Six months and growing!

So I totally thought that I had updated at five months, but apparently not! If there is anyone who still reads this, thanks - you must be loyal friends :)

Just a quick update about J. He's getting to be so much fun and today he is six months old. Can you believe it? Half a year has passed since he was born .. what?? Crazy and it lets me know how quickly time passes - next week he'll be 20 or something.

Couple of new things .. Jackson started talking a lot recently, has been slobbering like a mad man (think he might be teething a little)and started sleeping through the night at five months (and you can believe that God got some glory about that)! Justin and I were SO excited - we felt like we got a little piece of heaven in our own home. He was going to sleep around 8PM and sleeping until around 6:30AM or so. The past week though he's been waking like clockwork at 5AM .. because he's hungry! He eats and then goes right back to sleep. Of course, he still only gets milk at this point so I think he's definitely ready for some food! I don't think the milk is getting him all the way through and he can only drink so much at a time so we can't just add more to his bottles during the day. His six month check up is on Monday so I think we'll get to give the boy some solid chow!

He also laughed for the first time on August 31st .. I cried and cried like I was a baby! I couldn't figure out why I was so emotional but then it hit me that it was for two reasons. The first is that I was so happy to hear him laugh out loud. We kept wondering when the little dude would laugh and then he did out of nowhere when I sat him in his little seat (which he now hates by the way). He still is very selective about what he will laugh at and when but just this morning he was cracking up at Justin. Some of the pictures I took were mid-laugh!

The second reason I got so emotional is because it only took me about three seconds to wonder what Addison would be like now and would she have been laughing too? I went back and forth between being happy to hear Jacks laugh and sad because I wanted to be hearing two babies laugh together. It was then that I realized that our lives will be full of these emotions, where Jackson will experience or do something awesome and we will be able to enjoy and celebrate it, but we will also always think of Addison and how much we miss her in our lives. I know I haven't really spoken much about this topic, but honestly it's because I can't .. it's harder now than it was six months ago if that makes any sense at all. When the babies were born, so much was going on that it was all we could do to get through those days and to care for Jackson. Thoughts of Addison continually came to mind during that time, but they tend to linger more and more and the questions about why come more often than they did back then.

All that to say that I know that God knows the depth of our joy and pain, our celebrations and memories and he holds us close as always. There's just a piece of our family missing and we will never be the same. With the holidays approaching, I look forward to watching Jackson enjoy new things, do new things, eat new things but also know that we will remember that our daughter isn't doing those same things. With that in mind, I know that we will approach this season with a new confidence that Christ is truly who he says he is and that he is the Savior that the world needs and we will rest in the peace that he gives ... and we'll remember that Jackson has been entrusted to us here and Addison is in absolute perfect health in the presence of the very one who gets us through each day.

Whew - that was heavier than I was going for but I guess it was much needed because I certainly feel better! Didn't know I was carrying that around with me :) But without further ado, enjoy some pictures of our precious little guy - we love him so much!