Jackson was born on 5/31/03 at 2:47 pm.  My pregnancy was remarkable only because I had no problems at all aside from some wicked heartburn in the last few months.  He was a full term, normal vaginal delivery and a pretty short labor for a first child.  He was a large, strong baby from the day he was born: 9 lbs. 9 oz. and 21.5 inches.  We could tell that he was going to be active even before he was born.  His nickname in the womb was “Boom-Boom McWiggles” or “Mr. McWiggles” if we were feeling formal.

He was an exceptionally good baby.  He slept well, ate well, pooped and peed well, grew well, never cried too much.  We could throw him in the sling and take him just about anywhere, anytime.  He was fed breast milk exclusively until about 4 months.  He was so large that we felt he could benefit from starting some solid foods.  I continued to pump after going back to work, and nursed him until he was 8 months.  (I would have kept it up but he started to bite…OW!)  He took to solid foods like a champ; he liked almost everything he was given with just a few exceptions.

He met all developmental milestones at the normal times.  He was a very serious, watchful baby.  He would watch and study the things that people around him would do before he would make up his mind if he would do something.  From early on he loved books (reading and eating them).  He would often grab a book and come up to me, plop down on my lap, and we’d read.  It couldn’t be too long of a book though, it was a very rare occurrence that he would sit still someplace more that 5 minutes.  Lots of times, Lee and I would put on a Sesame Street for him and sit down with him hoping for a few minutes of rest.  Usually that would end up with us watching Sesame and Jackson off somewhere else in the room doing what toddlers do.  He used so much energy in a day; it was hard to keep up with him!

He was such a caring, sympathetic little guy.  He couldn’t stand to hear babies cry or see anyone sad.  He would go around kissing different objects in the house (“mmmmmwuh!” was his kissing noise), but was a little bit stingy with the kisses for Mom and Dad.  I was not above pretending to cry when I really wanted a kiss.  It would always work, he’d run over and kiss and hug me.

Some of his favorite things:

Elmo from Sesame Street

 Dancing!  Any time any kind of music would come on he would get up and dance even if it was a commercial.  He would always try to pull Mom and Dad up to dance with him. It was not good enough for us to dance on our knees—we had to stand all the way up to dance with him!

 A little magnetic monkey that hangs on our lamp.  He would ask for it and stick it to various metal items in the house, especially the trashcan in the kitchen.

Rubber duckies

Pushing his own stroller around

Pushing buttons, especially on things that he shouldn’t be touching

Ritz crackers, macaroni & cheese, grapes, yogurt, cheese slices, and bananas

Dogs.  He would imitate their bark.  “Uh uh uh!”

Climbing stairs

Turning lights on and off

 “Talking” on the phone.  He could pretend that just about anything was a telephone.  He would talk into it “mah wah amm wah wah” and sound just like the teacher on the Peanuts cartoon does.

Trees

Being chased by Dad all around the living room

Elbows and bellybuttons

Some of the words that Jackson could say:

 Mama, Dada, bottle, cookie, cracker, Elmo, dog, hot, no, yeah yeah yeah, banana, elbow.