Thursday Buglet Update

Enjoying a day of shopping with Auntie Cassie and Jonah (Mimi was there too, but she is taking the picture. Jonah was munching on Cheerios and Jackson wanted some!)

Seeing Allison for the first time since he was a few weeks old!

Traditional dinner at California Pizza Kitchen with Auntie Kelly, Mimi, Auntie Abbey, and Auntie Dale! (Next time there will be one more since Auntie Kelly is pregnant!!!)

Meeting Alexis Kate :)

Excited to see Daddy after a few days away!

Kisses for Lawrence (aka Alice) the camel! "Alice the Camel" was Jackson's first favorite song. Mimi found him a stuffed camel for his birthday!

Well, we are back from our wonderfully long birthday celebration/visit to Evanston :) Jackson and I were lucky enough to arrive last Thursday morning and stay until this past Monday. Josh was able to join us for the second half. We went outlet shopping with Auntie Cassie and Jonah, had lunch with my good friend (and college roommate) Allison, hired a babysitter, shopped, ate yummy food (as always!), met Aunt Katie's new little girl Lexi, and had a wonderful birthday party with good friends :)

Jackson had such a good time at Mimi and Grandpa's house! I was thrilled because he was an amazing sleeper! Even better than he had been doing at home! Mimi and Grandpa just renovated two rooms on the main level, along with which came some new sets of shelves. There were a couple of shelves just for Jackson's books and toys! He knew right where to go each morning! The first afternoon we were in town, Jackson and I went to the Skokie Library, which brought back lots of memories for me, but made me so jealous! The library is beautiful after major renovation and rearranging and there was a HUGE selection of board books! We checked out quite a nice selection to enjoy during our visit. This leads me to one of Jackson's new activities: "reading!" I read to him when he was tiny, but then he got to wiggly to sit still. Now, he brings books over and likes to be read to! Thankfully, this kept him busy for much of the plane rides! His favorite book is Baby Colors by Rachel Hale. He LOVES that one! Mimi got him a Halloween Elmo book with flaps and that is a close second :)

Jackson is also starting to give real kisses! They are still pretty slobbery, and a bit open-mouthed, but it doesn't look like he's going to eat your whole face now ;) He usually will give a kiss when asked, but there have been quite a few times lately that he crawls over and gives a kiss on his own. He is sooo sweet! He even likes giving Paxton kisses! SO CUTE!

We have been working to teach Jackson the sign for "more," and he totally got it just a couple days before his birthday! I'm still not entirely sure when he's full at meal times because he likes to just keep asking for more, but it's pretty cool to have this communication! Sometimes when we are in the car or on a walk, he'll ask for more and we aren't sure what he wants more of! He probably just likes the reaction he gets...

Jackson's great love right now is cars and trucks! He had a little fire truck for a while and he loves pushing it around! Side note: this all started with his love for pushing ANYTHING around! Josh and I got him a bigger truck for his birthday that was a huge hit. He also got a plane that wheels around and some nesting cars that he LOVES :) I can do trucks and cars--this is good!

We will get Jackson's latest set of stats next week when we see the doctor for the one year check-up! Our trip threw off the schedule a bit, and we had to wait a little to get in with our favorite doctor.