Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The Jaxinator



Not that 15 months is a milestone by any stretch, or that Jax has been doing monumental things lately but seeing as it's been a while since I devoted a post all to the little man that hangs on my leg...here goes!

Jax was officially 15 months on the 2nd. Please don't be offended if I don't share all his measurements with you, I know that most of you probably don't care to know but also we haven't been to the any doctors in a while (which I consider a great thing) so I don't have percentiles and growth charts and heights and weights. But the other day, Connie Campbell (who is wonderful) said the cutest thing to Kyle at Feltners. When asked how Jax was doing the proud daddy replied, "He's huge!" Connie replied, "What do you mean, he's as big as he's supposed to be. As God wants him to be." I thought that was so cute and sweet.
Any woman and mom might and should admit that they secretly or openly compare all the children around their child to or against their own child. Size, growth rate, percentile, developmental skills, etc.
But let's all breath a sigh of relief because God holds the whole world in his hands and takes care of our little babies health and weight and height and even shoe size. If Jax turns out to be taller than both his parents then it's because God designed him to be that way, and if he is always a solid little muscle mass like he is now, then it's because God wanted him to be a junior triathlete.
And honestly, I'm fairly sure he would love to be as active as his dad. He loves being outside, loves the sprinkler, loves finding rocks to hand to his me like they are treasure (I'm not sure at what age you have to start keeping them...). He can almost go up and down the steps all by himself and he does this funny little balance thing where if he is going to fall he can catch himself in a squat position (like a gymnast dismount) and then stand up straight. He loves to go hiking with us and has mixed feelings about swimming in a pool (he'd rather pick up rocks).
A fun new discovery, one rainy day this summer, was that Jax really enjoys coloring. It's a highlight to see him scribble. We got to skype with Amberely the other day and she said it best that she got to see him when he was born and now he's coloring her pictures! Time does fly!

He likes to learn sign language and it helps him tells me things. He can do the sign for "more" and "all done" himself. But he understands and responds to command signs that I do such as "No", "Stop", "Want", "Help", "Yes", "Please". I have a magnet board in the kitchen and I put two words up at a time and we work on them until he can do them or he understands me doing it. Because Jax will have speech handicaps to some extent, I like the giving him another anvenue to tell me things. I also feel like the more he learns the less he "eees" at me or whines when he needs something. (this is nice) He doesn't start speech therapy at ACH until the fall, but I am interested to find out what to what extent his speech will be hindered.
Right now as far real words he says Mamma the most. He also says duck, horse, cracker, quack-quack, and some intermingled nonsense things that I'm sure are real words to him. And when it comes to doing things or saying things on command, he's just like his dad... and refuses. :)

Jax also loves his cousin Beckett. They get the spend alot of time together and they are super cute. Even if Beckett isn't around if Jax sees a picture of Beck, we will squeal and point and get so excited. I am truly thankful for this time in our lives to live so close to Mel and Kev. I know that that might not always be the case so we're taking advantage of doing fun stuff with the boys.
He loves to eat ( and his peepaw belly proves that!). He has always loved any kind of fruit. Today was a first because he finally ate a whole sandwich. I had to put bananas in his pb&J. Elvis would have been proud! I thank Jesus all the time for an easy eater at this point because feeding and food were such a fight in his pre-surgery days. I'd say we deserve it but I know its not about us. He's also a good chomper because he has 11 teeth!
Another thing he does just like his dad is love his shoes. Almost immediately after waking up, he will point to them and go "Uh?" or really any time he spots them he wants to put them on. Sometimes you can find him running around the house in a diaper and no clothes...but you can believe he wanted his shoes on. Classic.

This is a bit of old news but he can finally drink from a sippy cup that has not been mangled by the scissors. He started being able to suck on a soft spouted sippy back when we went to Maryland. And now we're working on a hard spout. He likes straws but doesn't yet know how to work his mouth to suck on it. But ACH told us that it would just take him time and by the time they saw him in the fall he'd be a pro at it. On the way to the reunion, I saw Beckett drink from a juice box and it was like, "Oh. Yeah. Kids drink from juice boxes with straws." It was cute and something to look forward.

Everyone always asks if he's done having surgeries. So just a quick end note on that. Jax had two surgeries this year and depending on who they feel his lip and nose look in the next year to come, they may to some "touch-ups". His next major surgeries is a bone graph to complete his gumline and that will happen when he's at least 7 to 10 years old. And though in our first appointment, they laid out the next 18 years for us, we try to only think one step ahead otherwise we run the risk of getting overwhelmed.

But for now, we are having fun learning about this boys personality and style. We're learning how to parent this boy and train him. We trying to keep up with his activeness and cherish every sleepy hug.

2 comments:

elizabeth said...

With parents like you and Kyle this kid is bound to be pretty impressive. I can't wait to talk to you soon. I'm sorry I haven't gotten back with you. Life sure keeps us busy, huh? Love to you, Meg.

Allie Reveley said...

15 months seemed to me when caedmon stopped being a "baby" and started really getting into a toddler boy. it flys by so fast, but that was one of my favorite months and a "milestone" for us to because of all the new things he started doing! every second just gets better...:) jax is so adorable!