Jackson's tummy skills

These three pictures were taken in March, May, and June respectively. You can see in the first one, it took so much effort just to hold his little head up. Then in the second picture, he's clearly got the whole tummy thing mastered, and by the third picture he's showing off, "look mom, no hands!" We just can't believe how fast he's growing up; it's definitely bittersweet. Stay tuned for an update from his 6-month well baby check-up!

Memorial Day

This is pretty delinquent, but better late than never! For Memorial Day we traveled to Robber's Cave Park to attend Eric's family reunion. Jackson did pretty well for the 3 hour car ride and of course showed off his sweet little personality the entire time we were there. We did have to make a quick stop on the way there and the way back to give little man a rest from the car seat, but other than that, it was a very nice trip.

Cousin Addison's 2nd Birthday

Last week cousin Addison Paige turned two! Jackson and Mommy traveled to Enid to help celebrate. We enjoyed cake and ice cream at Addison's house and even captured a pretty cute picture of the cousins. I can tell you that Addison was sweet enough to give Jackson a kiss, but mommy was too slow with the camera and missed it. Addison seems to think that Jackson is fairly interesting and tolerates him as long as he's not attempting to play with her toys. Jackson thinks that Addison is pretty funny. It was a great weekend, and it was very nice for mommy's family to get some good quality time with the little man who is just growing up before our very eyes!

Father's Day

Eric's first father's day was last Sunday, and we had a wonderful day. Eric was greeted in bed with a sweet baby boy and cards from mommy, Jackson, and the dogs. :) Later we enjoyed a nice father's day breakfast and then headed to Midwest City to spend the day with Mimi, Grandpa, Aunt LeAnn, Uncle Ryan, and cousin Eli. Jackson had his second swimming experience, and this one went much better than the first. His first dip was on Memorial Day, and it was just far too cold for a baby boy, but the water has warmed considerably over the last month, and Jackson floated around for awhile happily splashing and being incredibly adorable.

Correction!

Jackson had to go to the doctor this week for his chronic snotty nose and cough, and he actually weighs 16lbs, 3oz! I think he had his foot hanging off the scale or something at his 4-month check-up. And let me tell you, I can tell when I’m carrying him in that car seat; Momma needs to lift weights a little more regularly! By the way, he’s fine, just a little cold, and it actually seems to be getting a little bit better finally.

Getting so big!

Well, Jackson Cole has been very busy over the last month or so. His latest tricks include: rolling over both ways, eating cereal, holding onto his toys really well, grabbing his feet, and pooping through his diaper on a regular basis! (That last one isn’t so much of a trick, as a real headache; any advice on how to keep the poo inside the diaper would really save me a lot of hassle having to scrub clothes every night.) At his last doctor’s appointment, he was given a clean bill of health. He is now 15lbs and 25 inches long, once again in the 90th percentile for his length. He is talking and laughing all the time and is so much fun to be around. He’s been going to the daycare just down the street from my office for a little over a month now, and that’s going really well, other than the fact that he doesn’t take very long naps there. Since he’s so close, I walk down to visit him at lunch almost every day, and I absolutely love getting to see him.

This week Jackson got to meet more family that he hasn't met before, and all concluded that he is very sweet and very cute! Grandpa Hunter came to have lunch with us last week, and we paid a visit to Uncle Mike and Aunt Cheryl Hunter on Saturday. It was so good to see everyone! We wish we could see our family all the time, but we recognize that we're just blessed to have such a wonderful family to begin with.

Last Sunday was my first Mother’s Day, and we had a wonderful weekend. We spent Saturday with my family in Edmond and got the first ever picture of Jackson with his cousin Addison, neither was very interested in sitting still or looking at the camera. Then Sunday, we went to church with Daddy’s parents and gave mommy her present, a video set to music with pictures of Jackson’s first few weeks with us. Jackson and Daddy, really just Daddy, worked very hard on it, and Mommy absolutely loved it!

All is well with us these days. I’m really enjoying my job, and Eric just finished up with finals. He’ll be doing an internship with the Department of Health this summer in addition to his job. Then he just has one more class to take in the fall, and he’ll be done with school – woo hoo! We need lots of prayers that he finds a really good job where he can put all his hard work to good use.

Easter

We traveled to Enid for Easter with mommy's family last Saturday & Sunday, and Mr. J-Cole was extremely well-behaved. He slept most of the way there and back in the car. He's also figured out how to grab his toys and chew on them so he now has a way to entertain himself in his car seat. Last week he started sort of batting at his toys, and by the end of the week he was grabbing them and pulling them to his mouth. Now he's an old pro. It's just so crazy how fast he changes!