Almost 3 quarters of a year

It was almost 9 months ago today that I gave birth to this little butterball. Kate and I will be taking his 9 month pictures on Friday.

So much has been going on around here, it's incredible. Steve moved back to Illinois (from CA) last week and is now living with his mom in Huntley. Paul still has to fly out to CA this Friday and will spend the weekend with his uncle driving Steve's car back. I'm sure they'll make a stop at a casino somewhere, so hopefully he'll only miss one day of work and be home on Monday. Time will tell though.

Jackson got to meet his Uncle Steve this past weekend. This is something I've been hoping for (though under much different circumstances!) for a while. We got a short video, since we have video of everyone else meeting Jackson for the first time (of course, everyone else met him in the hospital right after he was born).

Steve looks ok and has a good attitude about everything, but he has a very tough fight ahead of him. He'll be going to see Dr. Rodriguez at Loyola tomorrow afternoon--the whole family is going (Steve, his mom and dad, brother and sister) so hopefully they'll all have a better idea of what to expect. Despite 2 rounds of chemo, he has yet to go into remission, which isn't a good sign, but we're hoping Dr. R can lead him to a clinical trial that might help.

Jackson is growing by leaps and bounds. He now has 6 teeth--4 on top and 2 on the bottom. He bites everything and everyone that get in his path, and let me tell you, it hurts!! I'm trying to tell him "Don't bite" but he really is too young to understand. He gets pissed if I prevent him from biting. Sometimes, he can be really naughty!

He's still crawling like a champ, but no sign of real walking yet. He's been pulling himself standing for a while now, but just recently has he started walking around furniture (only a few steps at a time). I'm trying to encourage him, but he seems to do things in his own time, when he's good and ready.

He eats just about everything put in front of him. We're still being slightly conservative with his food, but every now and then we give him something we're not sure he'll like, and he inhales it! Most recently was elbow macaroni that my mom made (with tomatoes, bacon, and onion). I kept big chunks out but gave him just flavored noodles, and he loved them! I love doing that--trying new things with him. He's getting better with different textures, but everything is still really puréed, of course.

I can't believe the summer is almost over. It's so sad to me--seems so short this year. I'm dreading winter, but already looking forward to Jackson's first birthday party! It'll be HUGE! We're having it at the restaurant where Paul's dad works--Monastero's in Chicago. We'll have everyone from both sides of the family (probably 60-70 people total?). I'm so excited about it! This will be the only BIG party. From here on out, it'll be just immediate family from both sides. Even that's enough of a crowd!

Enjoy!