Jack's New Scrunchy Nose Face

He is not laughing, just squealing and excited about life! I love it!

My James

James says many things a day that I just want to submit to memory, because they are either so cute, so funny, or so sweet. This is my favorite quote of the day so far from him...

James: "Can I have some wikey queen snacks?" (lightening mcqueen)

Me: "Alright, if you'll sit on the couch and eat them while I shower."

James: "Lauren, I love you."

James at 8 Months...

Corrie, I thought I'd pull out some pics for you of James at 8 months! They look different to me in the pics, but I see resemblances in real life...




JACK

Determination on Both Ends!

James' airport that he was so proud of...
Jack trying to get to it...James trying to stop him...



Putting up a gate...
Finally saying "Alright, you can knock it down, Jack"
And then taking this away from Jack, saying, "This is my sports stuff. This is expensive."

Jack is Getting So Big!

I can't imagine life without this sweet, smiling face!

Architect?

I think my son has a future in architectural design of shopping centers...what do you think?

New Communication

Jack is trying so hard to talk right now. We had the sweetest "conversation" the other day. He was in his high chair, and I was trying to feed him some juice. I said, "Juice" and he froze and looked at my mouth. I said it several more times, and each time he studied my mouth, then looked at me and grinned. Then, he started to take a sip, and I said again, "Juice", and he stopped mid-sip and whipped his head over to look at my mouth with a smile on his face. He did that several more times. It was such a sweet moment with him!

He says "mama" and is now trying to say "moon". There is a moon on the wall in his nursery that he is absolutely infacuated with. Every time he gets out of bed, crying or not, he'll look right at the moon and start smiling and cooing at it. Sometimes, so excitedly that he acts like he's been waiting all night to see it. Every time I say, "Where's the moon?", he'll pop his head up and look at it with a huge smile on his face. A couple of times recently he's said, "MUH" when he looks at it. He knows who "Dada" is, but he won't say it yet. It's only fair that he said "mama" first, since James said "dada" first! :)

He also has been copying words more, like "ba ba" for baby. When James won't stop talking, talking back, etc., I wonder why I enjoy hearing Jack learn to talk, but it's just so sweet and still so much fun!

Bedtime with Jack

I took these pictures the other night of Jack during his bedtime routine.
Jack loves "Goodnight Moon" and goes crazy looking at and grabbing the book.  When I put it away, he won't break eye contact with it and lunges for it.
Jack is no longer a very cuddly baby.  He's still as sweet as can be, but he no longer just sits and snuggles on us.  He wants to move, arch his back, turn around, and look at everything there is to look at!  

He also gets VERY wound up and then crashes.  He is definitely more difficult to get to sleep now.  I'm not going to complain, though, because he's finally sleeping through the night!  He moves all around and is the wildest sleeper!  He's not a huge paci baby either.  He'll take it to calm him down anytime I give it to him, but he doesn't require it.  
Cute sleeping pictures...

I love his hands here!

Silly James

James the other day asked me to take this picture of his bad face, so he could see it.

This is James' favorite place to go pee-pee. He goes here literally half of the time now. He's having a little too much fun with this. The other day, he brought me my empty coffee mug that was no longer empty, but filled with his pee! I couldn't help but die laughing!

Anytime James can get a hold of Jack's paci, he puts it in his mouth and then comes up to me and laughs. It is looking funnier and funnier in his mouth, since he is loosing his baby fat around his face!

Crawling and Looking Like Mama

Jack is officially crawling! Yesterday, he started doing the army crawl. It's so cute to see him moving all around the living room to get from toy to toy (or table leg). He's pretty fast and will no longer sit still. Baby proofing is back for a while!!

I love this angle. :)


A common occurrence

Also, I was looking through some old pictures and saw Jack in my baby pictures more than ever! I have always thought he looked a little more like Josh, but I was surprised to see such a resemblance in these.


I see it especially when he's smiling...

8 Months (& 7 Months)

I never got around to Jack's 7 month post since we were traveling a lot during that time, so I'm just sort of combining them! I really can't believe my baby Jack is 8 months old now! Time goes twice as fast with the second child. I adore this age and can't get enough of my sweet baby. James tries really hard to help with that, too! Jack is just starting to get active. In the past few days, he's learned how to scoot forward, and today he started doing something in between a scoot and a crawl. It's fascinating to watch him learn to move his body to get where he wants to go! He is very focused, methodical, and determined. I just sit and watch the wheels turn in his brain as he slowly figures out how to do what he wants to do!

Jack is such a sweet baby. He is like a little baby doll who does what you'd want a baby to do. He lunges for you, hugs your neck, lights up easily, gives sweet open-mouth kisses, laughs easily, travels well, goes to bed easily, eats well, and snuggles against you. He was such a squirmy, high-maintenance newborn that I never would have thought he'd be so easy going now! He has got the sweetest disposition, and the look on his face is usually just so...SWEET! No better word to describe it! The only thing that is difficult about Jack is that he has been a horrible sleeper his whole life. We've just started letting him cry it out, though, and that has worked really well. He was waking up all throughout the night, sometimes 10 times a night, but now he's sleeping from about 8 until 5, eating, and then going back to sleep until anywhere from 7 to 8:30. I also "dream feed" him around 10:00. He also has a side that lets you know fast that he's unhappy. He won't take a second of being in a position he doesn't want to be in. He also started separation anxiety a few weeks ago and falls apart sometimes when Josh, James, or I walk away from him.

Jack is very vocal! He squeals a lot when he's excited, he's "sings" at church with everyone, and he is just a very loud boy! About a month ago, he started babbling, and then just a few weeks later, he repeated "Mama" after me three times in a row! It melted my heart to hear him say it, and he had the sweetest voice!! Every time he said it, he got the biggest grin. Tonight, he was crying for me when I walked away from him, and said, "Ma!" Jack goes crazy with squeals when James or his cousins get him riled up.

Jack is a huge mama's boy, but he also has a special bond with Daddy and James. Every time Josh walks through the door, Jack lights up with the biggest smile. He also can't get enough of his brother. He is infatuated with him, gets so excited to see him, and just studies him. James is a little too rough with Jack, but just when I think Jack is about to cry, he gets the biggest grin on his face! When he sees a picture of James, he gets the most excited. It's so much fun watching their relationship develop!

The last thing I wanted to make note of about this month was out trip to Seattle. Jack and I traveled to Seattle for my cousin's wedding a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't believe how well Jack traveled. He was as happy as can be, despite being on Pacific Time, staying up really late, missing naps, and going longer between feeds. He was an angel on the plane. I just had to keep pulling out toys for him! On the way home, our 4 hour flight turned into a 7 hour flight. He slept most of it, and the rest of the time just stood in our laps! It was also easier because my bother was there on the flight home to take turns! It was a fun trip that was made more fun by getting to spend lots of quality time with him (which is rare with the second child) and introducing him to family!