More Little Gym

This weekend we went to little gym again. We have been going for the past few weeks. Jackson has been enjoying himself a lot. He is the most out going one in his class. We are a bit worried that because of amount of energy he has there that everyone will think we keep him confined all day. He has expanded is climbing now to....well...everything. Before he wanted to climb the walls ( not in this case it is not an expression) to turn on or off light. Now, he is trying to climb the door jambs, he swings from the bathroom sink, the kitchen table as well as the cutting block. If you look at this weeks pics you can see that he has really taken to the bar. This would explain the constant climbing. But you can also see by the end of the day he is very tired, that he about to nap there on the floor at the gym. That brings us to this weeks picture. Where Jackson is on the bar on his own. I need to get that boy a rock gym to keep him from climbing all over our house.

Halloween

Okay so we have some great pics from the past few days. First of all we had over 250 people come by for Trick or Treating on Friday. Over the past five years in Eugene we maybe had a total of 20. This was insane. At 8 I had to walk to the store to get more candy, as we were running low. Good thing too, when I got home Mary was handing out cider spice packs. I thought for sure we were going to get egged. We dressed Jackson up as a dragon fly, though for his mood he was more like Mothra. It was good fun. Here are some pics of the evening: Jackson all dressed up and then the pumpkins. On Saturday we went to Little Gym again. This time I was able to get pictures. There don't really do the justice for how busy he was. It was great and here are the summary pictures as well.

531 days

I know that I need to come up with more witty titles to these posts. But if you are reading this then you know us. I am form follows function and well Mary can be more...wordy. We have been just as busy as always. But we have taken plenty of pictures. And without much further ado (i.e. delay), here they are: October 18th as we picked out our pumpkins, October 24th around the house and then in Seattle, October 25th and 26th are good portion of our trip to Seattle for the weekend (just FYI: Jackson liked visiting the Market, a got some special treats), then on Monday and Tuesday we raked leaves ( will it ever stop) and Jackson "helped", then on Wednesday we carved the pumpkins. I have some pictures from tonight and I will get some more tomorrow at little gym. I hope to get those put up tomorrow or early next week either way this should help.

Now 522 days

I know that it has been over two months since the last post on the blog. But I will try to play catch up on what we have been doing in the meanwhile. First of all we have been taking pictures, we have just had a hard time uploading them to the "intertubes" but as you can see from the following seven posts that we are not complete shut ins (although a weekend of that might not be too bad). So, as they say, "previously on our show....", well we sold the Eugene house, closed on the Portland house, had the electrical redone, bought some new appliances (Fridge, washer, dryer, TV ( the old one we inherited from my parents back in 2000). We finally got a mover that was not a flake and got our stuff. We did have a week of indoor urban camping in our house. But we love this place, it is bigger than Eugene, and we got rid of some excess on the way out of town. Jackson has his own room and we have an office back ( where I am now), we are trying not to add to much new clutter. We have also convinced my parents to come out for Thanksgiving ( I am very excited), my brother is coming down from Seattle, but my sister and her fiancé can't make it over from NC (darn short holiday week, we will miss them). We have been unpacking as fast as we can, we have been doing at least two boxes a day. Jackson has been getting plenty of walks with our close park. The dogs however have not been getting the same number of field trips, but they do have the huge (relative to the condo) back yard. We (Mary has) have been doing lots of yard work raking leaves, moving plants, planting shrubs and what not. This last week week went to little gym (no pictures, sorry) he had a blast, and we changed the locks on the house, (oohh, yeah we got a new front door as well, it is like the one we got in Eugene before.). So basically we have decided to do the fixing at the beginning of ownership. There is no reason we should not be able to enjoy the nice house as well.

Oh, you don't care about that, you just want pictures of the boy, oh well then here they are: August 26th (Jackson exploring the new house), September 7th (Jackson just being cute at the condo), September 12th (a messy boy and finding the dog door), September 16th (Jackson and the giant peach), September 21st (busy week: Bebo, finding long lost toys, sniffing Rosemary in the garden and leaning to buckle), September 24 (helping with yard work) and October 12th (exploring the Portland Nursery for Apple tasting). We have some from this last week but I have to save something for the November post (kidding). But as always we have the age progression series (meant to be weekly but is, on average about every 6 days) of the weekly update. We will try to be better but it is not easy.

