moving

Here is a video of Jack using his new skills. Warning: he is very fussy in this video, not his normal self, we went to the doctor this afternoon and started on some Antibiotics, but it's cool to see him moving :)

I takes to the 1:20 to really see him go...bear with him.
He is doing okay today, but he has not been sleeping well...or eating, that's how we knew he was sick, poor little guy!


ps, jessi, i finally figured out the videos!!!!

what's new

So for the Sweatlands there have been quite a few changes in the past few weeks. Jake graduated from his course last Friday and he has been inprocessing with a new unit. So that is new. I have really been busy with my part time job, and Jack (drumroll please) is finally on the move standing up!!!

Here are daddy and jack before his first day in the new unit!

Us at graduation

Daddy and Jack (aren't they handsome)

Jack being very excited about the camera!

On the radio flyer his most favorite thing! He loves to ride it around the house as fast as he can, as well as outside. He has had a couple of tumbles, but wants to get right back on and do it again. Usually he is upset to be taken off of it!

Jack in the snow with our snowman!

Jack and daddy (daddy threw a snowball at jack)

Outside on the John Deere

So yes, Jack started standing up alot about a week ago, and a couple of day ago he started to push his stand up toys and walk across the room!!! Very exciting. It is all he wants to do now, as well as walking holding onto our fingers. What a big guy!

He does have an ear infection right now, so he has been a little fussy, but we are on ATB now and that should help...

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

WHEW 12 & 13 months

Us at Universal Dr. Seuss world!
Jack and his new buddy Scout!

Jack on his rocking Tigger

HARRY POTTER!!!! Need I say more? (i am a big harry potter fan, nerdy i know)

Polar slider from Uncle Josh and Aunt Kristen

After a very long break from blogging we are back.

So the Thanksgiving pics were from right when Jack had his first birthday. We had a great time in Orlando and we got to go to Universal Studios, Jack did really well all day, we just took turns riding rides. It was so fun!!!

We celebrated with Uncle Josh and Aunt Kristen, then when we got back we celebrated with Grandma, Papa, and Great Grandma. He had carrot cake cupcakes with orange cream cheese icing. Daddy was in the field for Jack's actual birthday. And we didn't get him anything because he really didn't need anything, but he still received many presents from lots of people :)

At 12 months Jack was scooting very well, he was trying to pull himself up, but couldn't quite do it. He then did successfully pull himself up for the first time at Auntie Jessi's house around the 13th of Decmeber. Right before his one year appt!!! I was very excited to be able to tell the provider that he could pull himself up if he really wanted to.

He is ahead in many skills though. He can say mama, dada, papa, light, woof woof for doggies (always at the pictures in his books) and occasionally will respond when asked what a sheep says with raahhh!!! which is awesome. he can point to his nose most of the time. He also had started to point to things he wanted. Like food, toys, daddy, etc.

He can feed himself at all meals and he finally started sleeping throught the night when we got back from Thanksgiving. He consistently slept from 7:30-8 till 5:00 in the morning at least. He then gets some milk if he wakes up and stays in his crib either playing or sleeping again till about 7:30 or 8. some days he sleeps till 7:30 without waking up. (those are good days for mommy)

Before Christmas I was still nursing him at night and in the morning. We stopped the night nursing right after Christmas and then about a week later right after New Years stopped nursing altogether. The transistion was really smooth, no engorgement or issues, he was upset one morning when I wouldn't nurse him, but I gave him his milk cup and he happily went on with life. I think it was harder for me, but it is very freeing!

The transition to milk was slow at first, just a few onces at a time, but now he can drink 8 oz at once when he wants it. He still eats everything!! He hasn't turned down any foods yet. Which is great! At his 12 month appt he weighed 24 lbs 7 oz and was 29.5 inches long. He is a big boy! We love it. He is wearing 12-24 month clothes, but most pants are now 18-24 months.

Just last week he finally learned how to sit up on his own. He has been a good sitter since he was 6 months and the scooting, but he could never get himself from his belly to sitting up. Last week he started to crawl like a snow plow. He would use his face like a plow and use his arms and legs. That lasted for 1 day, on Tuesday last week, the 11th he actually crawled with his arms and legs and head up and then figured out he could sit up from there. Since then he has been sitting up all the time and he claps because he is soo excited!

The only down side to this development was the first couple of nights where he would wake up and decide he needed to sit up right away and then because he was sleepy he couldn't figure out how to lay back down and would then cry till we came in to lay him back down. That lasted for about 2 nights, then it was done. He is now able to sit up and has slept good the last couple of nights.

Today before his nap he was standing in his crib, so he is making good progress in his gross motor skills :)

He also now has 11 teeth. He cut his eye teeth on the top over Christmas/New Years and this week his first molar broke the surface. No fevers or break outs, just alot of chewing and some drool.

