a fan of the pool! This is a good sign since we are going to the beach with my family a week from Monday!

Prayer Requests:

1. As Jackson gets better, we will try to get back on some sort of schedule with his sleeping. Please pray for us both during that transition process!

2. Jackson and I will be in Texas for a LONG time! We fly to Dallas on Saturday (12th) and my parents pick us up from the airport and we will go to Palestine. On Monday (14th), we will drive to Galveston for our annual beach trip and stay through the following Monday. Then back to Palestine we will go until Friday. Then on Friday (25th), my parents will take us to Arlington for Walt's sister's wedding. We will fly out early Sunday morning. Please pray for safe travelling, that Jackson's does well on the flights, that he handles it well being away for so long, that we stay healthy, and for our transition back to our lives when we get back :)

THANKS FOR ALL OF THE PRAYERS! PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW I CAN BE PRAYING FOR YOU!

Sorry we are tardy this week :)

As some of you pointed out to me...I am late in posting my weekly blog update. I was impressed that people actually noticed :) Poor Jackson has had a rough week. He is teething and got a cold that resulted in a double ear infection! And poor Walt got poison ivy around his eyes. One eye was almost swollen shut. Needless to say, the whole family is lacking sleep and as a result I am tardy :)

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As a random side note, it seems my posts keep getting longer & longer. I apologize. In the future, I might try to keep it shorter...wait, who am I kidding? You can always skim or skip over pics / posts! I guess since I don't have much of a social outlet here yet, this is my way of filling that gap! Sorry! Just start praying that God blesses me with some friendships here and then maybe the blogs will get more concise :)

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Jackson had his 6 month pictures taken. The pictures did not go well. That was the first day he started not feeling well and he was not happy with the photographer taking his picture and wanted me to hold him. Needless to say, it made the photographer's job quite challenging. Here is a picture of him in his sweet outfit.

Jackson loves being outside! Here are a ton of pictures of one of our play times outside.
Sweet face (even though he isn't looking at camera)

Here he is scrunching up his nose...he does this a lot :)

Any and all things go in his mouth since he is teething!

Cute grin!

Sweet boy...I think his little hand is so sweet

Crazy boy!

Full view - "Mom, what are you doing?"

Relaxing...not really, it only looks like he is! Jackson doesn't do much relaxing! He is a very active little boy!

Jackson has started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking on a regular basis. He REALLY wants to be mobil! He also REALLY wants to be able to pull up! Once he figures these things out, our lives will be forever changed!

"I'm hot stuff"

Last picture in the indoor pool :)

We actually moved the pool outside this week. Apparently, Jackson prefers the indoor pool :) In retrospect, I now know that he was getting sick so I am hoping that he will like it better once he is feeling better! Notice that there are not any pictures of him IN the pool.

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"Hey mom, I would rather play with your camera."

I know this is off centered and his eyes are almost closed, but I still thought it was a cute picture!

"Me, get in the pool? You must have me confused with someone else!"

"Why is there water in the pool. That isn't right."

Super cute bathing suit outfit that Nonni got

To date, Jackson has not had a "lovey". We have decided to try to introduce a "lovey" to see if that is something that Jackson would be interested in and so that he would have something that provided him with comfort since he doesn't use a pacifier and since he doesn't really suck his thumb. Obviously when he gets older he will choose his own, but until then we have chosen a monkey / blanket thing. We chose it because it will be easy to take around, but also because he seems to like blanket type things...so we will see. Here he is with "Dougie". Yes, Walt & I named the monkey! We weren't super original. It is a "Douglas" stuffed animal...hence the name :)

He can't decide which finger he likes best :)

As Jackson's hair is growing out, it is becoming clearer that it has a bit of curl to it. I tried to capture it on camera, but this picture doesn't quite do it justice. Needless to say, his hair is out of control. He probably needs a haircut, but I think we are still both scarred from the last experience :)

Since Jackson hasn't been feeling well, his sleeping has definitely been affected. In this picture, it is way past his bed time. See the attached video to capture the true essence of his state!

Jackson on his hands & knees

Jackson was up past his bed time and he was in rare form!

Jackson loves this toy! He loves the balls and pushing the lever that releases the balls and plays music. He is getting better at picking up the balls.

A few things about Jackson:

* Jackson has really started being affectionate. It melts my heart! He loves giving kisses and he has started "hugging" (aka letting us hug him and laying his head on our shoulder). Sometimes he will wrap his arms around my neck, too...LOVE IT!

* Jackson loves books! He also loves taking some of his smaller toys that he no longer really plays with out of a plastic bin. Now...if only he knew how to put them back :) He also loves tags! He loves the way it feels on his fingers and sticking them in his mouth.

* Jackson is very good at expressing concern or making an inquisitive expression...as evidenced by his 6 month photo shoot with the photographer!

* Jackson has recently started talking more, but still doesn't talk a lot. Guess he is a boy through & through :)

Prayer Requests:

1) Please pray that Jackson's ear infection will fully heal before our trip to Texas

2) Please pray for our trip for Texas. Jackson and I will be gone a long time...a little over 2 weeks. Travelling is always challenging with a little one...especially when the trip is that long.

3) This is a long story that I am going to try to make short...Jackson has had some tremors / convulsing that the doctor wants to check out to be on the safe side. So we will see a neurologist and have an EEG scheduled this Thursday at 9AM Charlotte time. Please pray for the EEG and that Jackson handles the procedure well. In addition, please pray that if there is anything to be found, that God would guide the doctor and the people reviewing the EEG.

4) Sleep training is obviously on hold

5) Eating - hopefully "slow & steady will win the race" for us :)