So 6 weeks ago yesterday Jackson made his grand enterance into the world!  It's hard to believe that he is this old already and what an amazing journey it has been, I cannot wait to see what the next six weeks will bring!  He is starting to really smile, and he is actually doing it more often and we almost have captured it on camera...I think he knows we want a picture of his beautiful smile and is teasing us.  SO if we get one we will post it ASAP!  He is also eating 4 to 5 ounces at a time now and weighed in at 10 lbs. 13 oz. last Thursday at the doctors office so he is pretty close to doubling his birth weight already!  And he is noticing so much more now and is really studying what he sees and hears, there is a black and white photo on the wall above the couch that he is obsessed with!  And as for sleep he is doing pretty well at night, he sleeps for 4 to 5 hour stretches and there are even times when I wake him up to feed him because I get nervous about letting him go too long without food, and during the day he sleeps pretty well as long as I am holding him, except for now time like now when he is sleeping in his jumper, almost sideways mind you but I have repositioned him multiple times already and he still moves right back to the same postion, so that is where I am leaving him!  While he was born with a pretty big personality he has even more now, but I still find myself thinking about what is yet to come...will he be a jokester like his dad?  Will he be sarcastic like me?  Will he like being outside and doing things with dad or will he like going shopping with mom (daddy is horrified that he might like to do this)?  Will he like Rice Crispys or Captain Crunch or something completely different?  We are just so excited to see what he likes and doesn't like, if he takes after me or Joe or if he is completely different than the two of us...babies are a mystery and I cannot wait until Jackson reveals himself!

So today I was feeding Jackson his 4 ounce bottle (I think he will be demanding 5 pretty soon) and I just had to post this picture of him.  This is proof that there is some of me in him, while he quite obviously looks like daddy his personality is more like mine I think.  Part of that is his messy eating habits, most people who know me know that no matter where we are and what we are eating I usually get something on me or my clothes.  As Joe says, "It's not a meal unless Sarah gets something on her."  Someday we will have to video him eating because he seriously sounds like he hasn't eaten in days, he grunts, groans, growls, and cries if we take the bottle out of his mouth before he gets a good two ounces in him!  Today he was eating so fast that he was choking and when I took the bottle out of his mouth he screamed at the top of his lungs (something he is getting pretty good at, I blame all the people who said he had such a cute quiet cry, yeah not so cute and not so quiet anymore!).  At first I thought it was because he had choked but yeah put the bottle in his mouth and he stopped screaming, it was litterally like I had flipped a switch.  Anyway just wanted to post this picture on here and another one of him and his froggy, yes he is licking him!  Or maybe he is trying to eat him, he is always hungry...

So just wanted to write a quick diddy about something funny I realized about parenthood.  THis morning while staring at my beautiful baby boy I saw the elusive booger (gross I know) but I swear this thing has been hiding out for the better part of two days, and of course the balloon sucker thing is nowhere in sight (it never is, I swear it has grown legs and walked away) and I am not risking loosing the little green monster when I get up to look for the sucker.  So as any mother would do I picked it, yes I picked my own kids nose!  And I won't go into detail about what happened next because it wasn't pretty but as I sat back on the couch pretty darn proud of myself and rewarded for me efforts by this big grin from Jackson I though wow parenthood is pretty cool (but not when you are picking your kids booger)  but it can be pretty gross at times too (this is where I would file booger picking experiences).  And when else can someone get away with picking a nose?  If an adult picked their nose in front of someone or in public they would probably get a few dirty looks and maybe even a comment or two, but if a mom does it to their baby they get a free pass...odd thought I know but it popped into my head and I just had to share it, plus I am pretty excited that Jackson can now breathe a little easier.  I swear I cannot wait until cold season is over!  And yes I just did a whole post about boogers, odd but I think parenting is odd at times and what do we deal more with than spit up, poop, and boogers?  Well he is on his way to waking up from a nap so I am off, probably will look for more boogers too, the things we do for our children!!!

So today Jackson smiled during a game of peek-a-boo for the first time.  This is not his first smile by far but it was so cute how the little grin appeared out of nowhere!  It was adorable and made my heart melt.  Of course the minute I called Joe in to witness it and possibly catch the elusive smile in a picture Jackson got all sorts of serious.  I swear he knows when I either try and take a picture where he is actually smiling and not giving the grumpy face or when I am trying to show someone else he does actually smile! 

And he also smiled at the wall decorations above his changing table, now at first I thought, "he must be super happy to get out of this wet diaper."  But then I realized that he would gladly sit in a wet diaper for the better part of the day if we let him, so I pulled off the wall deocrations and let him look at them and low and behold he smiled again.  LAter when I put him in his crib for a few minutes he had the grin on his face again and I relaized the giraffe from the wall deocration is also on his crib bumper and so it appears we picked the right theme for his nursery because every time he sees the animals from the decorations he gets happy.

He also peed on me three times in a row and thought it was mighty funny...and normally for those of you who know me I would not be too happy about any type of bodily fluid on me but it was seriously the funniest thing I had experienced today, and again if it brought a smile to his face how could it not bring one to mine?  He is my miracle baby, my gift from God.  And every smile is like a bright ray of sunshine, and when he gets fussy, like he is right now, I still smile because I remind myself how long it took for us to get him.  He is 5 weeks old today and I cannot wait to see how many times he smiles, pees, and cried in the next 5 weeks and for 5 weeks after that and so on.  This is only the start of a lifetime of smiles and I cannot wait until we experience the next one!

So today was Jackson's first Halloween and he was dressed in his onsie and pumpkin hat and socks all day...I think he actually liked having the hat on his head.  Then when daddy got home we had dinner then went trick-or-treating!  First we went to Grandma and Grandpa Roth's and got a card and gift...check out the photo of him, he was super excited about it, lol!  All he does is sleep anymore but he was nice enough to wake up before we left and give his grandparents a smile or two.  Then it was off to Grandma and Grandpa Tennant's and we got to see all his cousins.  But I forgot to get pictures of Jackson with Dylan, Ryan and Ashley...we will have to recreate the moment or something, I thought preggo brain was supposed to go away at delivery!  But we did get a picture of Aiden and Jackson together.  Then we had one more stop to make at Aunt Becki and Uncle Jeremy's new house!  And now we are so ready to cuddle on the couch and eat our leftover Hallowwen candy...well Jackson will get a bottle but next year he can have a piece of candy!

this picture reminds me of the celebs trying to run from the photogs!