Every piece of Jackson is completely lovable, but his thighs? OUT OF THIS WORLD.

I just love looking at the squishiest legs on the planet and thinking about their future as long, skinny sticks, just like Daddy's.

Love my chubby baby.

9 months!

Yippee! 9 months of enjoying our most healthy, happy & hilarious little guy.

SO much is happening and changing in our day to day as you grow bigger, stronger and more capable of being independent. You are crawling everywhere, and quickly! Lucca is starting to realize her stuff is no longer safe...block towers are getting knocked over left and right, her books are being chewed on, dollies are being smothered, and hair is being pulled. You are exploring your world and loving it. Lucca on the other hand is wondering what in the world happened to our "sweet, tiny baby" as she refers to Jackson.

At your 9 month appointment, you continued to top the charts...at 90% for weight and 95% for length. You are no feather. Our big dude. You will be bigger than your sister in no time. You loved your doctor. Waving and smiling at him the whole time. Then the nurse came in who gave you a shot and your feelings quickly turned to anger. Amazing that you even felt that little poke on your chubby thighs.

You have officially boycotted all pureed baby food. I think it was a taste of Christmas dinner that caused this. You figured out we are eating much better food than your pureed fruits & veggies. This is kind of fun, you are eating a lot of what we are eating. You only have 2 teeth still, but you manage to chew all kinds of food you are offered...broccoli, eggs, spaghetti, pancakes :) If you got to choose, you would live on bananas and sweet potatoes alone. And mommy's milk, of course.

We love loving you. I cannot even imagine if our family was still just 3. Seems so long ago & distant to me. You have completed our family and give us such great joy. It really is amazing, no matter how hard & long & tiring our days can be, your Daddy and I go to bed each night so happy. And thankful. And feeling more blessed each day.

<3

Ah, baby milestones. They never get old. Not even with kid #2. It's just so dang exciting to watch my babies learn and grow.

Jackson has been on the verge of crawling for a couple months, but would never actually go forward. He would rock, go backwards, go to the sitting position, back to crawling position, back to sitting position....but wouldn't take the plunge. We thought he for sure would start crawling over Christmas, but he didn't.

Until today. Daddy's first day back at work after 2 whole weeks off and little buddy decided to crawl. He's my guy. Lucca first crawled with Rustin, and this guy held out for only me :) Actually, it was me, Lucca and my mom friends who got to see this guy finally prove that he knows how to crawl.

Good work, big Stone. We are proud of you. Now we need to go purchase baby gates. Fun!

New Years Day

January 1st has always been a special day in my family...it was my Grandpa Jack Masters birthday. Many people in my family celebrate him by eating sauerkraut on this day, just as he would be doing if he were still with us. If I could stand the stuff, I would do the same. As I get older and learn more about the great man my grandfather was, it makes me even more proud to have my little guy named after him.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa. Hope we are able to carry on your big personality and humor and sensitivity and love through our own sweet Jack.

8 months

My baby boy turned 8 months old yesterday!

You welcomed eight months with two shiny bottom teeth, a belly laugh that can make everyone smile, a big appetite, a sweet backwards crawl/scoot that takes you places quickly and a whole lotta chatter... Mama, Dadda, baa-baa, oh's & ah's.

Lucca is your favorite person on the planet. You like watching her every move, and if I say "Where's Lucca?" you will turn your head all around looking for her. Too cute.

Tubby time is your favorite, followed by (not-surprisingly) mealtime. We haven't found a food you dislike, but we have noticed you get most excited about bananas, carrots and sweet potatoes.

You are a cool dude, stopped everywhere we go by women who want to discuss your insane eyelashes. And then you smile at them and they can't stand it and next thing you know we are having a full on conversation about what a stud you are.

Amazing. We are thankful for these 8 months of getting to know you, our strong, healthy, happy boy. We have so much love for you, sweet Jackson Stone.

XO,
Mommy

Milestones

Although the blog has been less of a priority around here lately (slightly busy!), I do want to write down a few very important milestones from the past week so I don't forget them!

Seven months old has been pretty wild...

Your 1st (and 2nd) tooth popped through, ON THANKSGIVING, just in time for turkey and sweet potato souffle. Impeccable timing.

You are standing! You aren't crawling yet, but love to stand, barely holding onto a pinky and sometimes even letting go! You are proud of yourself and have a huge grin every time you let go. And then you start dancing.

