Parachute Jumping, Cowboys, Doctors and Super Why - all in a month's work

Busy couple of weeks! Jackson's imagination is full steam ahead, so we're never too sure what is going to walk out of his room!

While Tom was busy at an evening concert and weekend classes (only 1 more class left!), Jackson and I spent some time in Stillwater. On Saturday morning, Jackson and Papa were busy playing with Buzz Lightyear when Papa had the great idea to build Buzz a parachute. I was quite impressed with the contraption they built! Styrafoam and pipe cleaners - there's nothing you can't do with it! Jackson had a blast watching Buzz Lightyear fly through the air.

After several trips down the stairs, Buzz Lightyear needed more room to fly. Papa took Jackson up on the new deck to try out the parachute outside. It was so fun to watch both of them playing together!

Jackson loves playing with Reese. Every once in a while, they'll call each other up on the phone. My heart melts when I hear them talk to each other. Jackson was so happy when he learned that we were spending the day with Reese. He also was excited about going to a basketball game. I don't know that he got the concept though, because he kept telling people that he was going to go play basketball with his Papa and Pamma....mommy was just going to watch. It was kind of sad going to the basketball game, though. The crowd was so different! You can tell by all of the empty seats just how different it is from when we went to school there. Fortunately though, it was much easier to get 6 seats together!

I've got a secret - I love you so so so so much! This is one of my favorite things that Jackson is doing right now. Usually totally out the blue, Jackson will come up to you to tell you a secret. Usually it's "I love you so so so so much" or "You're my best buddy I ever saw". Either way, it's the best part of my day. We love you so so so much, Jackson! Here Jackson is getting a secret from Pamma. Jackson really liked the popcorn at the game. It seemed to perk him up a bit. Reese had popcorn for the first time, too. She liked it a lot! She actually moved up to sit by me because Johnnie was eating "her" popcorn!
Jackson went to his second birthday party last weekend (a joint party for Julia and Holden). It was a cute theme (a book party), and they held it in a meeting room at a library. Jackson was totally excited that there were books on the tables. I actually had a hard time getting him to get up to go play with the other kids doing Musical Chairs! He was so happy when he realized that he was able to take a SpiderMan book home as a gift. He know knows all about Peter Parker. :) Here is Jackson playing "Pin the Hat on the Cat".
One night after work, Tom and I decided that we would have a Jackson night. First, Jackson and I went to the Borders store closing sale in south Tulsa to pick up some books. Jackson LOVED the bookstore. He kept asking if he could take a different book home. And then he found the best thing of all - a SuperWhy puzzle! By the end of the evening, he had books stacked under each arm. It was so cute watching him hold all of his "prizes". After the book store, we met Tom at Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. Chuck E. Cheese sure has changed in the last 25 years. Over 1/2 the rides didn't work (but did take your coins) and the pizza was awful! Jackson seemed to have fun, though. I was relieved, though, when we asked him what his favorite part of the day was that night, and Jackson replied, "Doing the SuperWhy puzzle with Daddy!". Since putting it together that night, he has re-done it at least 6 times. He loves it.
Jackson got his medical degree since my last post (it has been a long time, I know!). We're lucky that our doctor now makes house calls.
I'm still confused what reflexes Tom has in his jaw....but Jackson is the one who went to medical school. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Probably a new technique he learned!

Had another "good mom" moment this week - actually a couple!

1. Jackson's first question when I go to pick him up at school is "do you have a treat for me?" Usually I don't....after all, they're treats! But on this day he told Ms. Angelique that I didn't have a treat for him, so she proceeds to give him some snacks from their snack drawer to eat in the car. As we go through the halls, he tells everyone passing by that mommy didn't have a treat for him but Ms. Angelique gave him fruit snacks. Mommy fail.

