Just the Two of Us

Art Showcase

2012-01-28T22:23:00.001-05:00

an African hut (his preschool class is studying continents / Africa)

Monster Jam

2012-01-22T15:16:00.001-05:00

Since Jackson is reallllyyyyy into monster trucks lately, I surprised him by taking him to the Monster Jam show that was just in our area this weekend. He loved it! We went early to the pit party, where you can go down in the pits and see all the trucks up close, and meet the drivers. He loved being able to play in the authentic monster truck mud, and see the smash-cars and big trucks up close. Here are some pics from our fun!

Meeting the driver of “Higher Education”

He loved the smash up cars!

He went into the show saying Grave Digger was his favorite, but afterwards he says Monster Mutt :) Even I had to admire the creativity behind the trucks and designs!

Ready to watch the show!

fort full of fun

2012-01-16T18:21:00.001-05:00

It’s been too cold to play outside this weekend, so we took advantage of some indoor time to make a fort in the office. Of course, Jackson quickly repurposed the fort into a monster truck show arena :)

toy time

2012-01-14T22:20:00.001-05:00

Iron Man, uni-beam, BLAST!

Monster truck show, our coffee table, 7 pm.

it always feeeeels like….somebody’s watchin’ meeeee

2012-01-14T16:34:00.001-05:00

I made the mistake of buying Jackson a pack of googly eyes… he was obsessed with them, and put them EVERYWHERE. It was adorable, creepy, and annoying at times. :)

He enjoyed adding extra eyes to his own face…

3 and still going!

I also find them all around the house… on doors, floors, his bedroom…

Even the train tracks!

I’ve also found them in:

the washing machine
a door frame
inner lining of his coat
bottom of the broom
on toy cars and trucks

And on all his art… here’s some creep-tastic recent creations:

It did make me laugh though :)

Shootin’ Hoops

2012-01-07T21:11:00.001-05:00

Jackson had his very first basketball game ever this morning … he was so adorable in his little jersey :) I really didn’t have high expectations for his involvement, since he can be rather iffy with regards to attention and cooperation in practice and other organized activities, but he surprised me by at least joining the game for the first half. He opted to sit out the second half, however :)

He can often be seen doing this….

…or this. Haha! Luckily, these were at least before the game started!

Dribbling…

The best part, the post-game snack!

Jacksonisms

2012-01-03T20:12:00.001-05:00

some Christmas ones first…

Santa’s Ride
Discussing Santa: “Mommy, Santa drives a mobile; it’s like a small jeep.”

Breakin’ the rules
Jackson: Mommy, you should touch Tippy [our Christmas Elf].
Me: No, we’re not supposed to touch him; I’m going to follow the rules.
Jackson: Well, I don’t follow rules.
(Side note… Jackson stayed true to his word, and Tippy indeed did end up in the elf hospital for a day to recover after being touched and losing his magic.)

Changin’ it up
When I asked Jackson to think about maybe the one or two most favorite things he wanted to ask Santa for Christmas, with only minor hesitation, he replied “Cars Christmas cereal and a car carrier truck.” When I suggested he might want to think of something a little bigger than the cereal, he did change his mind to a Cars bicycle. Shortly later, the bike was switched for a skateboard. I helped talk him out of the skateboard, and back into the bike though :)

some other ones….

school snarky
Me: Jackson, what’s your favorite part of school?
Jackson: When Grammy picks me up!

dinner critique
Jackson: I don’t like this chicken.
Me: Why not?
Jackson: It doesn’t have any flavor.

Jokester
Jackson is all about telling jokes and laughing it up, so we have lots of knock-knock rounds, and the likes… here are a couple recent funnies.

Jackson: Knock, knock
Me: Who’s there?
Jackson: Nobody’s home. …….. HAHAHAHAHA!!

Jackson: Where do cows go on a first date? ……… to the moooooovies!

loungin’ around

2011-12-28T11:45:00.001-05:00

We’ve had some gloriously chill lounging time after the holiday … staying in PJs and being lazy at home! Here are some fun pics of our lazy days. ((unfortunately, my camera gets no break….))

Playing with the iPod – he loves the new “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book” app :)

I surprised him with some silly Mater teeth I found while doing some holiday clearance shopping!

We had fun making silly faces in the mirror!

Too bad it’s back to the work & school routine tomorrow… I’ve *so* enjoyed my special extra time with my little guy!

enjoying the new goodies :)

2011-12-28T11:30:00.001-05:00

Playing with the car carrier truck

Sometimes you just have to get down on the floor….

Splashing around in the mud is so fun in the fireman gear and boots

Trying out the new bike! :)

We had to set up an official race on the sidewalk with the cones. Of course!

Uncle Alan helps Jackson get going in the cul de sac

Getting used to riding on his own :)

Christmas is finally here!

2011-12-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

Santa brought Jackson a Lightning McQueen bike/helmet, car carrier, fireman outfit & boots, Smokey the fire truck, a Thomas puzzle, and a huge monster truck play set, among some other fun things.

The monster truck set was an unexpected fun surprise from Santa! He’s totally obsessed :) Santa knows what you want, even when you don’t explicitly ask for it ;)

And Blue Thunder monster truck in the stocking!

More stocking goodies

Christmas morning hugs!

Trying out the bike – ka-chow!

Opening some presents from Mommy

The laser gun was also a hit! We’ve already had a blast playing with this one, and have forced many visitors to play along with us in laser-gun chase-downs and whatnot.

The irony of this pic is fun…

Standing amidst his treasures :)

Now he’s all dressed and ready for Christmas festivities with his Dad ~ I’m still bummin’ it with bedhead and PJs!

And later that evening….did someone call a fireman??

Playing with the fireman outfit & boots gear :)

Christmas ~ celebrating with the family

2011-12-26T20:40:00.001-05:00

First we had some fun times with Jackson’s Uncle Alan & Aunt Steph :)

with Uncle Alan

They got him a cool remote control MONSTER TRUCK!

Jackson enjoyed a couple of celebrations with his dad’s family, and then we spent time with my family on Christmas Eve. He had such fun with everyone, and loved playing with his little cousin.

All dressed up

Chillin, chillin’, mindin’ my business….

Silly face!

Let’s get this party started with some sparkly cider & juice :) Tippy’s in the back just takin’ it all in :)

It was also Dustin’s birthday – he was sweet to let the little ones blow out the candles :) Happy 20th D!

Just takin’ a leisure flight though the living room….

Some serious gift unwrapping!

Cute cousin, C

Silly boys having a ball –>

Brothers, Dustin & Wayne

Can’t get this boy to take a proper pic with me for nothin’!

…although I did manage this self-shot earlier in the evening, which is one of the better ones, even with our heads cut off – he’s actually cooperating! I’ll take it!

Watching the video message from Santa again – eager for his arrival!

cookies and crafts, oh my!

2011-12-25T22:34:00.001-05:00

Jackson and I had some fun with Christmas crafts this season :) One of my favorites was our Christmas Day countdown calendar, which is not only cute, but also quite helpful for my little guy who still struggles with the concept of the measurement of time.

Each day we glue down a cotton ball to fill up Santa’s beard!

Make sure the cotton ball sticks down to the glue!

Look, we filled up Santa’s beard!

We also attempted a gingerbread house (pre-fab, y’all) – it was a first (I probably did one when I was younger, but don’t remember)! It wasn’t as easy as I imagined, and I did get a bit frustrated, but since Jackson wasn’t totally into it, I didn’t sweat it, and just finished the best we could.

Checking out the instructions

Starting out with some peppermints on top

The errrrr “interesting” finished house :)

And of course we had to decorate some sugar cookies!

Putting sugars on the cookies

and some of them need icing :)

I’m sure Santa quite enjoyed them!

a very merry Christmas to ya!

2011-12-25T15:06:00.001-05:00

there’s an elf on our shelf

2011-12-22T17:41:00.001-05:00

I have to admit … I haven’t been particularly keen on the Elf on the Shelf idea, especially seeing how much mischief some of these overachieving elves get into on pinterest, and I also try to avoid using Santa as a temporary behavioral threat, which seems like a slippery slope with the whole elf surveillance deal. But after the movie aired on TV, and seeing the elf in action at some other homes, I decided to give it a go with Jackson.

Our elf arrived the other night, and Jackson loves him :) He named him “Tippy” and is very curious about how it all works.

Jackson was so excited that first night, he ran in my room the next morning eager to search for Tippy.

Tippy was quite hidden, and it took us a while, but we finally discovered him perched in our wreath over the fireplace.

This morning Tippy showed up in one of Jackson’s bookshelves in his room!

We even received a letter and adoption certificate from Santa :) How fun!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … at preschool!

2011-12-19T21:30:00.001-05:00

Jackson has enjoyed such a fun year of events with going to preschool, and the holidays have been no exception!

First, Santa visited his school:

Then, he sang at the holiday performance – he had a captivated audience with myself, his dad, and Grammy & Pappy!

Ready to sing the Rudolph song!

Singing :) Adorable little ones!