Jackson 453 days old

It has been a fun couple weeks since our last post. This last week the Day care was on break so Gram and Bebo came down to spend time with Jackson. He loved it. Last weekend we went to Ikea ( a surprisingly fun experience, despite the parking looking like Disney World) and we got Jackson his own little tunnel. He loves it. It is so fun to watch him and hear him laugh. We have some pictures from the last week. The 11th, the 14th and from the 16th, as well as the "weekly update" of him. This next week will be very busy as Mary goes to Denver for work for the week. I will have to play single parent for the week. Mary better enjoy the quite she gets. I may be too over loaded this week to get a new post up, but we will see.

Upto 440 days

Every time we work on the post, which we do know is far between, we can't help but see and think how much he has changed since the last post (let alone since the beginning). We have been busy in Portland. We have made an offer on a house, that has been accepted. Here you can see us visiting the outside of the house This coupled the soon closing of our house in Eugene will make August a very busy month. But for now a recap of the past few weeks. Two weeks ago Gram and Bebo came down for a visit. It was an action packed weekend. We showed off the house (see above), we went down town for the Beer Festival. The theory was to try lots of beer and get out side, instead it was like a bad frat kegger just with better beer, if you could stand the "lines" ( and I use that word very, very loosely). The three beers we tried we great, but the hour it took to get them made this a less than fun part of the day. We have a better plan for next year. But we did go play in the fountain, and boy did he ever have fun. This last weekend was busy as well. Jackson got his first real hair cut. He would have done much better had not just hit his head on a counter. But it looks good. Then on Sunday we went to the beach. He did real well, the water was cold, but he had fun. We have updated the "weekly pictures" as well, which is what sparked the comment about how much he has changed. I am not sure what we are doing next weekend, other than the Farmers Market. But we will keep all y'all posted.

update

For the weekends of June Mary and Jackson were down in Eugene and then on Friday I would drive down from Portland to work on house projects. We had been busy then. And we are still busy. But now there is less driving. It is nice for us to be back together in the same location. We have had a busy week with Jackson in day care and Mary back at work. Our days have been long. But now getting to why you have really come to the blog. Pictures: Jackson eating blueberrys, House work on June 15th, Jackson playing in an almost empty house, Jackson playing in Portland, our July 4th weekend, the house that is now finished and staged down in Eugene, and then Jackson playing in Portland during July 8th and 9th. We have also updated the "weekly" photos. I need to fix the dates. But it is still great to look at how much he has changed in the past year.

It has been so long

I know that it has been quite a while since there has been an update here. But for this short late time I will just give the short version now. We have moved up to Portland (Oregon). I have been at new job for the last four weeks. Mary had been in Eugene for the last few weeks in Eugene. She has been able to transfer her position to the Portland office. She, Jackson and the dogs have been up here for the last week. Mary starts her new job on Monday, and Jackson starts a new day care then as well. But since I have been quite busy I do have some pictures from the last month before we left Eugene. Here are some pictures: April 27th at home, April 29th at home, May 12th at home, May 14th at home, May 15th at home, May 17th with Birth to Three, and finally for this update May 17th with his Birthday cupcake. We have some more pictures that we will get up soon.

Walking

This is the beginning of the end. Jackson has been walking for the past two weeks with help. He holds hands and then down to one had. For the past few days he has been standing and practicing his balance. He has done a few steps for Mary before, maybe 5, but by the end it was more of a dive than a walk. Then last night he put the pieces together and has begun to walk more and with more confidence. Here we have a short video of a very proud little walker. As I said this is now the beginning of the end. He will almost never stop now. This summer soccer and then this fall someone is getting ice skates.

Bike ride

This weekend when we were home, and since it was great weather ( compared to last weeks snow, FYI it snowed in Eugene as well). We had to get out. So we took the maiden voyage with Jackson in his/my/our Burley trailer, we got the Solo ( narrower and just fine for one, still enough cargo room). This is a Birthday present I got from Mary. After which I immediately went out and got Jackson a helmet. So, now four months later as the weather has gotten better we got to go for a spin. I have done two practice runs with trailer but no cargo ( Jackson) to see how it handled. It works fine. We have some pictures from the trip and then the destination of the park. There are already videos up of him playing on the slide and swings. It was easy two miles over, Jackson fell asleep on the way there. He was awake and hungry on the way home. But he made it home and we had dinner. If he sleeps like this again, I can use him for my training rides along the Eugene bike path for a bit more distances. I am looking forward to doing some more trips with him. We are going to take it with us one of these trips to Seattle. I really want to explore the Burke Gilman Trail (part of it, not all of it, yet). So as they say in this cult "keep the rubber side down".