2. Another day when picking him up (sensing a trend here....my best parenting skills show up at daycare), my shoes were REALLY hurting me. I could barely walk down the stairs back to our car, much less go the dark way (and go twice as far). So at the top of the stairs, I decided Jackson and I would have a race (and really, it was quite a fair race!). He would go the dark way, I would go down the stairs and we'd see who wins. He thought that was a great idea and off he went...or so I thought. I made it down the stairs and was looking for him. One of the other afternoon teachers said that Jackson was at the top of the stairs looking for me. Oops. That idea backfired. I walked back up and he was walking back down, pouting because I didn't let him go the dark way. He cheered up when I said he could still go and that I would wait for him at the bottom. He got excited and took off. Another child walking by when I was waiting said "I wonder where Jackson's mom was..." Oops. Mommy fail again. (And for the record, Jackson made it back down just fine on his own. In fact, he asks to do it pretty much every day now.)

3. Another afternoon when I picked him up, one of the teachers told me that Jackson had been scratching or pinching the other boys at school. The teachers seemed just as shocked as I was - Jackson is a good kid and he doesn't do things like that! I eventually got most of the story in the car on the way home. Apparently they were playing superheroes and bad guys. Jackson was a superhero getting a bad guy....and got a little too into the role. We had a very long talk about how we treat other people. Jackson felt really bad about it and was sad. He kept saying "I want to go home." On the bright side, he learned another technique to handle a situation when others are doing things that aren't nice. The next morning when I quizzed him what to do when someone is chasing or hitting him, he quickly replied, "I say No, I don't like that. And then WALK AWAY! And go near a teacher." When I picked him up, the first thing he told me was how he told Cort "No, I don't like that!" and then walked away when Cort was chasing him. I was proud of him. He definitely learned something from that experience!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Jackson seemed to really enjoy it this year. He loved getting the Valentine's from his class (especially the treats) and learned to draw hearts.

Here Jackson is opening up his card from Pama and Papa:
It was a great card, complete with 3D glasses that you could use to see Buzz and Woody running out to greet you! In fact, it was a such a great card that he actually received three of them! Pama and Papa, Johnnie, Reese and Casey, and Tom and I each picked out the exact same card for Jackson! Guess we all know what he really likes! We all had a great laugh over that one.

Jackson had fun at his Valentine's party at school. Tom took over the making of Jackson's Valentine's day box with Jackson doing the decorating. Jackson was so excited to see all of the cards and treats in his box after his party. For the next few days, he kept bringing up Valentines cards saying "Look, it's _____ (SpongeBob, Buzz, Cinderella, ....). He especially loved all of the suckers that came with the cards. The teachers had decorated the tables for the party with lots of heart confetti and garland (brave teachers). Jackson doesn't like mess and was the ring leader in blowing all of the confetti in the middle of the table to get his spot cleaned. Everyone else at his table soon joined in....

Jackson was really proud when Tom came to sit by him during the party.

After they ate, they all played musical chairs. Jackson was one of the first ones out, but he seemed perfectly content to dance to the music and cheer on his friends. Check out his new moves!

On a different note, Jackson LOVES playing dress up lately. He really likes pretending to build. Here he is ready to tackle a new project - I wouldn't mess with him!
Jackson had been asking for cupcakes, so last weekend we decided to bake together. He was excited to hold the mixer.
While the cupcakes were baking, he decided that he needed to get a hair cut. He promptly found the water bottle and his comb and proceeded to "cut" his own hair (using his fingers as scissors). He did a great job on his hair, don't you think?

After the cupcakes baked and cooled, we set out to frost them.

"Oops....spilled some on my hand. Don't worry, I'll take care of it!"
I had bought colored sugar crystals to decorate the V-Day cupcakes. Jackson took this very seriously.

Here he is with his finished product. I love his face in this picture. It's almost like "can I eat it now, mom??"

We've been spending quite a bit of time upstairs lately. Jackson still likes playing with his train table and pretending to be the train engineer.

Jackson has finally started sleeping in his big boy bed all by himself all night long! We are so excited. I think it helped that we told him he could play with his toys in his room, but in our room he just had to immediately go to sleep. His room suddenly seemed a lot more fun. He has been reading on his own for about 30 minutes before turning out the light on his nightstand and going to sleep. It's so cute watching him read to himself.