** a short portion of the song:

** For those interested in seeing the full song (that’s you grandparents!, haha): click here. **

with Grammy

Then we headed back to the classroom to celebrate with the class party! Yummy food and fun times :)

The fun continues…. tomorrow they get to wear PJs to school AND watch The Polar Express :)

art showcase

2011-12-19T21:02:00.001-05:00

Some recent art from school:

the “Jackson” necklace

Baby Jesus

painted candle for the class holiday party

another blast from the past

2011-12-18T16:06:00.001-05:00

A cute video of a toddling Jackson, laughing with one of his favorite little friends :)

14 months old, also courtesy of Grammy’s flip cam :)

so puzzling

2011-12-18T09:17:00.001-05:00

Jackson has suddenly developed the affinity, skill, and patience for working puzzles, and it’s been puzzle-mania for the last couple of weeks :)

Working one of his favorites, a Cars puzzle

some play action

2011-12-17T21:33:00.001-05:00

A couple of videos of Jackson having some fun :)

Playin’ at the mall … the pit crew pretend action is just adorable!

And now, some leaf jumping! (courtesy of his Grammy’s flip cam)

And some swinging on the big crazy swing at Grammy’s (again courtesy of Grammy’s flip cam)

Santa Time!

2011-12-16T23:15:00.001-05:00

Jackson actually already had one visit with Santa at his school (still waiting to get the picture back), but I can’t pass up the opportunity to go with him for our usual Santa tradition. Just as fun, still, and a great picture!

We didn’t have to wait too long in line….

Jackson killing time playing on his iPod

And then he was up!

Adorable!

This year Jackson has been stuck on asking for 2 things: a skateboard, and a car carrier truck toy. I’ve worked to slowly convince him that perhaps a bike (rather specifically, an awweeesome Lightning McQueen Cars bike that he originally asked for a while back) would be a more suitable request, given his age, inexperience on things with wheels, and, most importantly, our rather sloped driveway. He seems to be reeled back into the excitement of the bike option, so we’ll see what Santa decides!

The other fun part of our Santa tradition?? Riding the escalator!

Baby babbles

2011-12-12T20:45:00.001-05:00

Jackson’s Grammy recently let me borrow her flip camera to copy a video of Jackson she recently took. Little did I know it had videos of my little J from all the way back to the baby days! What a fun surprise :)

Here’s one of little Jackson babbling away at 10 months old {ignore the grand finale, hehee} :)

Party Party!

2011-12-12T20:39:00.001-05:00

We had a blast at our little friend, C’s first birthday party with our ATL friends :) They had a really nice friend taking {awesome} pictures for them at the party, and there were a couple of cute shots of Jackson :)

He was a little overwhelmed with all the new people, and decided to retreat into solitary play mode for a little while :) He was quite smitten with this safari truck (and apologies to N, for Jackson leaving the truck “stripped” with his deconstructive curiosities….)

He also enjoyed jumping right into the pictures :)

We had such a fun time! Jackson is already asking when we can go back for another visit :)

The many faces of my little J-man

2011-12-08T21:11:00.001-05:00

Soooo… at the parade, we were sitting in front of the cutest little church, all decorated for Christmas with simple wreaths and painted red steps, so of course I did the obvious….. I totally bribed him with $1 to sit and let me snap some pics. No shame in my pay-for-performance game.

… and then there’s “rather be doing something else” Jackson

goofy Jackson

“wonder how fast I could run to that tree over there….” Jackson

… and that was about all I got. Not bad for $1!

But oh, there were some more sides to little J to be captured on my camera that afternoon….

bored & disinterested Jackson

“how does this work?” Jackson

talk-to-the-hand Jackson

And ps…. isn’t this little church just the cutest??

Gawrshhh, I cannot resist taking pictures of buildings. :)

Belmont Christmas Parade

2011-12-08T20:59:00.001-05:00

We planned for Jackson to ride with his school in the Belmont Christmas parade, but at the last minute, he decided not to (none of the other kids from his half-day class had returned to ride) – so we all just went to watch the parade instead :) I was happy anyway, because I normally don’t get to see this one with him since they do it during my work hours – and it was a really good parade, especially compared to our last experience!

Luckily we didn’t have to use our umbrellas, but Jackson sure did enjoy playing with it anyway (and what bizzarrrooo weather with short sleeves!)

obligatory self shot ;)

He’ll say his favorite parts were the police cars and big trucks, but I know it was really the candy…

with his Grammy

Luckily we sat by a grassy area, and when he hit a boredom spot, he could just “run it out”

One of my favorites – the Schiele Museum’s birthday cake :)

In his Chick Fil A “pope hat” making a “superhero face” …. yeah, a total mess. :)

waving!

excited!

this one brought a little retro 80s McDonald’s love to my life :) Hamburgler, y’all!!!!!

And this video is one of my favorite local famous getups… the gtown Ghostbusters!!! More nostalgic happy times!

B-ball time!

2011-12-04T20:26:00.001-05:00

So Jackson has officially started his first team sport – basketball! He had his first practice this Saturday. It’s hard to read at this point how it will go… he was often distracted and not really into following the exact instructions, and after about 20 minutes lost all interest and became much more intrigued with climbing the bleachers. Hopefully he’ll get more into it as we go to more practices, and he becomes friends with his teammates. :)

he said shooting was his favorite part of practice :)

score!

…but there was also a lot of this goin’ on too … crashing, sliding, and jumping around were more intriguing during his downtime between turns.

it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

2011-12-04T19:42:00.001-05:00

…2011 version!

I’m on that instagram bandwagon now, too! :) Our final treescape, once I ~~resolved~~ rigged the light situation.

Rewind… J is excited to see all the xmas items out, and quickly discovers the santa hat!

always gotta check out the snow globe!

a decorating break to take a silly hat pic!

decorating time!

love how he hung all his favorite ornaments down at the very bottom!

checking out the colored lights he bought to put up in his bedroom :)

bling bling out front!

merry, merry!

The big parade

2011-11-27T11:49:00.001-05:00

I was really excited to enjoy something new with Jackson this year – the Carolinas Carrousel Parade in Charlotte! Since my family celebrated the holiday early, I had no real plans on Thanksgiving, and without the hosting duties I usually have, I thought we’d enjoy the parade in the morning before J headed off to celebrate with his dad’s family.

We arrived early enough to score front row seats (and I LOVE working uptown so I can have free, close parking for events like this!). And, funny enough, it wasn’t planned, but we ended up sitting near the end of the parade, and it just so happened it was right where the news station films and commentates! There were several cameras at various angles, and one directly across from us! I don’t think we ended up on the broadcast though, at least not close enough for recognition.

To be honest though, the parade didn’t “wow” me as much as I anticipated – I kept hearing things referring to it as the 4th largest parade in the nation, and the largest in the southeast, so I expected it to be really awesome. What I didn’t realize, is that they don’t broadcast everything (they edit and show it later in the day), so there were still a solid amount of so-so participants and large gaps in the actual parade. And it seemed to last forever! Jackson lost his patience pretty early in, and we ended up having to leave before it finished. In the end though, I’m still glad we opted to check it out, and there were a handful of neat things we saw. But going forward, I think we’re better off sticking to the local, shorter parades :)

Waiting to watch :)

I snapped a cool shot of some buildings and the locally-famous firebird statue in the forefront. :) We were posted up near the statue on Tryon St.

My little can’t-sit-still boy decided to inspect the grate in the street … close enough so that he got his nose dirty. ewwwwwww!

Jackson’s favorite part was watching any interesting cars/trucks drive through. The retro Meck police car fleet was neat :)

I could not stop laughing at the deflated turkey float… what a mess!

pretty neato Krispy Kreme blast from the past

we were sitting directly in the sun, so we got pretty warm toward the end, and Jackson insisted on keeping his shirt pulled up … It was shortly thereafter I decided it was probably time to go :)

Happy Thanksgiving :)

2011-11-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

Little Buddies

2011-11-22T20:26:00.001-05:00

Just some fun times for Jackson and his little friend, C! :)

toys are so much more fun with friends!

Jackson loves to “hug” his friends … it often quickly morphs from hugging into wrestling, though :)

Crowder’s Mountain Fall Festival

2011-11-19T16:50:00.001-05:00

Last weekend, we ventured out to Crowder’s Mountain for the fall festival (this is a small mountain and state park within 20 minutes from our home). It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time!

First we enjoyed the beautiful fall scene when we arrived and walked from the car to the festival site. The leaves & trees were gorgeous!

Running in the “woods”

little park ranger :)

Hangin’ out listening to live folk music and enjoying a picnic lunch

Jackson’s favorite part was probably the Lowe’s DIY craft center. He chose to build a mini-golf putting game.

I cringed a looootttttt while the little guy hammered.

the finished product!

A really fun fall afternoon! :)

sweet moments

2011-11-18T17:45:00.001-05:00

The sweetest thing ever …. when my little ever-active, non-stop, truck-smashing boy nudges up beside me, and hugs my leg, resting his head at my hip. His hugs are genuine, intentional, often unsolicited, and, best of all, extra-squeezey.

I’ll tousle his thick hair, rub his (still so) tiny shoulder, and absolutely cherish the moment. In that instant, I can’t be more full of love. Or pure unequivocal joy. And in those moments, I usually also counter the happiness by confronting the transient nature of these instances. My boy will grow up, and he will also grow away. And with a flash, I feel the immense pressure of the dichotomy of happiness and sadness, not in opposition, but rather muddled in a blended composition of complex parental love.

I am in love with that little person more than I could ever convey with words. Or images. But him, sidled up next to my leg, hugging it with all his three-year-old might, is the closest I can come to conjuring a fraction of an explanation.

