Jackson's 12 month visit to the doctor/Pictures from my 27th Birthday

I had a great 27th birthday in Sparkle with all my family...Aunt Sandi and Uncle Larry even came! I am so blessed! The last 2 pictures are of Sophie who came to play with Jackson (Sophie is Meg's baby girl and 3 weeks older than Jackson).

At the Doctor:
He was in the 50 percentile in Head—Yay!! He has always been in like the 20%
He was 50% in Length
He was 25% in Weight weighing in at 22 pounds. My doctor said she was not worried about the weight because of switching to whole milk and being so active walking everywhere. Right now he is on track to be 5'10," but who knows...

She said he was doing great and that I did not have to give up bottles as long as he does not lay down with it or go to sleep with it (that is what rots their teeth)
He is still on the bottle. Because we have had so much change the last couple of months, I am just taking things slow. He does eat whole milk all day and one formula bottle right before bed. He eats about 18 ozs of whole milk a day. My next step is to get him to drink it cold, and then we will go to the cup (which he is drinking 2 or 3 ozs of right now). By 15 months I really want his bottle to be gone .

He had 4 shots (even the chicken pox one!) and was hot the next day.

What I wish I had known/done
I wish I had tried many different foods at 9 months because he really does not like too many different kinds of food.
Started the cup more at 9 months.
That Target has the best plastic bibs.
Whole milk is harsh on their stomach and they do not need a lot of it. Formula is a well balanced meal and they get iron from it but not so much from whole milk
I was really glad that someone here on the blog recommended me to add 1 oz of whole milk everyday with the bottle. That was one of the best advices ever and worked. He was more fussy with the whole milk so some days I would not add any more whole milk
Babies need iron that comes from greens so I would have pushed the greens more.
The best toys for him is a “popper” that is like a vacuum that we got at Once Upon a Child, and this Noah book he can pull parts out of. He also loves anything that plays music loudly or any kind of ball or toy with a ball.
They stop listening when you say “no” and the Pack and Play works well with discipline issues.

Jackson's Schedule- 12 months old

Charlie and I are in Columbia right now and my parents have Jackson. We packed boxes all day in Sumter in a no air conditioned house. Praise the Lord we got 80% done! We are going to the USC game tomorrow and have a weekend just us! Next week is our last week in Spartanburg and then we are in Columbia for good. This is the crazy detailed schedule that I typed out for my parents for the weekend….I thought some of you might find this helpful/humorous

Jackson’s Day 1 year old

Morning
a) Wake up anywhere from 7:15-7:45 (do not wake him up)
b) Diaper Change
c) Eat either eggs first or adult yogurt (he will not usually eat both just one or the other)
d) Offer juice
e) While fixing the bottle if fussy and REFUSING TO EAT give him the little sweet potato puffs while in the high chair
f) Heat up 5 ozs of whole milk and 1 oz of formula (make sure the formula is on the top so he gets it) for 6 ozs total
g) Play time usually watching tv, Disney playing with balls, etc
h) Nap time AT 9:40 AT THE EARLIEST 10:30 at the latest–try to get him down about 10 AM. Make sure all 7 passi are in there and located all around the crib, turn fan on and turn down the ac. Make sure he has pants on when taking a nap

Midday
a) Wake up anywhere from a little after 11 am to 12 pm (Usually right at 11:15 am)
b) Diaper Change
c) Eat anywhere from 11:30 to 12:30 try for like 11:45 pm..try to get fruit in him if he had no yogurt that morning. Most days he will just he yogurt but you can try squash, bread, sweet potato or basically anything you can get in him. Offer juice again
d) Heat up 4 ozs again like stated earlier with 1 oz formula on top (he usually only eats 4 ozs or so here)
e) Play this is a hard time here I would advice going somewhere

Snack earliest 1:45-latest 3 pm ...try to do 2 pm
a) Diaper Change
b) Heat up 6 ozs again with 1 oz formula on top
c) Usually eats all his bottle here and usually does #2 here

