Six Months

Luke Henry Jackson is officially 6 months old!!

  

 

 Milestones:

• I'll have his weight and height on Wednesday when we go to his doctor's appointment.
• He now loves to give kisses with his mouth wide open.
• He reaches up for you to hold him.
• He can sit up all by himself and can even catch himself if he starts to fall.
• Sleeping is still going well. He goes down at 6:30 pm and gets up around 6 am. He takes about three naps each day.
• He's still eating oatmeal once a day, and we'll start solids after his doctor's appointment. (I have a few questions about that :))
• He can still somewhat fit in his 3 month clothes, but is pretty solidly in the 6 month ones. He still only wears size 2 diapers.
• He's been in childcare while I attend my MOPS meetings. It's only 3 hours, but he does well!
• He took his longest road trip to Houston.
• He's eaten a little mashed avocado which he loved! I think he'll be a good eater :)
• He attended his first birthday part for his friend Jack.
• He went to College Station for the first time!
• We left him for eight and a half hours atmy parents' house, so we could attend the A&M game. That's the longest we've ever been away from him.
• Of course, he got his first haircut which is already growing out in a noticeable way.
• He survived his first 'illness'- a runny nose.
• He's not crawling, but he can definitely move around on the rug and circle around to what he wants.
• His favorite thing to do is reach for things that are just out of his reach. Favorites tend to be the remote control and the iphone.

Overall, he's become so much more fun! I still can't believe we've made it six months. In some ways, it's been the longest six months of my life, and in other ways it's flown by!! Now that he interacts with us, I can see how we have even more great days in store. I have a feeling he'll be on the move soon, so we're trying to enjoy our days of 'Stationary Luke' while we can!

Here are a few more pics from our photo session!

He's being a funny boy.

He loves to 'fly'.

How sweet! I love that face.

I think this is the first good picture Luke and I have taken together.

This is the outfit we bought when we found out he was a boy! Now, it's on him :)

Parting shot: He can take the bear down now!

First Haircut

Luke had his first haircut last weekend. We decided to get it cut since his hair was getting really long (it grows insanely fast) and his baptism is next weekend, so we didn't want him to be a ragamuffin in front of the congregation. Now, though, I completely and totally regret this decision. My baby no longer looks like a baby, and he was much cuter with all of his hair. It makes me so sad. So, lesson learned. I will not be cutting any future child's hair this early. I will wait until absolutely necessary. Maybe I won't even cut their hair at all. I want his baby hair back.

But enough of my emotional anguish, he's still pretty cute and here are the pics to prove it.

 Last pic of baby Luke. We took him to Ladan who does my hair.

Notice the skeptical look he's dishing out.

He knew this would turn out bad.

 There goes the rat tail. I was pretty happy to see that go. It was unsightly.

 Grown up Luke.

Final product.

See? Even Luke is upset about us getting rid of all his hair.

He really was just ready for a nap, but I know he misses his hair, too!

All in all, Ladan did a good job. It's hard to cut the hair of a squirmy infant. But that hair won't see another pair of scissors for a long time! I can't take the heartache again any time soon!

Luke and the Sippy Cup

Enjoy! We like 17 second mark the best.

Halloween Costume

I've made it a goal to learn to sew, so I figured making Luke a halloween costume would be a great way to start. For one, there's a deadline. I actually could finish this project.

  

 This is what the costume will, hopefully, look like.

 

My trusty assistant doing what she does best- being in the way.

 I laid out the pattern to cut out the pieces I needed.

 I had to keep track of what I had cut out because the pattern packet also came with a skunk, elephant, and monkey patterns. Luckily, I think the lion is the easiest.

 Pinning the pieces onto the fabric. This takes a lot of patience and back strength. After leaning over to pin all these, I hurt.

 I cut the pieces out, and that's where I am. I have 40 days, well 39, to get this costume done.

