All about Jackson at 1 year old

July 13, 2008

Weight -- 8 lbs 1 oz

Height -- 20 1/2"

Hair -- Dark Brown and lots of it

Eyes -- Blue

July 13, 2009

Height -- 30 1/2"

Weight -- 22 lbs

Hair -- Light brown with lots of blond highlights

Eyes -- medium brown

Clothes Size -- 12 months

Shoe Size -- 4 (although he has not had any on since May)

Favorite Toys -- Laptop, remote control, farm push toy, cell phone

Favorite Food -- He likes everything but we recently learned he does have a food allergy we are just not sure to what but it was something in the icing of his birthday cake.

All his words -- Mama, Dada, Den (Denny), Hey, Hi, Na Na (No No), Go, OK

Teeth -- 7 teeth 4 on top and 3 on bottom

Sleeping -- Sleeps all night and usually sleeps till about 8 or 8:30 am

Favorite Friend -- Trip and Denny

Favorite Activities -- Going outside and getting in the pool

Important Places he has been -- Gatlinburg TN, Panama City Beach and Bryant Denny Stadium for Bama vs. Kentucky Game

Cute things he does -- He gives great sloppy wet kisses, he loves to make sounds like the mmmmmm sound, popping his lips together and the ssssssssss sound and tilting his head from side to side or wildly shake his head no no .

Not so cute things he does -- He likes to pull hair and sometimes he will bite you. However he gets in trouble for both of these things.

Accomplishments -- He can walk and string about 12 to 15 steps together, he can talk a bit and recently started with Ok Dada so we actually have a 2 word phrase. He can drink from a straw and a sippy cup by himself and yes the bottle is gone.

Chad's 1st Father's Day

This past Sunday was Chad's 1st Father's Day. Wow what a change since last Father's Day. Last year on Father's Day I was big huge pregnant and just looking forward to someone besides me carrying him around. Well since then I have had the luxury of watching Father and Son bond everyday. Chad is a wonderful Father to Jackson and watching the two of them together is amazing. Not only does Jackson look just like his Daddy but he also loves his Daddy so very much. We are so fortunate that I am able to stay home with Jackson thanks to the work and dedication of my wonderful husband. However, due to being with me so much Jackson gets so excited to even hear his Dad's voice. He loves to play with Daddy, or to sit with Daddy or to eat with Daddy or anything as long as its with Daddy.

And I am thankful for all of Chad's help with Jackson. He is truly a hands on Daddy and is so helpful with everything. He has not hesitated with anything that fatherhood has thrown his way from feeding, to diapering, to bath time to anything. He is right there with me or ready to do whatever he needs to do. I am so happy that Jackson is so lucky to have such a great Daddy.

So to celebrate Father's Day I decided that we would start on Friday night. Mostly because I got Chad 2 larger gifts this year and really had nowhere to hide them. So when he got him from work Friday I sent him on a scavenger hunt for his first gift. He finally found his new charcoal smoker in my truck (mostly because it was too heavy to move). The note on the smoker told him to take it to the back deck. When he got to the deck he found his 2nd gift which was a fire pit. He thought that I might get the smoker but the fire pit was a shock to him. We have already fired the smoker up and this fall we will put the fire pit to good use. In addition to his gifts we went out for a Mommy & Daddy dinner on Saturday night to Conner's at Bridge Street (YUMMY). On Sunday Morning Jackson and I made Chad breakfast and we cooked out that night for his Mom and Dad. So all in all we had a wonderful Father's Day weekend.

So to my wonderful husband. I love you with all my heart. I am thankful for you as a father and a husband. I know how truly blessed we are to have you and I am so glad that this is just the 1st of many Father's Days we will spend together!

Our new puppy Denny

Jackson and his new buddy Denny!!!!

This morning we went to pick up our new puppy Denny. Well I guess officially he is Coco Denny Matthews. He will be 8 weeks old this Saturday. He is a male chocolate cocker spaniel. We decided now was the time to get the puppy because we wanted Jackson to have him to grow up with. And so far Jackson and Denny have been pretty good together. We have to watch Denny and make sure he does not lick Jackson to death and we have to watch Jackson to make sure he does not try to poke Denny's eyes. Here are a few picts that I took today of them playing together.

Jackson does this thing were he tilts his head from left to right wanting you to mimic him so Denny is not exempt from this either. However Denny did not participate in Jackson's game.

Now Denny has a game he also wants to play called give Jackson kisses. And Jackson is not a huge fan of this game either.
Jackson wanted to check out this dog house. Just in case he decides he wants to move out...

Denny on his bed inside his house.

You can sort of see that his eyes are green in this picture.

Beach Trip

We got back from the beach on Sunday from a wonderful get away to Panama City Beach. This was Jackson's 1st beach trip and a great chance for us to get away! I took tons of pictures and I wanted to share some of them with you. While we were there the weather was wonderful and there were some great sunsets and the twilight was amazing!

This was twilight looking from the wonderful pool.

We took the time to take some pictures of Jackson and the family on the beach. Jackson started out not being in such a great mood but he got better and we got some good shots.

The last night we were there we also went down and took some pictures of Jackson.

Jackson and his Daddy by the pool. The pool at these condos was amazing. It was so pretty it had 6 waterfalls and palm trees on islands in the middle of the pool.

Jackson looking down on the water from the wall of windows in our room!Chad looking at Jackson. I just love the adoring look on Chad's face looking down at his sweet little boy.

Chad and Jackson just before he put him down in the sand and water for the 1st time ever.

Chad sat him down in the sand to quickly find out Jackson is not a sand boy.

And not an ocean boy

He is fine if he thinks he is as far away from the water as I can get him.

He did love his sun shade tent. And he loved that his toys were inside the tent.

However his favorite place to be is the pool!!!

He Stands.... Alone!!!

In the past week Jackson has learned to stand alone for a long time. For a little while now he could stand for a few seconds but now he is up to minutes. He has tried to take 1 step but no walking yet.... I am sure it will come too soon. As for now he just dives at you so be prepared if you are in his line of sight. Also, I got a new camera this week so I wanted to post some of my pictures from my new camera. Now I am not really sure how to work it but I have been able to take some great pictures already. I am so excited that I was able to get my camera prior to our beach trip. We leave this week to take Jackson to the beach for the 1st time ever. I am sure I will be posting many more pictures when we return. In addition, we are planning for Jackson's 1st birthday party right now. We have ordered the cake and purchased most of the things we need for the party. And we have purchased Jackson's early birthday gift.... a puppy!! We will pick him up after we get back from the beach and I am sure there will be tons of pictures of him soon. We are getting a chocolate cocker spaniel puppy. He is so cute we went and picked him out last week and feel in love with him at 1st sight.

This is Jackson standing alone!He is such a happy boy he is becoming so mobile. Something he loves and something that scares me to death!

Here Jackson is playing with his new favorite toy. Yes that is a washcloth. He loves it and carries it around all over the place.

A blessed Mommy

I am such a blessed Mommy!!! Yesterday I got a message a spent about an hour reading a caring bridge site about a little boy that I have followed for a while who is finally out of pain and at home in heaven. I know some of the people who might read my blog have went through very difficult situations with family members and even children. But as I sat and read and cried and cried and cried. I could not help but think that I take for granted just how blessed I really am. Some days it can seem I am having a rough day but my roughest day just can't even hold a candle to what others have experienced. I am a firm believer in never wake a sleeping baby. But I walked straight to Jackson's bed looked over at him sleeping so sweetly and picked him right up. I guess we often forget how blessed we really are and how we really are very fortunate to have such a wonderful life!!