Where have we been?

I can't believe its almost been a month since I last posted. Is anyone still reading? Well, hang in there with me. I promise my posts will be more frequent.

In the past few weeks it has been a bit crazy in our house, and I have had little time to get to a computer for blogging and uploading photos. As soon as Jackson turned 1, he had a huge developmental surge that resulted in many sleepless nights, nap issues and a mommy who wasn't prepared for it all. If you were to look on my nightstand, you would see a stack of books like "The Mighty Toddler" and "How to Tell Your Toddler No." This is a whole new world from babyhood.

One moment he will be absorbed in an activity, like when I gave him some homemade maracas...

And the next moment the diaper bag is completely emptied all over the floor.



Now, I'm sure this isn't news to all of the parents out there, but for me it was a shock and took some getting used to.

On the bright side, he is more alert, aware and involved than ever before. He is clapping, high-fiving and throwing his arms up in the air for "SO BIG" all the time. His words now include Dada, Mama and Baba (bottle) but he is not really consistent with any of them. Mostly a lot of talking that we can't understand.

Jackson is certainly on the move now, too. He does what I call the gorilla crawl, which instead of using his knees he moves on all fours - hands and feet. Its pretty funny to watch! Jackson is also standing on his own for longer periods of time and has taken a total of two steps in a row! The other day I found him sitting on top of the coffee table, so now I have to watch out for anything he can climb on.


During all of this, Sophie tore her ACL which required surgery and now we are going through her recovery period which will take up to 8 weeks. She can't go up and down stairs and must be on the leash even in the back yard. Its been challenging to protect her knee while all Jackson wants to do in climb on her, use her as balance, and give her cuddles in the only way he knows how (which is not very gentle).

We have found that once Sophie no longer needs to be in a crate, it will make the perfect "fort" for Jackson. He absolutely loves it!

So the past month for me has been an adjustment. I now realize that I shouldn't get too comfortable with one stage, because the next stage is right around the corner...