One day last weekend, Jackson played with pretty much every toy in his closet before naptime. He really likes making the firemen climb their tall ladder.

Jackson's new thing this week is to tell secrets. Periodically he'll come in to the room, say he has a secret and will come whisper in your ear. Usually, this is what he says: "Mommy (or Daddy), I love you very very much! (or some variation). Have I mentioned that I love this kid??

Funny things that happened this week:

• We took Jackson up to my new office last weekend and he had a blast playing there. Later that week on our way to school, Jackson saw my building and said "We're not going to your building? But I like your building. You can color, run fast, play computer and ride on elevators. It's AWESOME!" I wonder if he thinks that's what I do all day!
• At work, Tom was helping one of his students find some music to play for the talent portion in the Ms. Teen Broken Arrow pageant that she is going to be in soon. She was considering playing a four mallet solo, but Tom quickly set her straight saying "no, what you need is a really fast 2-mallet piece about a minute and a half long that is really jazzy, flashy and looks hard." She looked at him in amazement and asked how he knew so much about the talent portion in beauty pageants. Tom replied "Oh, I watch the Miss America pageant every year. My wife makes me and Jackson watch it with her!" So Mom, Dad and Jenna, you'll be glad to know the tradition continues to live on!

On a sad note, we put TC down this weekend. It was a really hard decision, but it was starting to become apparent that his kidneys were starting to have more trouble. He had started throwing up more frequently (about once every 1-2 days). Since he's had kidney problems for the last 7-8 years, we knew the end was probably in the near future, and we didn't want him to suffer unnecessarily. I'm still having a really hard time with it, much harder than I originally thought I would since we really haven't been able to give him the full attention we used to before Jackson. But now, the memories just keep coming back every where I turn.

Tom gave me TC for Valentine's day back in 1997, so he was almost 15 years old. He had a really good life after we rescued him from the humane society - sleeping on pillows on our heads at night, playing fetch with golf tees, getting stuck in the wall in Wyoming, and standing guard over Jackson when Jackson was new to our family. TC was so patient with Jackson, even when Jackson was hitting him with a drum stick or pulling his tail. Rather than biting, TC would just walk away and move to a higher place out of Jackson's reach.

In the last few moments, TC kept looking up at me with those big eyes as I tried to comfort him, letting him know that we love him. Selfishly, I keep wondering if we really did do the right thing, because I really do miss him. I keep seeing his napping spots around the house (because that's really all he did in the last year or two), and it gives me pause when I realize that he's not there anymore. And then the tears start again. I'm happy knowing that he did have a really good life and that he didn't suffer; the vet told me we were doing the right thing, but it's still hard because right now it just doesn't feel good. My heart hurts.

TC, you were a wonderful cat. We love you and miss you!

It's a blizzard!!!

Tom and I finally got our wish for snow....though I think our wish worked a little too well! This past week we got 21" in less than 24 hours. We couldn't believe how much white stuff was coming down! It finally stopped snowing around 4:00 in the afternoon, so Tom and I went to go shovel our driveway while Jackson was sleeping. Underneath the 21" of snow was a nice layer of ice. It took us three scoops per section just to get from the top layer down to the ice layer. Needless to say, our backs were really tired after we got this done. Our area that we were scooping kept getting narrower and narrower....

Can you believe how high the snow is?? This is Oklahoma, for Pete's sake! We were surprised how many people were out that day shoveling their driveways after the snow stopped. I think we all realized that if we didn't get it done soon, it was going to semi-melt and then turn into ice...and who knows when it would get warm enough to melt! The next day, however, we saw that one of our neighbors had a snowblower....and then they brought it over to our friendly neighbor's house next door to help him with his driveway. If only we hadn't been so proactive...but I guess it was good exercise, right?

If you remember from before, we didn't think to get Jackson any snow boots or waterproof gloves before the first snow hit. We were totally unprepared for the snow and the super cold weather. By the time we made it to the store, they only had rain boots (they work just as well as snow boots, right?) and hot pink waterproof gloves. By this point, we weren't too picky.

