I always read on "finger foods that are ok for baby" that they can eat Cheerios. I never gave him any, though, because he seems to have a bit of issue with food that is dry. Other babies seem to really like them, so I thought I'd give it a try.

He loves them. And he's good with them. One time he put too many in his mouth at the same time, and gagged, but I think he learned from that because he only puts one in at a time now :P We bought the multi-grain Cheerios, too, so they're even better :) Not to mention they almost taste like popcorn when you eat them with out milk.

I'm so glad I "discovered" Cheerios. lol

He's growing out of his 9 month pajamas. It seems like we just bought them for him. He's growing too fast!! Now we have to go buy some 12 month ones.

He loves sitting in the squatting position lately. It looks really funny.

Tonight he got his photo taken with Santa! They only give you five shots, and seemed kind of in a hurry even though it wasn't busy.. so they aren't the greatest photos. They needed to give Jack some time to adjust to Santa lol. He just sat there and stared at him. And then we got him to smile for one. And then he started crying. lol. I thought maybe we'd have a baby that wouldn't cry at Santa, because he doesn't cry for strangers, but I guess not.

They're coming in quick, now! A couple days ago Jackson had tooth number five starting to come in. Now he has two bottom center, two top center, and the next one on the top right. All the top ones aren't quite fully in, yet. But, they are definitely noticeable. He doesn't seem to be any crankier, even though he's gotten three teeth in about two weeks. He has been getting up more in the night.. we're not sure if it's related or not.

Speaking of which, he's been having some issues in the sleep department. Last night wasn't too bad. But, the last few nights before that were. Not that they were horrible, but he woke more than usual. And then sometimes wouldn't go back to sleep right away. Which, has never been an issue with him.

He still falls quite a bit when he walks, but he's learning to turn while he's standing. Before, if he wanted to turn around, he would go down into a crawling position, turn, then stand up again and start walking. I haven't been able to get him to walk outside.. as soon as you put him on the ground he thinks "Oooo! Rocks!" and tries to put them in his mouth. Some things are just more important, I guess :P

Photo Jack found some sunshine.

Another funny little thing that Jackson does, is if you lay him on his back on the floor, he just stays there. Then he'll get upset if you don't roll him over or pick him up. The only way he seems to roll over again is if you put an interesting toy near him. I don't know why he refuses to roll over and get up when on his back, but I find it a little amusing. I keep asking him if he's a turtle.

Today he had a little play date with his new friend, Marcus. His mom, Karen, I met through school. Marcus is five months younger than Jackson. So right now, Marcus doesn't really interact with Jackson, but soon enough, I'm sure. Karen and I just drank tea and made sure Jack wasn't poking Marcus in the eye or anything. :P Jackson got a hold of Marcus' bottle and soother, so both went right in the mouth.

Jackson hasn't been drinking any milk during the day anymore. Just at bedtime and during the night. But, once he saw Marcus having a bottle, he had to have one, too. So, I just made him a little one.

Last night he was up quite a bit during the night. Much to my dismay :P Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night. I'm pretty sure the problem was that he was a bit constipated. Around 6:45am he finally had a big poop and then I put him back in his crib and he fell right to sleep. Needs more water and fruit! He still got up at his normal time, though, which amazed me. He usually like 12 hours overall of sleep a night, but he definitely didn't get that last night.

Normally his bedtime is 9:00pm, and he'll wake up around 9:00am. He'll wake once at 3:00am for a bottle, and sometimes 7:00am for a bottle. Then right back to sleep.

Have I mentioned that Jack loves to shut doors? Loves it. I don't know if it's the sound it makes, or what. He's shut himself in a dark room a couple times. Usually we have the doors shut, but if we don't, he notice right away. Lately, though, he's been shutting it almost the whole way, and then pulling it open again and walking out. Such a busy life.

He likes the game we play where I crouch under a blanket, and then random try and grab for him. And if he tries to get away, I crawl after him under the blanket. He gets a kick out of it.

Jordan and I both have little "games" we play with Jack. Whether it be touching him on the nose and he stretches his neck out so the finger can touch his nose faster, or blowing in his face and he makes a funny face, or holding him and pretending that you're dropping him. The part that Jordan and I seem to get a kick out of is that Jackson will sometimes only "play" that games with the one of us. So, Jordan will be like "Ha ha, it's a Daddy game!"