Jacksonisms

2011-11-14T21:08:00.001-05:00

I’m quite behind on my Jacksonisms update, so it’s very past due! Hopefully I can gather all the musings that are jotted in emails to myself, scribbled on scrap paper, and just merely in my head! (obviously, I don’t have a solid system! heehee)

Monster Trucks
Of late, Jackson has become obsessed with monster trucks. I’m not sure how it all began, but it definitely spiraled into “obsession” after spending chunks of time watching monster truck videos via YouTube on his Grammy’s and Dad’s iPads. Now he’s either watching clips or re-enacting scenes with his own cars and trucks. He’s also quite clever with finding items to act as stunt ramps! He’s known to dish out a hilarious “AWWWWWESOME!!” when someone shows him a cool trick as well.

Kissing Hands to ourselves
We have a cute book that we read every now and then, The Kissing Hand, about a young raccoon scared to go to school; he and his mom end up comforting each other with kisses they keep in the palm of their hands so they can remember each other throughout their absence. I have done the kissing hand with Jackson occasionally, but recently I did it, and when I asked him over the phone while he was away for the night, whether he still had my kiss, he informed me that no, he actually had his own kiss, and he had given me mine back. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he insisted, “I’ll keep mine, and you keep yours.”

Fog
Jackson really surprises me with his vocabulary and breadth of knowledge at times. One day in the car, he (unprompted) told me that “fog is a cloud that forms a lot of water in the air.” He definitely has a natural curiosity with science and nature – he is often asking questions about how plants/trees grow, the moon and planets, dirt and rocks, weather, and other similar topics. I hope I’m fostering his inner geek appropriately! :)

Odd Reflections
Jackson and I have started sharing “reflections” at bedtime, and since he’s accustomed to praying at preschool, his are usually directed as thanking God for the people and things in his life. It’s quite adorable, and often very sweet, but there are occasionally some oddball things thrown into his thankful mix. He usually starts out mentioning Mommy & Daddy, then whatever toy he’s holding, usually some more toys, and then it can sometimes wander… I had to laugh out loud one time when it went to “…and thank you God for the toilet at school…” Another one I had to chuckle at, was an evening after he had some behavior issues, and I took away some toys permanently that we mentioned might go to another little boy who doesn’t have many things to play with. That night he threw in “…Thank you God for my toys…and the toys I didn’t clean up that are going to the other little boy…”

Mommies are good for lots of things!
One evening, while watching TV, Jackson was sitting on my lap. He snuggled up to me and said “You make a good chair. You make a good Mommy, too.”

Stuttering with excitement
Jackson has typically been ahead of the game with language and vocabulary, but one of the common traits of preschoolers’ speech can be a bit of stuttering. It’s absolutely adorable. He doesn’t stutter on consonants or sounds, but every now and then, on words on phrases, and you can tell it’s more of a result of being utterly excited or hyped up. Today his question went something like this: “Mommy, is it, is, is, ummm, is it, um, is um, is it, ummmm (looking around), um, is it ummm, is …..” I don’t even remember what the actual question ended up being. But I did sit there with a deep smile on my face, and felt content and happy. What an adorable thing… to be so excited and fired up with thoughts and ideas, that you can’t even get the words out fast enough! :)

my silly boy

2011-11-12T16:50:00.001-05:00

we’ve had lots of fun playing with these glasses :)

pretending to gulp/drink these cans…. ummmm, prob not the best idea with texmex ingredients!
…and here you can see his sad, swollen eye. After confirming at a dr visit, we realized he had been bitten by some insect on his eyelid, and the swelling and bruising can get pretty nasty! One morning it was swollen entirely shut!

Halloween is here!

2011-11-01T21:41:00.001-04:00

Yay! For the Big Night, we met up with the B family in their neighborhood for a block party and trick-or-treating. The rumors did not disappoint --- their subdivision is THE place to be in our area for Halloween! It was packed, and tons of houses went all-out with decorations. Such a fun night… and so thankful the Bs included us to join them!

I went the minimal effort route and pulled off my usual black cat. The boy opted for spiderman again :) The most amazing thing?? Pulling off a self-timer pic with the boy!

… because this is how most turn out! Action Jackson, of course!

The caravan of kiddos!

Superhero battle in the bounce house!!

Pumpkin decorating at the block party

And this is Jackson showing his advanced humor technique for taking a joke, and re-telling it with a mere slight variation of word, a trademark of his. This one – What do ghosts eat for dinner? Spook-etti! (it was on the card I bought for him.. and we have enjoyed coming up with lots of other variations!)

What a fun time! :) And now, I’m exhausted….. :)

Scary School Fun

2011-11-01T21:16:00.001-04:00

Next up in the Halloween trifecta of fun… this is Jackson’s first stint in pre-school, and I was really excited for him to have his first official school festival! I signed up to help out, and was eager to be onsite and get to see it firsthand. The kids loved it (teachers might have needed a huge glass of wine at the end of that day, though! haha!). There were games, trunk or treat outside, and a hayride around town pulled by a for-reals (gasps heard for miles by the boys) tractor! It was adorable, and really fun to see Jackson in his school atmosphere, among new friends and teachers.

He decided to wear the Spiderman costume his dad bought him – he was showing off the spider to everyone!

Jackson & his classmates

Ready for the hayride

basketball game time!

Up next … dundundunnnnnnn. The real deal holiday get-down! :)

a whole lotta Halloween

2011-11-01T21:01:00.001-04:00

Halloween somehow morphs into a huge multi-event extravaganza with all the festivals and celebrations leading up to the big night. It’s a lot of excitement … and of course, loads of fun!

First up was the Halloween festival at a nearby local town – we went with some family/friends, and it was a blast! Albeit pretty cold, we lasted a decent length of time with our bundled selves :) A surprising number of people (including adults) were in costume, so it was fun to people-watch, and the kids loved all the games & activities --- which were all TOTALLY free! We had some yummy festival food for dinner too… this momma’s favorite part of all this fall fun ;)

S. (an adorable cupcake!) & Jackson – the race car driver! (frugal mama note … I scored this costume for $5 at a consignment sale!)

All the kids “bounced” down the super slide – hilarious.

Jackson ready to play the game he was most excited for – the mallet-poundy-thingy

This was my favorite by far… Ghostbusters car complete with entire crew in full gear!!! I was singing the theme song all night! I had heard rumor this car existed, but thought it was the stuff of local legends…. :)

S & J playing a toss game

We also made Halloween cookies this past weekend (J has been so eager to find many ways to use up the Halloween sprinkles we have on hand). Unfortunately he lost the opportunity to carve a pumpkin due to some behavior issues… bummer. Better luck next year, I suppose! :)

Hard at work on the spooky icing base

the final product …. is there nothing more adorable than 100% kid-created & decorated baked goods????? love. them.

Oh, but our Halloween-a-thon ain’t over yet! Up next…. a celebration at pre-school!

10 frames of fun

2011-10-29T21:55:00.001-04:00

Jackson (finally!!!) filled up another good behavior chart, and this time he opted to go bowling for his reward. It was his first time bowling, so I wasn’t sure how he would do, but he had a blast, and did a good job following directions. His favorite part seemed to be checking the screen to see how many pins he knocked down :)

art showcase

2011-10-21T14:31:00.001-04:00

Some more art from school recently :)

ladybug

love that he gave me a handbag! :)

exploring with textures

love this fall wreath!

and this little fall ornament :)

the turnip head suffered a sad fate… I opted to display this one on the fridge… and later discovered Mocha ate the candy corn face off the guy! glad I scanned it first!

There sure is a lot more art now that Jackson goes to preschool every weekday! No complaints, though ;) I’m definitely building a portfolio to make a fun art photo book someday!

camping, with a twist

2011-10-21T14:13:00.001-04:00

I’ve been intrigued with the idea of camping this fall … and while I haven’t been able to pull off an adult trip, I decided to try it out with Jackson in a much less committed fashion :) At first I thought we’d camp in the backyard, but since we are both total newbies, and the weather has been dipping quite low overnight, I was convinced to switch it up and just camp in the living room. I quickly became excited by the additional opportunities and comforts this afforded – watching movies, temperature control, and I could actually roam about the house and sleep in my own bed. Score for both of us!

So I threw up the tent (ok, more like barely fit it in my living room, struggled with the poles, left it sitting totally wonky lopsided for a bit in frustration, and finally came back later to realize how to get it set up properly … not totttalllyyy smooth, but it ended up right in the end!), and we were ready to go! That evening we watched a movie from inside the tent, indulged in popcorn and (microwave) s’mores, and just enjoyed our camping adventure. When it was finally time for bedtime, I turned on the “campsite” sounds on Jackson’s iPod and his stars/moon “night light”, and he fell asleep (well, more like fought sleep and finally succumbed hours later…) to the sounds of a crackling fire and crickets. Very faux-camping, indeed! :)

I’m in a tent!

making s’mores

yummmmmmmm

popcorn & movie! and you can’t go camping without you trucks!

time for sleep….

