Livin' the Dream

We had one big fat 3 year old celebration last Saturday, with a school-free Daddy and a little bit of rain.

-Pancakes for breakfast

-Rock throwing in the lake

-Airport visit via train, with a shuttle bus ride on the way back




-Plenty of icing on the cupcakes

We told him it's all down hill from here.

And then we had the bonus rounds this week, playing with our new birthday toys.

And a sleepover at Bodie's house...

... while Dad did this.

Maybe we should have told him it just gets better and better.




This girl certainly thinks so.

Celebrations of All Kinds

We are celebrating a lot this week. 

Our happy Allie is back, and boy is she kicking! We sure missed her beaming smile during the previous couple of weeks. Glad her grumpy state was a result of teeth and sickness and not just a new demeanor.

She is getting closer to crawling as she leans forward and backward to get anything that looks remotely like an object that could be picked up. Pulling herself up was a very thrilling feat last Sunday--she giggled with gleeful excitement the whole time she held herself up there. Completely cute. Unfortunately it's a bit distracting when she's trying to sleep... easy to up, hard to get down.

 Allie is also starting to communicate. Her guttural sounds certainly make the voice teacher in me shutter at what she's doing to her vocal chords, but when you've got a big brother saying everything for you, you have to do what you can to be heard!

Someone else is having a big celebration this week. We made some cookies to bring to preschool tomorrow for Jackson's birthday. Apparently we haven't made chocolate chip cookies for a while (post Allie's birth). Jackson could not get over them. "I LOVE these mom!" "What are they called again?" (referring to the chocolate chips), "yumyumyum yum!! These are so yummy!!" "Can I have some more mom?" He would have eaten the whole batch if I had let him. Glad I did not since the tummy ache came from 2 beaters, a couple of spoons, some snitches and one cookie.

Our big celebration started tonight for Mark, who went to his very last Master's class. We'll celebrate again tomorrow when he turns in his last final. Jackson and I made a sign to commemorate. We are thrilled to be done with finals and eat dinner together again!!

(I'm sure you can see Mark riding his bike wearing a helmet amidst that gorgeous art. Did you catch "our little tiny house" in the left hand corner? It's right next to the "table" at the top. Important details.)

Interactions during the day

Isn't he cute. He's also been pretty good lately. Solid independent play, only tries to hurt Allie once a day, and seems to get excited to help. So, why am I so drained at the end of the day?

 

Enter typical conversation with Jackson:

J: Mom, what are we doing today?
S: We're going shopping this morning.
J: WHHaTT? [really pronouncing the h, and the t]
S: We're going shopping.
J: We're going shopping? Where we going shopping?
S: The grocery store.
J: WHHaTT?
S: Where are we going shopping Jackson?
J: I donno. The grocery store?
S: That's right.
J: What we get at the grocery store?
S: We need to go buy some bread.
J: WHHaTT?
S: [eye roll, ignore]
J: What mom? What?
S: What are we getting?
J: Bread? Are we getting bread mom?
S: We're getting bread.
J: You sad mom?
S: No.
J: You haPPY MOM!?
S: I'm just fine.
J: WHAT? What mom?
S: I'm doing just fine.
J: You just fine mom?
S: Yes Jackson.
J: What is fine?
S: It's in between happy and sad.
J: [Silence]... You happy mom?
S: [sight] Sure.
J: Where are we going mom?

....

 I'll never forget babysitting 2 and 3 year olds and wondering how their moms dealt with all the questions they asked ALL DAY LONG. It's shockingly taxing to answer the same questions. I am sure it is a developmental stage and way for the child to learn at a much quicker pace, but boy oh boy. Stick in no nap, and I've been run pretty ragged.

On the plus side, Jackson always has these funny little sayings that make me laugh so much. In his brain, he "used to be" everything. He'll often tell me, "When I used to be an airplane, I fly up in the sky, and swoosh down and land at the airport and vroom over here." This also happens with buses, schools, pirates, ambulances, etc. It's pretty hilarious. He's also always excited to tell Mark things at the end of the day. Throughout the day he'll say, "When Daddy get home, I tell him I jump over my truck and BAM into the door."

I'm sure we'll have plenty more interesting conversations this next week. He turns three on Saturday. With Mark in finals, we decided to postpone the celebrations until next Saturday. I'm just imagining the impending conversations about when his birthday will actually be. "WHHaTT mom? When my birthday is??"

Onto the little girl in the house.

Allie:

[whining in her jonny-jump-up]
S: Hello Little Miss! What's up.
A: Mamamamamamama
S: Oh you're ok. Here, have a toy.
A: [Fusses]
S: Allie Ballie, what do you need?
A: mamamamama!
S: [sniff test] OH! Poops! Let's go change you.

This girl is a fairly effective communicator for having no words. She hates sitting in her poop and will whine as soon as it comes out. The cutest part, is when she getting changed and her pants are off, she immediately starts to clap her feet together. Her expressive feet are so lovable.

