He'll always be my baby

No longer considered "infant" or "baby" to the rest of the world, but now Jack is in a whole new category ..."toddler." Yikes! Its an age that brings so many stories: some funny, some embarrassing, and some just completely frustrating.

He really is pretty easy going, but believe me he has his moments for sure. He is in the testing stage. Always having to see how far he can push or how many times he can get away something. He has had his share of spankings and time out so far. And I am sure there will be plenty more.

Each day my baby boy is growing, baby-ness is fading, and he is turning into a little boy. I thought that the first year was so full of change and that the second year wouldn't be that drastic. But oh my, what was I thinking. Our little boy is growing and changing before our eyes. It seemed as if overnight his vocabulary has exploded and he can carry on conversations with us, tell us about his day (in a few short words), and tell us what he wants. Little Peter repeater is always right behind us. Even when you think he isn't listening he confirms he is when he regurgitates the phrase you just said. Thank God it hasn't been anything too bad so far but it makes me stop to think about what I am letting come out of my own mouth.

All along while you think you are the one teaching them they are teaching you. I pray each night for Gods wisdom on how to be the best parent I can be.

His favorite things to do are play ball (still, of course), watch football with his daddy, color, and clean and as always eat.

And yes I said he loves to clean... He asks for a wipe and he will wipe down the tables.  I think my tables in the living room have only been as clean as they are this pregnancy due to Jack.  My energy is definitely lower so some things just haven't been kept up with the same. 

He loves helicopters and airplanes.  He loves to look out the windows for them.  It is his favorite past time in the car too.  If we are outside he always hears them and most of the time can find them. 

Jack is definitely his daddy's son. Most obviously still in [good] looks but in interests too. He just loves sports.

Most Friday nights Jack gets to go to a high school football game with Daddy. He loves it. Jack will even grab the remote and climb up on the couch and say "watch football".

He loves to color. He started Mothers Day Out this September, which he loves! Everyday I ask him what he did in school today, and most of the time he will say "I color". He will say he sang songs if you ask about chapel or played ball if it was a gym day. He loves his teachers, Mrs. Amy & Ms. Stephanie.

Jack is very excited for one of the biggest changes in his life coming soon... He will be a BIG BROTHER! I love how excited he is about his upcoming role. He is obsessed with my ever growing belly. He will bring me the doppler and say "mommy listen, baby's heart." after we listen to the baby then he will put his hands on my belly and say with a surprised look on his face "oh, baby kickin!" He is going to be the sweetest big brother ever.  He loves to "share" with the baby, whether it is his stickers or drink.

In prep for the new baby we decided to keep the nursery the same and give Jackson a cool, new big boy room. He loves his big boy bed.  He has done really good sleeping in there all by himself.  

We had a blast at his 2 year baseball birthday party. 








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Jackson is now 27.3lbs and 33inches tall.  Day to day he is just like any other little boy, he just has to have a "heart tune up" sometimes.  More than likely this next year it will be time for the next open heart surgery.  He goes for an ECHO Dec 10 for further evaluation as to when.  So please say prayers about that for him.

I think it is such an honor to be Jack's mom and get to watch him grow and develop everyday.  He wants to do more and more on his own. And with his "I can, I will, I did!" attitude he is!  I love to see him try something, and when he doesn't get it, he'll say "try again." I hope that his never give up attitude sticks with him forever.  

We are so excited for this next year to watch our little family grow by adding the "final piece to our puzzle."

  Next blog=new baby!!!

19 months and growing....

So amazing to watch Jackson grow each day.  He surprises us everyday with the new things that he is saying and doing.  At his 18 month check up he was 24lbs, still hanging out around the 30%.  His vocabulary is growing each day. He has about 25-30 words now.  He carries on extensive conversations that make us laugh.  He knows what he is saying but we can't quite make it all out yet.

