Little Moments, Big Memories

Some little moments that I want to always remember. 

"Right now!"

The first time I heard him say it we were driving home with Portillo's for dinner. Of course I had to sneak a warm fry and gave one to J too. Well he ate it as fast as I did and wanted another. After informing him we had to wait till we got home to eat more he surprised me with "No, right now."

Since he uses it many weekend mornings after he wakes up "Mom....mom....come here mommy, right now." Demanding little man.

"I have idea"

This started the weekend of his birthday when he was trying to distract me from having him do something else. He said "I have idea" while grabbing my hand and leading me toward the hall closet. That time he wanted to play this Mickey yatzee game that has been with all our other games. (This is another thing that cracks me up, every time we go upstairs he has to show me the Mickey game and then 'lock' the door behind him.) 

"Oh this?"

Jackson is very inquisitive. Constantly looking at the world around him, he often sees things that he doesn't know or understand. This results in many questions to clarify. His way to ask is "Oh this?" while pointing. Sometimes its a challenge to know exactly what he is referring to but I love when he hears the response and reacts with a connection to something else he already knows or even just says "oh....yeah."

"Come sit Mom, story time. Name?"

His imagination continues to grow. All of a sudden he would grab a book, ask us to come sit, then point to pretend people in front of him saying "name." He would proceed to read a story to the group and sometimes try to sing a song. 

"Hi Grandma!" [door opens] "Move Grandma, HI Grandpa!"

My mom and dad came over one day. Jackson greeted my mom with a high pitched hello and an eager, jittery, over excited hug. Then...the door opened behind her and in came Grandpa. "Move Grandma," Jackson said, "Hi Grandpa."

ABC's

My dad started saying the ABC's when Jackson washed his hands in order to ensure he washed them long enough to get them clean (and practice learning them). Jackson quickly started to try and say them along with us each time. He would get small patches of letters correct, like A-B-C, and several single letters, including a loud Z at the end. Well, the week before his birthday we noticed that he wasn't skipping letters much at all. In fact he was saying a lot of the alphabet ahead of us helping or even with out us. Then I noticed that when I gave him a paper towel or wipe to clean his hands at other times he would rub the towel together in his hands and go through the ABC's on his own. Then his attention span only lasted about a third of the way, or I would have to help get him through a few letters. Either way I am once again blown away by what this little man knows. And all from washing hands.

"Love you" 

Recently, after I lay Jackson in his bed and say I love him and good night I started getting a response. In a soft whisper (usually with a pacifier in his mouth) he rolls over to look at me and says "love you, g-night" back to me. [sweetest thing ever]

"I throw it far"

On Easter my brother and Jackson were throwing a toy out in the yard for his dog Max to fetch. Jackson watched him do it, throwing it real far, Max go get it and bring it back. Jackson wanted to try. His first few attempts the toy only went a foot or so in front of him. He seemed a little discouraged that Max grabbed it right away, not needing to run. We encouraged him that he had to throw it real far. All of a sudden, Jackson took off running with the toy into the yard. 

"Where are you going J?"

"I throw it far."

Sure enough, Jackson ran out, stopped, threw the toy, and looked at Max who this time took off for a long run out to his toy. Jackson smiled and came back too.

2 Year Photos

We had family and two years photos by Jordann Tomasek last week and I couldn't be more thrilled with how they turned out!

Jordann photographed Jackson as a newborn, then at 6 months, one year and again now!

Technically baby girl had her first photo shoot too :)

 Jackson had some wonderful two year old moments during the shoot (thank goodness for bunny grahams) but she did an amazing job capturing his personality and baby blues. 

Thank you Jordann for preserving a precious moment in time.

Easter

Our Easter in mostly pictures!

We went with our good friends to a Bunny Bash last week. The kids had a great time seeing the Easter Bunny, riding a train, finding eggs and making crafts. Such a fun event for this toddler couple!

On Friday we decorated Easter eggs. I asked Jackson if he wanted to help set up. I opened the color tablets and said "Ok, we are going to put these in the bowls." Immediately, he took the pack of tablets out of my hand and put the whole pack into the first bowl. The pic on the left is me dying of laughter as he looked back and forth at the interesting color water and me laughing so hard I am not making a sound! Good thing I happened to have another pack.

Jackson got the hang of dunking. Would put the egg in and out of each color quickly and often!

 

Jackson was up bright and early Easter morning. The Easter Bunny had to hurry to hide his eggs and set out his basket, but sure enough he didn't disappoint.

Jackson was thrilled to see Mickey bubbles in his basket. His smile when he saw melts my heart. Then all morning he kept asking to go blow the Mickey bubbles and repeating that it was too cold out (cause thats what mommy told him at 7am when he wanted to first start).

