Jaxon has turned 10 months old today. Can you believe only two months until it is his first birthday? Has it flown by so quickly for everyone else? I can't believe God gave us such a perfect baby boy last December!
Jaxon has learned so much since my last post in September. He claps, waves bye-bye, and points with his index finger at things he wants. He gets into everything in the house! One of his favorite things is to open up the pantry and take out all the food on the bottom two shelves. He also opens up the bottom drawer in the kitchen that has plastic baggies and he dumps them all out. He crawls as fast as lightning when you open the refrigerator. He is just too silly. My mom bought him a toy that he can stand up and walk behind. He cruises around the house pushing that thing everywhere. He can even turn corners with it! I'm not sure how tall Jaxon is this month but I weighed him yesterday and he weighs 21 lbs 6 oz.
Jaxon has moved past all the baby foods and is now eating big boy food. I pretty much give him whatever I make for dinner and cut it up into super small pieces for him to chew. He's pretty good at feeding himself. He's a mess whether you use a spoon to feed him or he picks it up himself, so I figured I might as well let him practice self-feeding. I haven't found a food that he didn't like. I even gave him a slice of a lemon at a restaurant and he LOVED it! He didn't even make a sour face. He kept trying to crawl across the table to finish it off.
He now has 6 teeth. 4 on top, two on bottom and I'm pretty sure he's working on #7 (a lower tooth). I brush his teeth every night during bath time. He loves to play with his toothbrush and cries when you take it away from him. Speaking of bath time, it is Jaxon's favorite time of the day! That boy could splash,play and shrivel up to a complete prune if I let him.
He still isn't sleeping through the night. We were down to waking up only once, usually around 4 am, but then the past week and a half his night wakings have increased to 2-3 times/ night. One day Jaxon and I will get a full nights rest!
Jake has been in Yuma since early September. He's due back soon though and he'll be here just in time for Halloween! I'm so glad he'll be able to go trick or treating with us. Jaxon is dressing up as Mickey Mouse, a costume a friend let us borrow. Jaxon's girlfriend, Holleigh, is going as Minnie Mouse. I'll be sure to post pictures of those two!
My mom was able to visit for a week and a half earlier and we had fun going to the San Diego Zoo and up to Los Angeles. My dad and Debi also came to visit a couple weeks later and we went to Balboa Park and to the Safari Park. I'm really glad they were able to come visit us! We miss them all already.
Jake and I do have some news for everyone though. There is a chance we will be stationed in Okinawa, Japan as soon as Summer 2013. Nothing is for sure yet, and things in the military change everyday, let alone months in advance. There is a unit in Japan that still has the old helicopters and they'll be transitioning to the new ones (Jake's current helicopter) soon. They need guys who have certain qualifications with the new helicopters to help teach the other members of the unit. Well, Jake has almost all the qualifications he can get in his job, he's actually over-qualified for what the new unit is requesting. Since Jake just reenlisted, he has enough time left on his contract to go to Okinawa. As of right now, the new unit just needs names of people who could potentially go and since Jake fit the mold of what they're needing his name got put on the list. So much can happen in the next 8 months though, so we aren't counting on going. We think our names are on the list more as "place holders" until someone else comes along that can take the spot. Jake and I have discussed being stationed outside of the country before, because that is a reality when you're a part of the military. We always said if we were to do it that the best time would be when the kids are younger so we weren't taking them out of school and away from friends. We'd have to rent out our house and we aren't sure if we can take the dogs with us or not, so that's another hurdle we'll have to consider. We would be stationed over there for 3 years I think it is. Once the 3 years is up we'd come right back to the unit we're currently with. It'll definitely be a HUGE change and it'll really stink being away from family for so long. The only good thing is that they have military flights called Space A where military members, even dependents can fly for free on military aircraft. It's different than scheduling a reservation with Southwest airlines, if you're going home as a "vacation" you're the lowest priority for boarding the plane. You have to be extremely flexible with your departure and arrival dates because you could be bumped off the list if someone else needs that spot. At least it is free, so you can't complain too much. As for my schooling, I'm not sure what I'll do if we are chosen to go the Japan. I'm not sure if I would have to "settle" for an online degree instead of pursuing nursing like I really want to. There are colleges over there but so far with my (little amount) research the colleges don't offer any healthcare related degrees, mostly general ones like accounting, business, etc... But as Jake always tells me, don't stress about it because we aren't even sure if we're going, let alone when we're going.
We are still unsure if we'll be home for the holidays this year. It's still up in the air, but I'll be sure to spread the word as soon as we find out.
Here are some videos of Jaxon:
Jaxon Misses Daddy
Jaxon using his walker
Jaxon has never laughed so hard!
We love and miss you all and hopefully we get to see you soon!
Love,
Jake, Alycia and Jaxon
