All About Jackson

This post is going to be all about Jackson.  Since this is our family album I want to remember some things about him at this age.

He loves to play with his trains and cars.  You can often find him acting out scenes from Thomas the Train or the Cars movie.  Sometimes, when I'm lucky, he can play up to an hour by himself.

Recently we took Jackson ice skating for the first time.  He has loved watching his cousin, Brooks, play ice hockey and talks about "ice skaters" a lot.  I anticipated that he would either love it or be done in 5 minutes and I was prepared to be okay with either.  Turns out he LOVED it.  He and Laine ice skated for 1 1/2 hours!  I could not believe it.  Sometimes he's too lazy to walk across a parking lot without wanting to be held so I did not expect him to last so long.  I'm really proud of him for sticking with it and being so brave.

Jackson also went to the circus for the first time this past weekend.  We went with his friends, Jacob and Luke.  It was lots of fun! 

Here are the boys eating their expensive sno cones.

And here is most of Jackson's $10 sno cone on the floor.  :-)

A few other things to note about Jackson right now:

He likes to tell me something we should do and then says, "that's a great idid (idea)."

He is always asking, "what's that gonna be called?"  And when he does it usually turns into this loop I can't get out of.  For example, I might say, "do you want a piece of candy?"  And he'll say, "what's that candy gonna be called."  I'll tell him it's chocolate candy.  Then he says, "what's that chocolate candy gonna be called?"  And I tell him it's called chocolate candy.  He asks again and I answer the same a few times before he's satisfied that's it called chocolate candy.  He asks this question in various ways throughout the day about different subjects. 

We've been giving him $1 a week on Saturdays for his piggy bank.  We ask him to pick out some money for church and then he can save the rest for something he wants.  The other day he had his dime to put in the collection plate and someone asked if that was his dime and he said no, it belonged to Jesus.  Then when the guy came by with the plate he asked us if that was Jesus. 

He will often say, "when I say I need to ____, it means I need to _____."  For example, "when I say I need to eat some lunch, it means I need to eat some lunch" or "when I say I need to read a book, it means I need to read a book." 

He has said such phrases as:  oh my goodness, this is all my fault, I don't know what my deal is

This child needs to touch EVERYTHING.  Just this morning as we were walking through the parking lot at the gym he touched 3-4 things on the ground.  He wants to know what everything is.  It might be trash, dirt, the tar on the ground, a leaf, etc.   You name it and he wants to touch it.  We never pass dirt or water without him getting in it.  He also has a very bad habit of eating food off the floor or drinking a drink left somewhere.  Oh my goodness, this is very trying.  He does not understand that this is gross and very dirty.  This is a work in progress!

He is an excellent sleeper!  I'm so thankful.  He sleeps 11 hours at night and 1.5 - 2 hours at nap time.  He was getting up pretty early in the morning so we got a clock that was recommended by a friend at church.  It has a light that turns green when the child is allowed to get up.  Jackson's is set for 7:00.  And guess what?   He actually stays in bed until it turns green at 7:00!!!  I'm very proud of him.  He doesn't show a lot of self control in many areas but when it comes to sleep he is very disciplined.  He doesn't come out of his room and he rarely plays at night or at nap time.  And we really haven't had to do anything but encourage him for this to happen. 

He still has one noise level (LOUD) and is very active.  You have to keep your eye on him very carefully unless he's playing by himself in his room.  When he's out and about playing with Ryan or friends he tends to get overly excited and a little too rambunctious.   I have a feeling we will be working on this for many years to come. 

He often asks, "are you happy mommy?"  Sometimes it's after he's gotten in trouble and I think he wants to make sure everything is okay.  And other times it's just out of the blue that he asks. 

He's not nearly as cuddly as he used to be but sometimes I still see glimpses of my sweet baby boy.

We are so thankful for Jackson and just pray we are doing an ok job of raising him right!