He is loving his toys! He loves to play and read books. He will sneak away from us and we find him in his room looking at books. Of course he also sneaks away and unrolls the toilet paper, takes books off the shelves, gets into the pens, and just the other day ate half of a crayon before I realized it.

He can scribble with a crayon and we are working on using the spoon and bowl, he is doing well with it and gets very upset when I take it away.

Discipline is still in place and he is beginning to really throw a fit when we take away something he wants, but we are learning along with him how to handle it. Tonight for example I would not let him have my phone, he screamed at me, I promptly left the room and he screamed a few more times then decided to follow me and calm down. It hasn't always been that easy though and I am learning to deal with the rearing of his independence and try to encourage it without giving him everything he wants :)

We want him to know his boundaries. He still does well with no touch and is generally still pretty laid back in attitude and happy.

Naps: he just started taking 1 nap a day, which I was not ready for, but he was. He now naps from about 1-4. Some days we still take 2 if he had a bad night, or got up really early, but it is nice for me when I have Bible study or MOPS to know he can make it till 12 without a nap and not meltdown :)

WHEW, time flies I will blog more about Christmas, New Years and my new job soon, but wanted to get this update before he gets any bigger. He is such a joy to us, and we are soo thankful that the Lord blessed us with such a wonderful little man.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

We are in Orlando with Jake's brother Josh and his wife Kristen. We had and are having a great time!

We had a wonderful family meal, Jack has been really good, besides waking up at 5:37 on Thanksgiving morning, I guess he was just excited to see his Aunt and Uncle :)

We had some professional pictures taken on Friday, they turned out soo well. Since Jack will be the big 1 year old in 2 days we are counting them as his 12 month pics.

Here are 5 of my favorites, more to come, but we don't want to spoil the Christmas card.

Freaky 4 miler

On Saturday we went up to Durham for a Freaky 4 miler fun run, it was a costume contest too. We entered Jack, he took 3rd place, (there were more than 4 people entered) these were the top 4.

The race was put on by a running shoe store that our friend Holly works at, here are daddy and jack ready for the race.

Dave and Jake and Jack

In the Bob ready to go.

Mommy and Jack, I pushed jack, it was a very nice smooth running trail, very stroller friendly. Jake ran really fast, and I had a good run too, it was a great day!

11 months

Jack is now just one month away from the big 1st birthday! I think in this picture you can really see that he is getting bigger and more like a little boy.

As you can see he made his way under the table. He moves the chairs and then scooted his way under there. He was very proud. He is not crawling, but he is very mobile. He scoots using his arms and knees, just sitting straight up. It's really funny to watch. He is getting all over the house though.

He is also starting to learn discipline. He now knows what no means, and listens most of the time. We are just working on what to touch and what not to touch because we don't plan on moving every possible thing out of his reach, he will learn what is okay and what is not. Of course we have made it safe, nothing dangerous that he can get into. He is getting bigger and bigger, he is very tall and I think he is really lengthening out, his legs are still very thick, but his top half is getting thinner. He is soo verbal, Always talking and telling us something. He is eating everything, He is nursing 4 times a day 5, 8, 2, and I am feeding him real food at 10 and then at 6 or 6:30. He feeds himself very well and can use his sippy cup. He is napping well still, twice a day about 11 and 4. He goes to bed at 8, and is sleeping well till 5 am usually and then back to bed until 8 or 8:30. His sleeping has become much more predictable. If he wakes up earlier at night now it is usually because he is not feeling good. His molars are starting to come in, so his hand is almost constantly in his mouth.

We aren't having constipation issues anymore. He is also doing really well with childcare options. He does well at MOPS, PWOC, and anywhere we leave him with people. He is fine until we walk back in the room, then he starts talking and yelling at us :)

He is still the happiest guy. He loves his toys and books, he does really well with reading time and loves to eat his books. He still also does very well with alone play time. We may have to pull out the pack and play now that he so mobile to use as a play pen.

Next month we'll have new stats for height and weight. And I'm going to try to get video of him scooting.

Halloween

This year for Jack's first Halloween we did a few fun things. Here he is in his incredible hulk costume. It's a costume for 18 month olds... but it fits him perfectly. We love it.

Not sure about this

Eating his pumpkin
Hmmmm...

Our church had a Trunk or treat where people decorate their cars and hand out candy from the church, they had bouncy houses, a dunk tank, it was great!!! We brought Jack for his first experience. Here he is with ET, an awesome costume for candy giver, Jack was terrified....

Jake and Jack giving Elvis lip

Family shot

So this is one of the first times Jack has been very very scared, he was very interested in the dinosaur, but once sitting on him, not so good.

See, very interested....what can you do?

Happy Hulk

Jack and his buddy Titus from church, Ti is a ninja, LOVE it!

Daddy reading to Jack after the scares.

Our pumpkins!!!! mine is a cyclops

You wouldn't like me when i'm angry face!

Family shot with the pumpkins, at our friends the McConnell's house for Halloween.