Video update

This weekend I spent a lot of time coping our videos off of the camera. Therefore there is a huge collection of video from the past month. Here they are in some attempt of chronological order (warning some of these are quite mundane, but still fun):
having lunch, March 30th, 2008,
playing with a door, March 30th, 2008,
playing with a phone, March 30th, 2008.

And then into April:
walking, April 5th, 2008,
More walking, April 5th, 2008,
crazy baby, April 6th, 2008,
Birth to Three "Painting", April 13th, 2008,
playing on the lawn, April 13th, 2008,
more lawn, April 13th, 2008,
Seattle Doors, April 22nd, 2008,
rock, April 24th, 2008,
walking, April 25th, 2008,
rock, April 26th, 2008.

We went to the park this weekend and Jackson really enjoyed himself:
Slide, April 27th, 2008,
More slide, April 27th, 2008,
More, more slide, April 27th, 2008,
More, more, more slide, April 27th, 2008,
Swinging, April 27th, 2008,
More swinging, April 27th, 2008.

This should help everyone get their fix for the next few days.

Jackson 11 months

Time sure does fly. Jackson is getting so big and so mobile. He has gone from crawling to walking a little to now four or five steps on his own. He has good balance. He can walk on our front lawn, which is somewhat uneven and he does okay. We have a lot of pics from the last week. We have Jackson dressed up like Darren (my graduate advisor, he would wear long Hawaiian shirts over long sleeve T-shirts). Last weekend we went to Seattle. The weather was a tad unusual, there was snow, sleet, rain and then blue skies. We have some proof of the snow. One of the reasons for the trip was Jackson's bebo and great aunt had their birthday party. I was sick that day but Mary did get some nice pictures. I was feeling better the next day for a trip to the park. We also have some pictures of Jackson playing around the house in Seattle. Then some of him down at home walking on the lawn. Most of these events got its own picture in the weekly up date. I know that those are now less than a week apart. But there are so many good pictures, and it helps to show the progression.

Busy weekend

This has been a busy weekend for us. We got some house projects done and more started. This last week we had a new dishwasher installed. I know crazy fun. We have some picture from this weekends more domestic and mundane activities. Jackson and us at home on Sat.; Birth to Three support group and some of just Jackson at Birth to Three all from Sunday. I have not yet updated the weekly pics, soon. ( maybe not tonight I have group meeting.)

Walking and the house

This weekend Jackson took his first steps while holding hands. Then he took two steps from the block station to the couch. Yesterday we got three steps from the couch to his mom. He is so proud of himself. We have videos that will get posted later. But for now we have some picture: March 29th, of Breakfast in bed; April 4th playing with Gram and Bebo; and then playing with tools on April 5th. I will get house picture put up as well. But we have moved plants and put in a rain barrel. Then this last weekend we switched out the bathroom and hall lights as well as all three from the kitchen. Some parts were easy and others were not. I will get those pictures up as well. And as always the weekly update. Till later.

Jackson 306 Days

It has been a busy few weeks for us. This last week was Easter and Gram and Bebo came down from Seattle for the weekend. Jackson had fun with them. We have been having lots of work done on the house. We have a contractor that has replace the roof of the car port and it looks great. And the best part is it does not leak. So the more important part is Jackson: Pictures from the last week; the weekly update pictures; and some videos: jumping in his crib (02/15), playing the "piano" (02/16), getting tickled (02/22), crawling (02/23), exploring in the house (03/15) and peek-a-boo with Gram (03/22). I will get pictures up of our home improvements. The dogs did decide to get in and help. They ripped up the carpet in Jackson's room/office, so we had to finish the job.

