Becoming Mobile

I've spent the last 2 months watching Jackson learn to crawl. I had expected him to first learn to push up on his hands and knees, then rock back and forth, then start to take crawling steps. I didn't expect it to be such a journey.
He's always had good head control and ability to push up. For the first 4 months, Jackson was able to push up on his hands higher and higher. Around 4 months, he started to push up onto his hands and knees. He would keep pushing on his arms, which caused him to slide backward. Since he was interesting in reaching something in front of him, this resulted in anger and grunting and grumbling, sometimes yelling in frustration. Around this time, he also learned to pull up on the sides of his crib--something I was not ready to see happen yet.
Since the hands and knees thing wasn't propelling Jackson forward, he went for a change. He started pushing with his toes. Since his hands weren't moving, he would push up on his hands and feet, into a little yoga downward facing dog. He spent a lot of time in the downward facing dog. From there, he would tip his bum down and to the side, making a 1/4 turn into a sitting position. Once seated, he then either sits and plays, or gets into another downward facing dog and makes another turn.
I wondered for a while whether he would crawl on his hands and knees, or his hands and feet.
The downward facing dogs became more and more frequent. Jackson wakes in the night and sometimes turns downward facing dog pirouettes until he settles back into bed. Sometimes he starts right into the pirouettes instead of going to sleep.
At 6 months, Jackson took his first crawling hand steps. He would take one or two handsteps, then fall down on his belly, rest, and get back up for a couple more. Using this method, Jackson could travel 5 or 6 feet. This was an intense and laborious process. He usually incorporates a few downward facing dog pirouettes just to mix it up. Once he reaches his goal destination, he pirouettes into a seated position and then huffs and puffs like an exhausted runner.
Monday, I left Jackson playing in his room and walked around the corner to do some laundry. After a few minutes, he crawled out of the room, turned the corner, and sat down in front of the dryer to watch me.
Today, he's crawing pretty well. He can travel across the room and sit down. There's little huffing or puffing.

New Trick!!

A few days ago, I put some pieces of food on Jackson's high chair tray while he was eating to see if he could pick them up and feed himself. He managed to pick up a couple of pieces with his little fists. He wasn't able to let go of the food and put it in his mouth, though.
Today, we tried again. He first pushed the food bit (turkey) around with his little pointer finger. Then, he picked it up with his forefinger and thumb (pincer grasp, folks! pincer grasp!) and put it right between his lips and ate it!! He tried again and again with more turkey and varying degrees of success. Some of the food went into his mouth. Some food was pushed around and around on the tray. Sometimes, he could pick up the food with either his finger and thumb, or his whole fist, but he had trouble letting go when he got it to his mouth. There were pieces that he had so close with his finger and thumb and his aim was off, so the food was above his mouth, and he couldn't grab it with his lips or let his grip on the food go. He ended up with a whole lapfull of turkey.
Once, he picked up 2 pieces and deposited both of them neatly in his mouth!
Bigger and better things are to come.

It's incredible how excited I get as a parent over accomplishments that are so commonplace and unremarkable in my adult life. There's a lot of chatter lately about the babies world view and how for them, everything is new and exciting. Suppositions that the adult cannot comprehend how exciting the babies world is. Maybe the wonder, fascination, and excitement we parents feel watching our children accomplish such commonplace tasks is a little taste of the infants entire experience.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Yesterday was Jackson's 1/2 birthday. I can't believe 6 months has passed already.
It was a beautiful day. The maples are showing a lovely salmon orange, the temperature was an unseasonably wonderful 80 degrees, and we celebrated by going out.
We went to the swapmeet in Mansfield to look for a new scythe. Jason broke the blade on ours. Last year, there were scythe's in every third booth. Now there are none. I suppose that people are scooping them up to hang over their fireplaces.
There was a little park at the swapmeet, so we took Jackson for his first time on a real swing (His baby swing isn't powerful enough to keep his little bum in motion). Jack liked the swing, but he really enjoyed watching other people play on the swings.
After that, we indulged Jason's renewed interest in firearms and hunting (spurred on by the war over peppers and tomatoes we're waging with the deer). We went to the newly opened Cabela's store. It was madness. Packed like a warm summer day at DisneyLand. I guess its as good as DisneyLand to their customer base (Yes, there was definitely a red hue to many napes). The store boasts a tremendous taxidermy collection. I was surprised to see that although the focus was the largest or fiercest animals, they did include a couple of small rodents and birds. I was alarmed to see an elephant on display. I do hope it was either from an estate collection or recovered from a zoo death. Somehow, I doubt that. They included a sign full of Stephen-Colbert-takes-on-Wikipedia-esque truthiness about how the elephant populations have recovered so well that elephant hunts are now allowed. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060801/0128222.shtml
Today we visited the pediatrician. Jackson weighed in at 21 lb 5 oz and 29 inches (Yes folks, that the size of the "average" 1 year old). He took his shots extremely well, crying less than I do when they bring out the needles.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Reunions

Reed & Marika, Jason & Jackson, Kelly & Braeden, Beth & A.J.

Last week, we had a get together with 3 other families from our child birth classes. Once again, it was really nice to be with families who are having the same experiences as us. We could go on and on about the minutia of life with an infant without boring our company. Plus, its nice to be around people who are like ourselves. I value diversity, but I spend alot of time in the minority.

Jackson spends most of his time in the company of just his parents, and at best adults, so he was excited to see his friends, too. He is very interested in people his own size. A.J. got close enough to touch, and they held hands briefly (too cute). Then Jackson got a good grip on his arm and tried to pull him over. Jackson likes to bat his arm at things and people, so for safety's sake, we kept the kids at a nice look but don't touch distance after that.

The babies are all growing and changing so quickly! They have quite a bit in common--they all sit with varying levels of success, they're all starting and loving new foods, they all will take a pacifier-but none are too dependent. But there are also big differences. For example, there's a 10 pound spread in sizes (that's big when you're just 20 pounds). Marika loves to roll, and Jackson didn't roll at all until just recently. Jackson is quite loud and eager to be around others, and AJ was pretty overwhelmed by all of the excitement.

Marika

Jackson LOVED the popbeads (Thanks for sharing, Braeden). He could fit the whole end of the yellow one in his mouth.

Here's Jackson with happy Braeden (and Kurt).

Flat Jake

A couple weeks ago, I got an envelope in the mail. Inside, I found a flat version of my cousin Jake and some instructions. His class has just read "Flat Stanley" who makes a flat version of himself and sends it around the world to live vicariously. Here are a few pictures of Flat Jake's trip to New England.

Jackson and Jake having dinner.

Jake goes to work in the hybrid car.

Jake gets his toes chewed a bit.

Jake on a New England rock wall.

Jake on a 400 year old "death head" tombstone.