Many of the pictures I've seen on Facebook of friends' kids in the snow show them wearing nice warm snow suits, waterproof clothes and lots of layers. Jackson is setting a new trend...

And now Jackson LOVES his hot pink gloves. Today was the first day back to daycare after a week of being out due to the snow. He proudly wore his hot pink gloves into school, showing everyone that he passed by. I was running a little late to pick him up, and as I'm walking up the stairs to his class, I hear Ms. Kathryn getting his things together. She picks up the gloves and says, "Jackson, where are your gloves? All I see are these pink ones. I think someone took yours home!" I sheepishly had to explain what happened and that those pink ones were in fact his gloves.

As we stepped outside, we couldn't believe how much snow we had received. Notice how the snow is level with the seat of our white bench!

By this point, the snow was nice and crunchy. Jackson weighs so little he barely even made footprints in the snow.

We wanted to see if Jackson could climb up one of the snow drifts, but he sank in one before he got too far up it. He was not happy at all when the snow went up to his knees!

Daddy rescued him from the drift and was much happier:

All Jackson wanted to do in the snow was throw snowballs at Mommy and Daddy - he got his wish!

I ended up working from home on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, I came out of the office to find Jackson and Tom playing with playdough. Jackson seems pretty proud of his carrot.

I just love this picture of Jackson; doesn't he look old in this picture?

Jackson has started playing with our computers more and more during the snow break. Sometimes we'll call him to come out to the kitchen or the living room, and he'll call back "In a minute! I've got lots of work to do!". Other times when Tom or I are on the computer, he'll walk in with such a serious face and say "I have a lot of work to do. I need to work."

One night, he was playing on the computer, and I had opened up a word document for him to play type. A little while later, he starts yelling for me to come in here because he wants to show me something. Lo and behold, he had typed his name (both first and last). Farther down in the document, he also typed "catcatcat". When I came in, he said "See, I did CAT! C-A-T!" He's already learning to spell! For the rest of the night, we practiced typing and writing various words. He's really starting to get interested in reading and writing!

Here he is hard at "work":

I hope everyone is keeping warm. The next snow is coming tomorrow night - hope it's not as bad as they say it might be. I don't know where we will put all of the snow! Tom's school is still out - a week after the first storm. I have a feeling they will be out of school all week!

January Fun

Finally - pictures of Jackson's new room! Over Christmas break we re-did Jackson's room, complete with his own big boy bed. I think he likes it! The last two days he has even taken his nap in his own bed...by himself on his own doing.

These wall decals were so easy to put up. Jackson loves them. When we put them up, he would stand up on the stool and smile proudly. Woody is bigger than he is! Furniture spacing was a bit of a problem in his room with the new bed. Eventually we'll take out the chair, but for now we still like to read together in it.
Buzz Lightyear actually glows when you first turn off the light. When I'm in there with Jackson playing, he'll say, "I want to show you something. Stay there. I'll be just a minute." He'll then proceed to shut the doors and turn off all of the lights so that we can watch Buzz glow. We still need to buy a cover for the box springs, but we haven't found one yet. Doesn't Jackson look tiny in his new bed?
We had our first snow day(s) earlier this month. Jackson was so excited to throw snowballs....even going so far as to put that on the wall in his classroom! Everyone else said they wanted to make snow angels, a snow man, etc. Jackson wanted to throw snowballs at Mommy and Daddy. While I was at work, Jackson and Tom played outside. Thank you, Tom, for shoveling the driveway!! Here Jackson is standing on top of his mountain that he and Tom built with all of the snow. He looks cold!

We realized (after the snow, of course) that Jackson would need some boots. Of course, after the snowfall, every store was out. While I was at Walmart, I did find these rain boots, which I thought would fit the bill for the few times we were out in the snow. He loves wearing them around the house with everything....including his Buzz Lightyear costume!

