Tan-Clan Babies of the World Unite!

I'm not quite ready ...

to go through the whole rigamarole again right now,

but Jaxon's expecting a cousin next June!

Congratulations, Marsha aka JumbledMind :)

It was a dark and stormy night...

Well, not really,

but it was drippy and cold all day yesterday. We had intended to go downtown after Taco Tuesday so that Jaxon could see the Christmas Parade and Lighting of the Tree ceremony, but later decided that it was too cold ( temperatures were in the 30s F ) and the roads were wet and slick from all that rain. David and I felt a little bad that Jaxon had to miss the parade, but we knew that safety came first. Besides, the kid fell asleep on the short drive home from the restaurant, so he might have been too sleepy/fussy to have enjoyed the festivities anyway. ( Or is this a guilty conscience trying to rationalize things?)

When we got up this morning and looked out the window, we saw that it had snowed the night before, our first snow of the season. David later said that it had started after I had gone to bed, and there was definitely an inch or more of snow on the ground. I didn't try to get Jaxon outside to see/touch the snow because it was slippery - the sun had come up and the snow on the steps etc was melting - and muddy. So, we settled for opening the door and letting Jaxon see the white snow that had blanketed everything in the night. I don't know if he was impressed or not. :)

Anyway, by the time he had settled down for a nap and I could get out with my camera, a bunch of the snow had melted but I managed to catch a few pics of what was left..

Ooo I'm so excited

I can hardly stand it!!!

First of all, our baby turned 8 months yesterday. EIGHT WHOLE MONTHS! In the past couple of weeks, he's started crawling commando style on his belly, dragging himself along with his arms and pushing a little with his feet,

but what's gotten me all agog is that, I've been using baby sign language with Jaxon for simple words like bath, milk, more, cat ( our cats are majorly intriguing to the boy ), "all done", water, diaper, mummy and daddy, among others as we go about our daily activities since he turned 6 months. Imagine how surprised and excited we were when today at Taco Tuesday, as we were leaving, we said "Jaxon, say bye bye to 'so and so'", AND HE WAVED BYE BYE!!! He did it several times to different people too!

We could hardly believe it, so tonight, after I had changed him into his PJs and it was time for bed, we went out into the living room to say good night to daddy, and I said, "Jaxon, say bye bye to daddy", AND HE WAVED BYE BYE AGAIN!!!! Seriously, my heart can't take all this excitement. :)

He might not understand fully what bye bye actually means yet, but he's learned to associate the sign with the word and actually MAKE THE SIGN! I'm know that he knows a bunch of words by now and that in the weeks to come, he will learn to associate more signs with words and start attempting more of them..... Ah, our boy is growing up so fast, it's exhilirating! Waving bye-bye might not seem like much to some, but when you have watched your little baby's development from the time he was born/brought home from the hospital and could not do anything but sleep, nurse, cry and poop, any new thing he does is a major event.

For now, mummy has to brush up on her baby sign language ( Thank you Carter and Winnie for the baby signing book! MWAKS! ) and er, teach them to daddy :)

Truly Blessed

Another Thanksgiving,

a multitude of blessings to be thankful for....

Jaxon :)

Allen, Grandad, Jaxon and Anastasia





Sharon with the desserts





Mr. Seated-Before-Anyone-Else-Including-Grandad





Brett, Sharon, Frances, Charles and Judith





Stephanie, Max, Russell, Joy and Brett





Sharon's Mom and Walter





Delloreen, Johnny, Jaxon and Cindy





David and Jim

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all

For beauty in nature, Your glory we see
For joy and health, friends and family,
For daily provision, Your mercy and care
These are the blessings You graciously share.
So today we offer this response of praise
With a promise to follow You all of our days.

--Mary Fairchild