Day 367: The More Things Change…

…The more they stay the same…

I had a plan for today’s post, alas, I did it get to it.

Fortunately, something did happen today for me to talk about. Today I experienced my

FIRST STEPPING ON A LEGO MOMENT: Fortunately, it was a Lego of the Duplo style (you know, the big oversized ones for little kids) so it didn’t really hurt that much. But I’m sure that this won’t be the last time it happens. And I’m sure at some point in my parenting career I will step on the real thing.

I can’t wait.

Thank you for reading.

Day 366: One Year

One down. A whole lot more to go

Today, at 5:51 PM, we were able to officially celebrate Jackson being with us for an entire year. It is strange to think that a year ago at that time Amanda was essentially having surgery while I was getting to meet our son and spend some time with him. It was an amazing time and I can still remember it quite well. It’s actually quite amazing all the details that I can still remember about that day.

At this point, Amanda and I were trying to get used to just how this whole parenting thing worked as we were also trying to figure out how to get some sleep. I suppose the two days we spent in the hospital prior were just good practice for the type of sleeping we would get to do over the next several months (and are still sort of dealing with now).

Today we spent the day just being with Jackson and relaxing and enjoying the day. We went to the park for a while where Jackson enjoyed his

FIRST SLURPEE: and he did enjoy it. Although, the cold aspect wasn’t to thrilling to him, and he’s never been a fan of new tastes and textures, so he made some interesting faces. But he always came back for more. Oh, and he figured out how to use the straw pretty quick too (though, he’s had practice as we have been teaching him to drink water out of a kid version of a Camel-bak water bottle).

We also had Jackson try his

FIRST TASTE OF MILK: By which I means cow’s milk. That he wasn’t too sure about. But again, he did keep coming back for more, but never took much. I am really hoping he takes to it soon though, because the hope is to transition him off of formula and onto milk. And let me tell you, a gallon of milk is a whole lot cheaper than a gallon’s worth of formula mix…. A LOT.

All in all, we had a great day.

Stick around this week as I plan on doing some look backs over the next couple days. I’ve got a few ideas on what I’ll be doing, but I don’t want to give to much away. So you’ll just have to come back and check it out. I’m hoping it will be fun and enjoyable.

Thank you for reading.

Day 365: 52 Weeks

And here we are. Day 365. It’s crazy to think that one year ago today I was still waiting to find out if I would be having a son or a daughter.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Jackson being with us for a whole year. We don’t plan on doing much, just hanging out with the four of us (Toby is looking forward to being included) at the park. I won’t go into too many details now, best to save them until after they have happened. Because if there is one thing I’ve learned in the last 365 days…. It’s that nothing is for sure until after the fact.

Actually, I’ve learned a lot more than that. I have learned a lot over the last year. Too much to recount in just one post. At least, not in one post that I’m starting 20 minutes after I e already missed my bedtime by 30 minutes (in case that’s confusing, it should add up to 50 minutes past my bedtime). But with all I have learned, I also know that I’m just getting started. I know that there are a lot of things still to come.

I’d like to thank all of you who have joined with me on this incredible journey. It’s been fun sharing my experiences and I hope it’s been fun for you to read about them. Now that I have successfully (if we ignore the two bouts of forgetfulness) blogged everyday for the first year of parenthood, the obvious question is “how long do I keep going?”. And I think the answer to that is, “as long as I keep having things to share”. Now that I’ve hit my year mark, I may bypass the “nothing to say” posts. But rest assured, just as my journey into parenting is really just getting stated, so is this blog. I never intended this to be a year long project, or a blog about my first year parenting, I intended it to be a blog about my parenting adventure. And, as I see it, that’s an adventure I will be on for the rest of my life.

I’m not really sure what the posting frequency is going to be from here on out, we’ll just have to discover that together.

For now, I can just say that I’ve enjoyed things so far. I hope you have too. And I hope you plan on sticking around. The next few days will probably involve some retrospective posts. I think a year is way too much to sum up in one day, so I’ll probably spread it out. I don’t exactly have a plan on how, I’ve always been a more “fly by the seat of my pants” type of blogger, so we’ll just see what happens.

For now, I’m going to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day after all

Thank you for reading.

Day 364: Party Time

Today we had Jackson’s

FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!!! His birthday isn’t until Monday, true, but who wants to have a party on a Monday

The party went really well. After not being to thrilled about having a lot of strange people around, Jackson eventually became ok with it and just started walking around outside playing with sticks and babbling.

