Updates on Hannah and Jackson

I have so much to catch up that I don’t know where to start. Who knew having two kids would be so much more time consuming? Perhaps it’s because Hannah is no longer taking naps (at least regularly) and Jackson never has taken naps…have I talked about that? Probably not, because I don’t have time to because he doesn’t nap. It’s a vicious cycle.

Jackson is now almost 9 months. Time has gone by so fast, yet it seems like he’s always been a part of our family. I don’t really remember life without him. I’m sure it was a simpler time. Jackson is so different from Hannah. SO different. At 9 months, Hannah was an awesome sleeper/napper (really that started at about 5 weeks). She was always content. If she couldn’t reach a toy – that was fine. She was content to just sit there. She especially loved a party where she could sit and listen and talk along with everyone else. She didn’t get into things, she didn’t throw things, she was on a totally predictable schedule; however if that schedule got changed, she went with the flow and adjusted. She was NO WHERE near crawling. Heck, she could barely roll at this stage. She was so easy.

Jackson is everything opposite. He is never content. He’s always reaching for, grabbing at, and throwing himself at anything he thinks he has a chance at getting. He pulls himself up onto his knees and is slowly figuring out crawling. I often find him in downward dog, sometimes resting on his hands, sometimes just on his head.  He will get up on all fours and scootch around. Eventually he’ll collapse and army crawl the rest of the way to get what he wants. He wrestles with toys that are much bigger than him and wrestles with his sister. He usually wins. He loves his jumper and bounces in it all day long.  Sometimes he even falls asleep in it.  I think for this child I’ll finally need to invest in a baby gate and some door locks. Perhaps finally get around to anchoring our bookshelves to the walls.  Maybe we’ll even have to lower the crib. That’s right. Hannah always slept with it on the highest spot because she never even attempted to climb out. I put her in the crib now and it doesn’t even cross her mind.

I don’t know which I prefer. Both are fun. Hannah was good and easy, but Jackson is adventurous and exciting. It just speaks to their personalities I guess.

As far as a schedule and sleeping…I do know which I prefer. Jackson has been very challenging because he is not a good sleeper. At New Years I resolved to stop feeding him at night. For some reason he decided to go back to his newborn ways and wake up every three hours. This had been going on for the past month. Prior to that the best we got was 9 hours at night…and that was only for 2 weeks. It’s now been a week and a half and it’s going quite well. The last two nights he hasn’t woken up. Hallelujah! Now I just need to figure out how to get him to nap. I’m lucky if over the entire day he sleeps for 1 ½ hours. That is usually broken up into 2-3 naps. I feel like I’ve tried everything. It wouldn’t be so bad if he would wake up happy, but he doesn’t. He cries the whole time he’s awake and rubs his eyes. I feed him to sleep – he doesn’t transfer. I rock him to sleep – he doesn’t transfer. I put him in wide awake and he cries for an hour. I put him in groggy and he cries for an hour. I’m at a loss.

Done complaining. He really is such a cute little boy and when he is happy he is such a delight. Hannah is the best at making him laugh and he tries to do everything she does. They pound the dinner table together, roar at one another, and laugh and each other laughing. I hope they will grow up to be great friends. Hannah encourages him to crawl and talks baby talk to him. Jackson loves to watch her run around…and then tries to steal her toys. This may become an issue soon. I don’t know where his blonde hair came from but I love it and I LOVE his big blue eyes.  We gave him a haircut the other day day and now he looks so much older, like a little boy. 

          

Hannah is growing up so much. Her favorite show is Doc McStuffins and she LOVES to play doctor. She will act out episodes verbatim. We are always getting check ups. When she is giving us check ups she talks to us like we’re babies and says, “It’ll be ok sweetie. Sweetie, what’s been bothering you? Don’t be scared.” My favorite is when I’m so sick that I have to spend the night in the “clinic”. This means I lay on the couch with a blanket and my eyes have to stay shut until she comes back to check on me. Her other favorite thing is to cook in the kitchen. Every morning she makes me breakfast and she is always asking me what she can make for me. I’m amazed at how much she watches me and copies me. The other day I was making enchiladas and she said, “Mom, I want some milk.” I told her I couldn’t get some for her right then because my hands were dirty, and I showed her my hands. A few minutes later she called from the other room saying, “Mom! Say, I want some milk!” (She often tells me what I need to say when we play) I said, “I want some milk,” and she came running in and said, “Sweetie, I know you want some milk, but I’m cooking right now and my hands are dirty, see. When I’m done I can get you some milk…ok sweetie? It’ll be ok.” And she ran back to her kitchen.

She also loves to read books.  She’ll get hooked one or two and always want us to read her those books.  It only takes 3 or 4 readings before she’s able to read us the book (kind of).  Currently it’s I’m not afraid of Dogs and Dinosaurumpus.