Broken

Observe the remains of Mark's binky thrashing. Sunday was the fateful day.

I'm pretty sure it affected me and Mark to a much larger extent than Jackson. Honestly, Jackson thought they were funny looking when he first saw them. I, on the other hand, wanted to cry knowing I didn't have that crutch to rely on during future rough patches. Mark just felt guilty about having to do the dirty deed.

When Jackson asked for the binky Sunday night on his way to bed, I handed down one of the dilapidated pieces of plastic. He looked at it strangely, laughed, and popped it into his mouth. At which point it promptly fell out of his mouth. He asked for the other two, and after the same sequence of events, he put them on the little ottoman, and looked curiously at them. He kept cocking his head to the side like a confused little bird--trying to understand what had happened. Finally I asked him if they were broken, and he pointed and nodded his head saying, "bwokie." I felt so guilty, since he apparently had no idea that Mark and I had been planning the breaking for weeks.

That night for bed, he took all three of the broken binkies carefully to bed, and slept well for his standards.

We had our first difficult transition into bed today--Jackson was a bit upset about not having a binky incentive for his nap today, and was put into bed screaming. I suppose the broken binks have wore off their strange factor. Thankfully he fell asleep fine like every other nap this week.

I guess it was time to grow up son.

1 almost 2.. 9 10!

Jackson's had quite the week of up and down extremes. Going from really good listener to massive tantrum when the pj's went on; happiest joyous expressions on the funniest discoveries (like ladybugs and squirrels), to demanding the binky all day long and screaming like crazy until he was distracted enough to forget about it.

I guess we're on the way to twos. It's certainly helpful to watch fun videos during the rough times to remind us of the good times.

Here's Jackson's method of counting. Only the most important numbers are included.

Run, Rest, Redo

This is an unusual sight around these parts: a kid so tired he's cuddly?

But after doing many sprints,

much playing,

and good old fashioned work like this all weekend,

it's of little surprise that all of us weren't just a bit pooped.

We had a lovely weekend with Mark's parents in town, working, eating and playing hard.

Thankfully, after some good sleep and rest, we were back into full swing!

Thanks to my awesome helper, and an 80 degree day, we had those chairs cleaned up in a jiffy!

Play Dates

Jackson got to have a play date with one of his friends this week. When I told my sister this, she laughed and questioned the fact that an almost 2 year old would have a "play date". I told her it was a title we use to disguise the real purpose--babysitting. Since we tend to do a lot of babysitting in our house, it's much better to refer to them as play dates. I volunteer to babysit so often because it entertains Jackson while I can do other exciting things like make pizza dough.

Little C came over yesterday, and he and Jackson enjoyed the beautiful weather by playing on the porch for an hour and a half straight. 80% of the time they played amazingly well: throwing balls, sharing cars, etc and making messes with their snacks.

20% of the time, they were territorial boys defending toys from being stolen by the other. Unfortunately Jackson's sharp claws were one of his defensive tactics. C was so tough, I didn't even realize anything had happened until 30 minutes after the fight, when a nice red harry-potter-esk scrape appeared down his forehead, and a little red gash next to his nose. Jackson got a 2nd punishment when the results showed up. No constitution here. Hopefully C's family is not planning to get family pictures this week!

A little while ago, D came over to play. As notable in the picture he's a bit bigger than Jackson, which made Jackson play the part of the little brother. He followed D around like a shadow, and the two of them were so entertained, I only had to intervene with one or two fights for the 5 hours they were awake together. Incredible creativity and lots of silly laughter made everything come alive for the two of them.

Jackson's all time favorite playmate is Dad. Thankfully Dad can also be a babysitter! I've determined Jackson is so attached because they wrestle 40% of the time they're together (minus eating time--which usually includes Cheezits), and also because Mark will do fun things like this:

And then get really excited about something like this:

What a lucky boy to have such awesome playmates! But no more scratching, Jackson!