Love You Forever

If you haven't read this book yet, then I highly recommend it.  The book follows a mother and her little boy through the years and the mother continually sings to her son while he is asleep:  

"I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living

my baby you'll be."

Even before I had my own little baby, I always teared-up reading this book at the end.  (I won't spoil the ending for you if you haven't read it, yet.)  And I never had trouble understanding the following pictures and imagining myself sneaking into my baby's room to hold him while he was sleeping:

  

But, I never quite understood the part of the mom wanting to hold her teenage or grown-up son while he slept:

Now I get it, though.  Seeing as Jackson is now the size and weight of an average eight-month-old at the local playgroup, and he just turned three-months-old on Monday, I won't be able to pick him up into his adolescent years like the mom in the story.  But what mom could?  I understand this picture now and that it was never meant to be literal.  

My love for Jackson will keep growing, as he grows.  No matter how much I want to, I won't always be able to hold my little boy on my lap while he sleeps, but hopefully he will feel my love enveloping him like a hug no matter how old he is or where he goes in life.  

There are some nights that I can't sleep and when that happens, I do take the chance to steal little moments of holding Jackson, watch him sleep, and tell him, "I'll love you forever."

Posing perfectly

Sporting his Cleveland Indians gear

Playing piano for the first time and actually looking at the notes on the page!

Developmental updates:  It's been a big week for Jackson as far as growing goes.  He's been eating and sleeping as much as he did during the last growth spurt.  Jackson is trying harder than ever to sit up.  He lifts his head and the top half of his chest, but needs to grab onto our hands for the rest.  When he does sit-up with our help, he has a very proud look of accomplishment on his face.  Jackson can get himself rocking in his rocking chair on his own by kicking his feet.  His favourite new snack is his hand.  And he has a new favourite toy:  the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Smart Puppy.  He talks to, laughs and smiles at, and reaches for this toy so it's clearly a big hit.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Happy New Year!

Jackson had a great first Christmas and it was definitely more fun for Lee and I with a baby around with whom we could share all of our Christmas spirit!  He received so many clothes, bibs, books, toys, and teething rings (which I need to stop referring to as "chew toys").  We are very thankful for all of the toys under the tree and although Jackson may not fully realise how much he is loved and how generous people were to him, he will have so much fun with his new things and he will learn new skills which will inevitably help him in the future.  The different sizes of clothes are also helpful because even though Jackson is nearly three months old, he is wearing clothes labelled to fit babies up to nine months!  He is a very tall little baby.

This week, Jackson unofficially weighs 16 pounds and is unofficially 2 feet 1 inch tall.  I say this because although the health centre was supposed to be open on Tuesday from 1:30 to 3 P.M. for baby weighing, the facility's parking lot was padlocked shut and no cars were in sight--except for ours and two others, which belonged to parents who were also there for a baby weigh-in.  This was the only time during this New Year week that the health centre was supposed to be open, but I wasn't going to let that get me down.  When we got home, we used an unorthodox method of weighing Jackson (a handheld luggage scale combined with a baby carrier).  It seemed to work just fine for this particular situation.

Yesterday, Lee and I ventured out at different times to get our hair cut and when we came home, Jackson whimpered a little bit and refused to look us in the eye for a few hours.  As far as he's concerned, he has new parents, but he's learning to like us again.

I am very excited to see what the new year brings for our little family.  2016 will bring lots of firsts:  Jackson will be eating solid foods, crawling, sitting, teething, talking, meeting the Carpenter family, going to the beach, and starting nursery school.  I am going to get my UK driving licence by the time I go back to work.  Lee doesn't have any official plans for 2016, but he always manages to find a project to work towards that is new and exciting.  He did mention that he wants to go on road trips and explore more of England that he hasn't discovered yet, so that will be fun for all of us!

We hope you all have a very Happy New Year!

Singing Jingle Bells and playing with musical instruments

Holding his favourite stuffed animal

Mastering "Tummy Time"

Falling asleep by the fire on Christmas Eve

"Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!"

Pulling up into a sitting position...

...and loving it!

Where's Jackson?

Someone is very pleased with his presents!

Retiring after a long day of opening presents and visiting with family

Developmental updates:  moves eyes smoothly when following an object, can move into a standing position while holding onto my fingers from a laying-down or sitting position, uses both feet at the same time to jump in his jumperoo but mostly alternates his feet (the jumperoo had to be stretched up to level 2 to accommodate for his height this week), puts everything in his mouth, shakes a rattle once or twice, and rubs his soft toys along his head and cheeks.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Merry Christmas!

This is a very exciting week for everyone and can also be hectic with all of the Christmas preparations, so I will just give an update on Jackson's developments and spoil you with more cute pictures of what people at church are calling "the best baby."

Jackson can now touch the floor with his tiptoes in his jumperoo and is quite pleased with his jumping skills.  He now grabs toys and pulls them towards his face and also has started sucking on blankets and the ends of toys that he can fit into his mouth.  His smiling and laughter has doubled in the past week--maybe he knows it's Christmas after all?  Jackson's eyes are slightly changing colour and aren't as blue as they used to be.  I imagine he will have brown eyes like Lee and me, but they're in between colours right now and have a greenish-blue hue.  His favourite Christmas book is The Twelve Days of Christmas which is a commitment in and of itself, but he doesn't respond to the song without the pictures to along with it in the book.  With all of his books now, he is staring at the pictures and looking left to right over and over, sometimes laughing, sometimes furrowing his brows, or sometimes smiling at the pictures.  He's starting to blow little bubbles and make clear "oh" sounds.  Lately, he's been hoisting his head up to try and sit, but can't make it unless he's holding onto our hands and then pulls himself quite easily.  Somehow, during the night, he's shifting around in his bed and we discover him at new angles in the morning; so, he's discovering ways of moving.  Jackson has shown affection toward one bunny in particular and he falls asleep holding this toy during his naps.

As always, thank you for reading!  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Showing off his tummy time skills

Eating at Pizza Hut with Mom and Dad, sitting in the high chair.  Also, getting lots of attention from the tables nearby and smiling at the waitress whenever she came around.

Tired after the trip to Speke to eat at Pizza Hut and the long journey in the car

Laughing while watching Daddy dance

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.