Long Weekend Recap

We had a fantastically long weekend thanks to Josh's compressed schedule! He gets every other Monday off, and since this past Monday was a holiday AND his regularly scheduled Monday off, his day off got pushed back to Tuesday! It was so nice to have such a chunk of time at home as a family :)

Saturday was Daddy and Jackson day because I had the last of my tests to take in order to finally get my Virginia teaching license! I knew that I would be gone most of the day because I had two testing sessions--one starting at 8am and the other starting at 1pm. I assumed that each session was two hours since that's how pretty much every test I have taken has gone. Each one was FOUR hours! Luckily, we were allowed to leave as we finished so I still had a break between. That was not a fun surprise! That was the longest I had been away from Jackson, but it seems like he and Josh had a fun day :)

On Sunday Auntie Em and Uncle Josh come over to go out to lunch and play. We had a really good time visiting with them and wedding planning!!! On a related note, we booked our flights and hotel rooms for their wedding in New Orleans in May! We are really excited!

This picture shows Jackson's new love of bringing a toy over and then climbing into my lap to play with it! Sometimes he brings over more than one toy or a book, but it's so fun! He is still really great at playing by himself, but it's super cute when he makes it clear that he wants us to play WITH him!

On Monday I took Jackson with me for a run, and when we got back our neighbors were raking their leaves. After I unloaded Jackson from the stroller, he stood by the front door for at least ten minutes just watching them rake! Such cheap entertainment!

On Tuesday we got to enjoy Josh staying home for another day! We could get used to this! Jackson had a rough day that started with no nap in the morning :( We do have our days when he needs to cry it out a bit before he settles in for a nap, but yesterday I could just tell there was no calming down. Unfortunately, he had already woken up Josh with all the crying :( Fortunately, James seems able to sleep thru anything! I took the boys for a run (Jackson fell asleep in the stroller almost immediately--go figure!) and then we came home and picked up Josh and Pax and took a really nice, long walk up to the lake near our house. It was such a beautiful day! The afternoon ended up being pretty hectic. Jackson went down pretty hard for his afternoon nap, and slept for barely an hour. Yikes! He was not a happy camper after waking up either. We decided that we would put him down as early as possible for bed since he obviously did not get enough sleep yesterday. The earliest I could manage was 6:10 once we had dinner and a bath. Phew! It was quite the afternoon! There were definitely some cute moments though:

The bug fireman on his way to his next adventure!

Deep in conversation!

James trying on the deeley-bobbers!

Working hard on sharing and letting James have a turn with the deeley-bobbers :)

Jackson still loves when we build his towers for him, but he is getting pretty awesome at building them himself :)

Now this is how you drink!

Pausing for a photo-op! Daddy was running back and forth with him across the kitchen. Apparently, it was quite hilarious!

I feel like we are making progress on our sleep training. Putting Jackson to bed earlier has definitely made a difference. While he still wakes up at 5 or 5:30 pretty consistently, at least we know he's getting more like 11 hours of sleep instead of 9.5 or 10. I am leaving him in his crib until at least 6. There have been two mornings recently when he has skipped the first wake-up and just cried at 6! YAY! Progress! I also think the middle of the night wakings are getting better, but those are more sporadic. We still have a mix. I am glad to see that the theory of earlier to bed=longer and better sleep is still true even though Jackson is a bit older. I don't know if we will be able to change his wake-up time (maybe once we are down to one nap?), but at least I feel like I have a way to help him if I know he's not getting enough sleep. We also know it's the right choice because he doesn't even fight it a little when we put him down early. Poor little guy :(

End of the Week Randomness

Someone had a Facebook status the other day explaining that it was a good thing her kid was cute because it saved his life sometimes. I cannot think of a truer statement ;) We have definitely been having some crabby days, but there has been a lot of cuteness infused in there :) I was pleased to read on Facebook statuses that Wednesday seemed to be an off day for everyone! Phew! My child really hasn't been replaced with a cranky stand-in. I was trying to rent him out to his Auntie Em, but she said she didn't do overnights. I don't blame her... We are working on Jackson's sleep schedules and while I know it will take a little time, I really wish it would just fix itself instantly! Poof!

Let's see...cuteness: Yesterday morning I was getting things together to start breakfast and look down to find Jackson sitting IN the bottom drawer! He was so proud of himself! He did it a few more times during the day, but got very upset when I explained he couldn't sit in any drawers higher than the bottom one. (Cause #804 of a meltdown yesterday afternoon.)


James has been having a hard time watching Mark leave in the mornings, but we have found that a ride on the firetruck makes everything better! I had just taken him on a lap through the dining room (with Jackson "chasing" us) and stopped in the living room. Jackson came over and put a reassuring hand on James's shoulder. Then he leaned in for a kiss! So sweet! He spent a good fifteen minutes pushing James around on the firetruck, and I caught other kiss attempts during the morning. What a good friend!

The look on Jackson's face when he realizes I plan to carry both he and James downstairs is priceless! He LOVES that! I usually pick up James first and then Jackson hops on to my shoulder. As soon as he can tell it's coming, he gets a huge smile on his face, and his arms shoot up at high as they can reach :)

Jackson has started grabbing the burp cloth off of the side of the glider while we are reading stories before bed/nap and using it to wipe his mouth or the book after he finishes his milk! It is too funny! He sprays milk sometimes when he takes the straw out of his mouth and I usually try to wipe the spots off of the book before it has a chance to get sticky. He's being so helpful!

