Update on Jack

(About a month ago, balancing on one knee and one foot!)

While I'm waiting on lunch to finish cooking and the kids are all outside squealing in the front yard, anxious for our picnic, I thought I'd give an update on Jack. It's been a while! I guess because he's been doing so well lately.

I believe it was back in July, he had a fever that got really high one Saturday afternoon. It resulted in a seizure and three days of alternating Motrin and Tylenol to keep it from happening again! It was very scary.

Since then, however, (really since about 8 months when he started gaining weight on the formula, with the exception of the seizure), he has been perfectly normal and is really catching up in his motor skills! All of my kids have been pretty "laid back" for the most part. Jacob was my earliest walker at around 13 months. My first two were 14 months. So considering Jack's setbacks in addition to being born early, I think being close to walking at 15 months is pretty good! He can stand alone for a few seconds but is still very cautious about it. I was hoping he would take his first step on the beach. How cool would that have been? Oh, well. He's close though.

As far as talking, he's always been a big "talker" and is rarely quiet. He doesn't say a lot of words though, but he is starting to. When he wants to reach for something and touch it (like a picture on the wall), he'll reach as far as he can and then start saying "tickletickletickletickle". So cute! :) He says Mama and Dada and imitates simple sounds. He can say quite a bit if you count the imitating. He also signs milk and airplane, but not often. He loves to smile and wave at anyone who looks at him. :)

Just before vacation he got his first tooth! My others all got their first at 9, 9 1/2 and 17 months. (I'm not sure why Jonathan got his so late!) So around 14 1/2 months is good! His 2nd tooth came in 6 days later while we were in NJ. He likes his teeth. He thinks they're funny. LOL!

I can't remember how tall he is now, but he was close to the 50th percentile on his last check, I believe. And he is around 24 pounds, so he's doing great with his growth! Even though he is packing it on now, he does seem to have a smaller bone structure like Jayla. Maybe not, but he just seems smaller.....with a Buddha belly. :)

He crawls everywhere and has been crawling for a few months, but he is still very slow. I'm deciding it's just a personality trait though since he has been doing it for so long now. He never (so far) has gone through any separation anxiety stage either. He doesn't like to be left in a room alone, but what kid does? My 8yo doesn't either! LOL! But as long as someone is with him and he is not hungry, sleepy, etc. he is very happy and laid back.

One of his favorite things is playing with Jayla, or maybe I should say, one of Jayla's favorite things is playing with Jack! She makes silly faces and noises, dances around and is just plain silly, and he just laughs and laughs! He laughs at his brothers too, but not like he laughs at her. They seem to have a special relationship, perhaps because she is more "motherly" than the boys are.

He still consumes mostly raw goat milk but does eat small "meals" throughout the day. He had almost a whole banana a little while ago and I cut up a few grapes for him as well. He will be completely off milk (like we all are) in a few more months, but for now it is at least half of his diet, if not more (in calories). Mainly because he is still so young and only recently got two teeth. He is also vegetarian, so half our family is meatless! :) (I'm going to work on the older boys, but it will be a gradual process. I want to introduce meat substitues to start with and then just other meatless foods that they love so they don't feel deprived. I want it to be their choice too, so there will be a lot of education and patience involved! Sorry, getting side tracked.)

So because of his delays and his personality, he seems to be overall on about a 10-12 month level. Compared to my other kids though, since they were also more laid back and not hyper at all, he is probably between 12-14 months, so he's doing really well!

And now that the picnic is over and the kids are playing (an hour and a half later), Jack and I are going to take a nap. (The others do something quietly in their beds when I nap, and I sleep light nowadays.) My computer is ancient, so I'll get the pictures from vacation on here eventually. (sigh)