New Tricks & Toys

It's been an exciting couple of weeks at the Brown house. Not only has Jackson started making saliva bubbles, BUT he can also stick his finger and thumb in his mouth AT THE SAME TIME! I know, I know, life really doesn't get much more exciting when you're around a 3 month old all day.

To top it all off, we decided to splurge on a new camera. We kept trying to decide if we should wait until Christmas, or get one now. Well, the Y generation--or whatever we are (instant gratification generation)--won, and we got it last week. Ya, it's been just a little fun.
Enjoy!








Are we done yet? Poor kid ;)

el jardín

Mark and I both grew up with our parents creating incredible vegetable gardens. Our experiences were quite different--Mark's small town garden being the size of a small house and mine a bit more urban with beans growing up the back of the garage, and nice garden boxes strategically placed to maximize space. Living in apartments produced a deep sense of nostalgic longing for the work and product associated with a garden.

We were super fortunate to find a little house to rent with a yard out back! This immediately conjured up dreams of lush tomato plants and zucchini. We were also fortunate to have someone in our ward (our church congregation) who initiated a gardening co-op, where we paid 5 bucks, and he would start all the seedlings. WOA. Score.

Our co-op email in April mentioned the onion and peas being ready which kind of took us for surprise, but we got to work and started clearing the land.


Since the dirt was really clay, we decided to start small, and haul in some top notch soil--going square foot garden style. We planted our onions and peas and went out pretty much everyday to check on them. We felt like doting parents as we tracked the progress of our little plants.


We had intended to just use this as our garden, but when my mom came out to help after Jackson was born, she convinced me that 3 tomato plants were not going fit in a 4x4 garden--let alone a zucchini and cucumber plant. So, she did some more excavation and expanded a bit. We also had a friend who moved and gave us a bunch of herbs and pots--which added some nice aesthetic levels.


By the beginning of June, we had a solid amount of peas, and everything seemed to be growing well. The tomatoes, eggplant, jalapenos, cucumbers and zucchini's came on in July. The onions never really made it. They're all still out there, and we'll have to figure out how to better help them grow this fall when we try again. This picture is from early July when Peter Rabbit (and his wife and baby) decided to eat our first 5 tomatoes. RAAWWW. I never knew I had so much of Mr. McGregor in me.

Here we are at the end of July. You can see the cucumber plant that has pretty much taken over. It's very abundant. We've harvested 30 cucumbers in the past week and a half. Good thing we like them!

Here are a few of the first crops that didn't get eaten by Peter.



Since Jackson still doesn't like lettuce, the overabundant cucumber plant has come in very handy. I did not take this picture (found here), but we have managed to eat a TON of these delicious tomato and cucumber salads.


Now all we need is some chickens and cows, and we're on our way to sustainable living! ;)

Talkin' and Laughin'

Recently Jackson has taken to smiling when we smile, telling us why, and throwing in a little infant laugh. Sometimes he'll do it for so long our cheeks will hurt from smiling. Here's a clip of a happy baby in conversation.



Not sure why he's so happy, but we decided to keep him--despite painful cheeks. I have a theory that he's really just laughing at all the names we call him. He has quite a collection. Here's a fairly comprehensive list:

Jackson
Jacksonian
Bud
Budster
Bub
Bubster
Bubsteroni
Bubbaloo
Bubbaloobie
Mr.
Sir
Kid
Baby
Babycheeks
Babycakes
Poopster
Tookster
Dude
Dudie
Cutie

I try to call him Jackson enough so he'll know his name, but Bubbaloo is my favorite. Just imagine kissing those chunky cheeks and calling him Bubbaloo. Wow. Life doesn't get much better.

The iMark

For months, Mark's favorite topic to bring up is apple's new must have--the iPad. He has been trying to convince me of its unique merits, since before it even hit the market back in April. Neither of us are "mac" people--Mark has an ipod from a few birthdays ago, we really only use it on really long driving trips when the other person wants to sleep. So the iPad's been a bit of a running joke/something to dream of ;) Whenever we run into a problem, we just shake our heads saying... "if only we had an iPad."

Well, for Mark's birthday I wanted to make him a version of the iPad. Mark really wanted it so he could organize his life, lists and schedule--which I knew did not take an iPad. So, I made him an iMark. Pretty much, it's WAY cooler than the 90's Franklin Covey Planner, and only cooler than an iPad because I made it :)

To really appreciate this whole process please watch apple's iPad commercial found here. Are you convinced you want one? Ya. I was pretty convinced.