The best part of his hunt for Easter eggs was when he quickly discovered there was something in them...and then that he could eat it! He slowly found all his eggs being sure to open up most of them when he found them and stop to take a break to eat. When I would encourage him to wait and put it in his basket he would respond with "Gotta eat it." We eventually dumped all the cheddar bunnies, bunny grahams, and bunny marshmallows into a bowl where he then ate out all the cheddar bunnies. 

Finding his fallen quarters during an Easter egg hunt

Ready to go on a "hike"

Family Easter Photo

Easter dessert idea from @jlgarvin Instagram

We hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Jackson turns TWO

Little man turned 2! This post is two weeks late, but he had the best birthday! Leading up to his birthday we talked about his party and kept asking how old he was. By his birthday, he would respond with "TWO" and even try to hold up two fingers. 

Two year chalkboard

The birthday boy started his day by opening some cards that came in the mail. He eagerly opened each one, looked at the cover and anxiously opened it up. He would pause a second and wait for some sound, then sincerely explain that the card did not sing. Since his first birthday he has loved cards that make noise when you open them. We have saved each one he gets so he can sing and dance along to them whenever he wants. This morning he went through a few cards, repeating the process, and then spent time going back through all of them, being sure to state (several times) that they did not sing. Although he missed the sound, I was pleasantly surprised at how interested he was in the pictures on the front and wanted to know what they said (or at least the front). 

Birthday breakfast tradition

Jackson enjoyed Mickey pancakes with Mom and Dad for breakfast. Then we all got ready for family to come over for his party.

Jackson had a wonderful time playing with his grandparents, aunt, and uncles. He was a lucky birthday boy too, getting some great gifts! He received a play kitchen of his own after being obsessed with playing in the kitchens of all his friends. He was so interested in the pots and the cabinets, opening them each up and placing the pans in and out. The stove "turns on" with a red light, keeping him busy with putting items on the hot surface. 

Play kitchen

He also received a toy drum set of his own! Matt had introduced him to drumming back when he was maybe 9 months old and has kept him interested and excited about it with a drum set for a video game system we have upstairs. He immediately understood what to do with the cymbal and two drums but needed a little help with the foot pedal for the base drum. He banged away with the sticks, stomped his foot and overall impressed us with his coordination and ability to multitask a little with the different options. I think the kid has more rhythm than me! The cutest part though....every time he sits down to play, he has to have his sunglasses on!

Jackson is still in love with Mickey. So I decided to make him a Mickey cake for his birthday. I followed a picture of Mickey from Pinterest and then improvised a little from there.  

Jackson helping to put the first layer of frosting
on Mickey the day before

Using only one cake mix box, I split it into two small rounds and one 10" round. Jackson helped frost the first white layer then the next morning I worked my magic to make Mickey appear. I used green, red, and yellow food coloring to make the skin color and a black frosting spray for the ears. The eyes and mouth were squeeze decorating frostings. 

When Jackson first saw his Mickey cake he lit up with excitement! He was in complete awe of the character in front of him!

We sang happy birthday and Jackson sang right along! He then made a valiant attempt to blow out his two candles. After a little help and some cheering, we started to cut the cake. Jackson was very adamant that he wanted Mickey's eyes. He got so excited to have both Mickey eyes served up on a plate for him to enjoy (and boy did he do so quickly). 

After everyone left we asked Jackson if he had a fun birthday. He was quick to say yes! I always want to make his birthdays special for him and I think this one was a success. He has a blast all day!

Happy birthday sweet boy. We love you!

Imagination

Some days Jackson gets antsy while riding in the car. I have had this Flounder activity rattle in the car since he was an infant. It's a big, colorful Flounder fish with a ring, scrunchy noise maker and shaker attached to it. He actually didn't like it much when he was little. Well, over the weekend I busted it back out and he thought it was great!

So yesterday we are driving home and Jackson is not wanting to be in the car. I first offered him a graham cracker, still not happy. Then I offered him Flounder to sit with him, slight improvement. One last shot to calm him I asked him if Flounder wanted a cracker too. Silent. Then, "Yeah, Mommy."

After about a minute I started hearing the most adorable conversation in the back seat! 

"Hi Flounder, Like cracker?"..."Me too"

"Hi Flounder, How are you?"

I tried my absolute hardest to hear everything he was saying to Flounder. Jackson carried on the conversation for a while, repeating a few things and definitely mixing in some other words and phrases. At one point I hear "baby sister" loud and clear, I so wish I heard the rest of that sentence though. :)

Later in the evening while trying to get ready for bed Jackson spotted the thermometer. We have a temporal thermometer and he has a rough idea of how it works. First he took his own temp and then mine. But Elephant, he didn't look well and Jackson was concerned. He brought him to the boppy pillow, got him comfy and took his temperature. His imagination didn't stop there though. Elephant needed to go to bed now. We laid him in the crib and after Jackson requested a blanket, he was all set to sleep. 

Before Jackson could go to sleep he had to tuck Mommy in. He requested I lay on the floor, covered me with a blanket then surprised me by going..
"kiss Mommy" kissing my cheek and saying "good night."