Jackson is now playing fetch with himself.

I just noticed today that Jackson has another tooth coming in. But, it's not the one that we expected. He has the two center bottom ones, the top right center one.. and now the the one to the right of that one is through. lol. It looks a little odd. Maybe for Christmas he'll have both of his front teeth :P

He's been trying to run today. It's not working out so well for him. He just doesn't quite have the balance for that, yet. Though he walks almost everywhere now. He's been carrying one of his shoes as he walks.. either in his hand or his mouth.

Jordan's started a little game of "catch" with him. Jordan will roll the ball to Jack, Jack will pick it up and throw it in Jordan's general direction. And then Jordan will roll it back. It's pretty cute. Now Jack's started throwing the ball, walking to pick it up, throwing it again, walking to pick it up etc. He was keeping himself pretty entertained that way.

Taking a stroll. Walking with daddy in Walmart.

I don't think I mentioned.. Jackson was looking very scrunched in his bucket car seat. We measured him, and he's about 28" tall.. and the car seat goes to 27". He's a couple pounds off the max weight, but he was still too big. We needed to get a bigger car seat.

So, now he's in the tall, toddler seat. It still rear faces until a certain weight, and then you can flip it around. With how small our car is, I didn't think that it would be able to fit the new car seat in rear facing, but it did! That makes me happy. They're saying now that it's best to have your child facing the rear longer than a year. Hopefully we can for a while.. depends how big he gets. There's absolutely no room for expansion in our car :P

He's such a big boy! *tear*

Jackson is ten months old today! I can't believe there's only two months until his first birthday.

Jackson's walking a lot more, now. I'd say about 50% of the time he walks, and the other half he crawls. He's still pretty tipsy, but he's getting better everyday. He catches himself from falling a lot more often.

He finally realized he needs to open his fist up to clap. He clapped a couple times properly today. It was very cute. He still doesn't do it very often, though.

Oh my goodness, tonight I decided to have a couple kiwi's for a snack. I was planning on sharing with Jackson, so I'd hold on to the kiwi and he started eating/sucking on it. When they were gone, he had a fit! lol. His hands were shaking and everything. Luckily, it was time for his bedtime bottle, or Jordan might have had to run out and get more kiwi's! lol. But, since it was his bottle time, it may have been because he was just really hungry. Either way, he likes kiwi's.

Jordan's noticed a new, funny thing with Jackson. If you blow into his face, he gets this hilarious, ecstatic look on his face, like it's the awesomest thing ever lol. He's such a funny child.

His third tooth is still only half way through. No sign of any others, yet.

Jackson has been practicing his walking tonight. He was doing pretty good! He was walking around the living room, then he'd fall, then he get up again. Usually he would just give up for a while, once he fell.

I guess once I left for school tonight, Jack had a screaming fit for over an hour. Jordan said he would do anything, wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, didn't want to be held, didn't want to be put down etc.. he finally had to leave him in his room and Jordan went out onto the deck to have a "Daddy time out." Jackson's never really done that before. After he stopped screaming, he fell asleep for about two hours. Maybe it's because he skipped his nap this morning.

He skipped his nap this morning because we were at a play date!! Jackson got to play with a couple other babies his age. He hasn't really been able to do that before, so that was nice. I thought he'd end up being the baby that gets "picked on" because he's not used to being around other babies.. but he was the one taking a toy or a soother away from another :P He only did each one once, though. But otherwise, he seemed to have fun :) At one point another baby cried, so Jackson started crying lol. And he knocked over a glass of ice tea. Good job.

He also "clapped" for the firs time tonight! One hand was still in a loose fist, but otherwise the motions were right!! Very cute.

Alright, I'll admit it. Jackson's walking. Just because he doesn't do it all the time, doesn't mean he doesn't walk. Today, I got him on video taking about 13-15 steps to the couch! He's doing pretty good, and loving it. I can't believe he's walking already. He's only nine and a half months. Where is the time going?

