Happy Birthday!

In between stomach aches, molars, and ear infections (tubes are on the way soon), Jackson still managed to have a fun birthday yesterday!! My parents, Justin's parents, my sister, brother-in-law, two nephews, and niece all made it up for Jackson's big day. Jackson woke up from him morning nap ready to party! He had his first "Nathan's" hot dog for lunch. After everyone finished lunch, he had cake. He didn't dive right in like I expected. He just looked at it until I gave him a taste. That was all she wrote. He dove in and would have eaten it all if I had let him. Needless to say, he did not sleep the rest of the day except for a brief ride in the car around 6 (and was perfectly content to be awake and play). He was on a sugar HIGH! Here are a few pictures of our fun...

The Coundown Begins...

Jackson will be one in just a few days. I can hardly believe it. I just hope and pray that he stays well for the big event and that the two molars that have been trying to pop through will hurry up and get here before Saturday!!

Speaking of teeth... I don't really understand it. Jackson still only has two teeth on the bottom, but he is trying to sprout the fifth and sixth teeth on top. I guess that's just how it goes, but it cracks me up how he still has to push all the food to the front to chew it (if he tries at all!). I am also happy to report that we are on day four without a bedtime bottle.... and completely on milk (no formula). I am very excited. It wasn't too hard. But, he is still very mad at me. He is not reaching for the dresser in search of the bottle any more. But, he still won't snuggle up to me after I read his bedtime books to him. Justin reported that he will snuggle up to him. I guess he knows that it's really my fault! Hopefully, he will be over it soon. I wanted to make sure that he was good and over it before his birthday.

The celebration will be a modest affair - family only. But, I still can't wait. Fortunately for us, I discovered a great present for Jackson via a work friend. Attached are pictures of Jackson enjoying his present early! It's going to be a busy week getting ready for the party.

This Morning...

Jackson woke up fussing this morning at about 5. I didn't try to get him back to sleep in his bed. I just brought him back to bed with me. He rarely wants to sleep with me and the little bit that we do it in the morning (mostly on weekends) isn't going to hurt anything! So, thankfully, he went back to sleep with me. I was able to slide him over to Justin so that I could go make all the lunches for us all and then take a shower. After all that, I was sure he would be awake when I got out of the shower. But, nope! He was passed out with Daddy. I got two pictures and he didn't even budge. I love it!

Fun day Friday

We went to the doctor for a re-check on Jackson's ears. He has been plagued by ear infections lately. Apparently, he meets the criteria for a referral to the ENT. So, we will be visiting the ENT soon. While I hope he doesn't need tubes, if he does, we will deal with it. There are much worse things in life to deal with. After our visit to the doctor, we played (see video attached) and I actually had time to cook dinner while he played in the kitchen. I hardly ever get to cook dinner in time for Jackson to eat it. I cooked a pasta bake of sorts with ziti and chicken. Jackson LOVED it. He couldn't get enough.

On another note... it's GAME DAY! Go TIGERS!!! I hope Jackson wants to watch football today, because that's what we plan on doing - too many good games on not to check them out!!

Box fun from Heather Gray on Vimeo.

Fun Labor Day

Thankfully, Jackson seems to be getting better as each day passes. I am hesitant to look inside his mouth to see if the molars have popped through. We had a fun day today... particularly a fun night. The pictures are for Nichole and Greg - they gave Jackson his first tailgating chair as well as a football. I have been eyeing these chairs, so I was very excited to see it! Thanks Nichole!

Working on it... from Heather Gray on Vimeo.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

As usual, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. Let's recap...

I was supposed to leave Jackson for the first time a little over a week ago. It was a couple's trip to motorcycle races in Indianapolis. Let's be honest - I don't have a lot of interest in motorcycles, but I was going for the company (my hubby!). The wife of the other couple dropped out at the last minute, so it became a boy's trip. Although I missed the time with Justin, I was also just fine spending the weekend with Jackson. It was quite the fussy weekend, but he is trying to cut his top molars. I tried to keep him busy. We walked every day. We ran errands every day... and of course, we played. After a weekend of whining, he woke up Monday morning with a low grade fever.... so off to the doctor we went. He had an ear infection in both ears. The doctor said it wasn't too bad. She prescribed antibiotics and we went on our way. I put him to bed Monday night thinking he would be back at daycare the next day. WRONG! He spiked a fever of 104.4 in the night. It scared us to death. After some motrin and a bath at 2 in the morning, his fever did go down below 104 (but not much below). He battled a fever from Tuesday until Thursday evening. Finally, we went back to the doctor after making it long enough that the doctor thought that it was odd that he still had a fever. I am not convinced that he didn't have some other virus going on too because he was having some stomach issues. Well, it turns out that the antibiotics weren't helping, so they gave him a shot of antibiotics. Those shots must hurt pretty bad, because I can honestly say that I could not calm him down and he was really mad at me. Thankfully, Justin came to the rescue.

Saturday (also known as GAMEDAY!!), we drove down to Dreher Island for my nephew's fifth birthday. We battled whether or not that was the right thing to do. The last fever he had was Friday morning. At the end of the day, we thought maybe it would be good for him to get out of the house for a little while. I know he was probably getting stir crazy from having felt so awful and being confined to the house. We had a quick, nice visit that clearly wore him out. It was great to see all the family and friends that were there. He is still whiny today. Thankfully, my friend Nichole (and her fiance Greg) didn't hold it against him. They came for a visit to meet my little joker. They brought him his first Clemson football chair and big football. Pictures will come soon of that.

At this point, I am not sure if I should just blame the whining on the molars or if his ears are still bothering him. I hope it is just his teeth. And... I hope those teeth pop through as soon as possible... I am tired of the whining!! It's starting to wear me down. Tomorrow, I hope our day is uneventful and whine free! I really just want him to be well again. It's so sad to see him feeling bad. I just want him to feel like his fun self again.