He can say almost all of his family's names. 
Mama- which lately is Mommy.  Melts my heart
Dad and sometimes Daddy
"mimnie and Mimnie" for his dogs Mini and Mia
Gigi and Pops. He always has to draw out Poooooopppppsss.
"Unca B" and Aunt Desi. Surprisingly he can say Desi perfectly.  He is working on Kade. 
He had Aunt Lissa down good for about a week, of course the week she was on vacation.  Now the "s" part sounds more like a "d."  Randy is pretty clear but he doesn't say Uncle with it.
Aunt Lala has been the easiest from the begining and "Unca Gay." funny thing is Clay kept telling my mom she would be called "gay-gay" instead of Gigi, and Jack did for a while, but now the name stuck for him.
He can say Poppy but most of the time he choses to call him Papa, which Poppy likes too since that is what his dad was called and he always says how much Jackson reminds him of his dad. 
Peachy is getting clearer and clearer everytime he says it.
Aunt Courtney and Uncle Justin are tough ones.  He tries but not quite there yet.  We need nick names for them.  He calls my best friend Courtney "Co-Co" So we need something else.  Suggestions???
Emma and Addison or "Adda"

His absolute favorite thing to do lately is (still) play ball.  Now he is not only catching and throwing but also hitting a ball thrown to him or off a tee, and then he runs around the house like he is running the bases.  It is amazing to watch his eye coordination as he concentrates on the ball being thrown to him to make contact.  He can hit it with a good bit of force most of the time too. 

Summer time has been a blast with him so far this year. Last year he wasn't quite mobile so not too much to do with him. This month marks a year ago (June 29) for his first surgery.  Last month, Jack had a cardiac cath procedure done to balloon the conduit he had placed last year. We learned after this procedure that it may still be possible to repeat the ballon/stent if needed to prolong the time before another open heart surgery is needed.  We liked that news!  It made us laugh when the doctor was giving us the post op instructions when he said to keep Jack's activity low key.  I asked "what does that mean? He is a pretty active boy, even for a kid without a heart defect." He said just his normal activity is fine.  Good thing, cause I don't know how you tell an 18month old to sit and relax.  So...this summer we have had fun.

Our life with a 15 month old...

... is a busy one!

Definitely gotta be on our toes all day long now with this inquisitive, fun, loving, walking 15 month old.  Jack started walking at 14 months, and now after a month he has pretty much mastered his new skill. 


He is into everything around the house.  We decided it was time to put locks on the cabinets.  It seemed better to eliminate the reason we are telling him "no" than to sound like a broken record all day.  And why set him up to be able to get into something he shouldn't?  Cabinets with glass pot lids seem like really fun "toys" to a little boy that loves to throw everything!  We put new knobs on the cabinets so we could use the outside locks and just have them temporarily (I hope).  Now that the locks are on there he doesn't even try to get into them.  It did make me laugh to find toys in the tupperware cabinet, or his snack bowl, or cup, or even a shoe in with the pots and pans.  It's just  little reminders throughout the day of the amazing little boy we have in our lives.



This would be the mischievous Jack getting into my desk drawers, that he knows not to be in.  He will bring me a pen and shake his head no-no.  Such a little stinker.

 Jack loves to be involved in everything we do.  He is my little helper around the house.  He helps me do the laundry.  I hand him clothes from the washer and he puts them in the dryer.  I have to check the dryer before starting it though to make sure there are no extras, lol. One day I was in the kitchen and kept hearing a "thud" sound.  I went to check the dryer to find one of those 12" rubber kick balls.  It was pretty hot, I am surprised it didn't pop!  He will also take the clothes from the dryer and put them in the basket, and just like his momma, he loves the smell of clean laundry.  He smells the clothes out of the dryer and says "mmm."  When I vacuum I have to give him the extension piece and he uses that to vacuum with me. I can only hope that this "clean" little boy will always be clean and be my little happy, eager helper.