We will definitely have to do this again!! And maybe someday soon I’ll get the energy and courage up to do a for-reals camping trip with the little guy :)

boys & boots

2011-10-17T20:13:00.001-04:00

Jackson’s Uncle Alan surprised him with a new pair of all-boy boots! They are very Uncle Alan-ish, and Jackson absolutely loves them!! He has insisted on wearing them non-stop since he got them this past weekend, and he shows them off to everyone… waitresses, teachers, new friends at the park…. it’s super adorable. Also hilarious…. when anyone refers to the boots as having “camo,” he is quick to offer correction and that “no, they are JUNGLE BOOTS.” :)

Mommy likes that the camo design is quite hidden with jeans :)

on the deck

2011-10-17T19:57:00.001-04:00

Jackson recently brought his chalk to the backyard, and we’ve started doing some chalk drawings on the deck. I randomly decided to try something new – let him lay down and draw his body outline… ever since, he’s been obsessed with doing chalk body outlines! :)

And – Jackson had a lot of fun the other night when I let him dance in the rain out on the deck :)

festival fun

2011-10-16T13:41:00.001-04:00

We visited the Oktoberfest fall festival for our little town yesterday – I love going to this one because of the small town charm :) It’s set up on one small street, with a mix of booths, a couple of food options, a good live band, and my favorite part – free sundrop! The games for kids are cheap – this time it was $2 for an all-you-can-play pass, and it included the bounce houses/slides, games (with prizes), and horse-drawn hayride around the block. We met our friends, the B family, and Jackson had a blast!

bouncing fun!

playing the whacky wheel game :) I think J cleaned out the prize buckets of all the toy cars! We came home with about 7!

who doesn’t love playing plinko?!

time to play games together! Jackson & C taking turns throwing at the whacky wheel game

silly guys at lunch! Jackson enjoying the sweet local nectar of the cherry lemon sundrop :)

me & the boy :)

deep in thought about somethin’….. probably checking out the police cars!

on the horse carriage ride – what fun!

the horses were really pretty!

had to throw this one in too… I love that the stage is on a flatbed trailer!

a little bit of random…

2011-10-15T22:35:00.001-04:00

couple of random pics from lately….

me & Jackson…. of course, he’s focused on showing off one of his newest toys from grammy & pappy!

snuggling with “Baby” at bedtime…. he’s getting to be really sweet with taking care of Baby! Sometimes he reads Baby books, or helps Baby feel better when he’s sick,hurt, or crying. It’s ridiculously sweet. :)

date knight turns disaster

2011-10-09T17:52:00.001-04:00

I was super excited to finally get to do one of the cute Chick Fil A mommy/son events with Jackson recently – it was a “date knight” event, and everything was so fun! The restaurant had all sorts of castle decorations, employees were dressed as jesters and knights and a variety of medieval characters. They also played up the “date night” element, and had flowers for the moms, tablecloths, wait staff to take orders, and the like. It was abso-freakin-lutely adorable.

And it was also a bit too much for Jackson… when he gets in an exciting, stimulating environment, he often has trouble with being patient and following directions (he gets very physically eager and active, and struggles with “sitting still”) – hence, we typically end up in a vicious pattern of antsy, squirmy J + “nononononono” robot mommy = super-frustrated duo. With this being a very seated event, and with so much going on, Jackson was getting antsy about 10 minutes in. A few minutes later, and some outright defiance, we had full-on-meltdown mode. I opted for the usual bathroom timeout, but what I didn’t factor in was the degree of the meltdown… his excitedness and overstimulation revved him up for a monster tantrum! Shame-faced, I carried my “date” thrashing and yelling through the restaurant and into a tiny bathroom stall, and proceeded to wait out the meltdown for a solid 30-45 mins (I lost track of time…..) of pure parenting hellspace. In retrospect, I probably should have wavered on my “we’re not leaving until you’re calm and quiet” rule and just completely left for embarrassing walk through the restaurant round 2. The event was already totally over for us anyway :|

Well, the 10 mins that were tantrum-free were fun… and here are the pics before the date turned disaster :)

Jackson with the knight cow…. no clue who this random kid is that jumped in our pic!

my little date :)

I guess not all dates turn out good!! Not sure if' we’ll be going on another anytime soon ;)

up in the air

2011-10-05T18:09:00.000-04:00

up in the air with Uncle Alan :)

Fair Fun

2011-10-05T17:36:00.000-04:00

An annual tradition, we headed off to the Cleveland County Fair on opening weekend this past Saturday. What I love about the fair --- going at dusk, and riding the ferris wheel at night, the delish fair food, and seeing Jackson get excited over all the things to see and do. :) The weather was a bit on the chilly side this year, and traffic and parking a bit more cumbersome than in the past, but we still had a really good time!

Getting’ ready to chow down on some yummy fair food – hot dogs, onion rings, and diet mountain dew! Right before leaving we noshed on the obligatory powdered funnel cake and sipped hot chocolate to warm us up :)

Just a cute pic of the boy in my idle time…. hoodies are fun!

We always have to check out the farm animals….

Jackson enjoyed the cows the most (well that and just running through the barn area)

This one was especially interactive and friendly, and talkative … she licked my arm when we weren’t paying her attention! ewwwwwwwww.

We finished out the visit with some nighttime rides ~ it’s ridiculously expensive, so we keep it down to just the basic merry go round and ferris wheel experience :)

wheeeeeee!

gettin’ in the spooky spirit

2011-10-02T15:37:00.001-04:00

Jackson & I had fun decorating the house last weekend for fall & Halloween! Now we are getting in the Halloween swing of things, and he is super excited to continue --- hopefully we’ll get to visit the pumpkin patch soon and make some jack-o-lanterns :)

~~decorating the door~~ playing with with sticky clings

spooktacular fireplace….

…until I came home to discover the roomba had eaten and destroyed most of the faux spider web décor :(

fall bonfires

2011-10-02T13:40:00.001-04:00

We love fall bonfires hosted by our friends, the B family (yay! they live super close now!) :) And of course, Jackson’s uncle Alan provides pretty awesome fire skills and supplies! Camping chairs, roasted marshmallows, cold beer, warm fire, and good friends…. it’s the BEST on a chilly fall night!

Here are some pics from one of our first this season :)

Little friends love hanging out too! C, S, & Jackson (in Auntie Steph’s pink chair!)

glow sticks & lollipops! courtesy of Uncle Alan’s Dollar Tree run for the fire color changers :)

The girls (minus Beth… she didn’t come till later…) ~ Steph, me, & Tasha

when the boy is quietly playing in another room…

2011-10-01T09:43:00.001-04:00

…it probably means he’s:

a) making a mess
b) doing something he’s not supposed to
…or most likely –>
c) both a & b.

I walked into the bathroom to discover this crime scene the other evening:

He is “washing” his shoes in the sink and “painting” a toy car (with sunscreen stick) to look like a “sheep.”

Sometimes I have to just laugh. :)

boys

2011-10-01T09:38:00.001-04:00

… boys will be boys, I suppose.

notice anything odd in this picture??

boys. :)

kitchen helper

2011-09-25T14:59:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you just have to snack while slaving over a home-cooked meal! :) Jackson has really enjoyed helping in the kitchen lately… here he is assisting with stirring up the chicken and dumplings while simmering.

Schiele Museum Visit

2011-09-25T14:04:00.001-04:00

The Schiele Museum had an event recently celebrating their anniversary, and everyone could get in free for the day, along with a variety of special activities not typically available at the museum. We headed over after swim class, and it was crazy times busy! But we still had a good time, even amongst the dense crowds :)

Jackson playing in the Caves exhibit – it was really cool, and very dark and realistic!

True to form, Jackson was enthralled with manipulative items in the exhibits, like this word scramble activity. He practically zooms past anything that is merely for “viewing” purposes only!

More hands-on action – he took a moment to put on a little puppet show for the spectators

Once we grew tired of the crowds inside, we ventured out in the open air to the trails and outdoor exhibits. :)

Stumps are really just jumping platforms…

picking berries and exploring the (semi-) wilderness

It’s not a complete experience outdoors until you get to diggin’ in the dirt. errrr, gravel. :)

We always enjoy our time at the Schiele … maybe when J’s a bit older, I’ll spring for the membership!

getting in the swim of things

2011-09-21T21:29:00.001-04:00

Jackson has taken swim classes at the YMCA on and off since he was a tiny baby (well, actually he was never a tiny baby, but all the same…). When the “terrible twos” hit their peak, and he seemed to resist following directions in swimming JUST BECAUSE, I decided to take a break. It was exhausting managing time outs, tantrums, and resistance with a 30 lb log of resistance wearing a soaking wet life jacket. just sayin’ :)

But, this summer Jackson has shown tremendous advancements and enjoyment with swimming and being in and around water, so we decided to switch from gymnastics back over to swimming, for now. He was really excited about starting swim classes, and did a really great job the first class. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment for me – I didn’t realize that he’s progressed into the class where parents don’t swim alongside the little ones, and we are also asked to sit outside the pool and watch through the glass on the upper level – one of those tangible, gosh my little guy is growing up moments. :)

Here are some pictures from the first class:

Sooooo excited, he insisted on wearing his float vest around the house the whole morning!

sitting on the sidelines & practicing kicking with feet

swimming with the teacher

being bored on the sidelines, he often became distracted and strayed from following directions… here he’s leading the neighboring boy down the same misbehaving path :)

Swimming along the side

He had a blast the first class, for sure! The second class, he was in a bit of a “funk” and refused to participate at all, so we watched from the sidelines. I’m hoping he’ll be more cooperative with participating by the time the next class rolls around. :)

Just for fun …. here’s a picture from J at one of his early swim classes (9 months old). what a cutie water baby!

first day of school

2011-09-19T21:12:00.001-04:00

Jackson had his first day at his new preschool today! We’ve been on the wait list forreeevveerrrrrr for a part-time spot, so it’s been a long awaited event :) He will be going every weekday morning, and I’m hypothesizing that this regular, more predictable schedule might suit him better.

He’s been looking forward to starting his new school the last couple of weeks. Here he is on his first day!

