Sunday, July 19, 2009
Flowers from the hike
Of course I had to stop and take pictures of the flowers along the way on our hike. I only had my little point & shoot camera, so I couldn't get exactly what I wanted, but it's the best I could do. Maybe some day I'll have a digital SLR ...my birthday is coming up, if anyone is looking for a gift for me...
Hike to Stewart Falls
Last Saturday we took a hike up to Stewart Falls. We just decided to do it the day before and I didn't check the weather before we went...fortunately I grabbed the umbrella from the car before we took off. By the time we got up to the falls, it was pouring rain! It stopped by the time we headed down again. We had fun and it was great to have a little exercise in my otherwise sedentary life. Thanks to Becky for letting us borrow the baby backpack!
A happy little guy enjoying the ride...
Jackson fell asleep on the way down
And by the time we were to the bottom, he had disappeared into the backpack.
A happy little guy enjoying the ride...
Jackson fell asleep on the way down
And by the time we were to the bottom, he had disappeared into the backpack.
Friday, July 10, 2009
11 months
Eleven months...wowza.
My little baby is really turning into a little boy! He has grown up and changed so much in this past month it is just hard to believe! It is so fun to watch him learn and change. It just keeps getting better and better!
At 11 months, Jackson:
-crawls all over the place, and can be really fast if he wants to. If he is in the family room and I start using the little push carpet sweeper thing on the kitchen rug, he hears it and comes crawling just as fast as he can to try and get it.
-he climbs. I can't open the dishwasher with him in the kitchen or this happens:
-He's learning how to open & close drawers, cupboards, and doors. He's pinched his fingers twice so far. I'm not sure what to do about locks for drawers and cupboards where rubber bands won't work to keep them closed. We can't really install those annoying little locks on the insides because these aren't our cupboards. Suggestions?
He's turning into a little copy cat and it is so cute. He's also learning what things are for...He'll put my cell phone up to my face for me to talk. We were on skype with my parents and Jackson picked up the mouse and held it to his face like it was a phone. When his friend Luke was over the other day, Luke was finished with his bottle and put it down, so Jackson picked it up, crawled over to Luke, and tried to put it back in his mouth (why can't you put your own bottle in your own mouth then, Jackson?)
Here he is with his friend Luke Holdaway, who was visiting (with his mom & dad) from Texas.
-Jackson clearly says "Daddy" and has connected it with Jack. When Jack walks in the room Jackson will get so excited and say, "Da-ddy! Da-ddy! Da-ddy!" I need to get it on video!
-He also says "Uh oh!" pretty clearly too. He kind of copies the intonation of "thank you" though he doesn't really say the words.
-He likes music. He'll "sing" along at church or with us. The other day Jack's dad was vacuuming and came near Jackson and then Jackson started singing along at the same pitch as the vacuum. Yes, my child is gifted; he can sing along to the vacuum cleaner.
He eats most of we're eating. He'd rather eat big people food than baby food usually. He still loves baby cereal and has it 3ish times a day, but doesn't eat baby food as often.
He tends to have a favorite new food and will eat lots of it for two or three days and then will burn out on it and move on to something new.
Jackson likes to stack things, put lids on & off of containers, and put things in & out of baskets. While we were at my grandparent's house, he got jars of baby food out of his diaper bag and stacked three jars up all by himself, without anyone showing him how or coaxing him to do it. It's time for us to buy some blocks!
Jackson is finally pulling himself up to standing by himself. He's also now walking while holding onto our hands and is cruising a little bit. (for those unfamiliar with baby lingo, that means walking while holding onto furniture) I think walking on his own is still a fair ways off.
He's doing better at taking a bottle/sippy cup, though he doesn't hold it himself yet. He doesn't drink very much at a time either, but at least he knows it's to dring now. Here, I set the bottle on his tray and apparently he wanted a drink because he was leaning towards it with an open mouth, but didn't get that he had to pick it up and put it in his mouth. I helped him out.
Sleeping...well...I don't really know what's going on there. Some days are ok, some are not. It's still a struggle, but we're working on it. I love to go into his room and peek at him before I go to bed. This is often how I find him. It's so cute I just want to climb in his bed and snuggle him to pieces!
He can be a silly, silly boy. He loves to play peek-a-boo, laugh, and play. We sure love him!
My little baby is really turning into a little boy! He has grown up and changed so much in this past month it is just hard to believe! It is so fun to watch him learn and change. It just keeps getting better and better!
