Tricks and Treats

Jackson is nine months old today and he is quickly learning many new tricks, as well as honing some old ones. Now that he is on a slight break from emerging teeth, he's back to his old camera-loving self. Whenever he hears the beep and sees the orange light, he will bust out a smile and hold it for a really long time (he's learning to cheese young).

Whoa! His feet look huge in this picture! Sorry buddy, you don't come from small feet genes. If anyone says anything about them, watch out. His shirt testifies that he went to Swiftee McGee's dodgeball camp.

Warning: this is a video heavy post, so grab some snacks. Jackson loves to play the piano, especially duets, but it's hard to be supporting actress, producer, and cameraman, so I just took a video of him playing a short solo. Every time he passes the piano he has to stop and play a few bars.

Another thing Jackson loves is his walker which we have renamed runner. He can be quite the speedy, and he loves to be pushed. He picks up his feet so he can coast! This is a video of Jackson playing the role of bulldozer.  (Yes, that is drool all over his shirt.  Just before this he was running around with his mouth wide open and he wouldn't close it for anything.)

He may not be able to walk on his own yet, but he can smoothly go from sitting to army crawling. It is wonderful that he can get around and go where he wants to go .. even if it's not where we want him to go.

This next video features Jackson's hat trick. He's pulling off a 720 while clicking his barrel and bananas together and putting them in his mouth. Olympics 2016 - we have shirts.

This is Jason's favorite. Whenever Jason pats Jackson's mouth, Jackson starts the sound stream and Jason cracks up .. every time (which then makes me laugh). He usually likes using our shoulders to do the trick himself, but his phone is standing in.

My favorite toy! .. and maybe Jackson's as well. My parents picked this up when we visited in March and he loved it so much that I bought it for him when we got home. The barrels get the most playtime and he will dig around to find them. He is finally learning how to drop things back in the barrel and grab what he wants which, in this case, was the same thing.

These are just a few of Jackson's favorite things, and as he learns more, I will add them. While these are all tricks and treats, Jason and I finally got a treat for our house. We realized we didn't have The Family: A Proclamation to the World displayed, so I embarked on a little project.

Now we have this and some purple fish hanging up! We are really on a roll here. Someday the only green in or on our house will be shades we picked that don't resemble John Deere tractors or sea foam.