Anyway, if--like our family--you haven't decided that it's moved from the want to the need list yet, you might enjoy an iMark--they're a bit more affordable :)
(Check out the commercial below.)



Mark definitely loved his Birthday present. BUT the best part comes later in the day.

My Mom's sister Michelle, and her family were in town, so we met them downtown on the mall. They're on a 3 week vacation traveling all over the Midwest and the East coast. Lucky for us, they thought DC was cool enough to visit also. Lo and behold, we meet up with them, and of course. My uncle Rob pulls out a brand new iPad.


AAHH! It was better than we could have planned. Mark and I had a blast playing with the spiffy toy, and it did live up to all the commercial's promises. Thanks Madsens!

Michelle and the girls were kind enough to entertain Jackson while we had fun with the iPad.


What fun.

Smiling.

After getting his first shots yesterday, Jackson looked a lot like this:


Fortunately, after a good night of sleep, he looked more like this in the morning:


And even flashed enough of these...

enough times...

for me to finally capture a Jackson smile.

Happy babies are the best.

PS--Hair is slowly coming back. Funny, it came back with cradle cap! EWE. (Continuous peeling on the scalp, turning into a blizzard of large dandruff flakes.)

The Sleep Thing

Typical recent conversation with friends, associates and strangers:
Friend: "Oh he's SO cute! How old is he now?"
Me: "Almost two months."
F: "Wow he's getting so big!"
M: "I know. He's huge!"
F: (In a lower, more ominous tone) "So... how is he sleeping?"

Now this is a very important question. It is by far the most challenging part of the lives of most newborn's parents. I get asked this question so often, there are times I want to say:
"Well, usually it's with his eyes closed, but he has been know to keep them cracked even though he's really asleep."
or
"Generally laying down, but he does prefer a more upright sleep position."


In truth however, I'm quite excited to relate Jackson's latest sleeping habit, as it is always different.

That's one thing that I've had to learn. Habits generally don't stick around for longer than 3 days. Sometimes this is good--like the "I'm going to stay awake from 5 pm until 2:30 am" habit. Sometimes... not so good, like the "I love to sleep in my carseat" habit. [Seriously did not know how good we had it until it changed to "I love to cry in my carseat."]

In general, we can't complain too much about Jackson's sleeping. He takes good naps during the day--as long as there's not too much going on around him, and he'll sleep for 6 hours in between feedings at night (he just likes to determine when the last feeding is--last night it was gratefully 10:30--not 2:30).

However, if some one asked me today, how he's sleeping, I would be overjoyed to share a very exciting detail about last night. Jackson has a problem sleeping in his crib. I guess he just has too much room. In fact, sometimes when we need to wake him up, we lay him in his crib... and presto! He'll wake up within 0-30 min.

SO, after a month of sleeping in our room, we moved his bassinet to his room to help the transition. This was very successful for Mark, as he was able to sleep without being interrupted by Jackson's groans and grunts that occur all night long, and successful for Jackson, as he still felt secure in his little bassinet. Unfortunately he's getting a bit large for his little bed--everytime I lay him down his hands hit the sides, plus he always slides down to the bottom and squishes his legs. (He's waking up in the photo below.)


So, despite his general pattern of waking up within 1/2 hour of being laid in his crib, I decided to risk it last night. I seriously had to get a strong spiritual confirmation to do this, because it was 10:30, and I was really looking forward to going to sleep so early.

Wonderfully, I could NOT believe the clock when I woke up to his hungry moans at 4:45 this morning. Woo Hoo! Success.


Now if we could only make this a genuine habit, we'll be fairly set.

To Be a Dad

The most surprising thing about having Jackson has been how much I love watching Mark be a Dad. Every girl loves a man who's good with kids, but I had no idea how attractive it was when the child was your own!

Besides being our at-home diaper changing service, Mark serves as a fantastic feeder and baby vehicle. Father and son time has included some interesting conversations including extensive lessons on the art of wrestling, conversations on politics, and discussions on the best time to do dishes. Needless to say, we don't have to pay for entertainment very often.

Here are a few Dad moments captured visually:

"Daddy's little wingman" waiting to fly (via Dad's arms)


Dad willing to hold a fussy baby in public ;)


Giving mom a break


Practicing a firm grip--absolutly necessary for backyard ball practice

Dreaming of something


Multitasking


Taking a break

Love my boys!
Happy belated dad's day.