At 11 months, Jackson:-crawls all over the place, and can be really fast if he wants to. If he is in the family room and I start using the little push carpet sweeper thing on the kitchen rug, he hears it and comes crawling just as fast as he can to try and get it.
-he climbs. I can't open the dishwasher with him in the kitchen or this happens:
-He's learning how to open & close drawers, cupboards, and doors. He's pinched his fingers twice so far. I'm not sure what to do about locks for drawers and cupboards where rubber bands won't work to keep them closed. We can't really install those annoying little locks on the insides because these aren't our cupboards. Suggestions?
He's turning into a little copy cat and it is so cute. He's also learning what things are for...He'll put my cell phone up to my face for me to talk. We were on skype with my parents and Jackson picked up the mouse and held it to his face like it was a phone. When his friend Luke was over the other day, Luke was finished with his bottle and put it down, so Jackson picked it up, crawled over to Luke, and tried to put it back in his mouth (why can't you put your own bottle in your own mouth then, Jackson?)Here he is with his friend Luke Holdaway, who was visiting (with his mom & dad) from Texas.
-Jackson clearly says "Daddy" and has connected it with Jack. When Jack walks in the room Jackson will get so excited and say, "Da-ddy! Da-ddy! Da-ddy!" I need to get it on video!
-He also says "Uh oh!" pretty clearly too. He kind of copies the intonation of "thank you" though he doesn't really say the words.
-He likes music. He'll "sing" along at church or with us. The other day Jack's dad was vacuuming and came near Jackson and then Jackson started singing along at the same pitch as the vacuum. Yes, my child is gifted; he can sing along to the vacuum cleaner.
He eats most of we're eating. He'd rather eat big people food than baby food usually. He still loves baby cereal and has it 3ish times a day, but doesn't eat baby food as often.He tends to have a favorite new food and will eat lots of it for two or three days and then will burn out on it and move on to something new.
Jackson likes to stack things, put lids on & off of containers, and put things in & out of baskets. While we were at my grandparent's house, he got jars of baby food out of his diaper bag and stacked three jars up all by himself, without anyone showing him how or coaxing him to do it. It's time for us to buy some blocks!
Jackson is finally pulling himself up to standing by himself. He's also now walking while holding onto our hands and is cruising a little bit. (for those unfamiliar with baby lingo, that means walking while holding onto furniture) I think walking on his own is still a fair ways off.He's doing better at taking a bottle/sippy cup, though he doesn't hold it himself yet. He doesn't drink very much at a time either, but at least he knows it's to dring now. Here, I set the bottle on his tray and apparently he wanted a drink because he was leaning towards it with an open mouth, but didn't get that he had to pick it up and put it in his mouth. I helped him out.
Sleeping...well...I don't really know what's going on there. Some days are ok, some are not. It's still a struggle, but we're working on it. I love to go into his room and peek at him before I go to bed. This is often how I find him. It's so cute I just want to climb in his bed and snuggle him to pieces!
He can be a silly, silly boy. He loves to play peek-a-boo, laugh, and play. We sure love him!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Independence Day Celebrations
Happy Fourth of July! We had a fun day celebrating with the West family. Jordan & I made potato salad and red, white, & blue jello to take to the party. I wish I got a picture of the jello before it was demolished. Oh well.We went to my aunt & uncle's house in Centerville where we ...
Followed around a crawling baby:
Played water balloon volleyball. I was on the winning team, of course.
Ate a great dinner
Sat around & visited with everyone
(Jackson with my cousin's baby, Luke)
And did fireworks, sparklers, and homemade bombs---I mean fireworks.
It was a lot of fun to see my extended family and to play! I did miss seeing a big fireworks show, but it was worth it to spend time with family.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
O Canada, part one
We went to Ontario, Canada, from June 23-30 for a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. The actual reunion was only three days (and we all agreed that was too short!)... more on that to come. But we got to spend a few days before and after with family and had a great time.
We flew into Detroit (ugliest, dirtiest, ghettoest city, by the way) and met my family there, rented a car, and drove up to my grama & grampa's house in St. Thomas, Ont.
Jack was really excited to go to Canada for the first time. In fact, he won the prestigious Most-excited-to-be-in-Canada award at family reunion and was awarded a moose-topped pencil. Lucky boy. I've been tons of times but was really excited to get to use my newly required passport and was really looking forward to getting my first stamp in it. But guess what!?! They didn't even stamp it! I came really close to asking the guy to, but sometimes it isn't a good idea to make too big of a scene at the border so I didn't. I did request that we turn back around and cross again in hopes that the next border guy would stamp it, but we didn't.