He was ready to get inside and didn’t want to entertain my first day picture endeavors :) He was really happy to go, I promise!

Once inside, he was excited to explore the new toys and make new friends

He had a great first day, and as he said to his Grammy after school, he didn’t make “new” friends, they were “OLD friends.” :)

if you build it…

2011-09-13T22:00:00.001-04:00

Jackson pulled out his mega blocks the other night (we haven’t upgraded to the teeny tiny bazillion Lego pieces yet…..still avoiding that transition over here!) and when I walked in he had crafted a pretty awesome parking situation for his cars. When I referred to it as a really cool garage, he quickly corrected me that no, it was rather a “parking lot.” Duh, mommy. :)

on the lake

2011-09-13T20:47:00.001-04:00

Ms. Jenny, a super awesome coworker + friend, invited me & Jackson, along with some other gals from work, to join her on her family’s boat this past Sunday afternoon on Lake Norman. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a blast!! Jackson enjoyed it so much, and has been telling everyone that he had a fun time riding on the “motor boat!” We did have a minor mishap when we tried tubing, but nothing too bad – just got dunked & flipped a bit and realized the tube wouldn’t work for us to ride together. Even considering our little tumble, it was still such an awesome time! :)

Here are some of our pics:

Jackson is ready to go! He loves his new superhero life jacket :)

Can’t get a decent pic with this active boy anymore! Here he’s already distracted and obsessing over the boat snacks…

Jackson was thrilled to “drive” the boat!

I’m onnnn aaaa boooattttt! Where’s T-Pain?

Getting ready to do this tubing thing!

better luck next time! :)

peek a boo-boo

2011-09-09T21:20:00.001-04:00

Jackson has recently re-discovered the Gymboree play tunnel … it’s been packed away for a while, but we pulled it back out, and now have all kinds of fun playing hideaway, caterpillar cocoon, and more :) Also…. notice his supremely bandaged hand – he has also developed the popular boo-boo obsession, and the tiniest scratch or hangnail ABSOLUTELY MUST GET A BANDAID RIGHT AWAY! It’s often a fine line between cute and frustrating. :)

all the embellishments of a summer evening

2011-09-07T20:48:00.001-04:00

Jackson just kept me laughing one day recently when we played outside after work … he was flitting from one activity to another, and kept adding more items and gear to his “ensemble.”

first we enjoyed some ultra suburban cul de sac tricycle riding, so a helmet was all he needed.

tricycle time!

after a quick picture with the chalk, he decided the pieces were much better used dumped out, and as pretend “pipe pieces” … so he worked on laying some pipe by the sidewalk for a bit. The helmet was necessary for this task also.

later he decided he needed to wear my ~~gardening gloves~~ “worker man gloves”…

aahhhhhh, for the ~~gardening~~ “digging job” --- of course :)

I don’t even remember what the tennis racket was for…but just that it was necessary to bang the bushes with it. And I couldn’t do anything but laugh, as he’s now donning an unnecessary helmet, ladies gardening gloves, and an adult tennis racket. All in a worker man’s day….

art showcase

2011-09-04T11:28:00.001-04:00

some of the newest art happenings with Jackson….

Sometimes Jackson says something, or does something, that shocks me out of my mundane rote parenting mode, and makes me literally gasp with amazement and beam with pride at how much he can learn, and how quickly it can manifest seemingly out of nowhere. Especially when it’s a developmental milestone that I studied in my college courses related to child growth and psychology, and I know all the foundational timelines and the theories. But then when I experience it firsthand, and watch this little person develop, and discover his way through life, it still stops me in my tracks and causes me to really conceptualize the amazing journey I am taking along with him, as I watch him grow and learn.

One such situation occurred the other night – we were outside playing in a deliciously just-perfectly-warm late summer evening. Jackson, in his usual mode, was bouncing between activities, never spending more than a few minutes at each point, riding the tricycle, digging in the dirt, pretending to fix things, and drawing with chalk. But when he first sat down with the chalk, he grabbed the white, and instead of some of the usual haphazard scribbles, he distinctly and purposefully drew a large circle, two vertical lines protruding from the bottom, and two smaller circles at the bottom of the lines.

I immediately recognized it as the early version of drawing a person. But without voicing my theory, I asked him “well, this looks interesting – what did you draw here?” He responded, “It’s a person, mommy” … “well who is it?” He answered “Me.”

One day my boy is creating random scribbles seemingly just to mark his artistic territory (when he is even motivated to draw… mostly his artistic preferences consist of cutting and gluing). And the next he’s conceptualizing and drawing a recognizable version of his self. On a random summer evening on our sidewalk.

Jackson’s self portrait, at 3.5 yrs old

And on a less wordy / emotional note… here are some recent school drawings of Jackson’s :) One of the teachers keeps apologizing that they aren’t allowed to do the “cutesy” art anymore, and only freehand / creative art is permitted by the state…. and I don’t ever tell her, but I really cherish these drawings so much more than the adult-led and designed projects. These are my boy’s, and they come from his imagination and creative outlet, and that’s what I want to admire and display. :)

this one really makes me smile – love the colors. It just feels happy.

The end of the 20s…

2011-08-29T19:52:00.001-04:00

I celebrated my 29th birthday earlier this month…. it’s the beginning of the death of my 20s – yikes! It’s been great though, so looks like my descent towards 30s is starting out nicely. ;-)

I celebrated with my family and little guy with some yummy dinner (thanks Ang for the delish spinach burgers!) and chocolate cake, made with a special baking assistant (J-man!).

the little guy could barely wait through the song to help me blow out my candles :)

look at this adorable face.

And the weekend following my birthday was a blast with good friends… the bestest, Amy, came in for a visit, and we had much shopping, cheers-ing, laughing, dining, and dancing fun! We also met up with some of my other favorite local gals for a couple of girls nights out. It was a blast, and I was beyond tired by the end of all the celebrating!

Mocha Ladybeard Collins celebrates her birthday in style.

2011-08-23T20:48:00.001-04:00

Mocha turned six years old this week! Jackson and I had fun with a little mini celebration. Any time you can strap something to a dog’s head, it’s a party.

Sitting pretty for a bday treat

Jackson feeds Mocha a birfday special somethin’ somethin’

she is trying to woo me with her eyes for more party treats….. what a conniving doggie! :)

Happy birthday, Mocha Ladybeard dear ;)

catchin’ up with cute J-man

2011-08-23T20:39:00.001-04:00

some cuteness of late….

I totally didn’t twist his hat… that’s his inner gangsta just shining forth, y’all.

He had a short obsession with re-laying the train track out on the floor … I was not a fan, but I buried my clutter-hatin’ bias deep inside, and let the boy be creative with as much room as he wanted.

happy boy.

Three & a half stats

2011-08-22T20:51:00.001-04:00

Jackson is 3 and a half (last week)! Measurements have him at 37(ish? not trusting my scale…) lbs, 39.5 in. Here’s a look at how he’s grown!

First Day

6 months

1 year

18 months

2 and-a-half years

3 and-a-half years

Current Developmental Milestones:

Concepts – Alphabet: can sing ABCs; recognizes most letters visually. Counting: He can count toward 100 now in English and 10 in Spanish!
Name: He’s learning to spell his name, thanks to a neat wooden puzzle board my mom & sister scored at a thrift store. He learns much more with manipulatives than other methods.
Pretend play – running rampant now! Much of his play time is geared towards imaginative pretend play. I often hear him making his toys “talk” to each other.
Favorite toy right now – workbench/tools, scissors, and train table are probably the favorites
Favorite books – he sort of fluctuates and isn’t particularly “stuck” on any one book these days
Favorite TV show – Handy Manny, hands down
Cute behaviors – He’s much more affectionate with me of late, especially new since it’s often self-initiated and unprompted. Love it! He’ll just randomly snuggle up to me on the couch and say “I love you, Mommy.” oh my, the heart swoons. :)
Not-so-cute behaviors – still the usuals…. occasional tantrums; whining! Also, a new resistance with going to time out, so I now usually have to physically move him to his time away space.
Potty Training – We are all set! Other than the occasional too-lazy-to-pull-his-pants-all-the-way-down pee stains, that is. He even seems to be staying dry at night now as well. But I have really learned how gross boys are, and am worried what’s in store for me down the road! :)

And I found this fun questionnaire that I might start using to get some snapshots of Jackson in his own words :)

Favorite color: blue
Who is your best friend? Sabrina
Favorite animal? zebras…because they have long legs
What do you want to be when you are all grown up? a policeman
What is your favorite movie? Cars
What makes you happy? When I love you. [awwwwww, y’all.]
What makes you sad? when I’m in time out
What is your favorite food to eat? burgers
What is your favorite song to sing? Happy Birthday
What games do you like to play? Talking Tom app on the ipod

Happy 3-and-a-half-birthday!

2011-08-22T19:51:00.001-04:00

Jackson celebrated the official 3-and-a-half mark last week, and we had a special little mini-celebration. I picked him up early from daycare and we had a fun trip to Monkey Joe’s, a special half-birthday present, and a doughnut “cake.” What a fun day, and gawwwwshhh, my boy is growing up!

Iron Man! His first super hero action figure, and he’s smitten.

At Monkey Joe’s there was sliding fun…

… and pretending to drive the racecar game…

… and ICEE slurpin’ goodness.