I am loving this next stage of development.  Each stage has had its special point: newborn, was the ever so special bonding and snuggle time, then to infancy when his eyes were opening to the world around him and learning to do so many things like sitting and crawling, and now this age when he's not quite little baby (although, he'll always be my baby, no matter how big he is) but he is growing into this little boy who is just a little sponge, trying to what we do and learn to speak.  It really makes you sit back and evaluate your own self, not just the things you say but how you say them.  At this age his little mind is being molded.  I pray each day that God would lead us and direct us on how to raise Jackson to be the man God has called him to be.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful parents that we can follow their examples of both marriage and parenting. 

Jack has always had such a loving personality.  I am thankful for a husband that loves me and can teach Jack what it means to love a woman and how to treat her, so that one day when that special woman comes along for him, he will know how to love her.

One of my very favorite things Jack does is he gives "awws."  Really, its a hug but it is Jack's special thing. He will lay his head on your shoulder and say "aww."  I am sure he learned it from the many times when he was a baby, laying his head on our shoulders and we would say "awww, I love you!"  Now in his simple little language, he will say, "momma... aww."  Melts my heart!

He is trying to say some things here and there.  Most of it still, we know what he means but it's not quite English yet. He says:  Momma, Dad, dog, bye-bye, nigh-nigh (night-night), ball, nack (snack), ba-ba (more please, or I want to eat...way off I know, but that's what it means.  It stemmed from us teaching him sign language to say "more"), bath, on, go and maybe a few more that I just can't think of right now.  He loves to make sounds for a lot of things too. He can do animal sounds for cow, horse, dog, cat, and sheep.  If you tell him car, he says "vroom."

He loves music and loves to dance!  Anytime he hears music come on he starts dancing.  His favorite song to dance to: Party Rock on the commercial with the hampsters dancing for the Kia Soul.

His favorite toy is still the ball.  He is constantly throwing them all over the house.  He has quite the throw too.  He really shocks us sometimes how hard and far he can throw the ball. He has a hard ball baseball, from his first Astros game, that I recently had to put up because I was scared it was going to go through the french doors in his playroom.  Speaking of, because of all his toys all over the house, we had to revamp our set up.  We never used our dining room, and quite frankly I think if we did have a dining table it would rarely get use. We are always in the kitchen. So, the dining room is now the study, and the study is now the "playroom."  All Jacks toys officially have a home, although they are always throughout the house still, at least they have somewhere to go when we clean up. It's nice because it is its own room but we can see him from the kitchen and living room.  He loves it too.  In the mornings he will knock on the door for me to open it so he can go play with his toys.

singing with Elmo

slam dunk

You can hardly see his scar

His favorite food is, well everything.  The child can eat! I think he eats as much as we do.  At least he is a fairly healthy eater.  We are trying to train him to have a healthy diet.  Daddy and I have a sweet tooth.  If we ate like Jack we would be in good shape, haha. He loves to try to feed himself with a fork and spoon.  Sometimes he is successful, but most of the time he will hold the utensil in one hand and pick up the food with the other. End result: food in the mouth, that is all that matters.



The boy loves yogurt

Jack went to his first (of many, I am sure) Rockets game.  He loved the music and all the excitement.

His 15 month check up at the pediatrician, he was 24lbs and 28inches tall.  He is a healthy little boy, doing everything a 15 month old should.  He had a good check up with the cardiologist as well.  He will go back in March for a sedated ECHO this time.  Dr Quinones said he looks good, but in order to get good pictures of his heart on ultrasound we should give him some sedation.  Not that easy to tell a little boy that just learned to walk, to sit, and sit still for 15 minutes.  That's an eternity for him. He'll get a little Versed.  He'll just get an extra good nap that day.  So please just say a little pray for a good report, for a strong healthy conduit that will last.  His surgeon said at this age it is typical for a conduit to last 3-7 years.  There are a lot of factors that play into how long it lasts, but we pray for the full length of 7 years from this conduit!

Just a few more pictures...

wonder how he learned this...

he loves to sit at the desk and play