Last weekend Jackson went to his first birthday party. He was so excited to go. On Saturday we went to the store to pick out a present for his friend, and it was so cute watching him go through the aisles. Everything he picked out was something he actually wanted, but I figure that's pretty normal. I didn't realize how difficult it was to pick out a birthday present for a kid that you don't even know what they like or already have! Finally Jackson picked out a cool V-tech Buzz Lightyear mini-computer. The party wasn't until Sunday afternoon, so he kept asking all day long "Mom, is it time to go to Jack's party yet?"

The party was held during his naptime, so we were a little unsure how that would play out. We tried to put him down early, but I don't think he really slept at all. He did have some quiet time in his room....but I'm pretty sure there was no sleeping going on!

Here he is ready to go - finally!

The party was held at BounceU down in south Tulsa. They have the party planning business down pat! Right at the scheduled time, they led us through the first door, where the kids were greeted with this amazingly tall bouncy slide (and other bouncy areas to play in). After 30 minutes, the kids were led into a second room with different bouncy areas. They had such a blast! All of the kids were so excited to see that their friends from school were there. I also enjoyed getting to know more of the parents there. We all had a really good time. In the picture below, Jackson and Nash slid down the big slide. Wish you could have heard Jackson's "Wwwwhhhhhheeeeee!" all the way down.

Each kid had a red bracelet letting the employees know that they had signed the waiver and could bounce. It was really big on Jackson, and he kept trying to hold his arm up carefully so that it wouldn't fall off.

After over an hour of bouncing, it was time to go to the party room where cookies and ice cream were waiting for them. It made me laugh to see Jackson squeeze right into the middle of the action (Jack, the birthday boy is right next to him).

Jack was a little afraid of either the dark, the attention or the candles, so he cried when everyone was singing to him. After his mom blew out the candles, it got really quiet. That's when Jackson decided to call out to us from across the room: "Jack isn't being very nice." Oops...

Tom and I had so much fun watching Jackson play with his friends. Max, Nash and Jackson seem to be the 3 Muskateers at school, so I wasn't surprised when they all banded together and started talking at the table. (Max is in the orange shirt and Nash in the yellow shirt.)

They all had so much fun at the party!

After cookies and ice cream, it was time to open presents. It was funny to watch the progression during the present opening time. Here, everyone is being fairly patient and calm.

And here we are a few presents into it. Notice how Jackson has moved around trying to get closer and closer.

And finally, the boys can't stand it any longer! Jackson looks so little compared to John (in the red shirt).

We were pleasantly surprised how happy all of the kids were considering none had their naps that day. We weren't in the car more than 5 minutes when I looked back and saw this - he was dead to the world!

On a separate note, I moved offices at work. They are remodeling our area in the building, and for the time being, we moved into the tower - the 43rd floor! Here's my view from my chair - I'm looking forward to some of the day games later this spring!

It's amazing what Jackson remembers lately. We were all driving in the car one day, and out of the blue Jackson asks me: "We're not having a rough day, are we, Mommy?" I had a really rough day at work one day over a week ago, and he remembered it!

He's also really into playing pretend, so we're never quite sure what the story is going to be. Usually, when he's doing something he's not supposed to do, he tells us "I'm just pretending. It's just pretend." Lately he has been pretending that he's going away to college. I think that's a good sign!

We got a note in his folder at school to all the parents indicating that February was career month, and if any parents wanted to come talk about their careers, we'd be welcome. I'm a little embarrassed how excited I got over this. I immediately started thinking of all of the fun activities I could do - kind of similar to what we did for Take Your Kids to Work day. But then I remembered that those kids were in 5th grade. I don't know that Jackson's friends would really get the whole idea of what I do in the natural gas industry, but I think it would be really fun to talk a little bit about it and do some fun "magic tricks" with chemistry. When I asked Jackson if he'd like me to come and talk about engineering, he said "That'd be cool! Engineering is fun!" I don't think he even knows what engineering is yet, but I liked his answer! If you've got any ideas of what we should do for his class, leave 'em in the comments section.

Stay warm this week - looks like it's going to be a nasty storm with more snow days ahead. Hoping that means we'll get to build a snow man with Jackson this time, especially now that he has waterproof boots and gloves!