We celebrated that evening with a yummy chocolatey sprinkledy delish half-birthday doughnut “cake” :)

little friends

2011-08-19T22:37:00.001-04:00

Jackson and S, at Pizza Hut with his daddy and their Uncle Alan

They are so adorable! And tonight, when I asked Jackson who his best friend is, without hesitation, he said “[S]” :)

special gifts from Maw-Maw

2011-08-15T22:04:00.001-04:00

My mom sent Jackson some gifts in the mail recently – just for fun :) He loved getting packages at the house (although he thinks every box is a gift for him now… haha)!

First – a book from his amazon wish list (well, mommy’s really the one loadin’ the list up with books – haha!)

A few days later ---

a bigger box….

what could it be???

the Mr. Potato Head from his wish list!!! awesome!

calling Maw-Maw to tell her thank you!

so much fun playing with Mr. Potato! He uses the Toy Story voice, and I just crack up!

Thanks again for the fun gifts, Maw-Maw! :)

princess party

2011-08-14T13:02:00.001-04:00

We went to a friend’s birthday party last weekend – for a while, Jackson was the only little boy at the princess party :) It was so cute --- he was still very excited about playing with all the girly things, but he was quick to adamantly correct anyone if they used the “p” or “f” word (fairy/princess) because as he said, “no, I am a boy!” It was especially funny to see him present this argument as he’s playing with a glittery wand (even if he was using it as a monster stick and chasing the girls…)

--my little guy, full of energy!

making crowns – Jackson opted for adding just about every embellishment, so his crown was quite pimped. fit for a king :)

painting piggy banks – they were sweet enough to get Jackson a boyish “car” bank :)

decorating sugar cookies

his cookie ended up quite laden with decorations too! He’s all about quantity :)

the birthday girl!

ready to enjoy more pink & purple sugary goodness!

such fun running together!

we convinced him to put on all his girly loot for a silly shot…

… but later that night, he did it all on his own at bedtime!

What a fun day with friends! And a special happy 5th birthday to our little friend, S. :)

city sights

2011-08-14T12:39:00.001-04:00

In continuation of the last post …. here are some of the gorgeous sights through my camera lens in NY! What a beautiful place, full of such rich character. I could meander the streets for days and days.

the brownstones in Park Slope were beautiful.

loved the rusted iron work

walking in Brooklyn – I loved my leisurely strolls, and stumbled on the cutest shops and eateries.

Brooklyn was actually quite peaceful :)

The Palm Court restaurant at the Plaza Hotel was gorgeous – we had a superb lunch, and ridiculously overpriced $10 coffee with our desserts! :)

little details like this everywhere you look in Park Slope

this is where we stayed y’all!! ridiculously gorgeous.

sometimes I was inspired by the cocktails too :)

in the city

2011-08-14T11:20:00.001-04:00

I’ve been jonesing for a re-visit to NYC recently, and luckily stumbled into a situation where my bestie, Ames, wanted to go visit a friend who lives in Brooklyn, so we had a place to stay, gratis!

It was a divine long weekend --- unplanned (difficult for the planner that lives large in both of us!), low key, and totally unlike the usual big city vacay. And funny enough --- the last time I visited NYC, it was also with Amy!

A few of my favorite things – meeting up with folks from work for a Manhattan happy hour, good food and cocktails in Brooklyn via recommendations from our local friends, lounging in Prospect Park, dancing with comedians to 80s music, and exploring the streets of Park Slope.

Lots of subway rides – luckily our friends knew exactly where to go, so we just followed along without looking like clueless map-confused tourists :)

Lounging on the grass in Prospect Park at night – deliciously chillax.

I can totally see myself as a BK girl.

Happy Hour in Bryant Park with some of my work girls :)

the pink brownstone!

yummy brunch food & cocktails

Ready for a night out! We hit up a local bar that just so happened to have a comedy set + dance party planned for that night. Serendipitous. We had a blast!

lunch & lounging in Prospect Park on Sunday afternoon. in love with this entire moment.

oh no :( time to leave…. waiting for our car pickup to head off to lga.

…. more to come – my pics of the beauty & character of Brooklyn & NYC! I walked with my face behind the camera everywhere we went!

Mr. Potato Head

2011-08-06T23:51:00.001-04:00

Jackson got a fun gift in the mail from his maw-maw recently – a Mr. Potato Head!

A box – what could it be????

Ooooohhhhhhhh!

Mr Potato Head!

the cutest part?? He does the Toy Story voice when he plays with it :)

jacksonisms

2011-08-05T23:00:00.001-04:00

Some funny statements from my little guy recently:

After I took a book away at bedtime, Jackson informed me: “you are so mean, you need to go to jail.”

In similar ugh-fashion, one night he was angry with me at bedtime, and when I kissed him goodnight, he made a big ordeal of wiping the kiss off his face!

While driving in the car one day: “My family drives all over the road!”

Super awwwww moment: “Mommy, it makes me sad when you’re not with me”

Super awwwww moment #2: with a hug, “I kinda really love you, Mommy.”

My little exhibitionist is often imploring “look at me, Mommy!” or “watch me” or “watch this, Mama!”

One evening when he stepped away from the table while eating, (and worried Mocha would get his food): “Mommy, will you protect my taco?”

After missing his little baby-buddy C. when he went back to his home in ATL: “Mommy, C. should live with us, and N. [C’s big brother] should live with Daddy.”

With a dramatic sigh, “…… I had a really, really busy day.”

Here’s an example of J’s two favorite things – knock knock jokes, and potty and/or silly words… here he creates the ultimate mashup: “Knock Knock… [who’s there?] … Banana!……….. Banana you glad I didn’t say poop?!?!” I like that he doesn’t go with the conventional “orange” for his setup :)

He tells on himself without realizing it…
When he told me his muscles were sore, and I asked him why: “my legs are sore too, from jumping on the bed when I was supposed to be sleeping!”

“See my car, mommy?? I was hiding it from you earlier under my pillow at naptime.”

A lil’ remorse…
Jackson is often heard saying “I didn’t mean tooooooooo….” and “it was an accident” (even when it clearly was not – haha!)

He also throws out “Sorry…” quite frequently.

me & the boy

2011-08-04T21:05:00.001-04:00

webcam love :)

the boy in all his cuteness

2011-08-03T22:01:00.001-04:00

Here’s a video of him at the pool at his dad’s …. it sortakinda terrifies me! Guess I should get better with my running/jumping/diving fears… :)

I wasn’t with him when this pic was taken… but it does appear he has put his little truck to work scooping up crumbs???

So happy my peeps send me pics and vids of my boy! These were all sent to me while I was away for a few days in NYC… and even though I had a fab time, I missed my little guy so much :)

art showcase

2011-08-03T21:21:00.001-04:00

a couple of the latest art pieces by J-man!

drivin’ time

2011-07-25T21:35:00.001-04:00

Look at me! I’m pullin’ a Britney!!

What?!? He wanted to drive, y’aaaalllll.

just kiddin’ :) Just wasting some time before gymnastics class in the parking lot!

you know you’re mommy to a little boy…

2011-07-24T09:53:00.001-04:00

… when you open your purse at work, and you have a children’s movie DVD stuffed inside. How embarrassing……….

fun finds

2011-07-23T20:06:00.001-04:00

Here are some of my fun recent finds!

2 (bigger boy) shirts for J at Goodwill – cuteness on the cheap!

a fabulous I’m-beyond-giddy-with score on a framed NYC skyline print at TJ Maxx. My bedroom just got so much closer to complete, now with it hanging above the bed….

I really want new lamps… and possibly new bedding. But so close!

a cute red shelf from Target on mad clearance for $5. Love it! It totally complete’s J’s wall with the other shelves and storage…

surprisingly – no panic attacks in the hanging of this shelf! it went up easily, and is straight and secure. Makes no sense that the living room shelves gave me such trouble!

summertime and the livin’s (not always) easy :)

2011-07-23T19:35:00.001-04:00

We don’t have a pool in my tiny HOA-less neighborhood … and we don’t belong to the Y… or any other pool membership. And it’s fine with me – I’m not much of a swimming kinda gal, and Jackson has access to swim at his dad’s neighborhood pool anyway.

But I do love lazy weekends with the kiddie pool or sprinkler right in our very own yard. It’s so simple – and equally awesome, I don’t have to get in.

Well, it’s usually simple. I decided to set up the pool a couple of weeks ago, which has to be inflated. Not too cumbersome… but I get it blown up, start cleaning it, and notice that it’s slowly deflating. I find the hole that I rigged up last year and forgot about – with packing tape. The packing tape sticky was all morphed and gooey and gross. So I decided to up the ante and went for the big guns – duct tape. So I slapped some neon tape over the hole, filled up the air again, and continued along with my setup.

It’s deflating again. what the what?! Cue google search. Cue realization that my tape rigs are only temporary at best. Cue frustration over not finding the real-deal patch kit ANYWHERE in the garage.

But then I stumbled on a like-minded mama’s (or maybe dad’s?) hack --- take the beast of both worlds of adhesiveness – slap some superglue around that duct tape! Hello, super patch! It worked, and it stayed put, with all the air intact. Score!

