Jackson has been up to a lot lately! He's gotten SO vocal and his speaking has gotten so much better! He's so excited about trains - it consumes him! He wakes up saying "choo choo" every morning and has to have ample train playing time before nap and before bed...
Yesterday, I took Jackson to his very first movie in the theater. We saw "Madagascar 2" and since Jackson wasn't interested in the first one, I wasn't sure how it was going to go! Fortunately, this is a kid friendly theater packed full of a bunch of kids and toddlers and moms. Megan, Emily and I showed up w/ the kids at 945am and at 1000am, we had a spot picked close to the aisle... We put Jackson in the middle, knowing that Ali, Bella and Ben have a little more experience in theaters than he does and hoping they would wear off on him. So I set him in the chair and it immediately popped back up since he doesn't weigh enough to keep him down - now, I have this adorable little man sandwiched in between the seat and the back of the seat. So I had to prop my leg up on the end of the seat to keep him down. :) When the movie started, we discovered POPCORN! Jackson and I shared a small popcorn and that kept him occupied for about 45 minutes. Then, he started getting restless. He started saying over and over "bye bye animals" - so I tried distracting him but that didn't work either, so I decided (since he was getting louder and louder) that I would step out into the lobby w/ him and let him run around for a few minutes and then try again. So we did that for about 15 minutes and then went back in. At first, he didn't want to go back into the seat but when I put him on my lap (just barely, there isn't much room on my lap!), he started chilling out and watched the rest of the movie! Overall a GREAT experience!!!
Jackson is also starting to enjoy his new Mother's Day Out location! I'm stoked about this because I just found out he got accepted into the MDO at that location for the fall too!!! It's a relief for me cuz of where it's located AND cuz it lasts until 2p!!! That will prove to be very helpful when I have Ethan here and trying to run errands, etc.... I remember back when Jackson was smaller, shopping and errands were SO much easier!!!!! But I had no idea how I was going to do it w/ an infant AND a hyper 2 year old - so I'm thankful for MDO! Plus, Jackson enjoys it. It's good for him to be around other kids his age and being supervised by people that aren't his parents. His speaking has also gotten so much better since MDO started in January!
The pool - Well, my sweet boy HATES the water. I mean, he doesn't even like to take a bath. He has this fear of water in his eyes and just goes into panic mode when you put him in the water. So we've been working on it. For many reasons - but most importantly because it's 99 degrees outside and I'm almost 9 months pregnant w/ a toddler ... nothing to do outside except occupy my neighbors' pools! So today, we went to the pool again. He did MUCH better. Unfortunately, he IS very interested in throwing anything and everything, all the time. He picks up any object and immediately throws it. So our neighbor Lisa's pool -has tons of these nice rocks everywhere - they end up at the bottom of the pool, all the time. And I'm just not fast enough to stop him. He doesn't care if I spank him, put him in Time Out, yell - nothing works. If I can keep enough balls and toys in front of him, he'll throw those for awhile but as soon as I take too long getting them back up on the ledge for him, rock goes in. Dang it. Thank God for my friends who don't mind swimming to the bottom and collecting the rocks for me. Today was better than usual - I think he only threw 4 rocks but that's probably because every single time he threw a rock in, I grabbed him, spanked him and made him go sit in the pool w/ me.
His new thing is when he falls, (which is REALLY often - he's clumsy!) he goes "ok!" - letting me know that he's ok! I guess cuz everytime he used to fall I would ask "are you ok?" so now he just goes "OK!" when he falls... which is actually really cute!!
Development stuff: Jackson is 28 pounds - 58th percentile and his height (which I can't remember) is in the 67th percentile. He has all of his teeth except the very back 4 molars. He's finally started eating pretty well - which is so nice. He is NO WHERE NEAR potty training yet. He does tell me when he goes #2 about half of the time. But he has NO problem staying in his diaper w/ it that way. We talk about the potty all the time and I explain everything when he sees me going (which is also a LOT) but he just doesn't care. He's just not ready yet and that's ok. I'm a firm believer that I'll know when he's ready and that's when we'll do it. It's a waste of time to try to force him before he is really ready....not to mention frustrating for me... which I also don't need right now. So I'm fine with just talking about it as much as possible for now and when he's ready - we have all the tools we need to make it happen! He takes a great nap almost every day... anywhere from 1.5 hrs to 3 hours! He lays down at night around 815p and up until the time change, he would sleep until 700am but lately, it's been 615am or so.
Funny things about Jackson: He does NOT like his hands or feet to be dirty. He also doesn't like when things spill into the floor or if he sees something that doesn't belong. He can't stand it when the kitties "throw up" on the floor. He will stand at the spot saying "uh-oh" over and over until I clean it up. He LOVES animals - all animals. He is not afraid whatsoever from any dog he's been in contact with... even if they jump on him... he just laughs. Which brings me to the next thing - he LOVES to laugh. He loves to make funny sounds to get your reaction and he loves when you do it back to him. His favorite food is fruit snacks - to which he says "nick nack" and points w/ his up w/ his finger when he asks for them... i'll try to get that on video cuz it's funny! He has discovered cookies, thanks to my mom - and asks for those often too. He won't drink milk anymore... he only wants juice. He does have a girlfriend - her name is Anna Kate and her daddy doesn't know it yet, but they ARE getting married someday. :) He is incredibly smart (every mom thinks that about their kid though right) - I found out this week that he could count to 5 if only he could get the "3" down!! He says 1, 2 and then stops... so I'll say 3... then he says 4, 5. YAY! He knows yellow and blue colors but that's about all of those.. we're working on that. He loves to sing songs and gives lots of hugs and kisses! He loves to be helpful so lately, I've been letting him help me... mostly just picking up something I've dropped and can't bend down to get, etc, but he really likes to be mommy's helper!
And bottom line: Jackson loves trains. He loves Thomas and anything and everything related to Thomas. Watching, reading, playing or just talking about Thomas and the trains makes him happy. :)
I'm leaving you w/ a video of Jackson's new sound from earlier today. :)
