peas and lamb

guess what?...jackson likes peas! a long time ago i blogged about how he didn't really like his veggies so i'd hide peas and green beans in his avocado. well, the other day we gave him a non-pureed pea and he ate it...and loved it. as a matter of fact he ate lots of them. and last night he ate lots more.

last night he also had some of his dad's lamb sausage...and he really loved that as well. i'm really liking that he can feed himself some now. and he's even learning that just because there's food on his tray doesn't mean it needs to all go in his mouth at once.

eating his peas!
yummy...lamb (notice how all the peas are gone?)

pictures from newberg

i said i'd post pictures from my trip to newberg. apparently i thought i took more pictures than i really did, but here are a few cute ones (unfortunately i didn't get any pictures of micah playing with jackson even though they played together all the time...)

kiah gave jackson a mohawk...i'm not sure if you can see it very well in this picture, but it was real cute
kisses from cousin kiah
kiah wanted to get in the pack-n-play with jackson...then she was just being silly

just like grandpa-pictures

i recently blogged about how jackson sticks his tongue out just like grandpa hampton, and the other day i got a couple pictures. (while we were camping with the whole family over the 4th of july, i tried to get one of dad but he caught on real quick and tried mighty hard to not stick is tongue out...i'll keep trying, though!)

mr. friendly

jackson is a really friendly guy. for example, yesterday at church eric was holding him and talking to one of our pastors and jackson just leaned over to have our pastor hold him. right after that he did the same thing with one of our ushers. it seems like he does it more often with the guys...we've noticed how much he really likes guys (especially his daddy!). jackson also really like other babies and kids. this is really helpful on sundays when we have him go to the nursery during church and it was especially helpful last week during yearly meeting when i had to go to board meetings and it allowed me to go to the evening sessions and hear tony campolo without worrying about him.
so far his friendliness hasn't caused concern, but eric mentioned yesterday that we'll have to start talking to him about strangers soon. how much would he understand at this point? i'm not sure, but it doesn't hurt to start early.

lots of movement

baby #2 (sorry little man, daddy hasn't given the final okay of the name i want for you...so until then, you'll be baby #2. please don't think that we think you're 2nd best or 2nd rate or anything negative like that. it's just that you're our 2nd baby and we'll love you to pieces like we do your brother)...back to the story. baby #2 has been moving lots these days. i felt him move for the 1st time quite some time ago, but he's been getting more and more active recently and that's fun for me. it also makes it more real that in less than 4 months we'll have another itsy-bitsy baby boy.
why is it that everyone is calling us crazy for having our little guys so close together? i'm sure i'll find out! but eric and his sister are less than a year apart and my sister and i are less than 25 minutes apart for goodness sakes...i'm sure we'll be able to handle it.
we're learning more and more about jackson's personality and have discovered how much he likes other babies and kids. i think he's going to love having a brother (although he may get fairly bored with him at first). and it's not like it was some accident that we got pregnant again so quickly...we are aware how babies are created! maybe that makes us more crazy...now you're thinking, "you mean you planned for this to happen?" to that i say, "yes!" so, now i'll stop defending myself and you can just look forward to hearing all kinds of crazy stories coming from the woods' household in the future!

last week

jackson and i just got back from a week in my hometown, newberg. we were there for our denomination's annual gathering of churches in the northwest (NWYM). we were also there to see family. we stayed at my sister's house which was really fun. micah and kiah (my nephew and niece) seemed to have lots of fun playing with jackson and jackson definitely had fun playing with them. unfortunately it's a pretty busy week for most of my family (seems like they're all involved in one way or another with yearly meeting) so i didn't get to spend much time with most of them. but we had a good time anyway. i think i have a few cute pictures that i haven't gotten off my camera yet...i'll try to do that in the near future.
while we were gone, eric was at home. although he worked all week, he stayed up late and got up early to completely redo our bathroom! he put in a new window and tub surround, as well as new paint, new flooring and all new towel bars, etc. it looks great. i'll try to also post pictures of it soon, too.
also while we were gone eric got our camp trailer set up so that it can be used as a guest house. he got it hooked up the the septic and electric. we're really excited about it because our house is so small (i mean small...like just over 700 sq feet) so it'll be nice to have space for family and friends to stay when they come visit.
and one last thing. jackson's 3rd tooth finally broke through on thursday. i'm excited for him to get more teeth so he'll be able to eat more big people food. he always wants to eat what we're eating, but is not able to always. so hopefully, he'll get more teeth sooner than later. and this time it didn't seem to bug him nearly as much as when he got his 1st two teeth. he slept well and didn't seem to get very grumpy or anything...hopefully that will continue as he gets more teeth!

