10 months

Every month I write a letter to Jackson and do a little photo shoot to capture his current look. I thought some of you might like it if I started posting the letters and pictures here....

Dear Jackson,

Oh my you are my little man. My snugglepuss. My Bo Berry. My Jaxy boy.

The biggest changes we've seen this month are:

1. your eating. You LOVE to eat.
2. your screaming. You LOVE to scream at the top of your lungs. A high pitched girly scream that surely makes the neighbors think we are killing people. Its usually for no reaon, and saying a stern "No No Jackson!" gets me nowhere.

I took you to the doctor yesterday just to get a few of my worries assuaged, and you weighed in at 22.6 lbs. You are a hefty little thing.

You generally wake up around 6am, and I nurse you back to sleep until 8am. Then you are up, watch a little Baby Einstein while I get your sister up and dressed, and then you eat breakfast- usually cereal and applesauce or bananas. Some mornings we go to a playgroup meetup, some mornings we have friends over, some morning we roll around on the floor with no particular plan. Around mid morning you have a snack, usually cheerios or goldfish. Naptime is from 1-3pm (for both you and Emma) and you usually go down for a nap easily and sleep until 3pm. When I get you up, I feed you some yogurt, and then we play until Daddy gets home from work around 5pm. While Emma and your daddy and I eat dinner, you usually look on longingly, and we pacify you with some cheerios or toys in your high chair until we've finished eating and can turn our attention to feeding you dinner (cereal and a vegetable or bean). You get very upset if you see other people eating and you are not eating. I can tell you wish that you had some top teeth (none in sight) so you could eat some real food. I've been a little slow in introducing you to a sippy cup so we are really just starting with one, but you like to drink water and hold onto the cup handles and bang the cup around.

You are still crawling around commando style. Well, maybe more like an inch worm. But you are fast and if you see me open up the dishwasher from across the room, I barely have time to load a dish before you are trying to climb up onto the first rack. You love to try and climb things. Just recently, you've shown more of an interest in getting up on all fours for crawling purposes , but our rug-less floors are so slick that you generally slide back down on your belly. Soon Little Man, Soon.

You are not too interested in nursing. Sure, you'll do it, more in the morning and in the evening and just after naptime, but that's mainly it. You are too busy and maybe you know that if you stop nursing, you can have more yogurt and cheerios. You don't have much decision making input, because I plan to nurse you until at least 12 months and then let you choose. While I miss the closeness that constant nursing holds, it is a bit freeing to know that you dont NEED me to nurse you to sleep anymore. I can put you to bed awake and you'll talk for a bit before drifting off to dreamy land.

You've learned to wave (when YOU want to) and learn to throw your arms up in the air to be picked up and occasionally say something that sound like "up mama" to me. Although it probably does not sound like anything to anyone else.

You love to play and explore. Your sisters toys, pots and pans, paper, remotes and phones, shoes, open doors, if you see something that looks like trouble, you are on a mad dash across the floor to check it out.

I miss your babyhood already. I can tell you are going to be an independent little man, and it seems like the months of constant nursing and carrying you around for comfort are a distant memory. I wish I could tell you to not grow up, remain a baby forever, but I want to see the little boy you are growing up to be. I cant wait to see you running around and talking.

I love you so so much Jackson.

Love,

mama

the winning 10 month photo......