On an unrelated note, Jackson always seems to have one outfit that cannot stay clean! When he was really teeny it was his Bears onesie. If I dressed him in that, it was only a matter of time before we had an emergency diaper and outfit change on our hands. There have been a couple of others at different stages. The current culprit is a really cute layered shirt with basketballs on the sleeves and a big basketball on the shirt and it says "Swish." Really cute. He wore it for the first time last week and that's when he threw up all over himself. He was wearing it today until he decided he was finished with this whole bib thing during meals and got lunch all over himself. Poor shirt :(

Just a typical morning:

Tuesday Entertainment

Jackson's beloved reindeer antlers from Christmas met an untimely demise when Paxton found them one day... It was a sad time :( Luckily, Mary Jo found these new deeley-bobbers as a replacement! I think they might be even cuter...

Who's Sleeping at 8114 Willowdale Court?

NO ONE come 5am!!! What is that all about?! Josh and I both LOVE sleep. Where did this kid come from? Seriously though. Since our Christmas travels sleep has been a challenge. After visiting the doctor and learning nothing was wrong with Jackson besides a massive amount of teething, we managed to get back on to some sort of track. I felt comfortable letting him cry in the mornings and he usually went back to sleep for at least a half hour or hour. If he was waking up, bright eyed and ready to play, that would be one problem. But, you can tell he is still sleepy, but can't stay/get back to sleep. I felt like we were making progress, and then Jackson got sick. The night he was sick he slept from 5pm-5:30am. I wasn't frustrated with him waking up them since he didn't feel well. But, since then, he's been up between 5 and 5:30 every morning! We aren't quite sure what to do to fix this.

I've been letting him cry it out to go back to sleep like the doctor suggested, but he just cries for a whole hour! Almost an hour and a half this morning! I would love for 6:30 or 7 to be our regular wake-up time. But, I'll settle for 6 at this point. The way I understand it is that the point of crying it out is to let your child settle back to sleep on his/her own. If you keep going in or go pick them up and get them out of bed, they will learn that if they cry long enough, you will come. I've been really strong on that front. BUT, I think he would cry forever these mornings! How can I get him up without sending the message that I'm rewarding his crying? ARGH!

Last night Josh and I decided to try a later bedtime. The problem here is that if that's the solution, I think it will take a few nights to show improvement. I want to know we are making some progress! We managed to keep Jackson up until almost 8 last night instead of the regular 7. He was still up at 5:15! That's the thing. He usually is visibly ready for bed at 7 (or before!). It's not like we have this arbitrary time, he's playing happily, and we just send him to bed. He also needs his two naps still. Same thing. I'm not just laying him down twice a day. He is definitely winding down and getting a little cranky at those times. In support of that information, an article in this month's Parents' magazine addresses the problems of an early waker. They say it can be due to a too-late bedtime, nap deprivation, or too long between the last nap and bedtime. That leads me to think that we should be laying Jackson down earlier, not later. I don't know which way to try first! We also have been really good about our sleep routine for a long, long time.

I know that in a few weeks I'll look back at this post and know it was just a short-lived phase. But, that is so hard to really believe when you are in the middle of it!!!

Little Guy Shoes

I looked over the other night and Josh had added Jackson's shoes to our mat by the door. How cute are they?!

Another cute thing I noticed the other day was Jackson's demeanor when he is at someone else's house with his/her toys. He gets the sweetest look on his face that captures a really adorable combination of a little nervousness about playing with new toys and pure excitement about getting to play with new toys!

I don't like that Jackson has been sick AT ALL! BUT, he gets so snuggly when he doesn't feel well! Why do those two things have to go together? In Covington, Jackson was getting up ridiculously early, but not really wanting to be awake, so he would just sit on my lap and we would rock in Meemaw's recliner. The other day (the day he got sick, it turns out), he woke up on the earlier side here and fell asleep while I was holding him in bed. I usually try to buy a little extra time by bringing him in our room either to cuddle or to hang out with Josh before he gets ready for bed. For some reason, Jackson usually starts screaming as soon as I even bend one leg to sit on the bed. Weird, I know. But, that morning he just laid on my chest (a lot harder than it was a year ago) and fell back asleep for a little while. For the rest of the weekend he would just want one of us to hold him and he has started laying his head on my shoulder periodically during the day. I LOVE that! I see people when we are out and about who are carrying their sleeping toddlers. I never thought I would get that experience because Jackson is SO stinkin' busy! But, maybe we will...

The Dynamic Duo is Back!

Both the Smith and Mullen families are back in town and working on getting into a routine again :) Last week was not our friend in that department, but this week is looking good! We went out to dinner the other night and then Mary Jo, Mark, and James came over to hang out. The boys had a great time playing!

Jackson's First Birthday Party!

Jackson attended his first birthday party yesterday for James's FIRST birthday!!! In spite of working hard on recovering from not feeling well, he seemed to have a great time :) There were three other little people there. Just enough chaos ;)


Of course Jackson and James enjoyed playing together, but Jackson enjoyed playing with the older kids too. He played basketball with Evan and watched Kaitlyn as she paraded down the hall on James's race car. Jackson's friend, Lily, was there as well and he kept sneaking her little smiles. Jackson didn't feel much like eating while we were there, but the grown-ups enjoyed some yummy slow-cooked meat sandwiches and very tasty mac-n-cheese! James did an awesome job smushing his cupcake around and even styled his hair with chocolate frosting! It was a good look! The cupcakes were adorable monkeys, but even those weren't enough to entice our little guy to eat one :( Man, he didn't know what he was missing!