Take me out to the ball game

On Thursday evening, we had tickets from Goodyear for the Akron Aeros baseball game and a BBQ before the game. My only baseball game experience is taking pictures for the yearbook in high school. I got free tickets to see a Braves game every year in school for good grades or something, but I never used them. I'm just that big of a sports fan ...probably should have gone at least once just for the experience, but oh well. Now I have been to a bigger-than-high-school baseball game :)
We had pretty good seats I guess. It was a little scary though--ya really had to pay attention because there were stray balls and splintered bats flying up into the stands constantly. Jackson had fun too, though he kept wanting everyone's "apple juice" that wasn't really apple juice. Sorry, kiddo.
Here we are with Astro Cat (I think that is his name) during the BBQ thing.

Hooray for free dinner and baseball games!

Soap Box Derby

On Saturday we went to the All-American Soap Box Derby. Why? Well, mostly because we had 2-for-1 coupons and nothing else to do. But sounds fun though, right? Plus, they were filming a movie that some famous guy is directing.
We made our way around closed roads, hiked from the very last row of parking where we were directed to park, and made it to the ticket table with our 2-for-1 coupon, and then realized I didn't have my wallet and Jack didn't have any cash. Oops. Luckily it was a nice guy doing the tickets and he said someone bought extras and just gave us the tickets anyway :) I figure since we had the 2-for-1's, it would be the same as us buddying up with the group in front of us and them buying the tickets and us getting the free ones (it was good for up to three 2-for-1's). So we got in free. :)
This was the national soap box derby competition....serious stuff for these kids! Single elimination races--can you imagine all that hard work and you're out after just one run? We found some seats up near the top of the bleachers where we could see the whole track up the hill and (the best part) be in the shade. As you can tell from the pictures, it really wasn't very crowded at all... kinda wonder what they're going to do for the movie since they were hoping for a full stadium.

We thought Jackson would really like to see the derby cars racing down the track, and he did, but it was a little too long between rounds to keep his attention. He looks way more excited in these pictures than he actually was--I told him to point to the cars, and then to clap. Hey, made for cute pictures anyway :)
We didn't end up staying for very long because it was hot, we were hungry, Jack had some work to do, and Jackson was ready for a nap. I was glad we didn't end up paying for it at all, though it still would have been worth the $5 we would have spent. It was a fun little activity and now I can say I've been to a real live soap box derby.

Why didn't I think of that?

It was playgroup day yesterday. When I told Jackson we were going to the park, he wanted to go NOW. He was in the bath, mind you. I did manage to get him dressed but he didn't want to wait to put on socks and shoes. Finally he did sit down on my lap to get them on, but he had a much more efficient plan: He took the socks out of my hands, stuffed one in each shoe, and then tried to put the shoes on his feet. Brilliant! What a time saver!

A Contrast

In order to vacuum the entire living room of the place we were living before this Ohio Adventure, I'd have to plug the vacuum cord into two different outlets just to reach the whole room.

Now, I can vacuum our entire apartment without having to unplug the vacuum once. Boy, we sure have it good these days!

Dolphins

Jackson has been obsessed with dolphins this week...Kind of an odd thing for a toddler boy to love, but he does. We have to look up dolphin videos on YouTube many times a day. The two most commonly requested videos:

"Watch dolphins---bubbles"



"Watch dolphins---boat" (the guy narrating this one is annoying--he says the same things over and over. But it woulda been cool to be there.

Today

Whenever I talk to Jack on the phone mid-day and when he's home in the evenings, I find myself telling Jack about all the things Jackson says and does during the day. It makes me really glad that Jack likes him as much as I do, because otherwise it would probably get kind of old to hear about this kid all the time. But when he consumes all my time and attention all day long, that's what I think about and talk about.
Today:
-Jackson did not want me to shower. Most days, I'll sneak away while he plays with cars or watches Baby Einstein. No sneaking away today. He wasn't just opening the shower curtain like he sometimes does--he was pulling the whole thing out of the shower so water was running all over the floor and all over him. Uggh.
-We went outside to draw with sidewalk chalk. He made requests, and I drew. All the usuals: a choo train; daddy-, mom-, and Jackson-sized airplanes; daddy-, mom-, and Jackson-sized sun; daddy-, mom-, and Jackson-sized hearts; daddy-, mom-, and Jackson-sized ants; etc. He'd start to run away, then stop and look over his shoulder at me and give me the I-know-I-shouldn't-be-doing-this-but-I'm-going-to-tease-you look, laugh, and run back to me. Silly goose!
-I had a headache and laid down on the floor. He came over to me and laid down with me and said, "Mom, snuggle. Mom, snuggle." Such a sweet boy :) I do love how snuggly he is!
-As I was making dinner, he wanted to sit up on the counter to help me. I was chopping cabbage. He knows he can't touch the knife, but he wanted to help chop...so he grabbed my arm and would move it up and down while I held the knife. Creative way to help, eh?
-I guess he decided he didn't want what I was making... he opened the cupboard and got out the mixing bowl and said, "Pancakes? Pancakes?" He helps me make pancakes for breakfast a couple times a week. Not for dinner today though.-Jack has been speaking Chinese to Jackson a lot lately, in hopes that it rubs off on him. I said, "Wo ai ni" (I love you) to Jackson today. He replied, "Daddy, wuw hiney. Daddy work. Daddy year (Goodyear). Daddy wuw hiney." Yep, you got it, dude.
-His nap (and mine) was cut short when the maintenance man came today. He was still happy in the late afternoon, but was definitely tired. He requested bear, monkey, and blanket and then laid down with them, saying, "Jackson sleepy. Jackson night-night." He didn't sleep, of course, but it was still cute. I like that he's recognizing when he's tired.-We went to his room to read stories before bed like we always do. I picked out a book, but he took it from me and put it down. Then he ran out of his room and came back carrying the Book of Mormon. That's what he wanted for his bedtime story. So that's what we read.