Hangin' Around

 I'm super interested in drinking from my own cup, so mom gave me my own cup with water in it, but I HATE the taste of water, so she put some breast milk in it, and I still wouldn't actually drink from it, but I think I look pretty cool with my cup, anyway. I mean, the ladies dig it.

 'Sup, cat? 

 Daddy and me on game day! My parents (actually my grandma M) got their stuff together and got me an Aggie shirt. I mean, really?!? How are they going to get me to go to that school if I don't have any of its gear? Geez....

Ok, the last few pictures are of Luke when we were having family hang out time this past Sunday. I was really just playing with the camera, but when I looked back, I realized I had some cute pictures of him. Everyday, he's becoming this little person. I can barely remember what he was like as a newborn. I keep taking pictures of him because it's even more apparent how quickly time is going by, and I know one day, I'll barely be able to remember him at this point, and it makes me sad. I wish I could bottle him up. But I know that won't happen, so the 600ish pictures we have of him (just from September) will have to do.

I mean, he is the cutest kid, isn't he?!?

Professor Trey + Houston Fun

Last Thursday Trey got the opportunity to teach an HR class at A&M. It was pretty exciting for him and an honor because how many people are asked to go back to their university and teach a class?!? I was really excited for him that he got this opportunity. Since he had to head down there, we decided to turn the trip to College Station into a family affair and also make it a long weekend in Houston.

I didn't get any pictures of the professor to document his first class, but we did get pictures of our time in Houston.

The first morning at Lauren and Jason's, we were treated to Taqueria Elena tacos and a little show courtesy of Lauren and her rather forceful hot sauce.

Uncle Jason knew how to entertain Luke or let him hit his head on the floor. Whichever worked at the moment. (Note: No baby was hurt during playtime. Uncle Jason does not hurt babies.)

We went to Kristin and Tyson's house for the day on Saturday. Funny how now that we have children, all the pictures are of them and none of us. Must change that next time. 

But seriously, they have two very cute and sweet little girls on their hands.

Maybe next time we visit the kids will be able to interact more instead of just being in the same room as seen below. In fact, next time, we probably won't just be sitting around watching them watch each other; we'll be chasing three active children around the room while trying to converse. Looking forward to it!

Liv, Elle, and Luke

Liv and Elle being the sweethearts that they are.

We had such a good time in Houston!! Just the right amount of family and friends.  We even played the "What if we moved here..." game. Not saying that's happening, but we did play the game :)

5 Months

This month has been a pretty good one overall!

We've had mostly steps forward and a couple of little lapses, well, really just one bigger one, but we're working on that.

• No doctor's appointment this month, but I estimate him to be about 15 lbs and 25.5 inches long. We'll see what his stats really are next month.
• He can almost sit up by himself- he's super close.

 

See? He's not really propped up here.

• He's still pretty small. There are some 3 month clothes he still fits in to! 
• He can roll from his back to his stomach and he loves to lay on his stomach now to play with his toys.
• He enjoys standing and holding on to things, but you have to watch him closely because he's not good at holding on.
• He'll reach out and grab at your face to give you kisses, but this can also be dangerous because of his fingernails that he digs into your face.
• KC entertains him a lot. He laughs and laughs when she comes near.
• Trey gets a big smile when he comes home from work.
• We're working on taking 3 consolidated naps during the day. This usually happens.
• Sometimes it's annoying but he loves his schedule and if we veer from it, he's usually one upset little boy.
• He's eating rice cereal once a day, but it's making him constipated, so we're about to switch to oatmeal. I will say that he LOVES eating from the spoon. It's pretty cute.
• Lately, he's been waking up at 5:30 am which is our step back. He used to be the best sleeper: 7-7 every night. We're working on pushing him to sleep later, but it's been one step forward, two steps back. I keep hoping this is just a phase, but it's been a four week long phase at this point. I am not enjoying this one at all. 

I can't think of anything else at the moment except that he finally discovered the bear he takes pictures with. Here's a little photo evidence.

 Hey you, Mr. Bear. Whatcha doing here?

 

What's this thing hanging off your neck?

This is my chair. Get outta here.