WHAT?!...No Way!...3 Months!!

That's right Jackson is three months old today! He's growing so BIG and so strong! I weighed him the other day and he's tipping the scales at almost 15 pounds!! Not only is he growing, but he's become so much more aware of his surroundings and is much more interactive. He spends his days.....

blowing spit bubbles * drooling * squealing and cooing * pushing off of anything I can reach to move backward * sucking on my hands * swinging my hands at toys * SMILING (this isn't so new, I just love it so much and they come all the time now!) * siting up in my bumbo seat *

We've had a busy month! We were involved in some monkey business as Jackson's friend, Jack Weeks' (my friend, Brooke's son) had his 3rd birthday. It was a great time, with cupcakes and ice cream and all the usual festivities. Brooke does such a great job with the kids' birthday parties! The first birthday party, of many I'm sure, Jackson will attend.

We also made a trip to Redmond to visit Grandpa Mark and Grandma Mary. We had a great visit, but boy was it cold!! brrrr! Jackson had the opportunity to meet Miss Teagan. She is six weeks older than him, so it was fun to see what we can look forward to in just a few short weeks! They had a blast together.


We've also started taking Griffin again on Mondays. We are thrilled to be seeing him on a regular basis again and look forward to watching him and Jackson grow and interact. He's such a sweetie, we've really missed him these last few months!

Unfortunately, Jackson had his first cold last week. He was such a trooper though, hardly complained. Mommy spent the week at home with him cuddling him! He's feeling much better now. It's so hard to see him sick when he's so little and can't do anything about it. Thank goodness Daddy ordered our humidifier the week before, that definitely came in handy!

We are all looking forward to the holiday season. We're spending Thanksgiving in Portland this year, it'll be nice to stick close to home! We got our first dusting of snow last night and it's COLD here! We're wishing safe travels for all of you who aren't sticking close to home and looking forward to seeing many of you this weekend!

gobble, gobble!!

Halloween

As promised, I got some pictures of Jackson in his many Halloween outfits. Unfortunately, he wasn't happy about it, any of the times I tried. He did enjoy the pumpkin patch. Here we go!

It took him a little while to get going....

....but once he did.....

He loved it!

Happy with his daddy!

Our Pumpkins


Now for the costumes!

Mommy's Little Pumpkin



The tiger with his binky...

And without.

Baby giraffe

Eyebrows!!

Well, like I say in just about every post, where has the time gone?? I can't believe Jackson is 2 months old!!!! We are absolutely loving every moment we have with this little guy and he continues to amaze us each day! As I mentioned above, Jackson newest attribute are his eyebrows. Of course he's always had eyebrows, what I mean is they are really filling in and getting darker, you can actually see them now! This makes him all the more expressive and I think it really makes him look like a big boy! He's full of smiles and coos and is also finding his hands and tongue.

Jackson had his 2 month well-check on Monday. He is GROWING!! He's now 12 lbs. 6 oz. and 24 inches long! That puts him in the 80th percentile for height and the 70th for weight. He is growing out of 0-3 months and moving right into 3-6, and he's not even three months yet! He also had to get 3 shots, which Mom was absolutely dreading, but he was a brave boy and it hardly fazed him! The pediatrician says Jackson looks great and is hitting milestones just as he should be. We'll go back in December for his 4 month check-up.

We are slowly, but surely getting the hang of this sleep thing. As I said in the last post, we are trying to stick to a bedtime routine, and I think it's working. Pretty consistently, Jackson sleeps four to five hour stretches, going down about 10 and waking at 2ish to eat and then again around 6 or 7. All in all, the Croses' are getting more and more rest:)

Last week was a travel week for us. Jackson made his first trip to the beach. We visited Grandma Susan in Manzanita and lucked out with the weather! It was a pretty nice few days, we even took Jackson down to the beach. He was so impressed, he slept through the whole thing! Even with the wind blowing, taking him out of the baby Bjorn and removing the binky, he just couldn't be bothered to wake up!

We then headed down for a fabulous weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's, celebrating Grandpa's 50th birthday!! We also made it to one of Alex's last volleyball games, it was their "Dig Pink" game for breast cancer. Alex had a great game and they won!!

We were also fortunate enough to take Griffin with us. Grandma was in heaven spending time with both Griffin and Jackson! We have missed having Griffin each week, so this was a great time for us to spend time with him too! He's becoming such a little man. I look forward to watching them growing up together and being best buds just like I am with my cousins! I wanted to get some Halloween pictures of the two of them, but that didn't work out so well.... Neither one of them really wanted to cooperate:( Maybe next year...

We are getting really excited for the holidays and seeing everyone! We did manage to make it to the pumpkin patch today and Jackson has about 5 different Halloween outfits that I will try to get pictures of to post. We tried on one costume yesterday and he was not a fan....so we'll see....

Happy Halloween!
xoxo

A Day in the Life of Jackson Thomas...

And maybe a little bit about mom and dad's new life too! Jackson is growing and changing so much, it's hard to keep up!! He is awake and wants to play! We are working on a bedtime routine, and WORKING is the operative word! Some nights it goes great, he goes down between 10:30 and 11:00 and wakes up to feed between 2:00 and 3:00 and then wakes again for a little snack around 5:00 or 6:00 and after that, he usually comes to bed with mom and dad for another hour or two. This, unfortunately, results in mom and dad being awake (at least one of us), but Jackson sleeps like a dream! The nights that aren't so great...well they just don't go so smoothly, he cluster feeds (he eats small amounts frequently) or he just can't get comfortable (gas). Some nights he really wants to sleep in mom's arms or on dad's chest. As I'm sure I'll say again and again, it's hard those nights, but the bond I feel with him while he sleeps in my arms at 3am is incredible. In the morning, anywhere from 9:00 on, is his most alert and playful time. We usually lay on the floor and play and talk. I got out his monkey activity gym last week and he'll kick his legs in excitement for his "friends" and entertain himself for a good 15 minutes sometimes! The rest of our day is pretty unscheduled after "lunch" which comes about 1:00. From there on, some days he'll stay up in the late afternoon/evening and play and other days he's too tired and doesn't wake up until 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening and the cycle begins again. He's eating every three to four hours, which makes it easier on mom! Dad has even successfully given him a bottle a couple of times and he seems to do fine with that!