And then the boy swims… :)

He loved running & jumping in the pool… I adore his fearlessness :)

Jacksonisms

2011-07-08T22:31:00.001-04:00

bird watching
When picking Jackson up one day from his Grammy & Pappy’s house… he exclaims: “I see a pecker!!” [long pause & chuckles from the grown ups] We realized he thought he saw a woodpecker. It was actually a cardinal. :)

ok, mom
Jackson’s taken to calling me all different varieties of mom, mahhhmaa (with a southern drawl), mommy, and plain old mom. One of the phrases he uses quite regularly these days is “ok, mom.” He usually says it when he’s following directions complacently….but I can’t help but wonder if he’s forming the beginning subtle twinges of veiled sarcasm. I can only be proud to watch as he hones the craft of my favorite variant of humor :)

sleepyhead
We’ve been having some sleep issues lately…. I’m lucky, because I’ve had very minimal sleep disruptions and issues with Jackson since he was about 3 months old. But with potty training came the realization that he can leave his room after bedtime, and with longer daylight, it’s not as easy to fall asleep straight away. Some nights he fusses about for hours before finally crashing. One night, he stayed up late, and had to get up early for daycare/school the next morning. I had my first experience of wake-up resistance… sleepily, he muttered, “I want to sleep for one more minute, mom.” I had turned on the lamp, and told him he could wake up for a few minutes… when I came back, he had turned off the light, shut his door, and snuggled back in bed for some real snooze action! Hilarious. Yeah, he was a total grumpy pants for a while that particular morning…

wishes
We have a Dora the Explorer book of stories we read sometimes at bedtime. One of them is about a star you wish upon at bedtime. When we finished the story, I asked Jackson what he would wish for. His prompt response, without hesitation? “A bologna sandwich.” What the what?? I’ve never even served this boy any form of bologna anything!

Some day I won’t….
“Mommy, you know EVERYTHING.” -- said Jackson, as he asked me to help him with something.

p to the s. I totally miss his shaggerific hair after I see this pic!

a 3 year old is easily entertained in a parked car.

2011-07-08T22:08:00.001-04:00

Jackson’s Uncle Alan took him out to their SUV to play for a few minutes after dinner out with the Collins crew the other night… he had a blast! Always a good time in the parking lot with Uncle Alan :)

Pretending to drive Auntie’s suv

The back is the perfect spot to pretend to be a garbage truck man! Yes, he’s still smitten with all things garbage collection related :) Just like his Uncle Alan… which I remember hearing about even when he was a teenager!! haha :)

4th Fun!

2011-07-05T21:59:00.001-04:00

We had a fun weekend of July 4th activities! We had fun playing at the house, in the sprinkler and just out in the warm summer air. We met up with some friends and visited one of our favorite parks for a celebration, complete with rides/entertainment, music, and fireworks, of course! And yesterday we had more summer fun around the house, and had a scrumptious southern dinner – bbq wings, parmesan roasted squash, pasta salad, baked beans, and watermelon – deeeelish!!

Here are some pics of our fun 4th times!

getting ready to go out for 4th fun!

squeezies!! lovin’ on the boy.

slide at the festival – he loved this obstacle course!

Riding the train – Jackson was a bit too nervous to put his hands up… looks like I”ve got someone who inherited my cautious nature :)

ferris wheel time!

cute little friends :)

this picture is hilarious!! the kids look like crazed zombies! They were running, chasing, dancing, jumping, active little balls of energy all night! When I asked Jackson what his favorite part about the whole night was, expecting to hear “rides” or “fireworks,” he instead answered “running and chasing with my friends!”

watching the fireworks – how cool!

sparkler pretty! I tried to get J to hold one, or throw some poppers, but the cautiousness prevails, and he passed :) Can’t say this is a trait I’m too worried about! :) I’ll be your sparkler-holder as long as you want, J-man. :)

pasta salad yummmmmmmmm.

What a fun holiday!

come on ride the train….ride it!

2011-07-03T23:24:00.001-04:00

Jackson (of course) convinced me to shell out something ridiculous like $6 to ride the train at the mall recently. But his delight was worth it! He was so excited :)

tickets! allllllll aboard!

So excited!!

Art Showcase

2011-07-01T22:43:00.001-04:00

A few new Jackson masterpieces :)

his first little “school” worksheet!

another frugal fashion outfit

2011-07-01T22:03:00.001-04:00

I put this look together recently for a night out with some girlfriends – good laughs, good food, good wine. And I was feelin’ quite cute, all with pieces that were on the cheap!

+ Top – yard sale hand-me-down from my good friend, Christy! I love looking through her yard sale inventory! $2 or $3ish

+ Jeans – Old Navy, super skinny jeans (in petite! yay!! so happy I can score the shorty stuff online….) $20ish

+ Heels – Earlier this year, I became obsessed with finding a pair of gray suede pumps after my favorite petite fashion blogger touted the benefits of hers. I happened to stumble on a pair ON THE CLEARANCE CHEAP! at Charlotte Russe a few months ago! $15ish

+ Necklace – Forever21 – $5ish. I. repeat. I love their jewelry!

+ Hair – big. :) and gawwsh, it’s getting long!

Raleighwood Road Trip!

2011-07-01T21:36:00.001-04:00

My bestie, Ames, & I loaded up the 3 boys in the back of her SUV and headed off to Raleigh to visit with our college girl friends and spend time with her family. What a fun trip! We even had a night out without the kiddos (super big shout out to “Ms. Nana,” Nate’s grandma, for being an awesome hostess and soooo fab with the boys), where we hit up some good dinner, watched the HIGH-larious Bridesmaids movie, and scored some delishness at one of Harnett County’s finest spots for late-night ice cream.

The boys all smooooshed in the back and ready to go! Let me just say … there was a lot of profanity & sweating involved in getting all these seats squished and safely secured in the back! (no worries, the children were safely inside destroying Jackson’s room during aforementioned PG-13 seat struggles.)

snuggle boys!

I gave the boys stickers as a travel distraction…. next thing I know, Jackson is pretending he just got “all these shots” and has the “band-aids” to show for it. I’m pro-vaccination, but this is a bit much! haha

The MC gals’ little ones enjoying some birthday party leftover cupcakes – how nice of the partyers to share!

Nate & J are such little buddies now!

J is also still quite smitten with Cole… he adores that little baby!

Jackson loves to make his audience laugh with silly faces… especially baby Cole & Nate. And Nate decided it was his turn to play the game too!

Before our girl date!

Swimming in Ms. Nana’s awesome little pool

I scored a totally unintential AWESOME Austin Powers-ish shot!! Especially approps considering J was swimming in his underwear, and I was trying to avoid any scandalous pics :)

watching a movie…. they are too cute for words!

What a fun weekend! So glad we got to hang with good friends and family, and especially watch our cute boys enjoy such fun times together :)

some new fashion finds!

2011-07-01T19:49:00.001-04:00

I put together some of my new shopping finds for a Sunday afternoon date recently :)

Dress + belt – NEW! Forever21 for $20ish – what a deal! It’s so comfy and quite flowy too. Good for a hot summer afternoon!
Cardigan – Banana Republic…have had for a couple of years
Shoes – Payless, last summer
Necklace – NEW! Forever21 for on the cheap! LOVE that place for jewelry.

I went NUTS in Forever21 & Charlotte Russe that day at the mall… but I scored tons of cute stuff!

gettin’ out for good behavior

2011-06-22T18:50:00.000-04:00

Jackson finally filled up his first good behavior chart (14 days of good behavior = a visit to Chuck E Cheese). He was so excited! We ventured out to CEC at a decent hour (the worst part is going when it’s too crowded… no saturdays for me!), and then after he had a decent round of fun there, we went to Cici’s Pizza (one of his favorites) for dinner.

It’s really cool that CEC has a wide selection of certificates to print, and you get 10 free tokens when you bring a completed one in. This is Jackson’s first-ever completed one!

a few of the requisite photo car shots :)

He loves this game… it’s like skype with Mr. chuck :)

riding the horse! it was fun to make him jump :)

bye, Mr. C! Hopefully J will fill up his next chart a little quicker and we’ll be back for another visit!

vroom vroom!

2011-06-22T17:24:00.000-04:00

Some of my coworkers planned an outing to a local go kart track recently, and at first when I was invited, I declined, but then they convinced me that I should bring Jackson along to watch. So we ventured off to Victory Lane Karting, and woah-racing-mama, it was serious the-real-deal in there. The guys are all suited up, the track is situated in one large warehouse, cars are zooming along at intense speeds.

Jackson loved it though… he kept saying “this is SO awesome!” It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we had a good time watching the guys and their competitive spirit. :)

checking out the helmet

the big guys eager to race…

my little guy, excited to watch. :)

Jacksonisms

2011-06-13T21:52:00.001-04:00

When you gotta go…
While playing outside in our back yard one evening, Jackson suddenly exclaimed: “Mommy! I just pee peed in the sand!” The boy peed in his sand box, in broad daylight, in our backyard, a mere 30 second walk from an actual bathroom. Ahhh, boys.

Bad to the bone
I don’t even remember the context around this statement, but I made a note that one day he said “My name is Bad.” haha! He must have been feeling guilty about his behavior.

Birds and Bees
We’re already entering a stage where Jackson’s natural curiosity and inquisitiveness is extending into the realm of gender differences and the like. The other day we had this exchange:
J: “Do you have a penis?”
Me: “No, girls and women don’t have a penis.”
J: “What happened to it? Did it fall off?”
It was all I could do to keep from laughing….

BFF
Out of the blue, bein’ sweet one day: “Mommy, you’re my best friend.”

On the flip side…
One day when he was angry with me for some sort of discipline or saying no or something similarly tyrannical… “Mommy, I don’t like you.”