While the days can be long sometimes---like today, when he woke up early and didn't go back to sleep like he usually does, and then has a short nap, and then Jack is later coming home from work--- they sure are great. The days kind of all run together and most days we don't really do anything spectacular, but it's all those little things all day long that make my job great.

We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

We checked another thing of our "To Do This Summer" list today and went to the Akron Zoo. Thanks to our coupon book, we had 2-for-1 tickets here which made it worth it to go. I think maybe I am a cheap person. No, I know I am a cheap person. If I don't have a coupon for something like this, I'm probably not going to do it. Anyway...

We ended up getting to the zoo much later in the day that we had hoped, so it was really hot outside and nap time for both Jackson and most of the animals. While it is a pretty small zoo (no monkeys, giraffes, or elephants even) we didn't really see everything before Jackson was done and Jack had a phone call meeting. But I think we saw the main stuff at least.

No, you aren't supposed to be able to see any animals in the background of this...we just needed a group shot and were ready to go, so this is what we got :)

I had no idea polar bears were the biggest/tallest bear. Or maybe I just forgot. Either way, I don't think I want to meet one up close.



Probably Jackson's favorite part of the zoo: The Choo Train



Wow, I look pregnant in this picture. I guess I am.

Lemurs, anyone?

Jackson liked the penguins too. Maybe because they were actually moving around and doing things, and were at his eye level.

Fun little trip. I missed the giraffes though. They're my favorite animal to see at the zoo. We did see lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) but they were just laying in the shade so we didn't get great pictures and Jackson was less interested in them.
One month until Jackson doesn't get into things like this for free any more!

Cleveland Children's Museum

On Saturday, May 29, we visited the Cleveland Children's Museum. We thought it would be a fun thing to do with Jackson. I have to confess, when we got there we debated about whether or not we wanted to go inside---it looked a little iffy. We asked a family who was coming out if it was worth it or not, and they said it was better than it looked from the outside, so we went for it. It certainly wasn't as nice or as big as the one in SLC, but we had fun.

Dr. Jackson, reporting for duty.


Jack had a good time with these blocks :)
The water table, always a favorite.

Train tracks...

Hi Daddy!
Oink!

It's been nice to be able to spend time together as a family and to have Jack to ourselves on the evenings and weekends, with no homework or studying for him to worry about. Hooray for summer adventures!

On Sharing and Daddy Trains

A Shirts family event wasn't complete without ice cream. As the youngest of six kids, I was the self-appointed fairness police all growing up, so you can be certain that everyone had the same amount in their bowls. We'd peel apart the ice cream box, then cut the frozen cube into eight equal portions. I've mostly outgrown that, but it's fun and funny to see Jackson displaying a similar trait.

Whenever he's eating grapes, raisins, or whatever is the order of the day, he'll hold a portion up to me and say, "Daddy bite." Then he'll do the same for Natalie with a, "Mom bite." (He calls Natalie "Mom" and me "Daddy"). He always makes sure that we each get some of whatever he's enjoying.

It's too bad that the notion of sharing hasn't yet caught hold when it comes to toys. Well, it has--but only when someone else is playing. Jackson will freely yoink some unsuspecting munchkin's plaything from under their nose. It's ok, because he clearly says "share" as he takes a toy. But this only works in one direction. He still yelps when any kid wants him to share his toys. I try not to laugh when this happens, but it's hard to suppress.

Jackson has also recently learned to compare the sizes of things. Anything that is relatively little is Jackson-sized. A medium-sized object is Mom-sized. And anything BIG is Daddy-sized. Natalie is asked to draw at least a dozen "Daddy Choo-Trains" each day. These are usually followed by "Jackson Choo Trains". We have Daddy and Jackson cups, shoes, shirts, airplanes, blimps, balls, trucks, chairs, etc. He has known the word "beeg" for a long time, but it's fun that beeg = Daddy.