Jackson

I have a confession.  I am obsessed with this little boy.  He is at the funnest age and stage right now.  The tantrums are definitely starting but they are easy to stop and he's easy to distract.  99% of the time he is in a great mood, even while battling a raging ear infection!  He is a busy little boy and never wants to stop moving or stop talking.  Which is good and bad.

I'm obsessed with Jackson and I'll share what Jax is obsessed with.

                                                 
The game "Sorry."  He can call it by name and will sit and move his game pieces and flip cards.  This game can keep him entertained for a good 30 minutes.  Carter does NOT enjoy how much Jackson likes his favorite game.
                                                 
Jax will even "count" as he moves his pieces.  The rare times we try and play a game with Jax roaming about he makes sure to punch all of Carter's buttons.  Usually by grabbing one of Carter's green pieces, raising it above his head and then throwing it across the room when Carter makes a grab for it.  I try to hide my laughter.......

                                                    
Currently obsessed with a few foods.  Newest food is Bananas!  Jax can finally tolerate his first fruit.  He can and will eat bananas.  But only from a whole banana.  Don't try and cut it up in kid friendly pieces.  That results in a shunning of the banana.  His oral aversion may be the death of me someday.

                                                    
Obsessed with his slide.  Learned to climb up the stairs and sit down all by himself.  And can even go down while keeping his body in an upright position.  And no slide ride is complete without the side effects of "Whee!"

                                          

Still loves books.  When I'm busy Carter is great to read Jax a couple books.  Jax even has a couple of his books memorized.

I don't think I can put into words the degree of the next couple obsessions.  And these pictures do not do it justice.  He loves(in no particular order): Outside, Kitty, and Kitty Treats.

He begs and begs me to go outside and will even bring me his shoes to nudge me along.  His language has really exploded these last couple months.  He will bring me his shoes and say "Where's your shoes."  Since that is always what I say to him!

With the weather finally getting above -100 degrees, and the air quality decent enough, we have started spending some time outside.  This particular day I decided to postpone lunch and try Jackson with his first experience in the snow and his snow clothes.  

 This face really says it all.  Skipping lunch and postponing lunch time to try sledding is not something he approves of.  He did actually like the little sledding hill but couldn't quite keep himself upright with all those layers on, which brought about some angry tears.

Jackson's main reason for loving the outside is the family cat "Kevin."  Or Kevi as he is referred to now, mostly by Jax.  He squeals a loud squeal and yells his name whenever he spots him.  Jax enjoys petting him for about 3 seconds, poking his nose while saying nose over and over, but mostly he loves giving Kevi cat treats.

 And since he can't physically open the bag of cat treats he now just goes straight to the cat food and grabs one piece for each hand to try and shove in Kevi's face.  Kevin is the nicest, calmest cat I have ever met.  He doesn't really care for the attention from Jackson but he has never hissed or tried to scratch him.

His defense mechanism is running away.  Which Jackson thinks is a great game.  He will chase that cat as far as I will allow him.  All while yelling "Kevi, Tweet(treat)."

Run Kevin Run

 I guess Kevin got tired of running away so he plopped down in the middle of the road and finally allowed Jackson to shove that piece of kitty food into his face.  I often find pieces of kitty food in my house and in the car.

 

 This picture shows what happens when you are running after the cat in the driveway, with cat food in both hands, and can't let your arms catch you when you trip and fall.  Dirt, mud, and a bloody lip.  Poor baby.  Once he calmed down he was ready to head back outside.

Cutest Snow Shoveler ever eh?  This boy cannot feel the cold and I have to drag him inside kicking and screaming each time!  The only way I can usually get him in the house is to promise him an episode of "Jake."

Which is his biggest addiction by far.  I sometimes think we need a cleanse of no TV and no Ipad.  He would love to spend every waking moment doing one or the other. We find ourselves giving into this cute baby more than we should......oh well.  You only live once right?!

Jax's stats:

21 months(almost)

11.7 kg-which is right around 26 pounds.  

Pounds 24 & 25 have been a real struggle so we are very grateful for a little extra meat on his bones.  

Jackson-please stop growing up.  Stay my little baby forever.  Carter certainly didn't listen......

Christmas Eve and Christmas

I must say that I loved every minute of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Carter was so excited and anxious for the big day.  He is a true believer in Santa and reminded us of that often.

We started off Christmas Eve morning by making some Sugar Cookies for Santa.  

My best helper even knows how to level off flour by himself.  My countertops and floors paid a price but it was worth it!:)

Next we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's house to make our own pizzas and go sledding.  It had been snowing all morning and the snow was perfect.  

Carter and Aunt Linsey all set for sledding.

Linsey, Kayla, Carter and Tyler

Neil and I even dragged our sorry selves outside the partake of the snow.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and no one seemed to notice the cold.  I thought Carter would be hesitant but he jumped right on and never looked back.

He preferred going by himself or with his Daddy.

Kayla and I raced the boys down the hill but I don't think we won.

                                      

 After sledding we headed back to our house and had a wonderful Christmas dinner of London Broil, potatoes, asparagus and salad.  A favorite in our house.

 Grandma and Grandpa E and Aunt Linsey came to celebrate with us.

 Carter was very excited and wild all night.  He thought we were going to open all the presents that night so he was sorely disappointed when he learned otherwise.  We did let the boys open one present and they chose one from Aunt Linsey.

Luckily Grandpa always has his pocket knife handy to cut through strong tape.

