Wall-E

In an effort to get out of the house and take a much needed break from packing on Saturday, we took Jackson to his first movie at the movie theater. We had intended to see whatever was playing that the cheap-o theater in case it didn't go well and we had to leave early, but there was nothing kid-friendly playing any time close to the times we needed (why were the kid-friendly movies only being shown at 10am?). So we took a gamble and paid first-screening prices for his first trip to the theater. It went well. I'm not surprised that it kept him entertained for a while given all the popcorn, fruit chews, slurpies, and M&Ms that a little boy could dream of. I'm just pretty sure Jackson had the same reaction to the movie choice that I had though, which was to say : "Eh, kinda boring." It was no Nemo despite the fact that the poster touts the movie as being from the same "humans" that brought us Nemo. Towards the end, he was getting antsy, but luckily the theater was fairly empty and he was able to do the things that toddlers do to entertain themselves a little bit - watch the movie while sitting on the stairs (as though it is somehow different from that angle), jump in the isle a few times, lay down on the empty seats next to us, etc. Before we knew it, Jackson had behaved through the entire movie. Next time, I am definitely going to show up a few minutes late though so we can cut down on the time spent in the previews. Disney REALLY sucks that way. Do they have to preview EVERY movie they have coming out in the next 2 years?

He's a Delicate Flower

I taught Jackson how to use a blanket to look like a nun and he thinks it's the funniest thing ever. He runs around saying "I'm a nun! I'm a nun!" even though he has no idea what a nun is. I'm pretty sure he thinks it's something like a ghost because we use the same blanket to play "ghost".

I discovered this week that Jackson would never make it as a nun - aside from the fact that he's a boy. With maybe one or two exceptions (at most), the nuns I knew during my 12 years of Catholic education were all pretty tough cookies. You know, the take-no-prisoners Dominican nuns and such. It is now clear to me that Jackson is way too delicate to be a nun. It's not even up for debate since he actually gags at the sight of his own bodily functions - everything except for pee and drool. Poop - check. Boogers - check. Vomit - check. Until Thursday, he only gagged at the sight/touch of these things. He has officially now made himself vomit at the sight of his own poop. Anyone wanna disagree with my thought that his hyper-sensitivity to this may be the cause behind his reluctance to poop in the potty?

I didn't think so.
I'll try to spare you the gory details, but this is the gist of what happened:

After dinner on Thursday, Chris caught Jackson in the act of pooping in his pull-up and rushed Jackson to the potty. Of course, it was a bit too late and the deed had already been done by the time he got Jackson's pants and pull-up off. And, let's just say that it wasn't the most "regular" of bowel movements one could have. (It really just serves Chris right for having purchased those lower calorie Olean potato chips to eat with our burgers for dinner.) Anyway, from the other room, I can hear Jackson literally gagging during the proceedings. I can also hear Chris intermittently gagging, trying to hold his breath, telling Jackson that he's trying to hurry and get his butt wiped off, and agreeing with Jackson that the poop really stinks. Jackson gags a few times, and then I hear him very clearly say: "I'm gonna be sick." Sure enough, not 30 seconds later, Jackson proved himself right and he ralphs on the bathroom floor. Upon hearing the vomit hit the tile, I finally get up from the dinner table to see if I can help because it's clear that Chris and Jackson aren't gonna be able to get out of this messy situation by themselves. I walk in to find Chris on his knees wiping Jackson's butt while Jackson is standing over the potty puking his dinner out into the toilet. Not a pleasant sight. Anyway, I look around the room and I see the poopy diaper is still open and laying face-up on the bathroom floor. At that moment, all I can think is "why the heck didn't Chris wrap this thing up and get it out of the room when he and his son were both gagging at the sight/smell of it?" I suppose hindsight is 20/20 and all, but might that simple move have prevented the entire fiasco? I think so, but I guess we'll never know. By the time all the pooping and puking were over, both Jackson and the bathroom needed serious scrub downs so that's what they both got. Honestly, I've heard of people gagging/puking at the sight/smell of OTHER people's bodily functions, but YOUR OWN!?!? Isn't he gonna have to do this just about every day for the rest of his life? He's gonna have to get used to it. Maybe I need to send him to a convent for a little toughening-up?

P.S. Boy, I sure am glad that I keep this blog to record such fine family memories! So much better than those preset, mundane questions/topics in those store-bought baby books. Who wouldn't want to keep precious memories such as this?!

Rollin' on the New Carpet in His Soon-To-Be Bedroom!

Belated July 4th Photos

We spent the 4th at my parents' cabin and the weather was great. Almost a little too chilly to swim, but not quite, so Jackson still got a bit of swimming in. He loved watching the neighbor kids and their friends jump off the end of our pier and splash everyone. Grandma even got Jackson to jump in twice, but he got scared after that and refused to do it again. We also went to a carnival in the local school parking lot. Some of those rides and equipment were seriously older than I was, but Jackson didn't seem to care. He had a great time. I was skeptical that he would like the rotating swings because he has been known to be a bit of a fraidy-cat, but he proved me wrong and took to them like fish to water. I think that he rode them 3 times. You can see from the smiles he had a great time, despite the motley crew that was in attendance at the carnival. You know it's bad when the scariest people at the carnival are not the carnies.After the carnival, we watched the fireworks from the pontoon. He really didn't like the first 10 or 15 that went off because they were awefully close overhead; he got scared. But he slowly warmed up and eventually loved shouting out the names of all the colors of the fireworks. When we docked the pontoon, Grandma then scared the bejesus out of him with some sort of shreiking, spinning pyramid firework that jumped up into the sky and right into the giant maple tree in the yard. Grandma's little stunt made him cry the hardest all weekend, that's for sure. Of course, anyone that knows Grandma also knows that she told him to stop crying and suck it up - which he did....eventually. All I know is that the black snakes were definitely more his speed.