Head...

...ears, nose, and tummy...nose and tummy! (Sung to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes)

 

 



Momma's Helper

My munchkin is quite the helper.  He still loves taking the garbage cans to the curb and then putting them away at the end of garbage day, sweeping, putting things away (he even takes apart all the legos he's just put together, before putting them away!), etc.  But yesterday, he took his helpfulness to a whole new level. 

Without any encouragement or guidance from me - I was simply in the kitchen making dinner - he took it upon himself to set the table with silverware before dinner.  Not sure who he thought was coming over for dinner (top right seat typically has no one in it), or what he thought we were having (I wasn't making soup or anything that required a spoon), but very cute nonetheless to turn around and this:

Thumbs Up

Or in Jackson's case, thumbs pointer fingers up!  He doesn't quite get the concept of thumbs up yet, but it sure is fun watching him try.

Trying very hard go get those thumbs up and pointers down...

Got it, Mom!  Pointer fingers up!

(Not so) Innocent

Jackson's friend Wyatt came over for a brunch/play date yesterday with his parents, Alex and Jen.  These two had a great time playing and watching Elmo 'Singing with the Stars'.

Don't be fooled by their sweet innocence in this picture, though.  Not even five minutes later, they were huddled in the pantry together playing with the receiver, which was tuned to the radio (which was playing in the kitchen speakers).  They found the volume knob and within seconds had turned it up as loud it would go, nearly ruining all of our ear drums in the process.  The four of us adults went running and found a very serious, startled Wyatt and a smiling Jackson sneaking back out of the pantry.

These boys (especially Jackson, the instigator in this case) are T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  And based on the big hug they gave each other at the end of the morning, I think there's lots more play date trouble in our future. 

DQ Success

J loves his sweets - he's been known to ask for cookies and candy frequently - so after dinner last night, we decided to take him introduce him to DQ ice cream...and it was quite the success.  He couldn't get enough  and he couldn't eat it fast enough.

Guess we'll need to plan a bunch of trips this summer!

Happy Birthday, "Gampa"!

Happy birthday to one of the world's best "gampas"!

Dad,

Jackson absolutely adores you and all the fun things you do together, like playing hide & seek, learning about nature outside, reading, and "crashing" (i.e. tackling).  Thanks for being so great!

In honor of your birthday, Jackson made you a short video to express his love.

Enjoy!

Now you see it...

...and now you don't! 

My dad and Corey had some fun in the yard this weekend.  There was a tree at the end of our driveway that was diseased and we decided to take it down (which is exactly what every other neighbor has done in recent years for the same reason).

The guys started working on it on Saturday morning, and very shortly after, our neighbor (same one that remodeled our kitchen) came over to help, after borrowing a chairsaw from another neighbor.  Something about tools gets a guy every time, I swear.  It was a fairly large tree, so it was quite the undertaking.  At one point, branch piles were almost to the middle of our cul de sac.

Jackson liked supervising, and even served beer and pop for the guys. 

It's amazing how much of a difference taking down one tree can make.  Now we just need worry about getting rid of the bazillions of branches that are residing in our garage as they await their turn to make into the yard waste bin.

Big Boy

We've got a big boy on our hands these days!  Much to our surprise, we found on Monday at school that Jackson would start his transition to the "yellow" class (what we've been calling the "big boy class") that day, with a goal of completion by today. 

We were told he handled it all really well, and that he seemed like an old pro in the new class by the time they came around to take photos of him and his friend Jamers who was also transitioning.  Lunch time is later, naps start later, they drink without lids on their cups, and they start potty training, so lots of big boy things going on around here.

Outside of school, he's still willing to try new foods when prompted, but his latest development is to try something and when he determines he doesn't like it, spit it out and hand it to Corey while saying "garbage" in the hopes Corey will throw it away.  He did this out of the blue the other day (after only doing it once before, a few months back) when trying some sausage in his soup, catching us off guard and making us laugh, and has done it a few more times since.

And sometimes, especially when eating, if we pay him a compliment (i.e. "wow, you're eating like such a big boy", etc), he'll respond saying "thank you!" or "thanks!", like he actually understands how to accept a compliment.  Love that.

Here are a few videos of our boy.

Saying "silly songs" --- one of my favorite things he says (like I mentioned in my last post).

Love how he says "mac & cheese"!