13 months

A little late, but better late than never!  I swear he JUST turned one, right??

This little guy has changed a lot over the past month!  He is still not walking, but he is cruising all over the furniture, standing independently, and getting really good balance so I'm sure it won't be long!  I try really hard not to compare him to Riley but it is so weird to me that at this point she had been walking for 3 months!  I know my little Jacky Boy will walk when he's good and ready, and really, we have not even really tried to encourage him to walk.  He much prefers to speed crawl all over the place, which is fine by me!

This month my little boy has developed his very first curl... ooooooh boy looks like he will be taking after Riley afterall!

Jackson has become an extremely opinionated little boy.  Things he LOVES (and will throw a big huge tantrum if he doesn't get to have): going outside, crawling up the stairs, sausages, smashing computer keyboards, and his water table, and his bottle the boy loooooooves his bottles..  LOVES all those things. Things he doesn't like?  Being confined by baby gates, sitting in his high chair (unless eating sausages), being pushed/squished by Riley. 

It's fun to watch him play and watch his mind work and how he explores the world.  He loves putting things down his car ramp and watching them go all the way down to the bottom.  He likes to climb all the way up his slide, and then slide backwards back down on his tummy, and the repeat.... He loves putting things in containers and taking them out one by one.  He loves destroying towers and throwing balls.  He loves to be tickled. He dances every time music comes on, especially if Riley is singing!

He tolerates the car most of the time, especially now that we have a DVD player in there.  He likes Mickey Mouse the best.  He is learning all kinds of new words and we are learning that he understands more than we give him credit for.  With Riley, I remember quizzing her at this age to see all the words she knew... well, sorry to say, it just totally never crossed my mind to do some of these things... like teach him all the funny/cutesy gestures we taught Riley, or all the animal sounds she knew and did at this age... he seems like such a baby to me, which I guess makes sense because compared to Riley he IS a baby... but he knows lots of words, and he says "mama" and "dada" and I swear he says "up up" and "no no."  We are working on teaching him more but he just mostly just gets mad. :)

He was down to one nap a day, then he had a few days where he was just super tired and cranky, so went back to two naps, now we're at one again, so who knows.  Probably in some weird transition phase for naps.  He is FINALLY down to waking up ONCE at night.  Never thought I would be so happy to have my 13 month old waking up once at night, but I am!  So much better than 5+ times per night.  I attribute this to (1) his allergen free diet (2) his strict skin lotion/creme hydrocortizone regimen and (3) his regular doses of benadryl/zyrtec to combat his itchiness.  I was reluctant to give him all of that stuff on a regualr basis, BUT his allergies are no joke, and he was a crazy itchy baby and just not happy, and sleep is so important, that I think we are doing the right thing.

He is a bit of a needy baby, and constantly wants me to be holding him and playing with him, and he will crawl over to me to be picked up, and lay his head down on my shoulder and snuggle.  He makes this cute little squeaky noise when he's happy or when he sees something he really wants (i.e. a bottle).  He loves to grab Riley's face, and he loves to climb on everything.  He loves anything with buttons.  He loves to hold two things and bang them together.  He loves destroying everything Riley is trying to play with (puzzles, towers, buildings, etc)  He loves to eat sand (yuck).

He is my little cutie patootie and I love him to pieces!!