Renaissance Man Cub

The many sides of Jackson

The Outdoorsman:

Jackson got a new ride to help Mommy get out and exercise. It’s a jogging stroller, but hopefully small enough to use everyday. I’m not convinced of that yet, but we’ll see. It’s definitely better than our old Snap N' Go. I did love the Snap N’ Go, Jackson is just way too big to be carried around in his carseat. This was a desperately needed new stroller!  We have been going for walks around the neighborhood and lake. Jackson likes going for walks except when the wind blows in his face, then he can’t breathe.

The Builder:

Jackson decided that cans of soda are great building blocks.

Jackson also builds with blocks. He can stack 3 blocks, sometimes he even gets 4!

The Hairdresser:

To distract Jackson from sucking on the coffee table drawer pulls last night, I gave him my headband to play with. He tried very hard to put it on his head. But, silly Mommy, boys don’t wear headbands!

Tip Top Thursday: The Yo Yo and Peanut edition

That title requires some explanation. First, in an effort to get more healthy and lose weight, I joined Weight Watchers. Today was my first weigh in and meeting. To help keep me accountable and I’ll be honest, encouraged, I decided to start “Tip Top Thursday’s” to get me in tip top shape (it was all I could think of). I have 26 pounds to lose to reach my goal. The odd thing to me is that only about 5 of those pounds is baby weight. The rest is “hubby weight”, weight I gained since meeting my dear, sweet husband. It just looks alot different on me now that I have had a baby.

As for the Yo yo and Peanut part: There is a show on the baby channel called “The Yo Yo and Peanut Show”. It’s about 2 clowns who are always opposite. I’m sure you’ve seen it if you’ve been to our house for more than 5 minutes.

So, how does this apply? Yesterday I took Jackson to the doctor for his weight check after not gaining enough at his 12 month. (Can you believe he is 13 months already?) Well, that little stinker actually LOST weight. Not the direction we were trying for. Somehow I need to get Jackson to understand he needs to gain weight, Mommy needs to lose weight, not the other way around. I was really surprised he had lost weight. He has been eating really well and drinking lots of good whole milk. Dr. Jennie says we have 2 weeks to prove he can gain weight before she starts running some tests to see why he isn’t growing. Jackson actually grew 1/2 an inch, so that was encouraging. We are hoping the weight loss was from the stomach bug he had right after his 12 month visit and he is still catching up.

Needless to say, food is a stressful topic for us right now.  I have to track my points for weight watchers, get Jackson to eat lots and lots of good, high calorie foods, and hope Jackson doesn’t have another allergic reaction to anything.  Why is life so ironic sometimes?

The good and could have been bad…

This little stinker has been up to lots of trouble! Hard to believe with a cute face like that! But, its true.

First the good:

Jackson can walk!!!! Yay Jackson!!!

Monday night after we ate dinner I got on the floor with Jackson to practice our walking. Usually I stand him up and hold my arms out and he sits down and crawls to me. But, that time he actually walked to me! He was so proud of himself. He wanted to do it over and over again. I was so glad that Daddy and I were both home and got to see the cubby take his first steps together.  Of course I got teary eyed watching my baby WALKING!  Jackson spent the rest of the night practicing his walking. He would stand up take a few steps the fall. Then stand back up, walk a few steps and fall again.  He was just laughing and squealing, he was having so much fun! Excuse our pajamas, Monday’s we usually don’t get dressed because I’m tired from working all weekend and we just stay home a chill. (Especially when we’ve been up late the night before, continue reading for why)

Earlier that day he decided his wagon was too hard to steer. He found a good replacement though- our little cooler.

Now for the bad (or could have been bad):

Sunday night after I got home from work we had to take Jackson to the Emergency Room.  We were eating dinner and he started rubbing his face and eyes. We had red bean and rice and turkey sausage for dinner. He has had a little bit of that before about a week ago, but that was his first time eating it with us.  I thought he was just getting tired but, then when I was cleaning him up when he was done eating I noticed he had hives all over his face. They continued to get redder and were along his forehead and down the sides of his cheeks.  I quickly gave him some Benadryl and called the pediatricians office. After about 10 minutes he wasn’t any better and the pediatrician hadn’t called back yet, he actually seemed to be itching more. So, we made the decision to go to the ER. As a nurse I know that anytime there are hives on your face it is a medical emergency because if the hive are in your throat  your airway can swell up and close. I didn’t want to wait at home for that to happen. Jackson seemed fine through the whole ordeal, he never had trouble breathing and was just playing and laughing. But it scared Mommy and Daddy to death. Better safe than sorry. The ER doctor said it was a minor allergic reaction and he was responding well to the Benadryl I had given him. He didn’t give Jackson any other medicine, just said to keep giving the Benadryl every 6 hours until the hives went away.  No more red bean and rice and turkey sausage though for Jackson! I am glad everything turned out ok. It was so weird having to go back to the hospital after I had worked all weekend and be on the patient side.  But, it does make me thankful we have a great children’s hospital to go to.

So, that's the past couple of days here at the cubby’s house.  This boy is never boring. In fact, just as I was finishing writing the he fell down and busted his lip (again) and now I have blood and tears all over my shirt :(  See, lots of trouble ! Now for even more trouble since he’s walking! Oh, boy!

Sweet boy

I finally uploaded some pictures taken recently.