Growin’ Up
Discussing something Jackson would have to wait to do until he was older… “I’m still not older yet. [PAUSE] I have one more thing to do before I get older. [PAUSE] I have to…….. be a big boy.”

merona tee love

2011-06-12T10:35:00.001-04:00

I have a serious obsession with the Merona graphic / embellished tees at Target. I want to buy every. single. one…and they rotate styles fairly regularly, so that would be quite a hefty collection, if I caved each time. I’ve made a compromise with my addiction, and have promised to hold back and only buy finds on clearance.

Score the other day! A super cute floral tee, at 50% off. Love. it.

It’s a good day when I add a Merona tee to the collection… :) this one is super cute in its romantic floral-ness, and I ::heart:: it.

gymnastics fun

2011-06-12T01:21:00.001-04:00

Jackson has been taking a weekly gymnastics class at a local place for several months now. His Grammy usually takes him each Tuesday, but I took the day off work to hang out with him this past week, and finally had a chance to see what it was all about. There was only one other boy in class, but likely due to summer schedules – they are actually changing the course timing, so I’ll be able to take him after work during the summer. It will be fun to enjoy this experience with Jackson! It’s a new dynamic to sit on the sidelines and observe him participating with others, following direction of a teacher, etc. The pattern is pretty much what I’d expect though – he’s generally well-behaved, but sometimes struggles with being patient and waiting… he always wants to be on the go and doing the next activity.

Here are some pics / vids I snapped! Unfortunately, due to recent technical issues with my memory cards, I had to resort to using the iPhone’s camera, so the quality is a bit sub-par at times. :(

ready…..

jumping down the trampoline – they had to do a few different styles of jumping patterns. I was impressed!

stretching – neat concept using hula hoops to make sure they stretch out far enough!

Lifting his legs and touching feet on the bar – the boy is strong!

… swimming through the foam. he totally cheats at the end. I sort of don’t blame him. :)

walking the beam at the end of class

This seems to be a much better investment than swimming class, where Jackson spent 90% of the class either in tantrums or time out, all because he didn’t want to participate, and just wanted to find the pool toys. A trampoline, hanging bars, and foam jumping, and he’s all good!

pizza picnic with friends!

2011-06-09T21:13:00.001-04:00

We had Alan, Steph, and little friend S. over for our pizza picnic night recently – they loved watching cartoons and eating on the blanket! Including Uncle Alan :) haha!

crazy uncle alan!!!

As always, fun times! :)

Speed Street 2011

2011-06-08T14:59:00.001-04:00

I took Jackson to Speed Street a couple of weeks ago (a NASCAR street festival every year in uptown Charlotte). We had a fun time, for sure! I’m not a racing fan, but I do love any sort of street festival with music, yummy food, and sensory overload in all ways :) Jackson especially enjoyed the State Farm Disney Cars 2 exhibit --- complete with huge real-size Cars characters, a bounce course, videos, prizes, and all sorts of other stuff!

Another bonus is we actually had a lot of fun for pretty cheap --- I parked for free in my work garage, which was only a couple of blocks off the festival! Everything at the exhibits (that we did) was free, including enjoying some mint chocolate chip ice cream samples. We bought some festival dinner for less than $10, enjoyed some free live music and a BMX stunt show. It was a blast!

with Lightning McQueen

with Mater

both of us with one of the new Cars 2 characters

in the bounce obstacle course

summer haircut

2011-06-08T14:39:00.001-04:00

I love J’s thick shaggy hair… and have always kept it a bit long. I felt bad with the heat lately though, and thought we’d give a short style a try, even if just for summer. So we headed off to Great Clips!

before it’s all cut off

This is the first time they’ve used anything other than scissors!

Once the stylist had cut the back, we quickly saw the beast cowlicks that make Jackson’s hair go crazy up top… there are 2 of them swirling in opposite directions, and with the short hair, all it did is stick straight out! So the stylist suggested doing a mohawk --- she spiked that stuff up hardcore, and I mussed it back down later to something more along the lines of a faux-hawk.

Enjoying his ben & jerry ice cream reward for doing a good job with getting the haircut!

At first he didn’t like it --- he said it looked “silly” – but then I realized he doesn’t like it spiked/messy. He wants it to “lay flat”… which is possible in the front, but ain’t happening with the swirl cowlicks out back. :) Maybe there’s a good in-between that’s still short, but the cowlicks behave a bit more. Oh, the things I’m learning about boy hair!

I do reallllyyyy miss his shaggy hair though, selfishly :(

sprinkler fun

2011-05-31T22:05:00.001-04:00

I decided to set up the sprinkler for Jackson to play in on Sunday afternoon – it was a hot day, and I figured an easy way for him to have fun and get some energy out before nap time. I didn’t know if he would like it – it was my first time ever trying it out with him. Once I finally figured out how to work it, he had a blast! Now I think I need to get a more kid-friendly one :)

He enjoyed adjusting the settings and direction… I stayed far out of shooting range up on the deck :)

Mocha had fun too running around the yard…

…OH! shot to the face! She quickly decided she’d had enough and stayed out of sprinkler range too :)

Such simple things are always such fun :)

On the plus side, he did wear himself out running in the yard, and napped better than he has in a long time at home. On the bad side though… we must have ants in the yard (or something he’s allergic to) because he ended up with rashy feet that night! I need to check out the yard…

rice & beans

2011-05-30T11:45:00.001-04:00

I re-purposed the dry beans that came in a Goodwill mason jar find – Jackson lovvveeeeedddd playing with them! I set him up with the beans, rice, several bowls, spoons, and scoopers. He loved mixing, pretending to cook, and I could see he was simultaneously experimenting with mathematical and scientific principles of space and volume (and also making messes when the contents didn’t quite fit within the space of a particular bowl… haha), along with fine motor skills for pouring, scooping, etc.

All in all, it wasn’t too messy – pretty easy cleanup with a broom and all… and it was cleaning day anyway. Unfortunately we did have one mishap though… one of the scoopers ended up giving him a bit of a pinch… a bug bandaid, ice pack, and a few hugs though and he was back to mixing!

the “cake” he made me --- made of “popcorn kernels and [my] picture, with candles.” genius. :) Review from the baker: “it will be the yummiest cake you’ve ever eaten.”

He loved his bean/rice play time… and has been asking repeatedly to do it again. Maybe when I’m in the mood for a popcorn cake…. haha!

hideaway

2011-05-29T16:09:00.001-04:00

Jackson’s friend, C., came over to play for a bit yesterday – they had a blast! I had to sneak in and snap a couple of pictures when I overheard them scheming a secret hideaway spot under the dining room table…

Jackson was so proud of his genius plan. :)

fab finds

2011-05-29T14:46:00.001-04:00

I’ve had some good frugal finds the last couple of weeks… yay for deals + style!

a cute tote I’ve had my eye on went 50% clearance at Target! score for $10. I’ve been using it for work some days :)

cute pink striped button down on clearance at Target for $8. Love it with dark skinny jeans and flats for a casual Saturday outfit!

bought this for the mason jar at Goodwill (not the beans!) … I want to make some pretty outdoor candles with sand + citronella votives. The beans ended up getting use though – Jackson had some fun mixing & pouring dry beans & rice.

set of dual-sided placemats at Goodwill… not sure what I will use these for, but loved the floral fabric.

$3.50 shoes at Goodwill! love ‘em.

little friends weekend

2011-05-28T22:56:00.001-04:00

Last weekend Steph, Jackson and I rode up to ATL to help my bestie Ames – we watched the kiddos while she & the hubs celebrated their anniversary. The boys were super cute playing together, and we had a good lazy weekend just hanging out, watching movies, and snackin’ it up (I may have had an intense short-lived love affair with the Taco Mac queso.)

Jackson had a blast playing with Nate, who is just entering the interactive play stage, but equally adorable was Jackson’s obsession with baby Cole – he wanted to hold him, feed him, play with him, make sure he was happy, and generally just be near him. They seemed to have this kinship that was cute (and have similar baby temperaments) – Cole would even cry when Jackson was upset! It was also funny to see J sitting in / playing with all the old baby gear/toys – I had a lot of flashbacks to our baby days!

Pictures!

Bumbo!

silly bys!

Auntie Steph, baby whisperer. :)

cuteness. cue nostalgia… this is the same baby mat J used alllll the time when he was a lil’ baby blob :)

fun giggles!

Hopefully we’ll see them again soon! :)

** facebookers – there are videos in the original post **

fire truck fun

2011-05-23T22:13:00.001-04:00

We met some family at Chick Fil A for dinner last week… we didn’t even realize the restaurant was having a fire safety event for kids, so it was a bonus treat that there was a fire truck, firefighters, and other fun stuff to check out. Jackson was thrilled and had a blast from the moment we drove up and he spotted the fire truck!

Activities inside – worksheets, fun (weird Pope-ish) hats, and little fire trucks to play with

The real fun was outside by the truck though – they let the kids get very up close and check everything out. Jackson had so much fun inspecting everything inside and outside the truck, and wanted to know the function and purpose for everything. Many thanks to the very patient firefighters who explained every little detail to my inquisitive boy :)

And then, somehow, this happened. It started with me joking about putting on the boots & pants that were set out, and then it spiraled wayyyy out of control! But I did get to experience how heavy all of the gear is – it’s much heavier than it seems, and I wasn’t even wearing the pack! These guys are strong!

I’ve never seen Alan offer (insist?) on holding a handbag so eagerly… and then he nearly finished dressing me… he didn’t appreciate my hesitance and embarrassment with the whole endeavor.

A fun night learning about fire safety and firefighting services!