14 Months Old!

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Jax is getting to be such a big boy. Jax celebrated his 14th month birthday by escorting his sister off to the first day of pre-k. He loves getting to walk out to the car every morning while holding Jaida's hand.

The many faces of Jax Rhea

Jax can go from this ...















to this ...















in about 30 seconds flat.

Is it too early to be having tantrums?

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

This is what Jax does now if he does not immediately get his way. Oh by the way there is usually a fair amount of screaming and screeching and peeking up to see if we are paying attention while he is in this position.

The MOST conservative first hair cut EVER

Jax has been looking a tad bit shaggy lately. Personally, the shagginess didn't bother me but his hair covering his pretty eyes did bother me a bit. So, it seemed like the appropriate time for a first hair cut. I do not like the look of crew cuts or buzz cuts or whatever they are called on toddlers ... makes them look too grown up, I think. We had our good friend MB give Jax his first cut and a very conservative cut it was. She trimmed the straggly pieces that fell in his eyes and the frizzy bits in the back but left all of his cute curls (or devil horns as we refer to them) around his ears and neck line. Pretty cute kid if I do say so myself.

Jax playing with his friend Christian. See the shaggy hair.

Jax getting his hair cut. He sat so still and when MB was finished she told him he is beautiful and he just softly stroked his hair. :)

His after hair cut picture. He looks so cute.

Giddy Up

This last Christmas Santa brought Jax a rocking/bouncing horse as his *he will grow into it* gift. It appears that he has grown into it and he thinks it is the coolest toy ever. The funny thing is that Jax cannot sit on the horse until his cowboy (Woody) hat is on his head. How does he know at such a young age that cowboys and horses go together? I suppose that maybe Jaida told him or maybe it is the fact that he did it once and we all laughed ... who knows? Anyhow, Jax goes and finds his cowboy hat and puts it on his head and then while walking to his horse he can be heard saying "iddy up up up" over and over again in almost a whisper of a voice. It is so cute!

Figuring out the walking thing

Jax is amazingly cautious with his walking which quite honestly is surprising since he is fearless in so many other ways. It is hard to describe how he walks without a visual but here goes ... He sort of walks with his knees slightly bent and feet pointing outward (think duck), his back straight and arms held slightly up and out for balance and then he takes these teeny little steps. Think Tim Conway in some of his old man skits. He has great balance and now walks all over the place. He no longer crawls at all. Just Wednesday (8/15/07) he finally figured out how to get up onto his feet in the middle of the room ... does a power lifters squat lunge action to get to his feet. ;) He can also now stop mid-stride squat down and pick a toy up and then stand back up and keep moving. He just looks so happy to be up and walking. Yesterday he actually walked (barefoot) through the grassy yard to the play set so he could swing. This is a HUGE accomplishment since up until ... well yesterday ... he thought grass was pure evil and would have no parts of being set down in it.

A VERY odd faery princess

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

I swear Jaida's room is like wonderland to Jax. He loves to sneak in there as often as possible since Jaida normally gives him the boot and closes the door behind him. She has all sorts of fun stuff in there that he loves to get into. He shrieks like a maniac when we finally have to drag him out of there.

A scary resemblance

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Originally uploaded by gias_kids.

Does Jax look a bit like a tiny Elton John or is it just my imagination?

The book of Jax

I spent a small amount of time organizing all of my blog entries into a nice little published book for Jax. This book contains all blog entries (plus pictures) made during my pregnancy up until Jax's first birthday. I plan to do one of these for each kid. Seeing as how I detest scrapbooking I figure this is the next best thing. :)

Jaxon is now officially a walker!

It is rather amazing he waited this long before finally letting go. He was physically capable of walking a month or so ago. I suppose there were several factors at play ... first being I have never in my life seen such a fast crawler. I think he just didn't want to slow down to figure out the walking thing. Secondly, why bother ... everything he wants he can get to by crawling and climbing so I suppose he felt no rush. Finally, letting go can be so scary. Anyhow, last week I told Joe that Jax would walk this weekend. I don't think he totally believed me. Jax just had a look about him. He was so stable and very confident and brave in his movements and just looked like he was starting to toy with the idea.

Saturday Jax took a few excited steps between Joe and I. These usually started out with Jax walking and ended with him lunging at his target. Then yesterday (8/5/07) Jax let go of the table and walked to me ... I would say maybe 6 or 7 steps. He practiced all day. He fell a lot and quite hard at times but it didn't seem to rattle him too much.

It is quite funny to watch him walk as he starts out slowly but then as his target approaches he gets really excited and moves way too fast and sort of loses his balance. When Jaida started walking she was very sure footed and deliberate with her movements. She rarely fell and had excellent balance. When newly walking she looked a lot like franken-baby ... all stiff legged and arms out for balance. Jax on the other hand looks like Clyde the Orangutan when he walks. He walks super wide legged and sort of tips from foot to foot in a crazy sideways motion all the while carrying his arms straight up in the air ready to body slam his intended target as soon as possible. It is simply hilarious to watch. Unfortunately, it is impossible to watch him without cracking up which makes Jax laugh and then fall over. The look of pride on his face says it all. He is just so happy when he reaches his target that it is hard not to be happy for him ... even though ultimately this just means more work for Joe and me. :) I will try to get a short video clip this evening and link to it.

Poo under the fingernails

Why (oh why?) does my sweet son poop SO much? Seriously, I wonder if there might be a little something wrong with him as it does not seem normal for such a large volume of poo to come out of his squishy little body so often. This morning I thought I smelled something foul so I grab Jax and hoist him up and go to grab the top edge of the back of his diaper so I can sneak a peak. Sure enough the poo had migrated up the back of the diaper to the point where I had the better part of three fingers submerged in poo up to the first knuckle. It really is a shame as I had just toasted myself a nice bagel which was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. There is not enough antibacterial hand soap, fingernail scrubbing and hand sanitizer to make me want to use that hand to pick up my food for quite some time. blech!

Baby Loves

Jaxon has recently glommed onto one of Jaida's baby dolls ... to the point that Jaida has now officially relinquished custody of the baby doll to her brother. Baby's name is Pix which is apparently short for Pixie. Jaxon loves this baby doll so much that if we even mention baby doll by name he performs a hard target search of the playroom until Pix is safely in his arms. Just about every morning Jax finds Pix and then does not drop him/her until we get to daycare. Nancy said Jax rarely plays with Pix while at her house but at home ... all I can say is do not get between Jax and his Pix or there will be much screeching. It is very sweet to see how loving and nurturing Jax can be to this baby doll since he can be a little brute in so many other ways. :)