Jackson 296 days

Jackson is now on his third ear infection of the season. He is back on his medicine and is now doing much better, happier, hungry and with good color. With spring here we have been able to get outside, and no longer just for walks with him bundled up. This last weekend we (Mary and I) got to go out on Sat. It was great to be social and see other adults. We went to a chili cook off from my lab, then to a party at one of Mary's co-workers. Mary won the non-meat division at the chili contest. So we have some great pictures from the last few days. We have some spring pictures, pictures of Jackson outside, our Chili cook off and then some pictures from yesterday with Jackson outside. Then we have our weekly update pictures, he is growing so fast.

Jackson 290 day

Jackson is getting so mobile. He crawls fast. Pulls himself up on all sorts of things. It has now gotten to the point where he has the strength, he just needs the slight extra support as he raised and lowered himself without a handle. As seen from him on the window. We have some new pics from the week. Jackson eating, then we had what looked a hummingbird fight outside, and then Mary has gotten Jackson a play piano. ( this one above I call "Hello, Detroit! Are you ready to Rock?") He loves it, as seen from the still pics. We have video which I will get put up later. It looks like he is over the last cold. Which means the next one is right around the corner, or already here. We have also updated his weekly picture page.

Jackson 281 days

As always we have been busy. But here are some pictures from the last weeks events. We have some pics from last weekend when Gram, Bebo and Uncle Mike came down from Seattle and then some from Jackson's wild bath last night. Then we have a few pictures from this weekends Birth to Three gathering. We were very light on attendance. A lot of people and kids are sick. Jackson is still getting over his ear problem. We have a new picture ( as seen on the left ) in his weekly update. Jackson is doing well, he had a Dr. appointment yesterday and was great. It helped that there were no shots.

Jackson 270 Days

We have been busy, sick and negligent in our web duties. We have been taking pictures and videos, I have just not put them up on the "intertubes" as fast as I should have been. But hopefully without much more ado here they are: First some still pictures. Feb 3rd, Jackson around the house, eating and playing. And Feb. 9th Jackson "talking" on the phone to his Gram. He definitely knows that it is her and he sure lights up. To add to this set we have the weekly update: New update. And we have a whole set of videos. Feb 2nd, Crawling: video 1, and video 2, video 3 and finally video 5. We also have a video of playing in the tub on the 2nd. Feb 6th, of hide and seek with Mary, crawling video 1 and crawling 2. Then Jackson rocking himself in the chair on the 10th. I will try to work on more of the smaller updates than these huge ones. But no promises.

Video update

Yesterday was busy; we had swim lessons and we played at home. We have lots of videos to show. First of all the little digital camera case works great. (you saw the sills last week of swimming) So I changed the camera settings to take movies. They are short 10 to 15 seconds each, but they show the swimming. And I was surprised to hear that it picks up sound well despite the water proof case. So here are swimming videos: Video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4 and video 5. Then while at home we used the larger (real video camera) to film Jackson. This first video is him playing with the electronic drum sticks Mary got him. This second video is him playing with a book. I think that he says something there, but I can't quite make it out. (Mary was saying she didn't hear it, but now that I have AV proof she has changed her mind and agreed with me.) So we are looking for confirmation of the word. Technically this is not the first word he has said, just the first recording (I have heard "mama" before). Then the third video is him "crawling" we did get more moving early, but I was too slow with the camera. But this is still a good video.

Snow day

Monday was a snow day. Jackson's day care follows the Eugene school district (now we know) and they were closed on Monday because of the blizzard...cough, 4 inches, cough...that rolled through on Sunday. We tried to take him to day care but there was no one there. And when Mary got into her office her boss was in to call people to tell them not to come in. So Mary got a snow day as well with Jackson. But the very sad part was that the pool was also closed, so, there where no swim lessons. Jackson is for sure over his cold as he is back to his regular appetite. Today he started in a new room at day care. He has moved up from infants and is now in "wobblers", which are not quite toddlers. He has been visiting there for the past few days and gets along there as well. Today we each saw him crawl, independently. So neither will confirm the others observations, but we both saw it. He will be a bigger handful soon. And then today he got veggies and noodles from soup. He seems to like them and todays treat were gold fish crackers. Good day and hopefully the schools will not be closed tomorrow so we can have swim practice. But there was some more snow this evening. EVERYONE PANIC....we will see.