Jackson did great on the plane. On the way there he slept for the entire first flight and then just played for the second flight. He sure makes a lot of friends where ever he goes. He had fun playing peek-a-boo with the people behind us and down the aisle.
It's been 7 months since most of my family has seen Jackson and needless to say, he's changed a lot in that time! It was so fun to watch them play with him and get to know him again. Here we are after we arrived at the airport, waiting for my aunt's flight to get in.
I'm missing a lot of pictures that I need to get from my mom's camera so I'll have to fill in some later.
We went to Scoops, a bulk candy store in my grama's town that we always visit when we're there. We each get a toonie ($2 coin) to spend on candy. It's a tradition we all look forward to!
We also went to see Jumbo, a huge statue of an elephant from the Barnum & Bailey Circus that was hit by a train in St. Thomas and has been memorialized there...really it isn't a whole lot to see, but we had to show Jack, Jackson, and Shawn.
We did A LOT of driving on this trip. By the time we returned the rental car, we had driven over 1300 miles in 8 days. Jordan calculated that we drove for more than 24 hours. We saw a whole lot of farm land...
Jackson did pretty well, considering how much time he spent in that car seat. He had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo and other games with whoever was sitting in the back seat with him.
What a cute Uncle Ryan!
The highlight of our pre-reunion trip was definitely going to Niagara Falls. I've been there before, but it's been many years. And this time we went on the Maid of the Mist boat that goes around the base of the falls. It gives you a totally different perspective of it and is so cool (and wet). When you watch the boats go on the little tour from up above, they just disappear into the mist
of the falls. Luckily they give you rain ponchos! They even had a baby-sized one for Jackson :)
Stay tuned for part two of the Canada Saga, when the Shirts family goes to the Wilson reunion!
We flew into Detroit (ugliest, dirtiest, ghettoest city, by the way) and met my family there, rented a car, and drove up to my grama & grampa's house in St. Thomas, Ont.
Jack was really excited to go to Canada for the first time. In fact, he won the prestigious Most-excited-to-be-in-Canada award at family reunion and was awarded a moose-topped pencil. Lucky boy. I've been tons of times but was really excited to get to use my newly required passport and was really looking forward to getting my first stamp in it. But guess what!?! They didn't even stamp it! I came really close to asking the guy to, but sometimes it isn't a good idea to make too big of a scene at the border so I didn't. I did request that we turn back around and cross again in hopes that the next border guy would stamp it, but we didn't.
Jackson did great on the plane. On the way there he slept for the entire first flight and then just played for the second flight. He sure makes a lot of friends where ever he goes. He had fun playing peek-a-boo with the people behind us and down the aisle.
It's been 7 months since most of my family has seen Jackson and needless to say, he's changed a lot in that time! It was so fun to watch them play with him and get to know him again. Here we are after we arrived at the airport, waiting for my aunt's flight to get in.
I'm missing a lot of pictures that I need to get from my mom's camera so I'll have to fill in some later.
We went to Scoops, a bulk candy store in my grama's town that we always visit when we're there. We each get a toonie ($2 coin) to spend on candy. It's a tradition we all look forward to!
We also went to see Jumbo, a huge statue of an elephant from the Barnum & Bailey Circus that was hit by a train in St. Thomas and has been memorialized there...really it isn't a whole lot to see, but we had to show Jack, Jackson, and Shawn.
We did A LOT of driving on this trip. By the time we returned the rental car, we had driven over 1300 miles in 8 days. Jordan calculated that we drove for more than 24 hours. We saw a whole lot of farm land...
Jackson did pretty well, considering how much time he spent in that car seat. He had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo and other games with whoever was sitting in the back seat with him.
What a cute Uncle Ryan!
The highlight of our pre-reunion trip was definitely going to Niagara Falls. I've been there before, but it's been many years. And this time we went on the Maid of the Mist boat that goes around the base of the falls. It gives you a totally different perspective of it and is so cool (and wet). When you watch the boats go on the little tour from up above, they just disappear into the mist
of the falls. Luckily they give you rain ponchos! They even had a baby-sized one for Jackson :)
Stay tuned for part two of the Canada Saga, when the Shirts family goes to the Wilson reunion!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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