Is it March yet?

I have to say that I am so glad February is coming to an end! These last two weeks have been pretty brutal for our family. At one point three of the four of us were on antibiotics, and as I type this, there are still two of us finishing them up! It all started two weeks ago, the day after our aquarium trip. I already blogged about Adam's pink eye - it wasn't pretty. Two days after that, Jackson was in the doctors office. I was concerned because when he had gotten up that morning, his eyes were a little crusty. So in to the doctor, only to find out that he had a double ear infection. Apparently there is a nasty RSV type cold going around up here that brings wheezy breathing, runny noses, and ear infections! Jackson had the runny nose, but wasn't showing any signs of the ear infections. We started antibiotics and hoped for the best. Two days after that, I woke up with a fever, a nasty headache that had been building all week, and a throat that felt like I had swallowed a razor blade. So, I went to see the doctor to find that I had mastitis and a bad cold. Three days later, Jackson was back to the doctor because he was now acting like he had an ear infection. The first antibiotic hadn't been working and his ears were worse, so a new one was prescribed in the hope that it would work. I woke up the next morning with pink eye.
Now, here it is almost two weeks from the day that Adam got pink eye, we spent the day washing every pillow and blanket in the house and disinfecting all toys. Everyone seems to be feeling better and we have a few days left to finish up antibiotics, but we are all looking forward to a much better month of March!
I just have one questions - how did Scott manage to dodge all those bullets?

5 Months!

The baby is 5 months old today! How quickly those 5 months have gone by!! Jackson's had lots of new stuff going on this past month. He started solids foods - rice cereal as well as squash and pears. He's been rolling over like a champ - at least from his back to his belly, then he usually just gets mad because he can't make it back over. I know it's just a matter of time before he's rolling all over the place! He also had his first ear infection this month! Poor baby actually had a double ear infection, so he's had his first antibiotics as well. I was so glad that I finally took him in to see the doctor. I didn't even suspect an ear infection though. He is really an amazing baby and was still sleeping and was generally his normal happy self. I just thought he had a bad cold, and was worried about him getting pink eye from his brother, which is why I took him in.

Here are some fun pictures of our fast growing baby (he was 19 pounds 10 ounces when I took him to see the doctor!)

BJ Bear is helping to get Jackson dressed for the day.

Here he is in the cute hat my Grandma Couch made for him. The first hat she sent was too small! What is it with my big-headed children?

Bath time - he's starting to get more hair!

Cozy in his towel after the bath!

Enjoying a ride in the stroller!

Playing with Grandma Wallis.

My happy boy! Love that smile!!!

He is so interested in what we are eating and drinking. Here he's enjoying some of Granda's water. He kept grabbing at her cup and gulping the water!

Playing with his bear.

Pear covered face!

Love that Baby Jackson!

Pizza

Monday night has become pizza night at our house. Scott brings home some good Rock pizza dough and he and Adam have a great time practicing their dough stretching skills. Which means that there is flying dough in our kitchen! I think by the time Adam is ready for a job, he'll be a pizza throwing champ! Grandma caught some good pictures of the flying dough tonight!

Playing with Grandma

We spent most of the day at home today. Adam and Grandma had a great time playing. They played good guy, bad guy, transformers, cars, legos, and they even took turns playing Adam's Leapster. Here are a few pictures of the car crashes...

Jackson joined in on the car playing by sucking on this car.

Here they are building forts and stuff with legos.

Adam has had a great time having Grandma here and won't leave her alone! He loves playing with Grandma!!

The head tilt.

Jackson been doing this really cute thing. Every once in awhile, when you're holding him he will turn his head to the right and curl down his body down. For awhile I thought he had an earache or something, but he just kept doing it. Grandma Wallis figured out what he was doing today. She sat him in his activity center and watched him do this...

That's how he's been getting the lion to roar in his activity center. Every time we put him in it today, he would tilt his head and lay it down on the button to make the lion roar. So funny!

Eeewhhh!