Afternoon Nap earliest 2:45 latest 4 pm Usually sleeps till about 5:10 or so

Dinner earliest 5:15 LATEST 6:30 (this is important here not to feed him past 6:30) Usually eats at like 5:45
a) Diaper Change
b) Eats usually some sort of meet as some baby food or pudding or whatever you can get him to eat
c) Heat up 4 ozs here—he normally only eats 4 just make sure the top oz is formula
d) Play

Bath time at 7:30 I think yall know how to now

Night Bottle earliest 7:45 latest 8:30 try for 8 pm
a) Diaper Change, ALL FORMULA HERE YOU CAN GIVE HIM 8 OZS use the same bottle different drop in

Bed time earliest 8:45 latest 9:30 READ A BOOK TO HIM OR HE MIGHT CRY WHEN YOU PUT HIM DOWN HERE

If he wakes up in the middle of the night and cries for more than a couple minutes just get him out of the bed and comfort him and then put him back down after a while even if he cries when you put him down WAIT AT LEAST A COUPLE OF MINUTES BEFORE GOING BACK IN

When traveling the bottles can sit out a couple of hours and be ok so you do not have to bring cooler to go to Greenville just make sure you have 1 more bottle than you think you will need.

You can give him crakers whenever he is fussy be sure to pack them when you go to Greenville along with diapers and juice cup and toys

Jackson's Big First Birthday Celebration

I am so grateful to God for giving me Jackson. He is a blessing in every way. He has brought so much joy to my life. Maybe the joy comes from grasping more how our Heavenly Father loves us. Maybe the joy comes from knowing that God entrusted a beautiful soul for me to be his mother. Or maybe it is because I know I am investing in eternity just by being his mom.

New Milestones:

1. He rarely crawls anymore, he walks everywhere

2. When he does something he is excited about he claps his hands together and gets very excited

3. He is drinking half whole milk and half formula

4. He loves you to read him books

5. He recently pointed to himself when he saw a picture of himself

6. He says dada mama bye bye and go...he tries to say whatever we get him to say

7. He loves balls and will throw them all day long. He will even go get the ball when I asks him to.

I am sorry I am late posting this. We came to Spartanburg Monday, we went back to Columbia all day Tuesday and found our perfect house that is being built right now and signed a contract (we will hopefully be in mid Oct). Kelly came all the way from Atlanta and we had a fun family Mickey Mouse themed first birthday party here in Spartanburg (he loves Mickey Mouse!). We ordered the banner from BirthdayExpress. He did not go after the cake like he did the cupcake at last weekend celebration. He loved us all singing to him all day long. Overall, it was a really fun day...he got lots of great clothes, a really fun Birthday hat from Aunt Sandi, and of course some toys.

Jackson's First Hair Cut!

Jackson got his first hair cut last Thursday. His hair was sticking up every day and he was pulling the hair around his ears all the time. It was driving me crazy so I got the girl who cuts my hair in Sumter to cut it. He did so well....Kim gave him a curler and he did not even seem to notice what she was doing. Kim did a great job and had a certificate made for him and everything.

Fun Labor Day Weekend!

Well, we have had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. We decided not to go to the game Saturday since we were making so many trips to Columbia to look at houses. Alyssa and Sammy, friends from college, came over Saturday night and we had a fun visit with Jane Mac and Asher (Asher and Jackson are 1 day apart in age). Then, last night our entire immediate family came to see the house that we love and we celebrated Jackson's Birthday early with Charlie's sister Lauren. Jackson will be 1 September 12th! Last night we also offered on the house so pray that no one else has already made a better offer. Jackson is doing great. He loves Yo Baby yogurt and bread. I have given him 2 ozs of whole milk mix in with his bottle heated up today. I am going to add 1 oz of whole milk every day now. Pray that he starts to eat more food though...we offered him a waffle this morning and he wanted no part of it. Any suggestions with how to get Jackson to eat more food, I am all ears! He also cannot figure out how to drink out of cup so we have a lot of work to do this month. I am going to be consistent with trying the cup 3 times a day for 2 weeks. He still loves his formula and would eat 32 ozs every day and no food and be happy. Enjoy the pics!