If you are new to our blog, you may want to start with Beginnings - Part 1 and Part 2 to catch you up to speed on Jackson's arrival on December 11th, 2010 (yup, 12/11/10).
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Getting caught up...wrapping up the summer.
I'm a bit late on posting Grayson's 11 month pictures and you can see I was less concerned about the overall look considering I slapped a sticker over the words on his shirt and called it a day (it would have been way too much effort to change his top to a solid colored shirt).
Just looking back on these pictures its funny how much his face has changed...a subtle difference over this last month and a half, but definitely a difference.
Its fun to catch them in moments where they are playing together nicely. Grayson is a typical little brother that gets in big brother's way.
Shortly after his 11 month birthday I took him to get his first hair cut. He cried a little bit, but for the most part did great...he was much more easily distracted than his brother who continues to be a holy terror and has to be restrained in order to get his hair cut.
While Grayson is practically running now, here's a video of his early walking days. Its been fun to watch him and how quickly he has picked it up.
Grayson got a water table for his birthday. We set it up immediately hoping the boys would have fun with the new toy and it ended up being better than we thought.
Jackson, in particular, really enjoyed himself. And we loved the fact that he was willing to stand and play for an extended period of time.
This guy still loves being outside. Mommy wishes the mosquitoes weren't so bad and she would enjoy it much more.
Grayson's actual 1st birthday was on the first day of school for kids. So after an exhausting first day, we mustered up the energy to get his official 12 month photos and a special cupcake for dessert.
I did not put the sticker on his head...it was all him.
So we held off on transitioning Jackson to a big boy bed until he was able to walk. Since we still feel like we may be a good 6 months out for this milestone, I had expressed interest in building him a toddler bed that was low enough for him to climb in and out of and thought it could be cheaper than buying him one. I came across a "Pin" on Pinterest that did just that. Due to the amazing handiness of my father-in-law and an extra twin mattress and box spring, he modified the measurements and constructed this big boy bed for Jackson.
And with the also-handy help of my mother in law and who-knew-he'd-be-good-at-upholstrey-husband, the bed turned out perfect!
He's had the new bed for about a week now. There's been quite a few nights where he's fallen asleep on the floor and we just scoop him up and put him back in bed. There was one night when I checked on him and he was not in his bed and not on the floor. And as the panic began to set in, Adam opened the closet door and there he was sprawled out on the closet floor fast asleep. (I thought I shut the door all the way but must have left it unlatched) And there's been one night where he didn't get out of bed once. I'd say he's transitioning very well. The biggest issue is naptime and I'm sure we'll have another weekend of barely napping.
But he really likes his bed...he loves to crawl in and get snuggled up to drink his milk/juice and read books before bed.
Not too long ago Jackson would have absolutely revolted over any hand-over-hand scribbling. Now he has interested and we have a colorful masterpiece on our fridge.
Jackson has made significant strides in self-feeding. In fact this video is "old" and doesn't best represent his efforts these days. If you leave food on a fork and rest it on the table he'll pick it up, put it in his mouth and replace it back to the table. He still needs hand-over-hand for spoon-feeding, but he needs much less support (more support for scooping, but just a gentle touch for actual to-and-from the bowl).
He's picking up on new signs all the time. We regularly watch Baby Signing Times which he absolutely loves. We do the best we can to reinforce signs when talking to him or looking at flash cards and reading books. Some signs he doesn't do frequently anymore, like "eat"...but we're trying to encourage him to keep signing as much as possible since he still doesn't communicate verbally.
Having said that...he has begun to imitate sounds. He has currently said, "uh-oh", "baby", "whee", "cookie" (oogie), and "all done". So pretty significant progress in regards to speech. He has also picked up on quite a few gesturing during songs. He still loves "Itsy bitsy spider" and "If You're Happy and You Know It", but he's begun imitating during "Wheels on the bus" too.
As far as Jackson's walking...we try to get him out in his walker as much as possible. We have a great driveway to practice on and use it for transitioning in and out of his playroom. We also brought it to the park to let him explore a little.
Jackson's progress seems to go through peaks and valleys. We are certainly in a "peak" period and loving every minute of it.
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