We made it thru Sacrament meeting today before Adam's eye started dribbling out green goop. Scott took Adam home and we headed out to find an urgent care or walk in clinic. Amazingly, we haven't had to do any of that before. After seeing a nice doctor, it was official, Adam has his first case of pink eye - and it's a doozy! Can you tell which eye is infected? Eeewwhhhhh!!!

Feed the Birds

After our visit to the Aquarium, we walked down the Seattle water front to Ivars fish bar - one of our favorite places to eat when in Seattle. We had some yummy fish and chips and clam chowder and then went out to feed our leftover fries to the seagulls! Grandma got some great pictures!

Aquarium

Scott's mom had been here for a visit, so on Saturday we decided to go do something fun and went to the Seattle Aquarium. Adam had never been before, and it had been forever since I had been there, so we were excited to go check it out.
When you walk into the Aquarium, there is a wall that is one huge fish tank. There was a diver in the tank feeding some of the fish. He was hi-fiving all the kids. Here's Adam getting his hi-five!

Lots of star fish to see. Adam touched one, and wouldn't put his hand back in the water.

Jackson spent his time in the stroller being pushed around. Isn't he a cutie!!
It was octopus week at the aquarium. It was very strange to watch this guy breathe. Gods creatures are amazing!

Here's Adam shaking hands with the octopus. I don't think the little girl was too happy about him getting so close!

Jackson made it out of the stroller for a look into the starfish tide pool.

And to pose for a picture with his brother.

There were a few other displays - lots of fish, seals, otters, shore birds. We had a nice time checking it all out.

Preschool Fun!

Adam still has another school year before he starts kindergarten. So, for this (2009/2010) school year, I decided to do a co-op preschool with some friends from church that have kids the same age. There are 3 other kids, and the moms all take turns planning and having the classes at our homes. The other moms were so nice to give me lots of time to get adjusted to having Jackson before it was my turn to teach - so I got the whole month of January, and we had lots of fun. I have a few pictures of some of the things we've done (I didn't ask for permission to post pics of the other kids, so it's all Adam).
We started our first day celebrating the new year. We decorated 2010 glasses and talked about the new year and making resolutions to do something new. That's a hard concept for 3 and 4 year old kids, but it was a fun discussion!
The next day we had a pajama party. All the kids came in their best PJ's, and we had fun talking about what we do before bedtime and making a good night book.

The next couple of weeks, we talked about snow and winter and snowmen. Then healthy habits - good food for our bodies, (now, every time Adam wants a snack, he asks "Can I have something good for my body" - it's very cute), and we talked about exercise and did some yoga. We learned the frog, swan, shark and tree poses.

I ended up doing two extra weeks of preschool because the mom that was supposed to take over for February had a very sick younger child. He got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for close to a week. So, we had fun talking about our teeth, and painting with toothbrushes, and then talking about things with wheels and painting with matchbox cars. The next week we had a Valentines party and Preschool Olympics - which was so much fun! We colored Olympic flags, and made our own torches. We ended the day with some Olympic games (balloon hitting, frog jumps, somersaults and dancing), a metal ceremony and closing ceremonies where everyone got to march around waving their flags and torches.

I really enjoyed my stint of teaching preschool, and am looking forward to doing it again for a few weeks in June. I think Adam's had a fun time as well!

The Rollover

It's official - at 4 and a half months, Jackson accomplished the big rollover. The best part was that he did it twice, so I could get pictures! He started out like this...

Made it to his side (he's been getting this far for a couple of days, so I knew it was only a matter of a little more tummy time before he made it all the way over)
And onto the back.

Adam and I were clapping and cheering. I think Jackson thought we had lost it!

One more milestone passed! I feel like he's growing up too fast!

The Baby Fort

Adam loves forts. Adam also loves to play with pillows. Put the two together along with baby brother, and you've got a baby fort. At least this time the pillows aren't on top of all of Jackson... and there was no jumping on top of the pillows involved. Adam said that Jackson wanted a fort too. What a nice older brother.