funny faces...

now that jackson has a tooth poking out, it's fun to watch him make different faces and stick out his tongue and suck in his lips as he tries to figure out what that foreign object it. and thankfully now that it's actually through he's been sleeping so much better again! so far his naps haven't been as good as before but at least he's sleeping at night. too bad we're going to have to go through this for quite awhile as his little mouth fills up with pearly whites.

an explaination

now i know why jackson hasn't been sleeping like normal...he's getting teeth! i don't know why i'm excited about it (especially since it means he'll probably continue to have a hard time sleeping for awhile). but there's something about the little milestones that are exciting. his first little tooth popped through yesterday. and he actually slept WAY better last night. i'm sure the tylenol didn't hurt either. i was hoping the teething process wouldn't bother him very much...i'm afraid i'm wrong. but now that we know what's going on, we can do what we can to keep him as comfortable as possible.

mover

jackson hasn't quite learned how to crawl yet, but that hasn't kept him from getting where he wants. i mentioned that he's been getting up on this hands and knees. now what he does is he'll get up on his hands, pull his knees under him and then throw himself forward. then he repeats. he kinda looks like a little inch warm.

expectations

sometimes i wish i didn't have so many expectations. when i have expectations that aren't met i get sad, or mad, or grumpy. here's an example: jackson used to be a pretty bad sleeper. over the last few months he's become a good sleeper. he sleeps through the night (with a dream feed around 11:30pm...yes, we're back to doing the dream feed-see previous post). he takes 2 naps a day and usually sleeps between 1.5-2 hours for each. so i've learned to expect these things. when they don't happen, i get grumpy. for the last few days jackson hasn't slept well at all. he's been waking up several times a night and his naps have gone back to 1 hour at the most. today he took two 45 min. naps. it was hard a few months ago when he didn't sleep well, but now that i know he can sleep better, i think it's even harder that he's been sleeping so poorly. hopefully he's just going through a growth spurt or getting a tooth or something and that this too will pass (and pass quickly!)

who goes there?

i've really enjoyed the blog world. i like reading the blogs of friends and family and i like finding blogs of people i was once friends with or maybe i just knew them from school or the like. i read a lot of different blogs and i sometimes wonder if they have any idea i've found them in the blog world and am keeping up on what's going on in their life. [i hope this is okay :).]
so, have you ever wondered who's reading your blog? i have. in hopes of getting an idea, i've got a little assignment for you. if you wouldn't mind, would you send me a comment and say hi? i know, this is risky. you're thinking..."what if you only get 1 or 2 replies?" i guess that's a quite real possibility. maybe there are only a couple of you reading my blog...and that's okay. it'd still be fun to know who you are.
(i just updated the 'blogs i read' section on my blog page...if you're interested in the blogs that i keep up on. if yours isn't there make sure to let me know so i can add it!)

no more dream feed???

1st i'll answer the question some of you may be asking...what's a dream feed? i read about it in a book called secrets of the baby whisperer by tracy hogg. what we do is feed jackson in his sleep (yes, babies can eat while they are asleep) after he's been down for the night for a few hours. the idea is it helps him sleep the rest of the night without waking up to eat. it has worked really well for quite awhile now, and we've been thinking about cutting it out now that he's eating and is definitely old enough to be able to sleep all night without eating. we (by we i mean, eric...he's such a great husband and daddy) would feed jackson around midnight. so, last week, he moved the dream feed to 11:30pm. jackson was still sleeping until 6:30 each morning, so it looked like it was working. eric was going to feed him at 11 last night, but jackson didn't want to eat. he tried for 10-15 minutes to get him to eat, but he just kept turning his head away and wasn't interested. so eric got back in bed and asked me what he should do. i wasn't going to ask him to get up again in another hour (and i certainly didn't want to get up, either!), so we decided to just see what would happen. well, jackson slept until 6:45 this morning! now i know it's only been 1 night, so i should be careful to not get my hopes up...but, maybe he's done with the dream feeds and will sleep all night without eating!

