Fun Times as a Three Month Old

Our darling friend Natalie loves keeping baby J and he in turn loves her. She keeps him solely for the entertainment of dressing him up for photo shoots. He comes home exhausted and she has taken some really cute pictures. It's a win-win.

It seems like every day now Jackson learns a new trick. This month he mastered rolling over from both directions, grabbing items that we hand him, the art of kicking, and picked up a new habit of sucking in his bottom lip when he's studying something new. His hair is thinning a good bit and turning even lighter blond. I'm fairly certain he is in no way related to me and only belongs to Matt.

At his three month visit he was 13lb 13oz and 24.5" long.





















He is one of the most content babies ever until you put him in the sink. If he would quit rolling out of everything I put him in that wouldn't be an issue!








He's a good little helper as you can see from him licking the measuring cup. Right after that he got a terrible rash and had to be bathed. The fun never ends around here...













This month Jackson lucked out and we couldn't find a babysitter so he got to go bowling. Redneck parenting at its finest. If you're curious about the head, his name is Jaques and he belongs to a band but is temporarily in the custody of my rogue Canadian neighbors who stole him.




















My cousin Shanon came to Alabama from California. I hadn't seen her in over 5 years so we had a great time catching up! This is Jackson's favorite toy. It's called a Winkle. Rest assured no matter how innocent the comment it sounds positively dirty when you say Winkle.

Batten down the hatches

Jackson rolled over from front to back at 8 weeks. That should have been a sign. He had near total head control by 12 weeks. We read the "What to Expect The First Year" entries each month thankfully noting he met all of of the actions for that month and usually those for the upcoming month. It wasn't until one day as I fixed lunch and heard his car seat start rocking spastically back and forth that it started becoming clear that we are about to have a terror unleashed.




Have to admit he is pretty darn cute just rolling around.





In case we weren't adequately warned during the car seat incident this little shenanigan came in loud and clear (16 weeks).




Couldn't leave out his favorite activity!

It's Always 75 in Merritt Island :)

My mom lives on Merritt Island, which is a solid 9.5 hour car trip without an infant, so when Southwest ran a 50% off sale it made it too cheap to pass up a trip to the beach at the end of January. I thought that packing summer clothes would be easier, but it turns out that no matter where you go taking a baby means taking 82 tons of things "just in case".

We stayed with my Uncle Jody and his wife Robin the first two nights of our visit. Aunt Robin picked up a bouncer that you kick instead of hit and Jackson would have happily spent his entire trip in it or in her baby bathtub. Honestly, the kid will stay in his bath splashing away until he's blue and the water is freezing if you let him.





We moved the party over to my mom's for the weekend where Jackson got to meet Grandad for the first time. Aunt Rachel came over with cousin Meredith (20 months). This time Meredith was VERY interested in Jackson and wanted to help give him toys, his bottle and his bath. She brought her baby doll with her and copied everything we did, which is good timing since Meredith is getting a real baby in July :)
















The rest of my family isn't as enthusiastic about the beach as I am. It turned out that Meredith hadn't ever been even though Nana's house is less than 10 minutes away! It was really windy and Nana nearly froze to death (she thinks anything under 85 is just unbearable). Meredith absolutely LOVED the beach and will undoubtedly be going back much more often.






































The day before we left we went to stay at Great Gran & Grandaddy's. Jackson used a computer for the first time. Thankfully he didn't spit up on it, which would be the first time in recorded history he didn't urp at the most inopportune time ever. They took us to a cocktail hour where their friends made a delicious flaming cheese.

Jackson was a good little traveler for the most part. He taught me that pressure changes = diaper disasters. They should give out those little flying wings for containing a super blowout at 10,000 feet which require a full outfit change and the use of every single wipe in the packet. Thanks, bud.

Jackson's first vacation: Memphis

Susan Davis, a law school friend of mine, lives in Memphis. She was with us the night Jackson was born and stayed with us off and on for the last six months thanks to a screw up by the Tennessee State Bar. We used to work at the same law firm in Birmingham, which is where she earned the nickname "Peppa". Long story short, one day our Pakistani client point blank asked Susan if she was white or black. She was a very unhealthy shade of tan with blond hair at the time, but none of us ever questioned her ethnicity. I'm happy to report that she has toned down on the tanning (inadvertent pun), and continues to instead oscillate between various shades of hair since she is in the extremely fortunate minority and looks good no matter what. Anyway, Susan is a top notch hostess and invited us to watch the much acclaimed Alabama-LSU National Championship at her house complete with hurricanes, red beans and rice, and bread and pudding.



Matt hadn't ever been to Memphis so we had a good time hitting all the touristy spots including the Duck Parade at the Peabody Hotel, picture taking in front of Graceland (it was the weekend of Elvis's birthday and we were pretty disappointed not to spot a single Elvis in costume), a trip to sample some BBQ at The Commissary, and a stroll down Beale Street. Suffice to say that Matt never imagined his first Beale Street experience would be on a Sunday afternoon pushing a baby stroller in the rain, not an adult beverage in sight. To make up for it we went to the Flying Saucer for Pint Night the next day... with the baby (you can take the redneck out of Alabama but...)



Jackson loves his Auntie Peppa as we call her, but after meeting Mr. Jeff it appears she has a rival. The two of them were quite smitten.