Ready for Fall, Y'all!

Those that know me know that I don't love the fall season for many reasons - it means the days are getting shorter (read: dark on the drive to AND from work), we have many months of gloomy and cold days ahead of us to look forward to, and bundling up, to name a few. 

 

But there are a few things I do look forward to in the fall - changing leaves, bringing out my boots and scarves, my birthday (the big 3-0 this year, eek!), hot baths, and the approaching holidays which means tons of fun family and friend-filled activities.

 

To help me get in the fall spirit this year, I decided to tackle a home-made wreath for our front door.  While I love the idea of a fun craft project, I don't normally take them on as I don't typically have the patience or the skills to produce a decent final product.  And in the old days at our condo, we didn't have much space to store supplies or for me to spread out to complete a project. 

 

I was inspired by the wreath on this blog recently and decided I had to try it out myself.  The end result?  Not too shabby for a wanna-be crafter, I suppose.

 

Our front porch is officially ready for fall!



 

 

 

 





Quack!

My parents came over for a bit yesterday, and after a yummy breakfast, we headed over to feed the ducks in Klahanie.  Jackson had a blast (and so did we!) and was very brave, even feeding a few ducks right out of his hand. 

Here he and the ducks are in action.

And after a nice, long nap on a Sunday afternoon, there's no better way to wake up than sipping on some milk, watching football with Dada.

New & Improved!

My good friend Natalie recently very kindly offered to help me update our blog template and I'm pleased to introduce you to the new design!  She's so crafty - she created this whole template all on her own and I just LOVE it!  It's so nice to see some pictures of our family at the top and not see anymore of that green border.

So, thank you so much for giving our blog a fresh, new and improved look and feel - you're the best!! 

PS - On a completely unrelated note, I forgot to add something funny to my This and That post from the other day.  We were recently at the Sammamish Cafe for breakfast (highly recommended, by the way!) and we'd just paid our bill and the waitress was walking away.  Jackson chose that exact moment to reach out and grab her butt cheek.  And he didn't just brush her bootie with his hand, he literally squeezed it.  Luckily she thought it was funny, but oh boy, I guess this kid is starting young!

This and That

Thought it was probably time for a little update on what's happening in Jackson's world, as the kid changes daily.

He's picking up more and more words.  "Mama" and "Dada" are frequently in the mix to get our attention or to ask about us when one of us leaves the room.  Other fun new words are Ernie (who he sleeps with), Elmo (on his diaper), booah (book), ayeday (airplane), 'uh' (up), off, boo (to scare you when peering around a door/corner), thank you (his version of this, when prompted), still says 'eeese' (please, also when prompted).

The wave that accompanies 'hi' and 'bye' looks like a parade wave, which I love!  He still LOVES to read and LOVES to help around the house - watering the flowers, getting the mail, taking the garbage out, and throwing things away are still faves.

He's becoming less shy, and loves to say 'hi' and 'buhbye' to the neighbors when we see them, and in fact, just last week, ran across the cul-de-sac to our neighbor, Jeff, for a hug and to be picked up.

Four molars have broken through the skin and he's constantly chewing on anything he can and drooling everywhere, so I think more are on their way.

One of his favorite past times are bubble ("buhble") baths and it was the highlight of his weekend to get to buy Elmo themed bubbles for the bath this past weekend, after his other bottle ran out. 

He loves playing soccer with his big green ball outside, and has even gotten pretty good at catching the ball.  He also still loves getting in and out of his Little Tykes car, and loves watching the sprinklers outside when they go off.  We saw, followed and talked to a frog out in the yard for a good 15 minutes a few weeks back - he was fascinated, and it was adorable.

And thankfully he still loves giving big hugs and kisses (he usually turns his cheek towards you vs. giving the kisses these days).

I love this cute kid more every single day!

Mmm Mmm Good

Jackson loves carbs.  Carbs and fruit.  So we're always trying to come up with ways to get him to eat more veggies - fruit + veggie pouches, homemade zucchini bread, and his latest favorite is corn on the cobb.  We initally started just cutting some off the cobb and giving it to him in a bowl with a spoon.  But tonight, we decided to up the fun factor, and gave him the whole cobb.

Such fun!

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Happy birthday (yesterday) to the love of my life - the best hubby, BFF, and "dada" to Jackson (and Roxy) I could ever ask for. 

We had a great fun-filled and food-filled weekend celebrating Corey, from a birthday dinner at Canlis with the Reeders, to brunch at Sammamish Cafe, and a yummy home-cooked dinner at Joan's.  Mixed in were trips to the park, multiple runs and coffee trips, and an eventful pit stop at the hair salon for Jackson to get a trim (which he screamed for 99% of). 

Wishing you another fun, fabulous and eventful year ahead, hubby!  Love you!

Family Fun

Last Friday, Corey and I took the day off work to spend exta time with Jackson.  We kicked off the day by heading into Seattle and making a pit stop at his old daycare.  While we enjoyed seeing his old teachers and catching up, J decided to cry and fuss if we got him too near his teachers - not sure if he just didn't remember them, or if he thought we were going to leave him, but super sad nonetheless since we know he loved them.  Hopefully none of them took it too personally.

