Jackson Boy

I'm way overdue for a Jackson update. These pictures aren't really related to the post, but they're cute and I haven't posted them yet (going back to April) and a post needs pictures. I'm lacking recent pictures because our camera died a few weeks ago and we just barely got a new one this past weekend. So I'll do better now.

This kid is just so much fun these days. He is talking so much---I couldn't even begin to list out the words he knows any more. He surprises me every day when he uses new words that I didn't know he knew. He's copying a lot of what we say, too. (ex. The other day I called Jack to let him know I was outside his work to pick him up and I said, "Come on dooownnnn!" to him on the phone. For the next 5 minutes Jackson repeated that over and over.) He'll string together 3 or 4 words in a phrase, though it is usually 2 or 3 words. He pronounces his l's and t's like y's but other than that (yellow and little sound the same), I think his pronunciation is pretty good. It is so much fun to be able to talk to him and to have him talk back. He's also really good at following directions...or at saying no, depending on the mood.Jackson has started repeating after us to say prayers...it's pretty cute. He's also catching on to the eyes closed/head bowed part of praying, not just the arms folded. He rarely gets it all down at once though. Last week I was peeking at him during prayer... he had his eyes closed and head bowed and was reaching & feeling around to find food on his plate to eat. We're making progress, I guess :)
Eating is still hit and miss with this kid. It just depends on the day. I had him weighed when we were in Utah a week and a half ago and he'd lost 3 ounces since his last weigh-in a month before that, but I really wasn't surprised because he didn't eat much at all for the whole week prior to that when we were at the Shirts family reunion (post on that coming soon).
He loves playing with cars and animals. He spends hours a day lining them up on the floor, trying to make the animals ride on the cars, stacking them up, and driving them around. We didn't bring many toys with us, but he's certainly gotten a lot of play time out of what we brought!Jackson loves to draw and color. He usually wants one of us to draw with him...meaning he makes requests and we draw it. The requests always include a "choo train" and he makes sure you get all the essential parts. Sometimes I'm not fast enough. ...wheels, star, train cars, the line connecting the cars, a window on the engine, a guy driving the engine, a hat on the guy driving the engine, etc. Other things we draw frequently: stars, moons, suns, cars, trucks, houses, keys, planes, clouds.We have (ok, Jack has) taken Jackson swimming a couple of times and he's loved it. I had to hide his pool floaty thing so he wouldn't keep asking to go all the time. I did think we'd go more often than we have so far, but it isn't warm enough in the mornings, Jackson naps almost all afternoon, then it is time to make dinner, then Jack gets home and we eat dinner, and then we usually end up doing something else, and then it's Jackson's bedtime. We'll have to go a couple more times at least. Maybe some day I'll work up the courage (and it'll be hot enough that I give in) and take Jackson by myself.
Jackson does pretty well with naps these days, but I'm not sure that we're on a routine that I can maintain once there is another little one in my life. Right now, Jackson goes down after lunch, usually around 1:00. We sit on the rocking chair in his room for about 10 minutes until he falls asleep, then I lay him down in his bed...he'll sleep there for anywhere from an hour to two, then when he wakes up I get him and take him to my bed where we both nap for a while longer. His total nap time is usually anywhere from 2 to 3 1/2 hours.He's showing interest in using the potty again. He'd sit on his little potty whenever he felt like it before we moved, but we didn't bring his potty with us and until this past week he'd sort of forgotten about using the potty I think. We're not really in potty-training mode yet, and I don't think we really will be for a little bit longer, but we're just kind of going with the flow (get it?) for now. He asks to sit on the potty a couple of times a day but won't actually sit on it unless daddy puts him there. And we usually have to all take turns sitting on it before he will. But he did pee in the potty for the first time the other day! I'm not really counting on it being a regular thing though. We'll most likely have two in diapers at the same time.Jackson loves books. He brings me books all day long and says, "weed sto-ee? weed book?" How can you turn that down?? So we read a lot. I need to get a library card here...I think I have memorized the 15 or so books that we brought with us.
He learned how to do somersaults and loves to do them all over the place. Only problem is that he doesn't quite get the concept of making sure he won't crash into a wall, table, toys, etc.

We sure love this little guy!