california

we went to california last weekend for eric's grandma's funeral. although it was a bummer to have to go for that reason, it was really good to see eric's grandpa and other extended family. grandma's service was...nice? not sure what word to use there. it was a wonderful time for her family and friends (lots of them) to honor her life. her 2 sons and a niece that lived with them for a number of years when they were young each shared. they told funny stories and serious stories and made me wish i knew her better.

we were also able to have some fun while we were there and i'm sure grandma was just fine with that!

jackson with his uncle dan on the plane

jackson's 1st time in a pool...he wasn't too fond of it :)

jackson with his great-grandpa, jack (who he was named after)

jackson's 1st time at the beach

a pretty sunset right out front of grandpa's house

a visitor

as i was eating my breakfast jackson was playing in the living room. i heard him at the screen door talking and laughing and banging on the door. he likes standing at the screen door, but i've never heard him having such a good time. so i had to go check out what was so exciting for him. there was a black cat sitting on our front steps just looking at jackson. i was surprised it stayed put even with all of jackson's noise.

big people food

it's been nice that jackson can now eat some big people food. some of his recent favorites are baked potatoes, fishy crackers (with the tails eaten off first. he kept gagging on the whole cracker and by me biting the tails off first, he's able to get some saliva in the middle of the cracker which helps it dissolve better), shredded cheese, his grandpa's french toast and the really healthy things like pudding and licorice. i'm looking forward to the time when he'll be able to eat the same meal we eat.

jackson's new game

jackson has started playing the "i'll drop by toy, you pick it up and give it back to me, just so that i can drop it again" game. we were walking to the college for the really big raffle we had bought a ticket for. (we were hoping to win the $300,000 house...better luck next time.) jackson was playing with his little duck. he would hold it over the side of his stroller for a few seconds, then he'd let go. it was funny to watch him look at the duck as we continued on the way. eric would then pick it up and give it back. then comes the part where jackson did this over and over and over and over again. it was actually kinda cute and fun to play, though i know it'd get old real quick.

it's 7:45am...

...and jackson is still sleeping! while i think this is great, i'm also a fan of routine. he usually gets up by 6:30 has his first nap between 8:30 and 9 and then another one between 12 and 1pm. what's going to happen today? there's no way he'll be ready for a nap by 9 this morning. will he just take one nap today? will he take two naps but just later? what will that do at his normal bedtime? will he be ready to go to sleep by 7:30? if not, will he sleep late again tomorrow morning? oh, boy...what's an anal mother to do?! maybe i should just try to relax :)

oh...guess who's waking up? i'll let you know how the day goes!

annual camping trip

we had a good time camping with the family last weekend. it was our 7th annual 4th of july camping excursion. this year we met up at ll stub stewart state park in oregon. there was a little bit of rain off and on, but we had fun anyway. on saturday all of us went to camp 18 for breakfast and my brothers, matt and drew, and matt's girlfriend, mandy joined us. this was the 1st time we'd all been together in a long time...it was fun! eric and i enjoyed using our camper for the 1st time and jackson had a good time on his first camping trip. the older cousins liked playing with him and kept him entertained often. all of us at camp 18

eric and i enjoying hot cocoa around the campfire

jennie teaching kiah how to play horseballs

micah and kiah keeping jackson entertained

camping

we will be heading out in a couple of hours for our 7th annual family camping trip. each 4th of july we join my dad and step-mom, brother and sister and their spouses and kids for camping. it is something eric and i look forward to each year and are excited to have jackson along for his 1st time camping. this year we're extra-super excited because we'll be stopping in newberg to pick up our new (to us) camper that we got. we got a good deal on it and can't wait to give it a try!
i've made many lists and i think i've got everything ready, so now we just wait for eric to get home and we're outta here. i'm sure i'll have fun stories and pictures to post when we return.