Today is 251 days (major updating)

Thanks for all the well wishes for us to get better. It seems to have worked we are all doing much better ( as you will see for the following posting). I do have some pictures from last week when were are all sick. ( not of us being sick, or anything like that) Jackson's bebo was down last week ( just by luck) when we were all sick. He did get to spend some time with Jackson in between...outbursts (shall we say). It was very helpful to have someone else there to help us, we just hope we did not get him sick. Then on Wednesday we skipped swimming just to have some more rest ( we will make it later, FYI another lesson tomorrow) but Jackson did get to take a bath, with a special treat of bubbles. Thursday was our last "Birth to Three" of the infant set, in May or June we start the "Wonderful Ones". Then today it started snowing some time between 4AM and 5AM and we end up with about four inches of snow. We also have a few pictures from us hanging out this morning. The snow made things difficult as we hosted a baby shower for one of my co-workers and his wife. We had a great showing except for our boss. ( he is from Texas and his wife is from Florida, and they don't like to drive in the snow.) But the rest of us had fun, games were cleaner and less disgusting than before. Back to Jackson: We had some fun and used the video camera today for Jackson: We have what Jackson would call Christmas again - video 1 (or we call it playing with paper); Mary tickling Jackson - video 2; Random shots of snow and birds - video 3; and just a mundane clip we like to call "second breakfast with Jackson" - video 4. ( you can see the snow falling in the background and see how easily he gets distracted) Then as always we have an update of the weekly pictures. This should work for a while. I will get more from swimming tomorrow. TTFN.

sickness

This was very gross weekend as we all got sick. Jackson has been ill most of last week, there has been plenty of vomit. Then on Saturday Mary go sick (I mean sick), she started to feel better on Sunday. That afternoon we took him to the urgent care clinic to get him checked out. The Dr. said that a virus has been going around but we should just keep him hydrated and keep an eye on him. While we were there, I started to feel ill. I knew that I would be sick by the end of the day. And I was. I was sick on Sunday, and was trying to get better yesterday. Today we are all still sick. Mary is at home with Jackson and took him in to the regular Dr. for another visit. He has stopped vomiting and is doing better with liquids, and he seems happier.

Jackson 240 days

As usual we were too busy and tired to get a posting up. But there is only so long I can use that excuse. Last week Jackson started day care. It was better that I expected, no tantrum or crying or hysterics. Jackson did well too when we left. (didn't see that joke coming did you?) That was a good three days. Then last week we had another Birth to Three class. Everyone is getting so big and they all can sit up. It is getting more fun to see their interactions with each other. On Monday of that week we started swim classes. It is only 30 min, the goal is just to get him in the water and having fun. And he does love to splash. He had fun and we had fun. There are six sessions, Mon. & Weds for three weeks. Then later that week he got a cold ( which he is still getting over) (FYI: babies get 8-10 colds a season, so odds are that kid is sick. Also, that is a lot of snot, trust us.) This last weekend was great. We went up to Portland for the day to visit some family and do some shopping. Jackson got to see two of his cousins, who gave him many more hand me downs. I got a book from my Aunt Barb (I think that she said the book was for Jackson, maybe) titled "Z is for Zamboni, A Hockey Alphabet". Jackson is almost over his cold. Today we went for out fourth swim lesson. I got a water proof case four our small digital camera, and it got it maiden voyage. There are some excellent pictures. Then as with any long delay there is more than one addition to the weekly update pictures. Till next time, I will try not to make it so far between.

Jackson update

This past week has been busy. Jackson is getting so big. He really enjoyed Christmas, his favorite part was the paper. And oh so many things to eat. We have quite a few pictures here from the past few days: December 25th (around the house), December 26th (still around the house), December 28th (yes, around the house) and December 31st (still at home). We even have a small video of him beginning tor crawl, though right now it more of a rock and he only moves backwards. But he does know that he can barrel roll to go sideways to get away from us or closer to a dog (who then realizes that she is being "chased" and then moves out of arm reach. Then the cycle continues.). We have updated his progression with some new pictures here as well: see Jackson grow. We have signed up for Parent/baby "swim" lessons starting next week. I am so excited. It will be so much fun. Today was his first day of day care. He fared better than us. He didn't sleep as well as normal so we will see how the night goes.