All In A Month

In one month, one week actually, Gabe hit 9 years old, Max crossed over to officially being 2 and a half, and Jack is now 9 months old-- I feel like those are all very significant ages, and all at once-- I'm not sure my mom heart can take it! The only "upside" is that we have multiple children, so we can enjoy all the fun things multiple times.... This is the same upside that makes me want to have 20 children, but hey, Chad is not budging on this so I feel it's time to let it go...

So onto my Jack- my baby who is already 9 whole months old! Every bit of this baby is precious and sweet- my cuddle bug, my sure-fire grin, my guaranteed puddle of drool, my rolly Polly chunky cheeked Jack Attack. The only thing not cute about this little guy is the ear piercing banchee scream he does whenever he's not happy with the current situation. And even that makes us laugh- especially when every other member of the family responds at the same time with a scream of their own and Jack looks at us like we're the ones who have lost our minds.

Stats:
Weight: Just of 20lbs-- right at the 50th percentile
Height: 28.2 inches-- right at the 50th percentile
Head: 18.2 inches-- right at the 75th percentile :) (That's my boy!)

Jack with his future BFF, Grant Spiva

Jack is mostly in 12 month clothes and can even pull off some 12-18 months. He wears shoes when we go somewhere because he likes to pull of his socks or put his socked feet in his mouth, which both make for really cold feet. He is wearing a size 3 diaper during the day and a size 4 at night because with his 12 hours of sleep, he's leaking A LOT! Oh did I say 12 hours of sleep? Yep, that's right! He goes down at 7:30 and we see him again at 7:30. Sometimes he likes to wake up and coo around 6am, but this Mama doesn't really want 6am as part of his day, so I ignore it and he goes back to sleep for a bit. I told you all that February would be our month... we're sleeping through the night, in our own beds, without swaddles for J and without paci's for Max. We've got a good thing going around here! Jack is also still on his 2 naps a day and he's not even close to dropping one-- they are both around two hours but he's pretty flexible about when they start. If I go to the gym early, then he's ready to snooze at 10:00, but if we have plans, he'll go down early- even 8:45 sometimes, and then be up in time to head out the door. His afternoon nap is flexible too- and he'll occasionally nap longer than 2 hours if his morning nap was short, but I usually wake him up at 2.5 hrs because I am NOT willing to compromise that night time sleep :)

The other big thing with Jack this month is his personality-- he's cooing all the take, chatting away, shaking his head, clicking his tongue, and blowing bubbles and raspberries... although Chad doesn't really appreciate the bubbles while he's feeding him.... wonder why?? He'll do all of these tricks if we do them first or sometimes he'll just do them on his own. And the aforementioned banchee scream happens way too often and it his way of communicating. Let's just say that I'm hoping he learns real words asap! Jack is a great sitter- and reacher- and grabber! He'll lean completely flat on the ground, forward, but with his legs still in seated position. The child IS flexible! He's doing better with being on his tummy, but he'll just stretch and stretch to reach something, using the tips of his toes to scoot if necessary, but refuses to make any moves towards crawling, although he definitely has the strength and motor skills to pull it off when he's ready.

Jack LOVES dogs- they make him cackle with delight. Whether they're real and right in front of him or fake in a book or on tv. He even likes looking at pictures of them on my phone! Jack also loves eating-- and he's very good at getting puffs into his mouth. Too bad he isn't too keen on textured food or else he could totally rock the finger foods too... but anything with much texture makes him gag, literally! At his appointment, the pediatrician said to go ahead and feed him what we're eating. I just nodded and laughed on the inside. This child would rather die than eat bumpy, thick food, that isn't already pureed for him, not to mention that he has NO teeth. Ha! Oh well-- we'll figure that out later. For now, we'll just work on him drinking water out of a zippy cups in preparation for real milk on his 1 year birthday.

I think this child is going to be silent but deadly- kind of like Chad and my brother Eli. They're laid back, easy to get along with, on the surface, but underneath, they just do what they want. It's a nice way to live- they never get their feathers ruffled and never really upset anyone, yet always manage to do thing in their own time. I think they're on to something.... but my type A, controlling, bossy, organizational, planner self can't quite put my finger on it....... Speaking of Chad and Eli-- Jack LOVES LOVES LOVES them. Either of them can get a grin, an out loud laugh and a complete body nuzzle at anytime. Jack loves being held by them, being talked to by them, wrestling with them, and mostly cuddling with them. AND both "thems" can't keep their hands off of him. It's a win/win! Max loves Jack too- he'll go in a calm him, he'll bust in the room when he hears him talking about he wakes up, he'll climb in the crib with him, scoot up close and talk in his sweet "baby Jack" voice. Max hates when he's sad and usually tells me that Jack is hungry if he cries at all. And Jack just loves watching Max- Max can always make him laugh and I'm pretty sure he's soaking up all of Max's tricks. Jack even likes holding golf clubs! Jack also always has a smile for Gabe-- and Gabe goes out of his way to give Jack a hug right when he gets here. Having this brood of brothers is going to be great-- for them and for us!

With that being said, I most definitely want to point out that Jack is certainly a Momma's boy and I still have sole ownership of his heart. At this point, the only person I wouldn't mind sharing with is Jesus... otherwise, back off, this precious boy is mine! Jack, you're a delight. You're a joy. You're a blessing. The mere thought of you makes me smile, just a few hours away from you makes me miss you like crazy and any moment when I get to just coal you in is a piece of heaven here on earth. God must've know what he was doing when He gave you to me.... I'm so glad he picked me to be your mommy!