She's also starting to eat more solid food. It has totally messed with her nursing schedule, but we're starting to figure out how to do both. Avocados are her go-to food, with bread and cheerios close behind. Everything else is a guessing game. Last night I gave her chicken--a big hit. Here's a little clip (ok, a little long clip) of our dinner time last night (Mark was at class).  I love how Jackson periodically pipes in, in his own special way :)

  

Growing Pains

If you look really hard, you might see some shiny, sharp, white protrusions in Allie's bottom gums.

We think this could be one of the clues in her recent cranky-day habit.

Those 1st teeth (popping through last Thursday and Friday) are so exciting, but a little scary while nursing. She loves to clamp down when she's done, and it hurts so much more with those little sharpies!

She has been super fussy lately. I've been blaming it on the rice cereal traffic-jam that keeps occurring in her colon. That, and boredom. So a third excuse sounds great! The teeth popped, prune juice for the bowels, and lots of bike rides with Allie toting behind in the stroller to combat boredom. Hopefully we should get our happy girl back soon.

Growing up is so hard and painful. Good thing she's a cutie!

Capturing Moments

Jackson, Allie and I walked home from the library this evening after an early dinner. We had a heat wave come in a few days ago (jumping us 40+degrees in one week), and it was definitely hot today. [Side note: spring and fall always seem to come in with an abrupt 40+ degree temperature change around here. It's almost as if some higher being suddenly tilts the earth, lurching us into the next season.] Though hot during the day, this evening was 80 degrees with no direct sun or humidity, and epitomized comfort. Jackson was singing as he rode his little balance bike down the sidewalk. I could see Allie's chubby little feet kicking the air while she sat in the stroller. The sun was setting, and the lighting was perfect. I felt a peaceful heaven-like calm, and teared up with extreme gratitude. It was incredible, and I wanted SO terribly to capture some of it on camera. But alas, all cameras were sitting at home.

I am a firm believer in not photographing all events. Memory is incredibly powerful, and more depth-filled than pictures. But, I guess I'm also an artist, and was sad to not take advantage of such perfect lighting and poses. Live and learn.

Thankfully we had plenty of other camera worthy moments this week, and often it was nearby. These would not be the artist's best, but great moment captures.

This is how we found the little Miss on Tuesday morning. Poor girl has been congested since October, so I usually put her in her carseat at night so she doesn't wake up from a stuffy nose. Apparently she must have had some exciting dreams and was bracing herself for for the wake up call.

 

We made it downtown to go see the cherry blossoms on the tidal basin. Perfect weather, perfect blossoms, and the most gorgeous colored booger came out of Allie's nose. She was still batting those eye lashes and giving us flirtatious grins. Oh it was hilarious. 

 And then she struck this lovely pose,

and made me relieved to know she'll have to work a little to maintain her beauty in life.

Allie wasn't the only one looking fabulous for photo's this week. We attempted to get a family pic, and these are the results:

(Jackson was practicing his tree-hugging skills)

Apparently Jackson is not ok with strangers taking our picture. Ah, the memories.

We did capture this precious moment...

..for which I am grateful because the camera was not easily accessible, and I almost missed it. But it was captured.

A not-as-low-key-as-normal Easter

Despite my low key holiday nature, we did ratchet it up a bit this year. There were no recycled gifts from grandmothers--I actually bought my child a present, full price. We went to a little egg hunt (those eggs did get recycled by the Easter Bunny), and Jackson and I dyed eggs. We tried to decorate them before dying, but dropping the eggs into the colored water was much cooler than coloring on them. I was still impressed we did it. Did Jackson eat the eggs? err... he helped shell some of them for sandwiches. But there was no consumption.

He did consume the sweeter Easter basket tradition. The kid found his basket within minutes of learning there was a basket for him to find, and this little video completely captures his current personality. Insane excitement, random discoveries, and slight awkwardness swooped into a little talking shrieking human.

Post-Easter, we managed to have one day of the heavenly weather we usually get in April. We took advantage with an ad hoc photo session--complete with ugliest background, the cutest little girl, and our high energy resident toddler.

 

This happened to be Allie's first grass eating experience. She is definitely one to watch when exploring things with her mouth. She has lips of steal that do not open for finger sweeps under any kind of condition. 

  

 And this is how she feels about me taking the grass away before it gets into the mouth...

 Maybe next year we'll let her eat candy, and she won't have to be forced into such extreme measures.

Solid...

...Water,

We thoroughly enjoyed the post-spring equinox snow we had. By far the best of the year!

Soap,

Apparently we've never let Jackson take a bubble bath. He had to do it himself by pouring all the shampoo into the tub. 30 min later he was still thrilled by the bubbles.


and 7 months.

Celebrating her 7 month birthday, Allie decided to sit up. Literally on March 21st she stopped falling over. She also chose that day to eat 3 different foods--but only if they were solidly chunky. Now about getting that solid poop out of her body. (Apparently this is a regional issue since prune juice was sold out at Target... goodness!)