Thankful

For the better part of this summer, I've been tutoring ESL to a German student. It's just 2 days a week, 6 hours total (and great money!). During those times I'm working, I've been so lucky to have my mom and sister babysit. Each week, they take turns coming over and spending 3-5 hours with Jackson, taking the best care of him. For that, I'm so grateful. I don't know what I'd do without either of them, and Jackson is so lucky to have his family here to take such good care of him! Only once have I had to take him down to Oswego (where they both live), though next week I'll take him so he can spend the night at Aunt Cake's. I only have about 3-4 weeks more of this before this tutoring ends, but I plan to make the effort to take him to Oswego as often as I can to spend time with his famly.

I love this little boy with every breath I take, and I'm thankful that I have 2 people I can count on who feel the same!

Thanks, Mom and Kate!!

Not only...

This is the week for changes! Not only does Jackson have a front tooth coming in, he has the side one next to it. There's been talk that the second front top tooth is also coming in, but I haven't seen that one yet. It could be there and I'm missing it though.


Jackson's also now responding to me chasing him, saying, "I'm gonna get you!" He squeals with delight and crawls away, stopping every few feet to sit and look back to see if I'm still there, then take of "running" again when he sees me. It's incredibly cute (though hard on my knees to crawl behind him!). I can remember Maddie doing this--she was always SO SERIOUS about getting away!

He's also now eating small finger foods (little whole grain puffs). He's not quite gotten the hang of getting the food in his mouth with his fingers, but he's getting better at it every day. It's cute to watch him try, and funny when we lift him out of his high chair and find half of them stuck to his legs. Bailey swoops up anything that hits the floor, too.

I look at Jackson every single day and wonder how I got so lucky! I can only hope another child is in our future. Paul is so concerned about finances (IVF costs, as well as future college educations!) that he won't even talk about it. Not that I want to rush into having another, but I'd really like to get going on the drug portion of game, just to get that out of the way. Unfortunately, freezing and storing embryos is expensive--we already have one in ice, and we'd be charged all the same initial charges for any new ones, and none of it is covered by insurance.

Paul is headed to California next week to spend some time with his brother, Steve. Steve has been hospitalized for 5-6 weeks now (since Father's Day) with leukemia. His first 4 weeks of chemo didn't work, so he's getting another 4 week round of drugs. There's a plan to bring him back to Illinois for a stem cell transplant and subsequent treatment, which will total 2 years, during which he'll live with his mother (*gulp*). His chances aren't great, but he's fighting with everything he's got. Please keep all fingers crossed for him!

This weekend will be Jackson's first White Sox game! Wish us luck--we don't have high expectations, but we hope he enjoys it!

Lots of new things

Well, maybe not lots, but a few! Jackson has become quite adept at pulling himself up into a standing position. He also falls with a lot of grace these days! BOOM, right on his tookus. He's such a funny kid and he's starting to realize it.

Last week, I took him out in back to the kiddie pool. Up until now, he's not been a big fan of water. He's been ok at Waynee World, but hasn't liked his bath or pools at all. I filled the pool with only a couple inches of water and sat him it, along with some squirty bath toys. He seemed to really like it! Or, it might be safer to say he didn't hate it. He played with the animals, and a few times he slipped and fell into the water (again, it wasn't deep, just enough to get him wet!) and he was ok with it all. I'm so happy about this! I really want him to be a kid who likes water. Next year, I hope to start some sort of swimming lessons at the local pool.

Jackson had a small mishap at Walmart last week. I had him in the cart with his cart protector around him. He was goofing around (and I was with him as well) and he banged his mouth on the bar in front of him. I don't know if he hit his chin and his tooth cut his upper gum, or if he actually hit the gum, but he started bleeding. Right there, in the middle of Walmart. It wasn't horrible looking and he cried for a bit, but being that this was in the mouth, it bled like crazy. Not buckets, but enough that it was noticeable. I kept wiping his mouth with my t-shirt and hoping no one would see it and call DCFS on me. There wasn't anything I could do, so I just kept shopping. He had stopped crying so it wasn't a big deal, but oh my, had anyone really noticed the blood on him, it could have looked very, very bad. I think he ended up opening up a new tooth--there's definitely something going on up there, and I think it's a tooth breaking through.

We're having a family picture taken in a few weeks at church. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate having my picture taken. But I would really like to have a nice one of the 3 of us, so I'll suffer through it. It'll be our first formal pictures since our wedding (at least of Paul and me--Jackson's had formal ones taken a few times now).

We went to a great family party over the weekend where we got to meet Jackson's new cousin, Logan Dahlberg. He's a cutie and the 2 of them were dang cute together!

More soon!

Seven

I can't get over the fact my baby is 7 months old now!! He's doing so much new stuff. First, he's officially crawling. For so long, he would take a couple creeps, then drop to his stomach and army-crawl the rest of the way. He's finally, in the last week, just crawled the whole way he wants to go. He's also pulling himself up into a standing position. It takes a little effort for him, and he still falls quite a bit, but he's definitely standing! I figure it's just a matter of time before he's walking himself along furniture. He pretty much just stands in one place now.

He's such a funny kid, too. He laughs a lot at me, especially when I just simply look at him funnily. He's so much more interactive now, much to the delight of his father, who really didn't find him fun as a little baby. He ADORES Paul and lights up when he walks in the room. He also cries when he leaves the room, which causes a stir at lunchtime when Paul stops in for a half hour. Jackson definitely doesn't like the come-and-go approach of his daddy!

Jackson still does well with other people and hasn't shown any signs of separation anxiety. He does get left alone with people, mostly my mom and sister, but he willingly goes to the arms of anyone these days. I realize this may not last, but for now, he's happy with just about anyone.

It gives me such pleasure to see how much everyone loves him to bits!! My mom and sister especially spend a lot of time with him and love everything he does. They both babysit while I tutor on Tues and Thurs mornings, for which I'm eternally grateful. Even Paul's friends, the Whittenhalls, are madly in love with him. It's so fun to see that in other people, but I get a little put-off with those who show little to no interest in him! I guess I'm the one who's spoiled by all the attention. ☺

My tutoring job is just for the summer, probably another 6-7 weeks from now, and the money's good so at least I feel like I'm contributing a little to the household. I'm teaching ESL to a 16 year old who moved here in June from Germany. He's doing well and is a really nice kid! The lessons are long (3 hours at a time) and quite far from where I live, but it's good for me to have this break in my week. And good for Jackson to spend time with someone other than me!

We're headed up to Waynee World for our annual family weekend, so expect to see hundreds of pictures posted on my site next week! It'll be so much fun with Jackson up there. Hopefully, Mommy will get her usual amount of sun, but with a little one under foot, that might not happen....and that's ok. I'd rather have Jackson any day of the week!