A few Words

I have a bit of writing to catch up on.  I may as well take this opportunity while my child is safe in his crib.  He's of coarse not sleeping but banging on the wall, his new favorite activity at nap time.  UGH!!!
Ryan's gone all this week, in Reno, for continuing education, and Jackson always seems to get teeth when I have him to myself.  However he only has four more teeth to come in so I guess that can't last forever.  But alas, this week it's true.

Aside from the negative though, the last few months have been full of monumental activities.  November 5th Jackson got the flu for the first time, guess this would still be on the negative list oops...It was terrible.  He didn't eat for three days, threw up all over Daddy, twice.  Yes, I got a little too, but just a little.

On November 22nd Jackson took his first steps, but didn't end up really taking off walking until the middle of December.  December 1st, he learned to go down the stairs "feet first".  We were very excited about that.  Much safer!

January was full of cute moments.  On the 4th he peed in the potty for the first time.  No he is not getting potty trained, but we thought we'd introduce it as early as possible, hopping to avoid the fear and hopefully expedite the process when we are ready. He learned to stand up on his own, which I know sounds weird, since he can walk, but for some reason learned to walk before standing.  He has begun to show his imagination a lot, "eating" pretend food, and ridding his stick horse.  I love to watch him pretending to be something, it's so fascinating.  I look at Trish's blog, and just can't wait for dress up!
 He has become a little more independent, at the park, wandering off on his own, SUPER SCARY! I try to let him explore, after all we moved here so he would be safe growing up, but I have to remind myself of that.  He learned to climb up the stairs and go down the slide all by himself, "feet first"  ha ha.
He has started to form a much better relationship with the dogs.  He loves them, and they are starting to like him.  He throws their toys to them and then claps when they go get them.  It's super cute.  When we got home from Bend, he said his first sentence...."Lilly is a doggie." It's a short one and he hasn't said it since, but me and Ryan were really excited about it.  We really want them to have a good friendship and it was terrible for a long time.
Jackson has been flourishing with his sign language.  He has caught on so quickly, and signs everything, It has made it so much easier to communicate with him, and so fun to see all of the things he recognizes even though he can't say them.  For example, he will look at a picture of a pig, say "doggie," but sign pig.  He knows what it is but just can't verbalize it yet.  It's been interesting to watch.  There is a drawback to it though, he still gets frustrated if he is signing something to you and you don't understand, I call it playing charades with a one year old :)
Jackson loves to say YESSSS! and that's just how he says it.  I think he's the only one of his friends that says yes, and also the only one that hasn't said no yet.  And I say yet, knowing full well it is coming.    

We have started Birth to Three again...Wonderful Ones!  We are really excited to see a lot of the friends we made during Incredible Infants, and hopefully be able to get some good ideas on parenting.  This is only getting harder and we could use all the help we can get.

We have been so busy since Thanksgiving, and we are all looking forward to a little downtime.  It's been really nice weather (for Oregon) the last few weeks, hopefully it lasts a little longer as park days are a family favorite for sure.