Good Photo

I would take credit for this picture, except that my husband reads this blog and he would call me out on it, so......nice shot Chris!
P.S. There will be no posts for the rest of the week as I will be out of town....:(

Peek-A-Boo! I See You!

Water & Sand Table

This table is supposed to have sand on one side and water on the other, but given Jackson's continued preference for putting everything in his mouth, we opted to make it just a water table. Jackson has never seen sand, so I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what he's missing. Plus, if you get sand in your mouth, you still find it there, under your tongue 3 days later....and that's just gross. The table came with a castle, princess, knight, boat, and water-breathing dragon. Pretty cool! Although Jackson clearly isn't one to fall for a damsel in distress -- do you see how he is just letting that poor princess drown? Some knight in shining armor he is!As you can tell from his shirt, he really, really liked splashing around in the water. Just like in the bathtub....only not.

13 Months

As if celebrating one complete year wasn't enough, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo for Jackson's 13-month birthday (we didn't really go because it was his 13-month birthday, but I think it adds something to the story, don't ya' think?). We went to the attached White River Gardens too in order to see the Butterfly exhibit they are famous for. None of us had seen it before. It was interesting, but it was the first day the exhibit was open for the season, so I think there were still many more butterflies to hatch. It was still fun though, watching them fly around, land on people, and seeing all their brilliant colors. I don't think I'd ever seen butterflies that big! By the time we got to the zoo part of our trip, it was like 11:30-ish. Might I recommend NOT going to the zoo at that time of day?! Many of the animals were sleeping. I don't know if it was the time of day, the humidity, or what, but the lions, tigers, bears, polar bears, & kangaroos were all sleeping. Kinda dull to watch an animal sleep, ya' know?! Plus, several of the exhibits were closed -- I assume because it is still early in the zoo season. It was nice being there when it wasn't crowded though. Despite some of our disappointments, some of the animals were in fine form - sea lions, walruses, zebras, giraffes, elephants, ostriches, birds, emus.
Jackson seemed to enjoy the experience, though I think he thought we were there to people watch, not animal watch, because he seemed to enjoy watching all the kids around him more than the animals. He got a bit freaked out when the crowd startled him by "ooohhh-ing" and clapping when a sea lion jumped off the rocks into the water. He really didn't like that, so we high-tailed it out of there and he got over it quickly. He apparently enjoyed the animals just enough to refuse to look at the camera when we were at an exhibit though. We couldn't seem to get a picture of him looking our way when an animal was near all day -- he was too busy trying to figure out if he should be excited or scared by whatever animal he was looking at. Of course, his favorite part was the playground area. Good thing we went ALL THE WAY to the zoo so Jackson could go down a slide.......we only passed like, a BAZILLION FREE playgrounds on the way to the zoo.... He got really fearless on the playground; he kept going down the slide head-first! When does that whole "I'm afraid of anything I haven't done/eaten/seen before"-thing kick in? Obviously, I hasn't kicked in for Jackson yet....

1 Year Photos

I read quite a few blogs throughout the week, some more religiously than others. When I wanted to see what was happening for the weekend (to put it more accurately: "when I wanted to see what I missed over the past weekend"), I would sometimes check out this blog. The author is a photographer by trade and, on one blog posting, she noted that she was looking to shoot a variety of subjects for her portfolio. Some friends of ours answered her call and arranged for her to take photos of their son, which they were really quite pleased with (pleased with the photos I mean, not Jake....although, I'm sure they are quite pleased with their son too....whatever.....you know what I mean).

So, I saw Jake's photos and thought they were great. They really showed how cute as a button Jake is.

So, I got jealous. I mean, Jackson is cute as a button too, right? Jake shouldn't be the only cute as a button kid with great professional photos, right? I mean, really....not to brag and not to take anything away from Jake, but Jackson is pretty damn cute too.

So, I stole our friends great idea and contacted Michelle Jones, the photographer, to get Jackson's photo taken. This was certainly a better idea than the Target I had otherwise intended to take him to for his 1 year photos (yeah, we're a little late...so what!).

Well, the session was complicated - what with Jackson running all over the place and never sitting still in the light that Michelle wanted. Despite Jackson's "toddlerness", I think the photos turned out great. Like Jake's parents, we were really pleased.

As an added bonus, it was a great deal. Michelle waived the session fee and provided a few of the digital photo files for free, in exchange for signing a model release so she could use the photos in her portfolio. Sounded like a deal to me! And Michelle has also apparently taken advantage of the deal too and put the model release into effect as Jackson has taken a spot next to Jake in Michelle's online portfolio.

We are still figuring out what prints and sizes we want to get, but here are a few of our favorite shots that she took (in no particular order).....

Basket

Hmmmm, let's see, I got myself into this mess, I can figure my way out.....Mommy? Can a boy get a little help here?

Ready for the Lake This Summer!

Now that he's got his life vest, he's rip-roaring-ready to go for the pontoon!!Practicing swimming with the life vest on...

At the Park

Two thumbs UP for the slide.....Two thumbs decidely DOWN for the swing....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Now let's all celebrate by watching The Wiggles!

Jackson Says.....

...."Grandma, you should have been here in Indy for dinner tonight. I had one of your favorites - a grilled cheese made with a toasted Bays english muffin! Then I had a Girl Scout Cookie for dessert! Yummy!"

He May Be Thinning Out, But Jackson Still Has Some MAJOR Thigh Rolls!

Just, look at those things going after The Wiggles guitar!

The Most Common Sight Around the House These Days......

......is the BACK of Jackson's head!