Sometimes when Jackson wakes up around 6-7am, I know he's still tired, but he sometimes has a hard time going back to sleep. He generally gets about 12 hours of sleep overnight, waking up for a bottle once or twice. After a bottle, he sometimes goes back to sleep in his crib and he's sleep for another hour and a half or so. But, if I bring him to bed with me (Jordan's usually off to work by then) then he sleeps so much better. Today, for instance, he slept until 10:30am! Wow.

A lot of times his around 5pm nap usually consists of me laying on the couch and him laying on me. But his noon nap is in his crib. He just knows what he likes :P

We can't co-sleep at all in bed with Jordan there.. Jordan is a heavy sleeper and he moves a lot. But Jordan gets to have naps on the couch with him sometimes :)

	Photo #1 Playing in the leaves.
	Photo #2 Smiling on his blankie.

Jackson's definitely taking steps a lot more now.. I just don't know if I consider that "walking" or not. lol. Is it? He mostly only takes about three before he falls. The most he's taken is six, and he's only done that once. He usually gets very proud of himself, starts flapping his arms and falls.

Also, yesterday another tooth broke through! Yay! I was wondering when another one would finally come in. This is his third tooth. He has two in the center on the bottom, and now the center top (his) right is about half way through. It looks pretty cute. I can't wait for the next one.

I've never really seen him be scared of anybody or anything.. (minus loud noises).. but I guess he doesn't like small dogs. Or, maybe just my sister's dog. I guess last time he was near it, the dog licked his face, which he didn't appreciate. So, tonight when he just SAW the dog, he got a poutty face like he was about to cry, but she took the dog away in time lol.

Jackson's new thing is standing up and whacking the toilet seat cover. We tried giving him a kitchen pot to bang on, but he didn't seem to go for it.

Jordan says he's seen Jackson take a step here and there.. even a couple at one time. I have yet to see this, so I don't believe it :P I think if anything, he's only stepping as he's falling. He stands a lot now. He's constantly just standing up out of no where, but then not knowing how to get anywhere, so he goes back down and starts crawling. He's very proud of himself when he stands. Sometimes he gets so excited that he'll start flapping his arms, which will throw him off balance and he'll fall. :P

As part of the "bed time routine" now, we seem to have to play a new game with Jackson. It's called "I'm gunna getcha!". He crawls away and we loudly crawl after him, "trying" to grab at his legs and he laughs and laughs and keeps crawling. Sometimes he'll stop and look, as if to see how far away we are, and then he'll keep going. It's very cute.

We need to do this to TIRE THE KID OUT! lol. So far, it's worked quite well and he goes to sleep with barely any problem and last night he even slept through the night. (He usually wakes up at least once for a bottle)

Other than that, he still challenges himself to stand a lot, but no steps yet. You can tell he wants to get from one place to another, but just can't figure out how to do it (even though he scoots around no problem holding on to stuff) so he ends up giving up and crawling over and then standing up again. :P One day.

He also has been getting jealous when people eat. I mean, he has for a while. Now he's almost like a puppy.. he'll sit there and stare at you with the puppy-dog eyes until you give him a piece lol. But, the problem is that if he likes it, and you don't give him another bite, he'll let you know how he feels!!

So much personality for such a little person.

Trying on a hat. He seems to like the hat.

"A daddy is someone who put photos in their wallet where his money used to be."

He does keep harassing me to print out current photos of Jack :P

I just looked over at Jack (who was playing on his play mat) and he was standing!! He had no help or anything, just got up on his feet and pushed up! So proud :)

He had his first Halloween last night. Unfortunately, we live in the boonies, so we had no 'trick or treat'ers. And he's no where near the age to go trick or treating, our night was going to be pretty.. boring. So, he went to Grandma's house. He usually goes every Saturday anyway, but we thought he'd have more of a Halloween experience there than with us. He got to see a bunch of kids in their costumes, and my mom said he seemed to enjoy it :)

The other night he decided it wasn't bed time. He didn't cry in his crib or anything, but he sat there and talked to him and giggled. So, after a a couple tries to lay him down again and not having any luck, we brought him back out. He was SO giggly. I've never seen him that giggly before. We played with him, we chased him, we let him climb all over us.. for about two hours until he was finally tired enough to go to bed. Silly boy. But very cute!

Now he's giggling and running away from me. I must go chase him.