Two Year Update!

Opening a birthday card from Uncle Larry!

It is a Star Wars card with Yoda on the front, and it sings the theme for "Star Wars!" How fun! Jackson is really excited to see Uncle Larry when he comes to visit in a couple weeks!!!

Kisses for our front stoop bear :)

Kisses from Mommy!

Dap for the front stoop bear!

Such a good spot for a snack!

We had Jackson's two year check-up at the pediatrician this past Wednesday. We met with our favorite doctor in the practice, Dr. Kernan. Jackson weighed 29 pounds (63%) and measured 34.4 inches tall (54%). He screamed bloody murder when we tried to weigh him and measure him, but he let Dr. Kernan check him out without too much fuss. He got a great report, along with two vaccines :( For as hard as Jackson cried right away, he calmed down pretty quickly. He was really excited to pick out a sticker on our way out :)

Josh and I just said to each other that we feel like Jackson is having another word explosion! Each day there seems to be more and more words we can actually understand. He is also telling us more compound thoughts, but we just can't quite understand all of the words. He has great inflection and facial cues, though! He breaks out his dance moves more and more often, which we LOVE! He just started to sing today with Mimi! I loved hearing his little voice make a sing-song sound! Jackson continues to be super busy during the day and is starting to pretend play more and more. This is great since he got so many fun toys for his birthday that encourage this! He is a great helper with unloading the dishwasher, cleaning up messes, throwing away trash, and taking an item from one place to another. His favorite toy is definitely Momo. His favorite books at the moment are We're Going on a Bear Hunt, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, and Hug a Bug. His favorite shows are "Wonder Pets" and "Jack's Big Music Show," along with the "Elmo's World" DVDs we inherited.

I feel like there are so many things on my mental lists that I want to "work on" with Jackson or introduce him to. I'm trying to just relax and enjoy everything we ARE doing as we do it. We are well into our super busy October and loving it! November looks a bit quieter followed by December being mostly spent in Evanston!!! WAHOO!

22 Months (and Five Days) Old!

Our trip to Evanston was very well-timed. I felt like we all, including Jackson, needed a break from our routine. Even though I switch out the toys and had just reorganized the living room, I felt like Jackson didn't quite know what to do with himself anymore. I remember thinking that by the time we came back to Springfield after 12 days away, Jackson would have changed so much! I was right! We watched him change before our eyes even while we were in Evanston! It is amazing to me (and so much fun!) to watch him learn to do new things. He is at a point where he really values mastering new tricks/tasks.

Mimi and Bampa live in a split-level house so there is a half set of stairs going up and another going down. Until now we have had to have someone manning the stairs or use make-shift gates. This time we didn't do any of that! It was SO nice! After just the first couple of days, we all felt pretty comfortable with Jackson going up and down the upstairs stairs by himself. The railing on those stairs is perfect for him to hold on to all the way. We somehow have managed to convince Jackson that there is no reason to go downstairs, so he doesn't really try! It was much more relaxing to just hang out in the main living area without being right with Jackson wherever he was. He got to have more free roaming space :)

Until now, Jackson hasn't been super adventurous at the pool or playground. We went to the playground by Mimi and Bampa's house a couple of times and Jackson "learned" how to do new things just in the five days between visits! The second time we went, he LOVED going down the slide! There was also a neat plastic climbing slope (for lack of a better term), that he got into right away the second time. We came home after that and I just couldn't get over how much he liked playing at the playground all of a sudden!

On a related note, we played at a play space at the outdoor mall near Mimi and Bampa's house and Jackson mastered walking up and down the sloped areas in a matter of a half hour! He was really proud of himself! He didn't seem to mind too much when he ended up sliding down on his bottom at the end!

In the pool, Jackson has done a total turn around since we were last at our neighborhood pool! I thought he was just showing off for Nan in IL when he spent the whole time jumping into my arms from the side of the pool. But, I took him on Wednesday when we got back to Springfield and that's what he loved doing! Yesterday we went to the pool with the Shapiros and Jackson kept asking for jumping again and ad again! It's a little exhausting (especially when you are trying to carry on a conversation), but it is so fun to see him so excited for the water! He doesn't even mind being dunked anymore. He seems to have a little more interest in the actual aspects of swimming like kicking and paddling, so hopefully we can make a little progress there. (I don't mean I expect him to start swimming, but just to be more comfortable practicing those things.)

Jackson now says, "Please," pretty much unprompted when he would like something. He has also gotten very good at, "Thank you!" Although it sounds like, "Dank-usshh." He seems to have a special link to the fridge because he comes running ANY time I open it to grab a grape or strawberry! This kid just loves fruit! Jackson is breaking out his dance moves all over the place! I feel like lots of his friends were dancing from a very young age, but he is just now getting into the fun of it. His moves are definitely better than mine, and so stinkin' cute! On a related note, he just can't get enough of the UVa fight song! We have a bottle opener that plays the song, and Jackson knows how to use a spoon to start it. He gets a huge smile on his face and sways to the song and then pumps his fists in the air and cheers at the end! I think he's ready for a football game with Daddy this fall!!!

Getting Jiggy With It

Josh was having fun listening to good ole' Will Smith songs on YouTube and came up for lunch singing, "Getting Jiggy With It." Jackson caught on very quickly to the nah-nah-nah-nah-nah part! It was so cute! He would say it and bounce with Josh! We had lunch, and then we went down to the family room to play. Jackson was intrigued again with what Josh was listening to, and did the nah-nah-nah-nah-nah part again pretty much without prompting!

Below is a flashback moment from Jackson's fifth week. He was obsessed with dancing with Daddy to old school music:

Winter Break: Part 3: Chapter 1

Jackson received a birthday card in the mail that sang a song. He LOVED it! I decided that Josh and I should get him a musical Christmas card! I picked out this one and we gave it to him the other day. He just loved it! He immediately did a little dance which was SO cute! Miraculously enough, he did it again (almost exactly the same) once we turned on the camera to record him :)