Here he is running away from Mommy....Still running away from Mommy....Running to his babysitter Lauren and her dog Cosmo....Running away from Daddy....Running to get into the mulch.....Pooped-out from climbing the deck stairs.....FINALLY, taking a break from all the running.....Do you see the landscaping pavers in the back, right corner of this last photo? That is the site of Jackson's first "real" injury. Walking on the lumpy grass is a lot harder than the even floors inside the house! He tripped and hit his head on the edge of one of those pavers. OUCH! He took the pain quite well though....certainly better than I would have, if it had been me. No major injuries to report, no stitches necessary. He does have a nice little scrape, bruise, and lump on the top of his head though. Fortunately, it is right behind his hairline, so it is not very obvious.

New Teeth and an Ear Infection!

He's officially up to 10 teeth now. The bottom right molar and the upper left molar have both broken through. You can see the bottom one in this photo. The other two molars are a bit behind, but you can feel them so I don't think it will be too long. I'm just so glad at least two of them are through because this is the face I have seen from Jackson for the last few weeks, mostly because of his teeth......Lately though, I guess the ear infection probably has more to do with it. Hopefully, now that the antibiotics have kicked in and his mouth hurts much less, I'll get to see more of this face..........

Let Them Eat Cake!!

This video is a bit dull, but I think it's funny for the purpose of showing the progession that Jackson took while he was eating his birthday cake. This was the first time that he ever ate cake (that I know of), so he was a bit cautious at first. You will notice that he is just kind of poking and pointing at the cake. Since things were taking WAY TOO LONG for his impatient Mommy, I sped things up and broke off a piece of the cake for him to try. That REALLY got things moving! By the end of his cake, Jackson was stuffing his face so full that he couldn't even keep the cake in his mouth while he was chewing. He clearly had quite a different attitude about cake at the end of this video than at the start.

P.S. Notice him mugging for the camera at the end? What a ham. He does that all the time. He gets it from his Daddy; he's a ham too.

It's Official.....He's A Homo Sapien

Jackson has been taking unassisted steps as he walked from couch to table to chair (and so on) for a while now, but he really wasn't interested in trying to walk around the house or to walk for any distance. If he wanted to get somewhere, he crawled. Things have changed over the last 2 weeks. The week before his birthday, we noticed him walking around the house more and more and, even though he didn't get but 7 or 8 steps away, he was letting go of things from across the room and trying to walk across it before resorting to crawling. Now though he's been walking enough for me to officially declare him a walker. I know that some people have called him a walker before this, but I didn't consider him to be a walker until now. In my mind, taking a few steps from "this" to "that" doesn't count as "walking". It is certainly a big step toward walking, but it only counts in my book as "walking" when it becomes one's primary mode of transportation. Jackson has reached that point. He still crawls, mind you, but the crawling is getting more and more limited. He will crawl when: we are playing chase/tag, he is sitting on the floor playing with a toy and wants a toy that is a few feet away, or he fell down from walking. I'd say that he is walking about 80% of the time he wants to get somewhere now so, as his Mommy, I now offically declare Jackson to be the newest upright citizen of the Earth. He may walk like a drunken sorority girl at 3am on a Friday night in Champaign, but it still counts as walking.....P.S. Can you tell he's outgrown some of his 18 month clothes? Geez, that shirt is tight!

New Do

Jackson got a new haircut this weekend. It's nice and all, but his front hairline wasn't exactly cut what I would call "straight". It slightly slopes downward from left to right. It's not that the long side needs to be cut more, it's that the stylist cut the left side (his right side) too much. There's no fixing it when too much has been taken off. I guess I could take him in to have her cut more off the right side, but I think that would really just make him look like a "jamoke." I mean, it's not so drastic that most people would notice right away (as I didn't until we got home from Cookie Cutters), but now that I KNOW it slopes, I kind of drives me CRAZY. You can see the slope in the "Rough Week" picture below.

As a solution, I pulled out the hair gel and messed around with it. It was kind of fun.....I think I may have missed my calling. Anyway, here's a photo from the beginning of the home makeover and a photo of what we ended up with at the end. I think it looks good. He's kind of got that intentionally tousled, bed head look going on.

Yes, even punk rockers brush their teeth....the only problem is that Jackson has to remember to turn the brush around!Lookin' stylish!

Rough Week

Jackson has had a rough few days lately since he has been transitioning from the infant daycare room to the toddler room. They try to do it slowly so that the children can get adjusted, but it's still been rough on him to leave the only daycare room and teachers that he's known.

On Monday, he spent an hour in the new room and they said he cried for about half of it. On Tuesday, he spent another hour in the new room and he cried for about 20 minutes. On Wednesday, he spent the morning in the toddler room and again cried for about 20 minutes. Then on Thursday, he spent the afternoon in the toddler room and again cried for 15-20 minutes. They do say that he is adjusting better though. What they base that assessment on, I don't know! Friday was his first full day in the new room. He had a rough time in the morning, after I left him. You see, in the morning the kids are all gathered in one room until enough toddlers are present to separate them by ages/rooms. So, when we got there this morning, he was put in the 2 year old room -- which he had never been in before -- and he was with a bunch of kids and teachers that he didn't know. I've been told that he was throwing a bit of a fit for about 15-20 minutes and nothing would console him. Word is that once he was moved to his new 1 year old room, he calmed down and things got better. Then, of course, getting him to lay down on a cot on the floor to take a nap was the next hurdle. I guess they got him to lay down right away and take a nap, but he would only sleep for about 20 minutes and then they spent the next 1 hour and 40 minutes trying to get him to go back to sleep on the cot. Hopefully things will improve for him next week as he gets used to his new environment, teachers, and "classmates".