so talented

over the last week or 2, jackson's gotten really good at finding his pacifier and getting it back in his mouth. for some reason, eric and i think this is so cool. i think it's helping him sleep better at night. he can get his pacifier by himself before he wakes up all the way. where before, he'd wake up and one of us would have to get him his paci and often he was too awake to just go right back to sleep. i guess it's just fun to see him being able to do some stuff for himself. our little guy is growing up :)

thankful

i've had a pretty lazy/unproductive week this week (until today...i think i've gotten more done today than the rest of the week combined!). i've also been a little...how do you say...grumpy. i don't know why...but i'm glad i'm feeling better. so in honor of me having such a good day, i thought i'd tell you a few things i'm thankful for:
* jackson sleeping so well. it's easy to forget how bad of a sleeper he used to be. i remember the days that i'd have to hold him in order for him to take a nap for more than 30-40 minutes. now, he'll take two 1 1/2-2 hour naps everyday (and i rarely have to go in and help him get back to sleep). this is a HUGE answer to prayer. when i used to have to hold him during his whole nap or go in 5-7 times during his nap to help him get back to sleep, i'd pray and pray and pray for God to help jackson sleep better. i'd tell God that i knew he could make jackson sleep better, so PLEASE, God...do your thing. and he certainly has.
* fridays. i LOVE fridays. it means that my husby's going to be home for the next 2 days. i'm thankful that he's working in so close to home right now and he usually gets home by 3:45pm everyday, but it never seems like enough time. so, i love having him home for 2 whole days!
* the blue sky and the sunshine. supposedly, we'll be enjoying 70 degree weather by sunday...we weren't sure if this was ever going to happen. maybe the rest of our snow will finally melt.
* a vacuum cleaner that actually sucks up the floor crud.
* our little house in a great neighborhood.
* tiny babies. my new niece and our friends' new son.
* having all the laundry clean and actually put away!
* fridays. i LOVE fridays!

(now, i just gotta learn to think of all the things i'm thankful for during the not so great time)

HAPPY FRIDAY TO ALL!!!

all fours

jackson's been getting up on all fours recently. yesterday, for the first time, he actually moved forward while on all fours. i wouldn't considered it crawling, put he did push himself forward a bit. usually he ends up pushing himself backwards. maybe he'll be crawling soon! i'm kinda looking forward to that time, but lots of my friends and family that have older kids say to enjoy the time that he's less mobile...once he starts moving more, i'll have to work harder at keeping him corralled and out of things. i'm sure that's true, but i still like it when i see him learning and trying new things.

so true...

jackson has a few articles of clothing that say "daddy's little helper". and one that says "mommy's little monster". yesterday, i realized that they are so true for my little guy. we had another one of those days. jackson decided he'd do a lot of whining and crying/screaming and not very much sleeping or being pleasant. i won't go into all the details, just know it was NOT a good day for mommy! until daddy got home. jackson LOVES his daddy. i'm very grateful for this. not only because it's cute, but it means eric can give me a break and take care of the boy for awhile when he gets home from work. and i'm especially grateful for this on days like yesterday. eric got home and jackson was all happy and excited to be with his dad. (he did do more whining in the evening, but nothing like all morning). eric fed him, gave him a bath, played with him, and put him to sleep. and unlike my attempts to get him to sleep earlier in the day, he went right to sleep with eric. jackson certainly was "daddy's little helper" and "mommy's little monster" yesterday! thankfully, this morning is already going WAY better.

surprise!

last friday we headed to newberg to take part in a surprise birthday party for my sister. (yes, it was also my birthday, but jonah [my bro-in-law] planned this and it was just for her. and, yes, i was okay with that.) since jennie didn't know we were coming, we stayed at my parents house on friday night. on saturday about 20 family members headed to a local restaurant to surprise jennie. she didn't expect a thing and we had a good time eating breakfast and spending time with the family. we wanted to do something special for her and after talking to jonah decided to all chip in to help her get a fence for her back yard. this is something she had told jonah she wanted more than anything else. after breakfast most of us headed to jen's house and let the kids run around and play and the rest of us ate cake and hung out.
eric, jackson and i headed back home the next morning. it was a short trip but well worth it!

what do you think...do we look alike?

it's been awhile...

i haven't blogged in awhile...and don't expect anything exciting from this post. just wanted to let you all know that i'm still here. i'm just suffering from an extreme case of laziness. hopefully, i'll kick this problem soon and you'll get to read about all the exciting things in the lives of the woods clan :)