Recent videos

We finally got a video camera and have a couple of videos to share.  The first was from tonight and was Jackson's reaction to Del shooting water at him from a bath toy my mom got him.

J giggling at bathtime

The second is a video I shot yesterday of Jackson's army crawl that he has started doing in the last week.  It's easy to get him to do it when I put my cell phone in his line of sight :/

Army Crawl!

Family Friday

Del and I were lucky enough to be off on the same day a few weeks ago (it hasn't happened very much lately) and so we decided to take a day trip to the Cities. We don't go up there a ton and are trying to make an effort to take day trips regularly so that we can see the sights. We had been wanted to go to the Walker Art Center sculpture garden for quite some time and it was a lovely day so we went for it.



We had lunch at The Lowry, which was a upscale diner (ie raw oysters for appetizers, breakfast served all day). It was really good and Jackson was really well-behaved. He sat in a high chair for the first time and did great. We brought food for him so he was pretty happy :) In the last 2 minutes we were there he leaned forward and hit his mouth on the table and got upset of course but recovered very nicely.



We then headed to the Walker Art Center. The garden is in the middle of the city (ie next to the interstate) but once in the park, it did not feel like it. The most famous sculpture there is the spoon and cherry, as seen here:



There was also a really cool bronze of a horse, "woodrow." It is made entirely of wood that has been bronzed and put together.



A garden was at the very end of the garden and had a beautiful arbor with quite the array of flowers.


We stopped on our way back to Rochester at our favorite apple orchard and picked some Honeycrisp (ie the second best apple around, surpassed this year by the SweeTango- both developed at the University of Minnesota). J LOVES some apples and so we let him taste test as we pick.


One other shot to share from the last couple of weeks:


This boy loves some books!

Happy Birthday Queenie From Jackson

7 Months Old and First Canoe Trip

Sunday was Jackson's 7 month birthday! Like I said in the previous (late) 6 month post, I can't believe how big he is getting. We weighed him tonight and he is 20 lbs (putting him in the 75%) and he was still about 27 inches long.


Today we decided to take him canoeing for the first time. We had already bought him a life vest


But you can see that he has grown into it a bit more.


The day was absolutely beautiful- it already feels like fall outside.


We went canoeing in the backwaters of the Mississippi River. Initially the sun was in his face, which made him very very unhappy.


And he even broke out the thumb :)


We then turned to go back and he was a much happier boy!

6 Months Old- Late Post

This is a super late post since actually J will be 7 months old on Monday, but I thought I better get this post up before then ;)


I can't believe how big J is getting (see previous 2 posts). He had his visit at the clinic and his stats are:

• Weight: 18 lbs 12 oz (8.51 kg) 70%
• Height: 27 inches (69.8 cm) 81%
• Head: 47.1 cm >97% (still big like Daddy!)
  

Accomplishments:

• Sitting (stably) on his own for the last 2 weeks (he was sitting on his own right before he turned 6 months old but not super-consistently
• Eating anything I give him. Favorites (in order of like) include butternut squash (still top on his list), pears (introduced last week and are an absolute love), bananas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, avocado (not into the texture yet), peaches (sometimes), peas. He eats two meals a day (one in the morning with cereal +/- fruit and one at night with 2 veggies/fruit)
  
• Such a happy boy! Had about a week of fussiness where I thought he might be teething but was in fact, the start of some serious separation anxiety (he's kind of advanced for that but maybe that means it will be over sooner) He is happy as long as he can see me and/or he is occupied with something but if I have just come home from work and I disappear behind a wall, it is an absolute disaster to him ;)
• No teeth yet which I am not sad about :)
• Loves to have you hold him while he stands up. It won't be long before he is pulling up in the crib
• Still a good sleeper at night but having more difficulty falling asleep during the day. I think it is because he can now really see what's going on around him and he's very interested in it!
• Loves bath-time (see picture from previous post!)
  

Minnesota State Fair 2011

J had his first visit to the State Fair this year (well, last year he went but in utero). Here are some pictures from our visit.

J visited the "Oink Booth" and has the pig ears to prove it :)

A nice passerby offered to take our picture

J's new habit- sucking his thumb. It's really cute but I'm sure later I will regret this.

J was really into the chickens (they were also very interested in him)

No words.

J with the State's biggest pumpkins of 2011

Enjoying his first trip to the fair

Amusing people with his incredible flexibility with sucking on his toes ;)

The carving of the faces of the dairy princess and her court in blocks of butter. This is the woman in yellow's annual job for 2 weeks. She stands in this booth (kept at 40 degrees) everyday with a different princess and carves butter.

August 2011 in Pictures