Jack's 9 month stats and skills!

Jack finally had his 9 month appointment on Wednesday. He is a perfectly healthy, wiggly, and happy baby. (The doctor had a hard time uh...examining Jack cuz Jack was being his normal self - flailing his arms and kicking the doctor!) His numbers looked good:

*Height: 30 inches *Yes, we have a very tall boy on our hands - just above 90th percentile*
*Weight: 21 pounds, 8 ounces. *Just below 75th percentile. I think our little porker is starting to even out. Really he has only gained 10 pounds since he has been born!*
*His noggin is also nice and large and full of brains ranking in size just above the 95th percentile!

This picture clearly shows how big Jack is! Our large boy has obviously outgrown his little bouncer chair. As you can see, when he is in it, it almost touches the ground. Oh he used to be so cute and little in it! :) We thought this pic was so funny with his long leg dangling down!


So, here's a few of the amazing things Jack can do and things he likes at 9 1/2 months old.

*He says mama, dada, no ooie (No Chewie), cock-a-doodle-doo, bye-bye, and papa. Ya know, the baby version of these words. But these are definites we have heard out of his mouth. He will try to repeat pretty much anything Dustin says, but not so much for mom. He also just loves to happily yell and scream, even when we are in church, because he likes hearing his own voice. He also has gotten pretty good at waving "Hi" and "Bye-bye" but can be stingy when he busts them out.

*He is doing a creeping, caterpillar-esque type double handed army crawl. He just started doing this more and more this week and he is getting faster and faster. He especially cruises if you stick food out in front of him!


*He is Mr. Independent when it comes to eating and will usually only eat something if he can feed it to himself which narrows his nutritional intake to Cheerios, crackers, gold fishies, and a few other things he has let me break up and put on his tray. The doc said just go with it. Let him eat anything soft that we are eating. Loves the mac n cheese and the other day he had spaghetti noodles for the first time and LOVED them. It seems baby food days are gone already.


*He is becoming SO active when he sleeps that he wakes himself up when he gets crammed or stuck in a corner or has stuck his legs out the bars of the crib. Here he is, with his classic sleeping pose actually holding still in his sleep for a minute!

But he did wake up with a scratch on his nose, probably from him throwing his arms everywhere. But my he is happy little guy! Another funny thing about how he sleeps sometimes is that it is just like how Dustin sleeps - on his side, hugging his blanket. So cute!


*He loves to walk! He will grab hold of our hands and take off speed walking! He also loves when we pull him to standing or when we stand him up to anything - his crib, the coffee table, his pushy thing, etc. He is trying to pull himself up to things, but hasn't quite got all the way with that yet.




*He absolutely loves tubby time, his pool, and just being in water. He is definitely our little water baby!


P.S. If you click on the pool picture and make it bigger, I discovered you can see his teeth REALLY good in that picture!

*He loves to chew on EVERYTHING! And I thought I had to worry about Chewie...

He has been doing some serious teething lately. He is now working on his 6th tooth coming through. He has 2 on bottom, this one will be the 4th on top! Can you see his little teeth, already with a lovely gap! :)


*He also loves his daddy (Daddy gets the best grins when he gets home from work), his mommy acting like a goofball, Chewie (oh he laughs and laughs at Chewie), Chewie's toys and bones, shooting hoops and dancing to the music at his sports station (video of him hooping it up coming later), playing with real keys, chewing on paper, and going for walks. Here he is on walk the other day and I was letting him feel some different textures.


**Although it is exciting to see him do new things, reach milestones, and grow bigger, it is also hard for us. Jack is growing up TOO quickly and time is going SO SO fast! Sometimes we just want to tell him to put on the brakes and slow down a little!**



We love you Jack!! Yee- haw!

Happy 27th Birthday Dustin!!

Dustin Lynn Enslinger was born on this day, August 19, in 1981! He was the first child for his young parents, and he brought absolute joy and happiness to them (other than the fact that he was nearly a month overdue! Poor Patty!) He was to be the only Enslinger grandson to carry on the name! *No pressure.* Today I would just like to say that I am SO thankful for this man in my life! He is an amazing man, a sweet husband, and a wonderful father! Enjoy a small array of pictures to celebrate his birth and life!

Here is that sweetl baby, at 20 days old, whose birth is definitely worth celebrating today!



Dustin grew and continued to be a joy to his family! Here he is at 8 months old. Does Jack resemble him at all? :) Maybe just a little bit!



Here he is at age 7, just because I needed to include an embarassing picture! :) What a guy!



