The Houston Zoo with Gracielita

A few weeks ago, we went and played at the zoo with one of Jackson's little friends. They are adorable together!

Bye Bye "Ms. Ita"

Today Jackson had to say bye to his favorite teacher Ms. Lalita ("Ms. Ita"). I have never seen Jackson so sad.  When Ms. Ita explained that she wouldn't be there tomorrow Jackson said, "I will stay home tomorrow." It was hard to watch. He cried. 

On the way home Jackson randomly said, "It's okay to cry." We said it depends on why. It's not okay to cry if you want to go outside and we said it was time to bed. Then we tried to explain times when it would be okay to cry. He busts out crying. We told him he couldn't just cry, but he had to also talk and tell us why he was crying. He said, "I am crying because I want my teacher back."

I have a feeling it's going to be a while before he's back to himself again. He doesn't adjust to new people at school well and Ms. Lalita will be hard to replace. He's been in her class for most of his life that he can remember.

As I type this post, I can hear him in the bathroom with his Daddy talking about it. Oh goodness. It breaks my heart.

Busted

Jackson never really tried to climb out of things. He still sleeps with a baby gate on his bedroom door. He has never tried to get past it. Ben, is the opposite. Anywhere you put him, he will try to get out of it. We call his baby fence the Ben Pen. It was around the Christmas tree most recently, but we started fixing it so it's around the Christmas tree and keeps him out of the kitchen. He doesn't want any part of it. He literally will climb partially up the fence... we're in trouble.

Benjamin Parker - 10 Months

(pics to come...seriously...)

Baby Ben. You are becoming less and less of a baby every day. You can now stand on your own for short spurts. You have a tooth. You love playing with "big boy" toys way more than you want to play with your own toys.

You are still the baby of two extremes. You are either sooo happy (usually) or sooooo mad. You are already silly like your brother. You all just laugh at each other. It's very cute. Speaking of Jackson, he loves you more and more every day. Although he did kick you in the face today, he also gave you tons of hugs and kisses and brought you lots of toys. We have come to the realization that you are being raised by your 2 year old brother as much as us...maybe more.

You are our monkey climber. You can actually partially climb up the baby gate. You just had to get to that gold glittery ball ornament... You love being outside. You loving swinging. You also love playing silly little games with Mommy. You like to stand on her lap. She counts one, two, three (you bounce on your own each time) and then on three "jumps" you up. You LOVE it and really anticipate it each time.

You are more and more of a little person each day. We love you!

Ben 9 Months Old

Since we aren't using this on our Christmas card, I will hijack it for this post.
Photo taken by Love & Whimsy.

Baby Ben -

Today you are 9 months old. You are finally starting to feel better and have been off an antibiotic for about a week now (after 45 days of antibiotics). You are starting to eat solids again and maybe you'll gain some weight! You had your 9 month check up a little over a week ago and here were your stats:

Weight - 19 lbs - 32%
Height - 28.5 in - 66%
Head - 18.5 in -92?%
You have no teeth.

We know we shouldn't compare you and your brother, but wow! Jackson was your weight at 4 months. The bonus is that Mommy and Daddy finally found Jackson's 6-9 mo clothes and they will still fit you for a while. Now you won't have to wear the same clothes week after week. Jackson also had 6 teeth at this point.

Your personality is all about extremes. You are either deliriously happy or pissed off beyond belief. Lucky for us, you're happy more than you're not. You still have no teeth, so we get to have your gummy smile a little bit longer.

You are mobile! You've been pulling up on things for a long time. For a while you kept trying to let go of furniture and walk. After a couple of weeks of bruises from banging your head you finally stopped that. Yesterday when Mommy went to pick you up, you walked all the way across the room at school while holding on to the shelves with one hand. Yikes! That came out of the blue and means you just might really be walking soon. Today we had you in the Ben Pen and you were trying to walk again. Jackson and Mommy had a funny conversation about it.
Mommy: Look Jackson! Ben really wants to walk.
Jackson: Ben wants to walk.
Mommy: And after he walks, he'll run.
Jackson: And then Ben will play outside and wear my shoes.
Jackson: And then he'll play with my Legos.

Not sure where the shoes comment came from, but it's a big step that your brother wants to share his shoes and toys with you. Jackson loves you a lot. He'll try to make you laugh when you cry. He will go and get a toy and tell us it's for you. He even went through his room and pulled out all of the "Baby Ben Toys" and just kept the "Big Boy Toys." But, sometimes he is still too rough (like the time he hit you on the head with his Little People Bus) and sometimes he still gets jealous. He likes to fake cry when you get attention for crying. Luckily he's outgrown that and now just likes to run and jump in our laps when we're paying too much attention to you.

You are waking up like a newborn again. We don't like this and must remedy this soon. Despite the lack of sleep due to this new habit, we still love you to pieces. We should enjoy the quiet, but really we can't wait for you to talk so we can laugh at all of the silly things you say.

Neighborhood Halloween Party

Our neighborhood likes to throw parties. This is the first year that we have had a Halloween one, and Jackson had a blast! We invited Jackson's little best buddy G. They are adorable together! In the mornings when Jackson is sad because we are leaving him at school, she stays right by his side constantly giving him dolls and toys and hugs to try to make him happy. It was fun to see them together at the party as well. They would just grab hands and take off while talking and pointing. So stinking adorable!!

His pants broke and kept falling down. Poor guy.

Past Superman's bedtime...

Benjamin Parker - 8 Months

The day after Ben hit the 7 month mark, he decided he wanted to be like his brother and walk. He started pulling up on anything and everything. Now Ben will lean on things and let go and he will try to walk. He has so many bruises from his attempted steps. He literally will just let go and try to walk. Every single time he falls flat on his face or bangs into something. It's hard to watch. He will also walk behind something while holding on. We are not ready for this at all.

Ben loves his brother. He watches him with a huge open mouth smile all.the.time. He laughs and laughs at him. Luckily, for the most part, Jackson is very sweet to him. He tries to make him laugh. When he falls and cries, Jackson will run and get a toy to try to make him happy.

On the downside, Ben has been sick for over six weeks. We took him in for one thing and found out he had a bad double ear infection. It hasn't gone away since. That's lead to a lot of antibiotics and a lot of sleepless nights. If his ears aren't better by Friday, we will be taking a trip to the ENT. He's also had lots of tummy issues. We had to switch him to Soy Formula. His tummy seemed better so we switched back. Started getting sick again, so back to Soy. Once his ears are better, and he's off antibiotics, we'll have to see how his tummy is. We might have to test him for a milk allergy. Unfortunately, all of his tummy trouble has lead to him not wanting to eat much. There were days we were lucky if he'd eat 1 oz from his bottle. Luckily, he's back to 4-6 oz (although it's still not enough). He also has been refusing solids (other than cereal). Hopefully things will get better soon. Poor little guy lost some weight at one point, but gained it back. He's now 32% for weight. Keep the little man in your thoughts and prayers.