The bad "firsts"

Jackson has officially had his first "serious sickness" and first "serious fall."  Jackson woke up last Tuesday and felt super hot.  I took his temp, but it was only a low-grade fever.  He just wasn't acting like himself and I knew something was wrong.  I decided to take him into the doctor and he had a DOUBLE ear infection!  Jackson has had little colds here and there, but nothing has slowed him down.  These ear infections definitely slowed him down.  I had to give him tylenol around the clock, because about the time it wore off he was feeling it.  It was so sad :(  He's on an antibiotic still, but is feeling MUCH better.  Back to his smiley self!  He also had his first fall.  He stands up to everything now.  He was standing up by the TV stand and started doing the baby butt bounce.  Apparently he got a little too brave and fell.  He busted his chin up.  He cried a little, but has been fine since.  Hopefully no more ear infections and no serious falls!

One of "those" moms

I totally realize that I am completely selfish when it comes to Jackson and our time together.  I just don't want to be separate from him.  He's 8 months old and the longest he's been away from me is a couple hours, which I am okay with.  Today was my first day back to class.  I only have class on Monday nights this semester...the rest are online.  I just can't wait to get back home to him when I leave.  He makes it all better by busting out one of his HUGE smiles as soon as he sees me :)  I've thought about starting to babysit, but then I think about the time away from Jackson.  He's getting 100% of my attention now.  If I have another kid here to take care of, he'll only get 50%.  If I have 2, he'll only get 33%.  I know....it's crazy thinking, but I can't help it.  I'm one of "those" moms.  Ya know...the ones that are crazy psycho moms.  Yup, that's me.  I hope it's normal...but if not, oh well.

8 month ramblings

Jacksie is 8 months old now!  Complete with attitude, personality, and all around cuteness.  He learns new things every day.  He's crawling around, standing up to things, and getting into everything he shouldn't be.  Yesterday, he saw me coming in the room and started crawling at hyper speeds to get to something he knew I'd take him away from.  He's always doing funny things with his facial expressions.  He's still my little snuggle bug, and I hope he NEVER grows out of that!  He's very observant...always watching.  The majority of the time he has the biggest smile on his face.  His laugh (aside from the sound of him breathing) is one of the best sounds in the entire world.  I just love him :)  He's eating table food now.  He loves it.  Definitely prefers it over pureed food, but we're still giving him some purees.

Parenting is a tricky tricky thing.  Just when you think you have something down, they switch it up on you.  I've realized that my child is not one of those babies that will sleep through the night, haha.  As much as I want him to, he's just not that kind of baby.  He'll wake up in the middle of the night and not even need to nurse.  He just wants to snuggle :)  He'll go a week of only waking up once, followed by weeks of waking up multiple times...it's just the way he is. 

Darrin and I have decided to get rid of the pacifier.  We kinda took his lead.  For awhile now, he hasn't really wanted it.  Usually it pisses him off more than it soothes him.  Sometimes it's definitely helpful, though.  SO we agreed to just get rid of it completely.  I'm sure it will be easier now than when he's older.  So far so good...it hasn't caused any problems.  Whew!

His eating position...

 Some left over Christmas pictures:

Jacksie doesn't play around...

The cousins :)

Grandma and his boys