Here, at age 10, you can see in those beautiful eyes that he has always been a sweet, smart, senstitive boy! BTW, nice hair and pink shirt, Dustin! :)



Dustin graduated from high school in 1999. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. He cruised through school graduating from Kansas State University and then getting a Master's from Utah State all before the age of 24. He is truly amazing and so intelligent in so many ways. And nowadays, he does an awesome job as an Athletic Trainer for Montana State!



I truly feel like God had a hand in bringing us together, especially at the time that He did. We began dating a little after Dustin's birthday in 2003. While we were dating, Dustin helped me and my family through some very difficult and trying experiences. I will forever be thankful that he was in my life through some of my darkest and most trial filled days!



I felt like (and still feel like) the luckiest woman in the world to be married to such a handsome, loving, sweet, hard working, smart, wonderful man! What a happy day! And what a catch he was and is still!! :)



Dustin has accomplished so many great things in his life so far. But by far the greatest thing he does, or will ever do, is that he is the best father in the world to Jack! Jack absolutely adores him, and they really are best buddies! Dustin is such a fun, tender, loving father!



Happy Birthday Daddy/Dustin! We love you!

Love,
Heather and Jack (and Chewie)

My OTHER blog....

So I decided that I have too many random thoughts, and I don't want to taint my fun little family blog. So for your viewing/reading pleasure, if you so wish to check it out, I started another blog. It is heathershiddenthoughts.blogspot.com I will probably be updating that more than this one because I have a lot of random thoughts and I will be using it sort of as a journal outlet.

Heather

Swimming Lessons!

This past week Jack and I did a Parent-Tot swimming class. We had lots of fun, and Jack really is a serious water baby! He was by far the youngest baby in the class we were in, but he did better than kids double his age. He does really well at kicking his legs and doesn't mind putting his face in the water! He even did alright when I totally dunked him under a few times throughout the week. He was able to just kick and swim around on his own when he had the floating barbells in his armpits, he could stand on his own and hang onto the side of the pool, he hung onto the little boogie board and kicked his legs, and I helped him go down the ducky slide. He really did amazing and absolutely loved the water. The instructor and other moms in the class were constantly commenting on how excited he was to be in the water and how well he did with each new thing! Good times! Daddy was able to come and watch one day and he took these pictures while Jack showed off for him!

Jack swimming like a champ with his floating barbells!



Hanging onto the side of the pool SO good!



Loving floating around on the noodle! (Look at that face!)



Wahoo! Crusin the pool! Nice face, Mom! But in my defense it is NOT easy helping a 20+ pound 9 month old swim around a pool for 5 days straight!! :)



Riding on the noodle horse!



Jack and me after swimming lessons!

Our Naughty Jack! :)

I know Jack looks all cute and innocent, with those big blue eyes and pouty lips, and yes, even when brandishing a bat, but I am here to tell you, looks can be deceiving! :) Our normally sweet Jack can sometimes be a very, very naughty boy!! :)



Here is the proof of Jack's naughtiness! He has been getting into anything and everything he can lately! I don't know what we are going to do when he actually becomes more mobile and learns how to crawl and walk!! Let the craziness begin when that day comes! I can't wait!! :)

He is OBSESSED with the garbage can and always tries to tip it over!



Here he is having a grand old time playing in the garbage he tipped over. (Now, whenever he is in his walker, the garbage can gets put outside on the deck! Sometimes he will just sit and stare at it out the window!)



Here he is pulling out, eating, and absolutely destroying Mommy's silk plant.



Tipping over Daddy's plant and making a lovely little mess! (All plants are now either hidden from view or up on a high chair, where we discovered even there, they are not safe!!)



Jack used to sit nicely in the laundry basket, but not anymore. Here he is not so quietly sitting in the basket while Mommy does laundry. He is trying to get into the dog food. We really need to watch him close lately because he has been trying to chew on Chewie's dog bones!



Here he is pulling out all of the magazines, and tearing up and eating the Ensign. (Uh....Is that sacrilegious??)



Into Mommy's recipe box, and leaving a trail of drool covered recipe cards in his path!



And lately he has been taunting and teasing Chewie with the food he is eating in his high chair. He occasionally gives Chewie a nibble as well. Or, while Jack is casually dangling his arm down to the side, with a cracker in hand, Chewie will come and snatch it right out of his hand, and Jack finds that SO funny! Jack is quite the picky, rebellious little eater as of late! If he isn't feeding it to himself, he wants very little to do with it.



So there you have it! Our son is a rebel without a cause....Not looking so innocent anymore, is he!?



And we love every minute of being this little guy's parents!! As you can tell, he is barrels of laughs and loads of fun! What a sweet, wonderful little character he is with such a fun personality coming through lately!!