 Hot Wheels!  A motorcycle and a race car.  Both boys were very excited about the cars but not excited about sharing them.

 Letting the other have a turn was excruciating for them!

 Picture of our guests!

Then we all changed into our pajamas and got our picture in front of the tree.  Jackson was ready for bed at this point so we put him down and then let the real celebrating begin!  Grandma and Grandpa left but Aunt Linsey stayed the night!

We went downstairs to read the Nativity story from the Bible...or the Ipad.  Whichever is handier.  Then we watched "How the Grinch stole Christmas."  Then Carter wanted to take turns being the Grinch and stealing all the presents.  After the movie we came up to decorate cookies for Santa and to write a letter to him.

Carter dictated what I should write and he would have gone on for pages if I didn't direct him.  He listed about 18 things he wanted Santa to bring for him.  He really wanted Legos this year but I really dislike Legos for some reason so Santa can bring those when he is a bit older.  I tried to get him to tell Santa something that Jackson would write and prompted him by saying "What do you want to tell Santa about Jackson?"  He thought for a minute and responded "Tell him My brother won't share."  Very true but not what I was getting at!  Carter went to bed very easily, which I was surprised about and slept until about 6:30 the next morning.  

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

 Carter was so excited to see what Santa brought.  We made him wait until Grandma and Grandpa could drive over here though and those 20 minutes were pure torture for him.  Luckily Santa did not wrap his treasure chest and he could look and play with that.  In the treasure chest Santa left him real gold pirate treasure.  Which he calls Golden Blooms. (Gold Debloons(sp).  And bless Santa's uncrafty heart, he decorated this treasure chest by hand so it looks exactly like Jake's treasure chest!

                                     
15 gold dollars.  Although I don't think he really gets that they are real money and he could really buy something with them.

Jax found that his stocking had a single Dum-dum sucker in it and he was happy.  We had to wake him up so we could start the festivities and he was a little out of it for awhile.  

                                     
 While waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive we let Carter open one gift from Santa.  Captain Crunch!  Santa (and the Easter Bunny) always bring our favorite sugar cereals since the mom in this family doesn't allow sugary cereal for breakfast.  Mean right?!

 Santa knew just what Jax would like and he got right down to business by eating handfuls of Kix.  There is nothing this baby likes more than Kix.

Aunt Linsey and Jax enjoying some Kix.

Once G & G arrived Carter got down to business with opening his big gift from Santa.  Much to his delight it was the Bucky  Pirate ship that he'd been dreaming about!  He was thrilled.

 Jackson was also thrilled with the Bucky ship and wanted in on the fun.  This ship has brought lots of happiness to our home but also lots of fighting!  Santa is wishing he would have brought 2 Bucky ships.  We even have another pirate ship but both of them want Bucky or nothing.

Santa brought Jackon this bead thing.  I don't even know the name of it but Jackson loves these things and he was quite pleased with it.

Neil opening his big gift from me.  And saying "You broke the rules."  With moving into the new house last month we agreed to only buy stuff we needed for the house.  But I broke that rule and bought him a Kindle.  He's been wanting one for a long time and I finally felt like he had been good enough to receive one!

One of my gifts to Jackson was a book I made with all the pictures of his first 6 months in the hospital.  He loves it and loves to look at the pictures of the baby.

Reading the book over and over with G & G.

I tried to pull out the other, older pirate ship to please the 2 boys but they wouldn't hear of it.  Luckily they managed to share a bit.

Jax wasn't interested in opening presents at all.  He liked what was inside of them but didn't care about the unwrapping part.  He did however, love this empty box.

                                              
Jax got this tractor and trailer from my parents and he loves it.  It makes animal noises and sings songs with each button.
                                              
He would push a button and then clap for himself.

Carter with all his loot.  I am very glad that Santa brought Carter the game SORRY so we can stop playing Chutes and Ladders.  WORST GAME EVER!

Jax and his loot.  Still snacking on the KIX.

 After our big breakfast we played games and with our new toys and then got ready to head up to Grandma and Grandpas.  We had our traditional Prime Rib dinner and it did not disappoint.

 During dinner Jackson refused to eat anything except potatoes.  But after dinner Grandpa set him up on the counter and fed his bite sized pieces of the prime rib.  And this boy went to TOWN!  He ate almost as much meat as I did.

 Maybe he doesn't like it from a tray?  But from a silver platter instead?!

Next on to the present opening.  Jackson received some movies to watch.

 And finally learned that it was kind of fun to rip paper from packages.

Our only family shot on Christmas day.  After presents we came home to play more and eat more treats.  It was a great day.  The best part was watching the boys open their presents and squeal with delight.

Carter picked out a present for me and chose wool socks(which I am obsessed with. My toes have a hard time regulating their temperature!)  He asks me every single day if "I love my socks."  And then if I happen to not wear them around the house that day he asks me if I'd like him to go get them for me!

Christmas was wonderful.  The next 3 days were not.........the stomach flu hit Neil and I like a truck.  Neil first and then me.  Luckily the boys were spared which was a true blessing.  Neil and I were careful to stay quarantined in our bedroom when the beast was raring and wore masks when coming out.  That flu ruined my favorite christmas treat, maybe forever!

Minus the stomach flu we had a great time, mostly just spending time together.  Neil had the entire break off and we spent lots of time playing.  Carter said it best "Do we really have to wait a whole 'nother year until Next Christmas?!"