"Mama!!!" finally! You've been saying Dada for quite some time, but just yesterday you said MAMA and melted my big ol heart <3

Waving! Mimi taught you how to wave over Thanksgiving. Today I saw you do the backwards wave, at yourself, for the first time. Cuuute.

Jackson, you are the happiest dude. These milestones have been awesome and we are celebrating with you every step of the way. You make us so proud, so happy, so very very thankful.

SLEEP

Jackson's life so far in a nutshell:

First 2 months, slept so much it freaked us out and we used to WAKE HIM UP to feed him. We were worried about how long he would sleep without eating. Funny right? Have you seen the size of this dude? We clearly had nothing to worry about.

Months 3-6...I'm not sure we slept for longer than 3 hours at any given time without Jackson waking up. Maybe a few times we would get 4 hours out of him. We kept thinking/hoping/praying he would figure it out and that a full night's sleep would be around the corner.

Finally last week, we decided to give sleep training a go. And THANK GOD WE DID. (We were scarred from Lucca's sleep training days and were hesitant to go there with Jackson). But after a night of rocking and rocking Jackson and having him wake up each time we set him down, we were willing to let him cry. Fifteen minutes in the middle of the night was all it took for this guy to cry before realizing we weren't coming back in to rock him to sleep. He hasn't cried like that since, not even for 5 minutes actually. And he's SLEEPING!!! He's been waking up once each night for a feeding and going right back to sleep, no problem.

We are thankful. So very, very thankful. Anyone who knows us knows we like our sleep around here :)

Tubby time

Once upon a time, I had the cutest (& chubbiest) baby boy on the planet.

Jackson Stone - 7 months

Happy 7 Months to our dude...Jackson Stone. The joy (and sleepless nights) you have added to our lives is endless. You are seriously the happiest guy. You smile at everyone -- making people's days left and right. You laugh at almost anything. We were used to our chick, Lucca, who made us work for her smiles...but not you. You will flash a smile at the drop of a hat, including in the middle of the night when you are SUPPOSED TO BE SLEEPING. But actually, the past few nights, we think we have turned the corner with you. We are heading for the straight and narrow and getting your sleep issues tackled. You've been sleeping SO MUCH BETTER, just had to let you cry it out a bit. Ugh -- mama does not like that.

You are a stud and you are HANDSOME. Truth be told, I get stopped all day long by people telling me how beautiful you are. Happened again today. And this proud mama just soaks it up, agreeing how cute you are.

A day doesn't go by when I don't thank God for my sweet boy. My buddy. LC's best friend and Daddy's BIG DUDE.

Seven months means...

No teeth yet, but working on it.

Eating solids twice a day and still nursing.

You are strong and push yourself up when on your tummy and scoot a bit, but mostly you just roll back over when it's supposed to be tummy time.

You love your mommy. I understand the mama's boy thing now...boy's just have it for their mommies. I walk into the room and you giggle. I walk out of the room and you cry.

You are huge -- wearing mostly 12 months clothes now. We just ordered your next carseat because your shoulders are so broad you barely fit in your infant carrier anymore.

You are "talking" a ton, and your voice is low. I LOVE IT.

You ADORE Lucca. If you cry, I have her sing you a song. You stop crying immediately. If she is in the room when you are eating solids, you won't eat. You just stare and smile at sis. You laugh at everything she does. You think she is the coolest. If you wake up from a nap before Lucca wakes up, you look all around for her. It's so obvious that you wonder where she is. And then when she does wake up, we go into her room and you get soo excited you practially jump out of my arms.

You spend most mornings with Daddy. This is my favorite. When you wake up early, Daddy scoops you up and takes you downstairs to the playroom. I am supposed to be getting my extra half hour of sleep, but sometimes I just lay in my bed listening to you guys having fun -- talking and laughing. Melts my big ol' heart.

We love you buddy. So, so thankful you are ours.

Bones

Jackson's Halloween costume was kind of ironic considering we dressed him as a skeleton and the dude is anything but skin & bones... However, baby skeleton's became a 1st Halloween tradition around here. So "Bones" he was.

He was a trooper as we hit up every event in town for Halloween weekend... Trick or treating in downtown Novato, at Town Center in Corte Madera and of course the Sausalito Halloween Parade, another sweet Chao family tradition.

Can hardly wait to start planning costumes for next year.