First, I made Jackson another hat. It’s a gnome hat I saw on another blog. I’m too lazy to link to it, but it’s from MADE’s “Celebrate The Boy” series. My yarn wasn’t thick enough so it came out kinda wonky. You can’t tell in the picture, but Matt says it looks like a dong on top of his head and won’t let Jackson wear it. This was the best pic I could get because hats stay on Jackson’s head for a maximum of .5 seconds.

We got Jackson a Scout for his birthday. He loves Scout. He gives Scout kisses. It’s so sweet. He won’t kiss Daddy, but he gives Mommy and Scout lots of kisses. He gets bashful when Scout says “I love you Jackson”.

Jackson loves to “help” me load the dishwasher. He kindly takes out the dirty dishes and puts the clean dishes away on the floor :) He has also been known to try to climb in the dishwasher. Tonight I found him standing on the door, holding onto the top rack and jumping.  I’m sure our dishwasher was made to withstand jumping babies!

Here he is playing with a pot lid. He kept banging in on the dishwasher then he would stop to laugh hysterically then bang it again. It was so funny!

  

Jackson is still cruising. I know he can walk by himself, if only he knew that. I guess he’ll walk when he’s ready. He loves to push his wagon around. He is so proud of himself when he pushes it all by himself. But, he’s not great at steering and gets mad when he runs into something and can’t move.

Tonight Uncle Chris came over for dinner. Jackson had some good play and snuggle time with him. Of course Jackson got Uncle Chris to show him his favorite toy, his cell phone!

Another doctor…

Jackson had his allergist appointment yesterday. I was nervous about it because I was sick all weekend with a stomach bug and hadn’t eaten in almost 3 days. I was afraid I would pass out or something. But I actually felt pretty good. I was also nervous about the allergy testing. I have had it done and it was not fun. Lots of itching. Not to mention the scratches for the testing.

My big boy did great! He was kinda sleepy because it was during his nap time. The doctor only wanted to test for milk, eggs and peanuts. I was ok with that because it meant less scratches than I was planning. I was shocked with the results. There was one big red mark on his back that I was sure was milk. Nope. It was eggs! The one thing I was not worried about, he is actually allergic to. So, the doctor said he could go ahead and start drinking cow’s milk and maybe even peanut butter. Eggs he was kind of unclear about. I wasn’t sure if he has had anything with eggs in it. He didn’t eat his birthday cake. I’m guessing if he has had eggs, it was only a few bites. But the doctor said definitely nothing with visible egg until he is 2 and to have him retested first. Things with eggs in it like baked goods, he wasn’t sure if Jackson could eat or not since I didn’t know if he has had it before. I think we’ll take the safe route and just do no eggs at all. I will talk to Dr. Jennie about it at our next appointment in a couple weeks too.

The good thing: no more formula! Yay! I hate mixing formula and PAYING for formula! But, of course I do whatever is best for the cubby.  We are still finishing up the can of formula so, I will give Jackson milk here in the next few days. Hope he likes it!

No pics again. I know I’m lame.

Wind…

Wind… you messed up my plans for today. I wanted to take Jackson to the playground today to enjoy this beautiful weather we have been having. And maybe take some 12 month pictures. No go. It was way too windy. Jackson does NOT like wind. It takes his breath away. As soon as we got to the playground and I put him in the swing… total meltdown. So we left. No fun and no pictures. We’ll try again next week…

More presents and the big D

Friday night Nannan and his family came over to bring Jackson his birthday present. I didn’t get many good pics. (Maybe they will share some of theirs!) They brought Jackson’s favorite food- pizza! Jackson had so much fun with his Aunt Jordan. He was cracking up all night! She would just jump up and down and he would laugh and laugh.  They played with Jackson’s new toys he got for his birthday.

Jackson got a new zeebra from Nannan, Brigitte, Jordan and Greg. Here Scout is showing Jackson how to ride Zeebra.

Jackson liked the box as much as the toy. He has been pushing it around the last few days. Even though it is 3 times his size!

Jackson is wearing the “Remix” shirt I made him for Christmas. I made one for Matt that says “Original”. They were actually both wearing their shirts together that night, but I didn’t get a picture of them. Oops! Maybe next time.

Late Saturday, Jackson got the stomach bug that has been going around. I was glad I already had Sunday off because someone at work wanted to switch days with me. Sunday and Monday were the worst days. We went through LOTS of diapers, bottles of pedialyte, diaper cream and changes of clothes. Jackson woke up starving today so, hopefully we are getting over this nasty bug. I think he probably picked it up at the doctor’s office when we went for his checkup.  Even though Jackson was sick, he didn’t really act like it. He was still his normal happy, playful self. Just a little more tired and wanting to be snuggled more. I didn’t mind that bit at all. It was a good thing Uncle Josh stayed with us this weekend to give Jackson some good snuggles too. Uncle Josh is known for being the best snuggler (not that I would know :) )

Jackson lifted his head when I took the picture, but before that he and Uncle Josh looked so cute together.

Now we have to get back to trying to get the cub  to gain some weight. I wish I could just give him some of my extra pounds! In my effort to get him to eat more and putting cheese and butter on everything and all the pizza we have been eating, I gained 2 pounds. Argg! I love how I gain weight and Jackson gets sick and probably lost weight. Oh well, new week. We’ll do better!