Jackson's Second Year in Pictures

Fall Friends

The other day was a perfect Fall day! The boys were enjoying exploring the flowers and pumpkins, so I thought I'd make a little Fall photo shoot. They were so happy to let me take their pictures while they played, and even posed VERY nicely on the stoop!

We had a good trip back from Evanston, and have spent this week gearing up for Jackson's birthday party tomorrow! We can't wait to celebrate Jackson, eat yummy food, and hang out with good friends :)

Wagner Farm!

This morning, Mimi, Bampa, Jackson, Momo, and I headed to Glenview to visit Wagner Farm! We had never been here before, but driven past loads of times! Luckily, today was a much nicer day than yesterday--still a little windy, but there was some sun, and no rain! Jackson had a ball meeting all of the animals and wandering around. He greeted most of the animal by saying their sound to them! It was so cute to watch him get so excited to see real, live animals! First we saw the chickens and roosters. There were also some really big geese! Jackson was enthralled by all of the birdies and geese flying around! His love for birds developed this summer when we visited and there was a nest with baby birds on my mom and dad's gutter! He still looks for them, and he also gets really excited any other time he sees birds :) So, he ran around watching the birds for a while.

There is lots of farm equipment left out to see. Luckily,Bampa was our own personal tour guide and told us how they all were used.

Then we went over to see some horses, pigs, and cows. There was a big barn full of hay bales. In the barn we could peek in some windows to see the horses chowing down on breakfast--Jackson liked that! He also LOVED chasing the couple of kittens that lived on the farm! They were super cute, and Jackson meowed plenty at them!

Jackson helped Mimi pick out some mini pumpkins and gourds to take home--he was a good helper!

There was a wonderful swing hung from a big tree, andBampa and Jackson had a few swings together. Jackson went ANYWHERE Bampa went on the farm and checked out all the things Bampa wanted to show them. They are such a cute pair :)

We highly recommend Wagner Farms to anyone in the area! The best part is that the farm is FREE! WOO HOO!

An Almost-Two Trip Cont...

On Saturday morning, Jackson discovered a doll highchair my mom and I had found the night before. I brought it upstairs and made a big deal about Momo sitting in the chair, but Jackson wasn't falling for that! He climbed right in and settled in to watch Elmo! I'm not really worried about the chair breaking with him sitting in it, but his knees kept getting stuck in it when he tried to climb in, so we re-hid it until a later date!

Ever since Momo and Jackson's relationship started, Jackson has really enjoyed other stuffed animals too! We raided Uncle Larry's room Saturday morning and Jackson LOVED all of his animals! He especially liked the Beanie Babies. Mimi kept handing Jackson little animals and he would kiss them and then add them strategically to his pile. It was SO cute!

Jackson's new friends got to ride in the wagon!

Jackson and Paige settle in to watch some "Wonder Pets" before we headed to lunch :) (There are more cute pictures, but I'm waiting for Katie to share them!)

On Saturday night our regular sitter, Katie, came over to babysit Jackson while I headed over to Roycemore for my 10 year high school reunion and homecoming! It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad I ended up being in town for it! It was fun to see some old friends and catch up on our lives in the "real world! "

Kristyn, Katie, and I won the trivia test for naming five different teachers based on some clues! We now have matching t-shirts :) (Again, there are lots more pictures from this, but they are being held hostage on other cameras!)

An Almost-Two Trip

Jackson, Momo, and I had a fantastic flight yesterday! The weather in the DC area was horrendous for most of the day with flash flood warnings and everything! I kept checking flights from DC to Chicago, and they were all leaving on time, if not early! I took that as a good sign, and sure enough ours boarded plenty early and left on time. Phew!

The flight attendants LOVED Jackson and Momo and I got lots of compliments on my well-behaved travel partners :)

We were even lucky enough to have a whole row to ourselves! So, instead of having a lap infant and a lap monkey, I got my own seat for most of the time and even got to read some of my book while Jackson watched a DVD :)

This morning, Jackson and I headed to visit our cousin, Beth, and played at her house. She shared the toys she had saved from when her boys were little, and Jackson had such a good time checking out some cars and trucks he'd never seen! From there we met Bampa for an early lunch at Big Herms--yummy! Jackson ate some chicken fingers and plenty of french fries!

Greeting Mimi when she got home from work!

Offering Mimi an onion he found while inspecting the contents of the fridge. What a silly boy!

After a trip to the Skokie Library, Mimi, Jackson, and I headed over to visit Beth, Lindsey, and Eric for a few minutes before meeting Bampa and Nan for dinner. Playing with the train track Lindsey thoughtfully set up in anticipation of Jackson's arrival at the Saxe house. He LOVED playing with the train and sending it through tunnels and over bridges. Eric was nice enough to share some of his cool trucks! These three really enjoy posing for pictures together, and Jackson was enjoying trying on a new pair of rain boots Eric handed down. They are super cute, just a little big still...

Jackson fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner and was such a tired boy when we got him up and situated in the restaurant. He did eat really well, but then he wanted nothing to do with sitting in his highchair. That is pretty unusual, but he was pretty tired :( Jackson ended up doing pretty well for himself when he caught his second wind. Mimi was kind enough to share her fries with him, and once Jackson had his fill he delivered fries to everyone else at the table. This was quite the cute game, and kept Jackson occupied. He also had fun clinking glasses/cups with everyone and saying, "Happy!" In our family we say, "Happiness," when we cheers before drinking. Josh and I did this one day with Jackson and it took off from there!

Long-Lost Post from 9/9/09!

In April, Jackson and I started hanging out with James, the son of our good friends. James is three months younger than Jackson and these two stay busy ALL day! I thought I would share some shots of these cute boys :)