Countdown

(yep, he still fits in his doorway jumper, and thankfully, he still loves it)



The countdown is on until my sweet "baby" turns one! I can't believe it. Since I'll be busy at work next week and have a conference for work, I know I need to get ahead on the celebration preparations.

So, with some of this:


And some fun paper purchases at Michael's, I've been making this:




This was really easy and fun to do, and I got the idea from Pinterest and Etsy (although my version is much more affordable than the ones they sell on Etsy). You can find the tutorial here.

Thank you, Pinterest, for the ideas on Jackson's puppy dog birthday invitation. We're looking forward to our family who will be in town to celebrate his big day!


Andy surprised me with an iPhone for Christmas (score! best surprise ever!), and so, sadly, I haven't been taking as many pictures of Jackson with my "real" camera (and I've yet to take the time to learn to do an iPhone "dump," but it'll come soon). The past few days I've tried to be intentional about taking pictures with my Nikon. Here are some pictures I took today of Jackson playing with his sweet friend Julia. They were just too cute together!


And, they're off!


They both loved looking at Tucker outside





In these funny pictures below, Jackson is making the funniest faces because of the camera flash. I know I should have stopped taking pictures at that point, but his faces were totally cracking me up.






Must.

Get.

The.Puzzle.


(doesn't it sort of look like he's sucking in his stomach for this picture? ha!)


Typical Jackson stance...getting into something! Sheer determination.




Showing off his bottle to Tucker, as well as throwing his arms up in the air whenever we say, "Touchdown, Auburn (or Touchdown, Jackson)!"


"



I've been surprised at the sheer number of people/strangers who stop me everywhere we go and tell me how "fast they'll (babies/kids) grow up." While it's almost annoying how I hear it every.single.moment when we're running errands, I guess I do appreciate their concept of the brevity of life, and it's a good reminder to soak up each moment with Jackson.

How do I feel about having a one-year-old? I guess I've always thought moms sounded silly when saying they couldn't believe their baby was one (or they couldn't believe they're sending their baby to kindergarten, or to college). But I get it now. It's like a blur, and I feel like I'm just going through the motions of throwing a party but not really grasping how short, and at times how long, this year has been.

I'm beyond grateful that God has blessed our family with a healthy, happy, joyful, funny child. Working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, I see hardships, hurting parents, grieving families, sick sick babies. Because of this, I'm even more appreciative to have a healthy child. Jackson is such a ham, and he's going to be funny and witty like his daddy (I hope). He's always smiling, always giggling, always wanting to play with our dog Tucker and show off his toys. But I am "sad," in the sense that Jackson is growing up, that I'm weaning (talk about crazy hormones and some tears on my part; and tears about RANDOM things); that he's eating grown up food (cut up grilled chicken, mango, black beans, cantaloupe). All you moms out there (if anyone is even reading my blog?!?), am I alone in these feelings?

But Jackson is not mine; he's a gift from God. A sweet gift that the Lord has chosen for me and for Andy. A gift of parenthood that can be sleep-depriving, tiring, just-plain-hard-at-times. A gift I wouldn't trade for the whole world. A gift of a son that I didn't realize I could love this much, this deeply, this unconditionally, this all-encompassing-crazy-in-love. This, to me, is one of the sweetest pictures of Christ's wonderfully, amazingly, unconditional love for us, for the whole world, for all of His creation. Our pastor, Tim Kallam, was discussing this last week in church (Psalm 127:3 "Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.) Jackson is going to turn ONE; it's inevitable, and it's a great part of life. Each day brings us that much closer to our sweet Savior returning to this earth to take us home to Heaven. Come, Lord Jesus, Come.