Jaxon has really progressed quickly the last month or so. He pulled himself to a standing position all by himself for the first time yesterday. I was sitting on the couch and he scooted over to me, put his hands on the couch and all the sudden he was just right there! He tries to do it with all the furniture now and especially when I'm on the ground with him. He is also cutting his 4th tooth as we speak. It's the top left tooth. You can see the white dot in his gums and I can kind of feel it, I hope it doesn't cause him much pain the next couple days. He has been drooling like crazy with this tooth. The past teeth he didn't drool too much, but this one he is just soaking his shirts and slobbering all over Mommy and Daddy.
Jaxon is also SO close to crawling. He can take a few crawling steps but then he falls down. He's had several head bumps the last couple weeks. Usually they don't bother him, but he's shed a few tears. He still loves to chase the doggies around the house. He finds them both to be hysterical. He loves Leila's tail and Lucy's paws. They're both doing really, really well with him so we are very thankful about that. Another thing that Jaxon has mastered is going from a scooting position to sitting position. He mastered that about a week and a half ago. Now he likes to wake up at 3 am thinking it's play time and he'll sit up in his crib and hit the rails. We need to lower his mattress now that he can stand up! (making a mental note now)
A fun new thing that we have done is swim lessons!! I signed Jaxon up and they are two weeks long. We go everyday, Monday-Friday for 30 minutes. This is our second to last day today. I was so scared that Jaxon would be the kid that screams as soon as we get in the water (much like he did at the lake or the baby pool we bought for him at the house) but he's done SO good! If I hold him on his tummy and put a little rubber ducky in front of him he'll kick his legs to try to get it and sometimes he'll use his arms to propel himself forward too. We also go underwater and he loves it. We count "1-2-3-under!" then blow in his face so he'll hold his breath then we take a quick dunk under the water. Only a few times did he swallow a little bit, but now he's a pro! He anticipates in now and holds his breath while I'm starting my count and he comes up from the water all smiles. It's so cute. We also learned to "jump" into the water. What he really does is sit on the edge and I count "1-2-3-jump!" and pull him in, but he still enjoys in nonetheless. I'm so glad I signed him up for these classes. They say you can never start too early with swim lessons and Jaxon is learning water safety all at the same time. It's been great.
As for me, I'm in the second week of my second online class. I got an A in my first class and hopefully can get an A in this one too. This class is called Biomedical Statistics. I haven't taken a math class since high school, so it's a little bit of a refresher course. In October is when I'll be applying for the nursing school and I'm really hoping I'll get accepted. But right now I'm really, really enjoying my time with Jaxon during the days. It makes me so happy to be able to spend all day with him and not send him off elsewhere. I don't miss any of his milestones and he still gets to socialize with other kids and adults when I go to the gym and he goes to daycare there. I can't imagine starting school next week like I originally was going to do if I followed through with the Kinesiology program. I'm also glad I didn't do that because we are still on the waitlist for daycare on Jake's base. We would be paying twice as much for daycare at any other place.
Speaking of Jake, he is still really into his RC airplane hobby. I believe this is the longest he's ever been into a hobby before. He usually changes his interest every month. I bet we have at least 10 airplanes in the garage. It's absolutely ridiculous. But anyway, Jake leaves to WTI in Yuma, Arizona just after Labor Day. He'll be gone until the end of October. We're really hoping he'll be able to make it back home in time for Halloween. This is a great opportunity for his career. There are only three other people in his shop with this qualification that he's going to be getting in Yuma. It looks great in his record for promotions and being able to stay in the military as a career. Oh, I totally forgot! Jake reenlisted for 4 more years last week. He signed the dotted line and is the Marine Corp's property until 2016, so yay for having job security for the next 4 years!! Minus the deployments and time spent away for training, the military hasn't treated us too bad. We're so grateful for the health benefits and job security that we get with the Marine Corps. Not to mention, Jake really enjoys his job, which is most important.
With his reenlistment he got 21 days of leave. Unfortunately he has to take all 21 days at once and we don't know when they "expire". We aren't sure what we're going to do. We really want to go on a family vacation, since we've never been on one (not even Jake and I), but unfortunately we have to save all the money we can to pay for Jaxon's daycare. We also thought about coming home, but we can't leave our dogs for very long and somehow we still spend a lot of money when we go home too. (cough cough Jake!!) hahaha! So it looks like we'll be stuck in the house. I was joking with Jake that this will be a good test of our relationship because we've never been cooped up in the house for that long together. We'll see how it goes and when he decides to take his leave.
We have Jaxon's 9 month pictures scheduled for Sept. 1! I'm really excited about them. I think they'll turn out great since he can sit up on his own now and he is just full of personality. I'll be sure to post copies of the pictures on here when we get them back.
It's been super super hot here lately. Like high 90's, low 100's for at least the last week and even the 10 day forecast still has temperatures that high. There's no end in sight! I'm so ready for Fall, sweaters, jeans, soup, pumpkins, the leaves changing colors and Thanksgiving dinner!!! :)
I hope everyone back home is doing well. We miss you guys soooo sooo soo much and wish we could visit more often. Luckily, my mom will be here in a few weeks and my dad and Debi will be here in October. They'll have to send back Jaxon love to everyone else.
Here are some pictures to hold you over until next time you get to see little man:
Getting ready to crawl
Playing the "drums"
Lucy! Why can't I get you?
Tug-of-war
Mommy lets me play with my food
Splashing in my squash
Nakey baby
Daddy, do you have milk too?
Getting ready for swim lessons
Pretty blue eyes
I'm handsome and I know it.
My first time pulling myself up!
Love you all,
Jake, Alycia and Jaxon
