a quick review...

we've had company for the last week, so i've been a bit absent from blogging. i wanted to jot a few things down to keep my many, many faithful readers informed with what's going on in the woods' lives...okay, so maybe i don't have many, many faithful readers but i just want to remember some of this stuff for later.
*jackson's been giving me kisses for the last couple days. it's do precious and they're not like the slobbery "kisses" i used to get from him. now it seems to be intentional and i love it!
*he's been taking more and more steps. our friends that are here were counting the other day and he took 20 steps in a row across the living room!
*his sleeping has continued to be excellent. i'm sooo grateful for that. he very rarely cries when we put him in his crib and sleeps 12 hours at night at takes 2 naps (usually for 1-1.5 hours each). today he missed his first nap because i've started going to a morning bible study. i was a little nervous about how he'd do, but it didn't seem to bother him much. i ended up putting him down a little early for his afternoon nap, but then he slept for just over 2 hours. to have him sleeping so well has been a huge blessing for his dad and i.
*tomorrow jackson turns 1! we have a small family bday party planned for him on saturday. my sister and her 2 kids and my mom are coming. i'm excited to have my sister make his 1st birthday cake.
*i have another doc appt tomorrow to check up on carter. after this appt, i'll be going every 2 weeks. i can't believe i'm already at that point in my pregnancy. it sure has gone faster this time around. in less than 3 months, we'll have another precious little man joining the family!

now, im off to bed...i'll try to get bday pictures and walking pictures up in early next week.

steps

i'm a proud mama...jackson just took a couple steps all by himself! two times, he took two steps! it's just really fun to watch him learn and grow and do new things. in just a couple of weeks, we'll be celebrating his 1st birthday and maybe by then he'll be taking even more steps! (however, i'll be happy if he's walking well by the end of november when his baby brother will be born...which, by the way is less than 90 days away!)

another tooth

jackson's 4th tooth finally made it's appearance on thursday. i know, not necessarily very exciting news, but i want to post it so i remember for his baby book. deal with it!

nature

we've had some neat sunsets recently...this is one i got a picture of last week. i think it kinda looks like a fire.
we've been having lots of rain the last few days (which i've really enjoyed) and last evening, as the rain stopped and the sun came out, we saw the most amazing rainbow. the picture doesn't do it justice...

jackson's new house

eric brought a big cardboard box home last friday to make a house for jackson. he got to work on it after jackson went to bed on sunday night. he left it out in the living room as a surprise for jackson on monday morning. he told me not to show it to jackson, but to wait and see what he'd do. it didn't take him long to find his new house...and he loved it!

this is him looking through the window
even daddy can fit inside...aren't they cute?!

100 days to go!

only 100 more days until my due date. here's to hoping carter decides to not make it too much longer than that...CHEERS!

sleeping, part II

it's been just over a week since we've allowed jackson the pleasure of learning to fall asleep on his own. IT'S BEEN GREAT! he's now sleeping from 7pm to 7am each night (it's been that way for the last 6 or 7 nights) without needed any assistance from mom or dad! his naps started out a little rockier...he kept waking up after just 30 minutes. we tried letting him cry to see if he'd fall back asleep, we tried holding him to get him back to sleep, we tried a little of both and he kept waking up. i tried to stay patient knowing it had only been a few days, and what do you know?...he's started getting past that 30 minute mark and has been taking 1 1/2 hour naps twice a day for the last few days! i can't tell you how much less stress there is in the woods' house. i was starting to get kinda worried thinking about how i was going to deal with rocking jackson to sleep for his naps (and often once or twice during his naps cause he would wake up a lot) and at night while dealing with a newborn. i'm sooooo happy we read healthy sleep habits, happy child by marc weissbluth. i highly recommend it to anyone with kids or anyone planning to have kids.
oh, yeah...he also cries very little or not at all when we put him down now!