Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all.  Yesterday Jackson and mom and dad all went out to Aunt Sarah's house for our formal Easter meal.  Jackson was the hit, and everyone loved him, of course.  Cousin Jenny was home from India and got to see him for the first time.  He ate at the same time as everyone else, and mom and he took naps together. 
Today we all went to great grandma's place for Easter brunch.  Jackson dressed up in some sweet duds.  He wore the dress shirt onesie that Uncle Eddie gave him, along with some Easter overalls that the Blackstone's gave him.  He was way cute.  Of course, mom had to embarass him and put some bunny ears on him.  We also made a quick trip to the hospital with him to visit all the nurses and doctors for Easter.  Everyone was so impressed and surprised with how big he is, and how great he is doing.

Family Easter photo

Mom, really?

Dad, do something about this!

Check out the awesome hat Grandpa Mike hooked me up with.

Stylin' in my Easter outfit courtesy of the Blackstone's.

Hangin' with my new pal.

Mom and I at Easter Brunch

Dad and I after the Easter Feast

Grandpa Mike sure took a shining to me this weekend

Great Grandma can never get enough lovin' on me.

Wednesday, April 20th

So Jackson is doing really well.  He had another visitor, Julia's college friend Nicole.  She was so happy to see little Jackson.  She and her friends have been praying for him the whole time.  ECI came back to the house to check Jackson out. They are very pleased with his development. He seems to be on track for his adjusted age. He is still gaining weight, but a little slower. We noticed his reflux seemed to be flaring up so we have changed his medication from Prilosec to Prevacid. They say it will take about seven days to see the full affect, so we are crossing our fingers it will be a better solution. So far it looks like it might. Jackson is getting more and more vocal, he loves to coo and babble. He is getting better at expressing himself with his arms and hands. 

Nicole geting some good Jackson action.

OMG, what is that in your hands

Mom, how long did they say I had to be here?

Fine, another ten minutes.

Wednesday April 13th

We had a pretty busy weekend. On Friday, our good friends Jaclyn and Andy were in town for a wedding, so they stopped by to meet Jackson. We all went to lunch and enjoyed the nice weather on the patio. On Saturday, we went down to UT to meet some friends for a campus tour. Man it was hot!! Jackson slept through the tour, so we didn't get any pictures of him down at UT. Poor Jackson was pretty cranky that evening, we are thinking it was because of the heat. Lesson learned. On Sunday we went to a friend's house to deliver dinner since they just had a baby. Seeing Jackson near their child made us realize that Jackson is really getting bigger. Since we see him everyday it is kinda hard to tell how he is growing, we do notice some things like he is getting more hair.

Yesterday Julia took Jackson to meet her friend Marti. It was a nice visit for her and was good to be out of the house. Jackson loves going for car rides, he almost always takes a tap and doesn't mind his car seat.

Jackson with Jaclyn and Andy

Jackson with his new bear from Grandma

Jackson trying to call his Grandparents--come and see me!!

He loves to rub his blanket on his face. Its too cute!

Dad caught Mom and Jackson taking a nice nap together.

Thursday April 7th

on Tuesday we took Jackson to his first restaurant, in times before we have always eaten on a patio or picnic area, so this was a big step for us. We went to Julia's favorite Mexican Restaurant, Camino Real, which is a small neighborhood place. Our friend Beth went with us and it was a fun trip for all of us, including Jackson, who of course captured the heart of the women eating next to us. He was being his cute self, and was very well behaved. Now that we are getting towards the end of RSV and Flu season, we are getting a little more lax about taking him places. Although there are places he just won't go for a while, like malls, grocery stores, and really packed areas.

Greg and Jackson after dinner at Camino Real

Wednesday,  Julia and Jackson ran an errand to meet her friend Katie and their daughter Kenna. It was a nice visit for Julia, since she was able to talk to Katie about her transition from working to staying at home. Even though Julia isn't planning on staying home full time, she had some good tips for keeping sane. 

Today, Julia and Jackson went to visit his Great Grandma at her house and had a nice visit. Jackson enjoyed the new setting, and Julia enjoyed getting out of the house. We have found that the key to not going crazy or getting too nervous about Julia's job change, is to get out of the house-- going for walks, visiting with friends or even running errands. This weekend should be a fun one, since we have friends coming in for a visit and we are giving a campus tour to a friend's daughter who is thinking of coming to UT next year. Hopefully we will get lots of cute pictures of Jackson on the 40 acres!

mmmmm Jackson waiting for his bottle.

Monday April 4th

a very normal day around the Wood Household. Jackson slept until 8am! He enjoyed lots of tummy time, naps and a walk with the doggies. Today when he didn't want to eat anymore he started growling at us. Looks like his dog big brothers are teaching him some tricks. He is getting more vocal everyday. The one thing that makes us kinda sad is that he is wanting to spend more time wiggling and less time snuggling.

tummy time, working on my crawling skills

waking up from my nap. I love my blankie.

April 3

OMG! So many changes to talk about. First off, we apologize that we haven't updated Jackson's blog in a while, we had a couple of crazy weeks with Jackson. Julia decided that the best thing for herself and Jackson would be to go ahead and leave her job and look for something new. She had been with her company for almost 10 years, and where she loved working there, with Jackson her focus needed to change. So we are hoping she will be able to find something new that will work well with her desires to be a very hands on mom. Plus she really needed a bit longer to mentally recover, she went from pregnant to having a baby in 5 weeks, and is still trying to adjust to mommyhood--which she loves. So please keep our family in your prayers as we adjust to these new changes. We know in the end this is what is best for Jackson.

On the Jackson front, he is doing excellent. He is starting to babble and really socialize with us. He is growing well, he is now over 11lbs. He is sleeping through the night, meaning he will go to bed after his 10pm feeding and wake up around 6am. Last night he slept until 8am which was a blessing to all of us. He had to get a big batch of shots, since he is officially 6 months old. This left him a little fussy. He also got another antibody shot for RSV which caused him to develop a cough. Even though it was a little annoying dealing with that, it proved to the doctors that his immune system is working and responding to the vaccines. He has had lots of visitors at house and made his first official restaurant outing. We took him to Torchy's Tacos for lunch with his nurse Jackie and her husband. His Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jaime joined us too. Of course it was a beautiful spring day which made it perfect for being outside. A couple days later, he had another outing to South Austin Torchy's to meet his Uncle Tim. Tim was in town on business and had free time for lunch. We were so happy to see Tim, and to have Jackson meet him! We also had our friends Malcolm and Rachel over with their son Noah. Noah was born about a week after Jackson, so it was kinda nuts to see the two kids next to each other. We are hopeful Jackson will catch up to Noah, and are very excited about Jackson having a buddy in the neighborhood.

His last big event was that he was able to have another visit from Fr. Jonathon. The last time Fr. Jonathon saw Jackson was in December. So he was amazed with our miracle. We are getting more adventurous with Jackson, taking him outside, to a Church picnic and on walks. Getting out of the house is good for all of us and we are enjoying the spring weather in Austin. We are always happy to have healthy visitors, so let us know if you have free time, because we love letting Jackson meet all of his friends and family who have been praying for him during this time.

mmmm Mommy loves Torchys!

Greg, Tim, Jackson and Julia at Torchy's- South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery

Uncle Tim and Jackson

Fr. Jonathan and Jackson

Malcolm & Rachel with their son Noah. Noah was born a week after Jackson.

WHO the hell are you?

Oh, hey Beth.

Wait, who the hell are you?