Great Grama & Grampa Wilson

My Grama & Grampa Wilson were in town this past week for my cousin's wedding reception. They got to meet Jackson for the first time! We had fun getting together with them a couple times to visit, and we'll get to see them again in two weeks for the Wilson family reunion in Canada.

Jackson meeting his Great Grama & Grampa Wilson for the first time. He looks a little unsure of what's going on in this picture, but he really did like them :)
Grama Wilson came over to our place to visit on Tuesday. You can see here that he really did like her!

And here he is with his Great Grampa.

And with my Aunt Ada during dinner on Sunday

Just a picture of us from the wedding reception that I thought turned out well... Nice background though, eh?

Sunday evening we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner and visiting. It's always fun to get together with them. They feel just like family to me!

The boys had a rousing game of wedding ring wars, spinning blowing, and combating to see whose ring could outlast the others.

We've got a family tradition that was started by my grandparents when their kids were little that has been carried on to future generations. We have a book (In my family, it's referred to as "THE book") where all the funny, cute, and often embarrassing things we say are recorded. It's a sure way to get some good laughs when you get out the book. Somehow the topic came up, so Suzzie got their family's book and we had fun reading some of the entries. It's definitely a tradition I want to carry on with my family.

Hooray for families!

10 months

This past week whenever people have asked how old Jackson is, I've said "Almost 10 months" or "He'll be 10 months next week" and a lot of them have responded with, "So he's almost a year old." Noooo! I cannot have an almost one year old! I'm sure it'll be here before I know it. I confess I have already been contemplating his birthday cake. But we've still got two months to go, people.

Jackson really is getting more and more fun every day, and I love him more and more all the time. I confess, when he was born I didn't just ooze love for this little person who was now mine. In those first days, weeks, and months, I liked him and I guess I loved him, but I didn't totally feel that motherly love and attachment that I suppose I had kind of expected. I've got it now though. I'm not exactly sure when it came or where it came from, but I've got it. I really do love this little person of mine. Wow, that was a tangent.

At ten months Jackson:
-Is crawling all over the place
-Pulls himself up to his knees but can't really pull up to standing by himself-Stops crawling and sits up on his knees
-Is eating a lot more big people food, cut up into baby-sized bites
-Loves cottage cheese and has it almost every day with his lunch
-Isn't sleeping as well as he was. Somehow we've gotten out of the habit of putting him down when he was awake...so we are having to start over with crying it out. It was 45 minutes of crying last night, and 20 tonight.
-Still usually takes 2 naps a day, sometimes 3 sometimes 1-Has 8 teeth now! 4 on top and 4 on bottom
-Started playing the drop-everything-on-the-floor-over-and-over-and-over game. It's kinda cute at first, but can get pretty old as I'm sure everyone knows.
-Says "Ohh!" when he drops stuff. I don't know if this is the beginnings of "uh-oh" or just his own word.
-His favorite toys aren't toys---pots, bowls, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, cell phones...those are the things he wants to play with.-I know it's probably too early to really tell how he'll end up, but he definitely favors his left hand for eating & playing with things
-Loves to laugh and play
-Of course, he is a cute and sweet as ever!

Life is an adventure

Jackson's new crawling skills have opened up a whole new world of adventure for this little guy...and a whole new world of sweeping the kitchen floor 4 times a day for me. He's really taken off in the two weeks that he's been crawling. It's been so fun to see him learn new things. He's been discovering new corners of the house that he never really experienced when he couldn't get there on his own.

His play mat of yester-month can turn into a little tunnel thing for crawling through. When I got it (0ff craigslist) I thought we probably wouldn't really get much use out of it as a tunnel, but I was wrong! I think he's played with it more now than he did before.
As you can see, he likes to sit under it!
He's also discovering that he can get around and pull himself up (at least partially) to all sorts of new toys.
And now he cleans up the floor after himself when he's done eating. He kept trying to get that cheerio that was under his seat, but the silly bar on the chair was in the way. He crawls under the table in our family room and will just sit there. He also likes to sit right under the edge and repeatedly hit his head on the wood. He must have a hard head!
Here he is checking out under his crib for any soothers that fell down the night before. I was reaching one that was against the wall and then I looked over and there was a Jackson under there with me. He thought that was pretty funny.

The Ultimate Compliment

From Rushton, age 4:
"Aunt Natalie, you're really good at wiping bums."
...gee, thanks.