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.