I think he definitely hit a growth spurt last week, he weighed in at 12 lbs.!!! Of course, I can only weigh him by weighing myself and then adding him on, so it's not too precise, but it gives us an idea. We'll get an accurate weight in two weeks when we go for his 2 month well check (((Oh my gosh!! He's two months old already!?!))) What happened to my little baby?! I guess we all know the answer to that--he's growing into a strong little boy! I love those beautiful smiles he gives me and all his new expressions as he explores his surroundings, but I do find myself wistfully remembering those itty-bitty days! I know daddy is very excited for this new stage of "playing."

As I mentioned above, Jackson's has become quite the expressive little man! He gave mommy the greatest present ever on her birthday when he very purposefully smiled at me for the first time. It was enough to make my heart melt!! He's definitely got the smiles down and loves to look up at you while you talk to him. He'll talk to you every now and then, I can tell he puts a lot of thought into what he says:) I have also realized he loves being in his crib and hanging out with his friends (the bed in his room and the mobile above). He'll lay in there for three or four wind-ups (I think each wind-up is ten minutes or something like that) and kick and talk and smile! I tried to get one of these play-dates on record, but of course as soon as I brought the video camera in he just looked at me like, "Mom, I'm not going to perform....geesh!"


So, a day in the life of JT, sleeping, eating and now, **playing** and a day in the life of Matt and Niki, still a little sleep deprived but loving every single moment with our little man!!

WOW!!! Where has the last month gone?? Jackson is a month old already! He's growing so fast and changing so much, I'm so excited with each new day, but sometimes I want him to slow down a little. For those who haven't heard, Jackson rolled from his tummy to his back for the SECOND time last week. He first rolled over on Labor Day, but we figured that was a fluke, maybe not! He's still working on getting his days and nights turned around. He usually gives us two or three good nights and then he likes to shake things up a bit by keeping us up for a night or two.

I have to say, I have a whole new appreciation for "spare" time, because I don't have any anymore! It now takes me five to six hours to get out the door as compared to an hour before Mr. Jackson arrived. Not that I'm complaining, I wouldn't change it for anything:)

We've had quite the exciting month, starting with our first road trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa in southern Oregon. Our little guy did a great job, we stopped once each way and he slept the rest of the time in the car. We had a fabulous time at G&G's! We got to catch one of Alex's volleyball games, we took Jackson to Grandma's work so she could show him off, and Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Craft met Jackson for the first time.




We had an amazing weekend in The Dalles last weekend at my cousin, Heidi's wedding. I had the privilege of being co-matron of honor. It was a beautiful wedding and we couldn't be happier for Heidi and Dwight. Jackson pretty much slept through the whole thing. He did wake up for a few dances and tried to sneak a piece of cake;)




We are excited that the weather is supposed to be nice this next week and into the weekend. Hopefully we can get in a few afternoons outside!

3 Weeks!!

Jackson is three weeks old! He had his 2 week well check last week and, just like we thought, he is growing like a weed! He is up to a whopping 7 lbs. 14 oz.! The doctor was very happy with his weight gain and says he looks great overall:)

Jackson is a very happy, mellow baby. He still sleeps quite a bit, but each day he spends a little more time checking everything out. I love it when I talk to him and he turns his head toward me because he recognizes mommy's voice <3 He is also slowly but surely getting his days and nights in order. He's pretty good about waking to eat every three hours at night and going right back to sleep--I do emphasize pretty good because we still have looooooong nights!

We had some visitors last weekend. Heidi and Dwight came to visit and stayed with us on Friday night. We had a great time with them and Heidi was a big help with Jackson. Megan and Kyle came over Saturday to meet Jackson, we all had a great time visiting! Jackson also attended his first dinner party Friday night. We went out for Jessica's 30th birthday, and I have to say, Jackson was a perfect gentleman:) Jess also came over on Saturday to watch the Duck game, so we got lots of "Auntie Jess" time!


This weekend we plan to embark on our first road trip. We'll head down to my parents' house for the weekend, leaving Thursday to catch Alex's volleyball game Thursday night. Wish us luck!!

Our Family

Well, it's been a week and a half and I think we're getting the hang of this parent thing! Of course we couldn't ask for a better subject to learn with:) We've been really enjoying getting to know this little guy! I'm continually amazed by him every day and so grateful to get the chance to mother him.


He's really getting the hang of breastfeeding and he's a great sleeper....during the day:) He thinks the day begins at midnight and ends somewhere around 6am. Just the exact opposite of when mommy and daddy want him to sleep! He did spend a few hours awake this afternoon, so maybe we're beginning to get things figured out! He's back up to 7lbs. 1oz., so he's steadily gaining, on his way back to his birth weight.


We are very lucky to have grandma (my mom) back for the long weekend! We've definitely missed her this week! She's so great about all the day-to-day chores that I seem to have no time for anymore. And of course, Jackson loves her and so it's great for them to spend quality time together (and for mommy and daddy to get some rest!).

We are loving the heck out of this little guy! Couldn't imagine our family without him! For those of you who haven't met him yet, we hope you can soon! And we've definitely enjoyed showing him off to everyone who has!


xoxo
Matt, Niki and Jackson