Of course, what would be a party without cake… Which also happened to be Jackson’s

FIRST TASTE OF SUGAR: He wasn’t to sure at first, mostly because he doesn’t like having his hands messy. But Amanda gave him a little taste of frosting to which he responded with an approving “mmmmm mmmuuuummm mum mmmm”, which is is way of saying “yummy”. He eventually dug in a little and even ate some frosting off his own hands. He never did go crazy into it like you will see some kids do, but he did enjoy it. He probably just didn’t like he messiness, and that outweighed the yummines and the fun. He also may have been thrown off with everyone staring at him

I got pictures, but they are on the real camera so I will have to get them uploaded and posted later.

And that was our day.

It’s crazy to think that exactly one year ago, at this time, we were sitting in the hospital. Amanda had been induced less than an hour ago at this point and we were just getting started with what would be a long, long weekend of waiting. But how that wait was worth it.

Time has gone by so fast… But I’ll save most of that sentimental retrospective stuff for Monday’s post

Thank you for reading.

Day 363: Videos

As promised here are the videos I had been telling you about.

First up we have Jackson standing on his own. Yeah, he stood up, no biggie

Second we have Jackson walking back from getting the mail. I tied to carry him part of the way tonight…. He was having none of that. Squirmed and wriggled until I put him back down

Oh, and here is a bonus of Jackson waving his arm around like a spaz. Yep. That’s my kid right there.

Thank you for reading.

Day 362: Strolling

Typically in the evenings we take a walk to the mailbox. This allows us to not only get the mail, but it gives Jackson some outside time and keeps him a little happier a little longer before going to bed.

Tonight, we let him walk himself. And he did. All the way to the mailbox and back. Which is actually quite a ways as it involved walking all the way around the corner house (the house next to ours). By the time we got back you would think he was done walking, but nope, he walked around the yard for quite a bit before we had to take him back inside for bath time.

I got some video of him walking. I’ll post it tomorrow….. I, uh….. Promise??

Thank you for reading.

Day 361: Standing

Jackson stood up on his own today.

The crazy part is that Amanda just so happened to decide to video him…. So she captured it!! I haven’t gotten a chance to upload it yet, so I can’t share it now, but maybe tomorrow ill have it.

The point is, he can now stand on his own. He hasn’t repeated the feat yet, but I’m sure he will soon.

Watch out world, here comes Jackson!!!

Thank you for reading.

Day 360: Sharing

I was eating a cracker today and Jackson decided he wanted some too…

But he wasn’t quite sure on the whole “biting” part, so I graciously gave him a small piece

He’s such a cute kid, how could I refuse? Besides, what better way to teach sharing, right?

Also, he almost stood up today all by himself without using anything for help. He went from a seated position to balancing on on knee while starting to stand up on the other foot (think Tebow position). He wobbled for a bit then sat back down. But, he is at least aware of the right thing to do.

Beyond that, he is a walking machine now. As long as he can get help standing up (or has something to pull himself up with) he can pretty much walk as much as he wants to. Seems like it happened very fast. But then, it seems like that has been the case with just about every milestone

Thank you for reading.

Day 359: 6 Days And Counting…

Just a quick post tonight. Not much to say and I’m pretty tired. But, we’re closing in….. Just six days to go

And if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about…. Come back in 6 days

Thank you for reading.

Day 358: Mother’s Day

Today was Amanda’s

FIRST MOTHER’S DAY: We took things pretty easy today. Amanda opened her present. A pair of Sseko sandals, if you don’t know what those are, check out their website, it’s a very cool concept. Last year I got her a pair of TOMS shoes, even though Jackson hadn’t arrived yet. So I thought I’d keep with the tradition and get her another pair of shoes (and support another worthy cause), this time from me and Jackson.

Last year on Mother’s Day we were only 1 week away from meeting our little guy (though we though we were 2 weeks away). Now we are 1 week (and 1 day) away from his first Birthday. It seems crazy that so much time has passed. And yet, I can also hardly remember what life was like without Jackson. He has become part of the family so quickly that thinking of a time before him is actually painful to do, because I don’t want to.

But, enough of that, there will be plenty of that coming up in a week.

I’ll close by saying that this weekend was a great one. Lots of fun time spent with my family. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Thank you for reading.