 

Then we headed over to the Seattle Center to catch the fountains and music that J used to love so much when his teachers took the kiddos there in the past. 

 

And finally, we hit up the Children's Museum.  We'd never been but had heard great things about it and were excited to check it out.  Jackson had so much fun crawling through the log and whale tunnels, playing in the water and checking all the fun toys and rooms out.  Such a great place.

  

We dropped Corey back at home so he could enjoy a weekend to himself, and J and I made our way to Yakima to see my family (but not before following this deer out of our neighborhood!).  We hadn't been since April so it was great to be back and to enjoy some hot, dry heat. 

 

We stopped at my dad's work on our way into town and J was caused quite the scene upon arrival.  I looked up at one point and there were about 15 women gathered around. Apparently he has a way with the ladies already.  Perhaps it was his shy, serious looks, or maybe it was the fact that he was having a ball digging through my purse, pulling everything out and putting it all back repeatedly.  Eventually we made it past the lobby and my dad hooked him up with some fun toys in his office.  J was in heaven.

 

While in town, we were able to see my grandma a few times, including once for dinner at her place.  As you can see, Jackson hated dessert.

 

 

With temperatures in the upper 90's, what better way to cool down than playing with a hose?  I think my dad had almost as much fun as J, and he loved having a partner in crime to explore the yard with.

 

Jackson can sometimes be shy around my parents, not wanting to give them hugs or kisses, but he couldn't get enought of my mom this time around.  He even wanted her to read him her Reader's Digest, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was sharing a room with the little guy.  I got to watch him sleep for a few moments before crawling into bed myself, which is something I never get to do for fear of waking him up, and he was oh so cute in his quiet, peaceful state. And the best part was in the mornings, I would hear rustling and then a little head would pop up over the side of his Pack 'n Play, with a big smile.

 

And you can't consider a weekend fun-filled unless you're completely worn out on the drive home.

 

Our Helper

Something was up with J over the weekend - he came down with a 101 degree temperature, and though he didn't really act extra fussy or sick, he was extra sleepy and didn't eat much.  (Today his bottom gums seem really swollen and you can feel something under the skin, so I think he's getting a molar on each side.)  But anyway, he still had a fever on Monday a.m. so we had to keep him home from daycare.  We both worked from home so we could tag team, allowing us each to get as much work done as possible.

Later in the afternoon, I wrapped up work for the time being and was playing with Jackson.  All of a sudden, Jackson got up, ran over to where we keep our shoes, grabbed my shoes and delivered them to me, grabbed Corey's shoes and delivered them, and then ran over and pointed at where we keep the mail key --- even though we weren't on our normal "getting home from daycare schedule" where he hands me my shoes and we grab the keys after we get home, he realized it was the afternoon and that it was time to check the mail.  It was so cute; we both couldn't help but quickly put our shoes on and head outside.

And here are a few other recent stories that I just have to share:

As I think I've mentioned, Jackson's favorite book is 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus'.  There's a part in the book where the pigeon says 'uh oh' after the bus driver returns from being away.  I was reading him the book a few days ago and right as I got to that page, before I could even get the 'uh oh' out of my own mouth, I hear a little voice say 'UH OH!'  He has officially read the book so many times that he knows the EXACT second to say the magic word (which happens to be one of his favorite words...in hindsight, perhaps it's because of the book).

Any time he seems to be on the verge of a tantrum when he doesn't want to do something we need him to (put the book away, put the ball back, etc), we've learned a few ways to help avoid a full blown freak out.  One way is asking Jackson to "help" do whatever it is we want him to do (i.e. "can you help put the ball back?", or "can you help me put the book back on the shelf?")  As silly as it sounds, we then say, "okay let's say goodbye to the ball" or "tell the book bye bye".  For some reason, involving him in helping us and then saying bye to whatever it is we want him to put away/stop doing typically solves the issue.  Pretty silly, but it seems to work.

He and I were playing in his room and I literally left for no more than 10 seconds to get something from the bathroom.  When I came back, he wasn't in the spot on his floor that I'd left him in.  I quickly scanned his room and found him sitting in his glider (the right way, with his back up against the back of the chair) flipping through a book.  He glanced up at me, grinned, and went right back to his book.  It was adorable.

In other news, Jackson and I headed to Yakima this past weekend - I'll post pics and a recap soon, so stay tuned!

And, after making you read all that, I better leave you with a recent photo of the munchkin.

Splish, splash



Hot weather means J's been able to get a few good uses out of his pool.  And he doesn't even seem to care that the water is freezing.  All that matters is that he has toys he can throw in the pool and then throw out of the pool.

J's First Ride



We tried to find a toy Jackson could use outside that we could push him around the neighborhood in, but after trying this out in the house initially, I'm not sure it'll make it out there.  He loves this thing...almost daily, right when we get home, he runs to it with his sippy cup and snack in hand, and sits in there while enjoying his treats.  He hasn't figured out how to move forward on his own...just backwards.  But he does love getting in, shutting the door, getting out, shutting the door and repeating this cycle over and over. 

Inside or out, this was definitely money well spent.