Last week Uncle Heath, or Heaf as Jackson calls him, came for a visit. He was here for 4 days and we loved having him. He not only played with the boys NON STOP but also helped Jay sand our living room every night. The boys (and Jay and I) were so sad when Heath left but he promised to come back soon!
A few weeks ago Dacia had her birthday party at one of those BYOB paint places where you have someone teaching you how to paint a specific picture. Despite my complete lack of artistic ability I had a fun time chatting with the girls (I know, imagine that:)) Anyway,we painted a fleur de lies which I have no idea about and I brought the painting home thinking it would quickly be thrown away. Even my pack rat self wouldn’t waste space in the attic for this. Anyway, I get home and my cheer leader husband asks if he can give it, yes like a present, to his boss. Now, we’ve been on unemployment before and don’t want to go back so I strongly advised him against it. He stood firm that his boss, who is a huge Saint’s fan would love this. So, I’m just saying now that I warned him. . .if this “beauty” interferes with his getting promoted etc., don’t blame me!
It’s so funny that Adrienne and I assumed that Jack and Ellie were best pals from birth and just knew that at 5 months old they had multiple friends and needed play dates with each of them. With the “littles” it’s as if they just tag along with whatever the “bigs” are doing. Anyway, two weeks ago Jack and Ellie were in VBS together and so the little guys were on their own. They loved playing together (I think they were together 4 out of 5 days) and have really become buddies.
Bear kept pointing to things in this book and telling Charlie to “wook!”
Charlie is clearly stunned by what Baron has said.
It’s a rare treat for the boys to get to play on the big toys without having to share with the big kids.
Charlie was combing Adrienne’s hair and Baron wanted to help.
Is this how all boys get on a bike?
Also, I have to mention that the shirt Baron is wearing was brought back from Hawaii by my grandparents to me 30 something years ago. It was worn by all of my siblings and now both of my boys.
Here are some pictures from 2 weeks ago of the boys in the play room. Bear is in winter jammies because he went through a phase of taking off his diaper in his crib. Despite the triple digit weather (2nd hottest summer in Dallas history) we are blessed with a nice cool house so he didn’t mind. There aren’t many pictures of Jack because he just wanted to help take pictures of his little brother.
Kind of hard to believe that Jack will be 4 in a few weeks!
Bear loves to play with and on everything in the playroom. He loves all toys!
I love my baby!
And Jack is my little helper. He does so much to help me with Baron these days!
Bear is so much fun and pretty much always happy.
A few weeks ago Heather and Jaxon came over to see us. It was so much fun because I babysat for Heather and her brother Zach from the time she was 3 years old (I was 13 at the time) until I graduated from college. I went on vacation with her family and they were very special to me so it’s fun to see our boys together. Although it does make me feel like an old mom when I realized that she’s 10 years younger than me and boys are similar ages!
Here’s Jackson and Jaxon:
Jackson loves babies and always wants to hold them. He does really well with them and always makes sure that I know how well he would do with his baby sister. I keep telling him that no sister is coming. . .
On June 17th Jackson had tubes put into his ears and his adenoids taken out. The pictures are on another hard drive (story of my life right?) so I will update this post later. But all went well and he’s had no side effects. At the time he had 25% hearing loss in one ear and 30% in another due to fluid build up. After two weeks the audiologist retested his hearing and he was back up to 90% hearing in both ears so we were very happy. Ok, I’ll update soon!
Jackson is going to VBS this week at a friends church. When I picked him up yesterday the teacher commented that he was well behaved but had a lot of energy. Then today another teacher told me that he had more energy than the rest of the class combined. You may not be shocked to read that these teacher revelations (after spending 3 hours with him) of Jack’s “unique” activity level are never a surprise to me. Anyway, she also mentioned that they talked about the crucifixion today and she mentioned that Jesus died on the cross. She said Jackson quickly corrected her and said that Jesus had died of suffocation and then proceeded to tell her about the resurrection. She was surprised that he knew the story so well and that he knew such big words and understood them. I of course can take no credit for either but am thankful that we are so blessed to have him in such a great school!
Jack: Mommy are Snow White and Jesus related?
Me: No, why?
Jack: Because they both rose from the dead.
Bear is talking more and more these days. He’s still very selective and doesn’t speak if Jack (who always speaks for him) is around. But here are some new things he is saying when he does talk:
1. Ball
2. Look (he points to every thing and says, “ook mommy!")
3. Baby (last week at a playdate he ran up to our sweet friend Chandler and kissed her and said “baby!”)
4. Mouth (and he can point to it)
5. Ear (and he points to them)
6. Eyes (and he points to them)
7. Nose (and he can point to it)
8. See you!
9. So much! (He said this over the weekend after I said that I loved him)
10. Light
Bear is such a sweet and funny little man and watching him grow and learn is so much fun and such a huge blessing!
In the past few weeks Bear’s vocabulary has exploded. Now, I’m sure that Jay, Jack and I understand far more than any one who’s not used to his baby dialect but still, it’s exciting for us. After almost 16 months of saying barely anything here’s what he’s saying now:
1. “Way to go!”
2. “Where a you?” (he always says this when I step over the baby gate to get something out of one of the bedrooms)
3. “Ready, set, go!” (when he jumps to one of us in the pool or from the table, counter or coffee table)
4. “Jackie” (his most common and first word)
5. “Mommy”
6. “Daddy” (he usually calls both Jay and I daddy)
7. “Gaga” (although using Jackson’s g-less dialect he says dada for gaga).
8. “Let’s go!” (he always grabs his shoes and runs to the back door shouting this)
9. “Bye bye”
10. “Love you” (usually accompanied by a kiss)
11. “You heard it, I tooted!” (sounds more like “you her I too!” and you guessed it, was picked up from his older brother. Jackson sings a song similar to that when he toots.)
12. For nurse he says “engouw” I have no idea about this word, maybe he is borrowing some Lentronics?
13. “Thank you” (sounds more like “dank ou”)
14. “No”
15. “Yay!”
16. “Whoa!”
17. “Water” (sounds like “enngaaaa”)
18. “Ready!”
19. “1, 2, 3!”
20. “Nelmo” (elmo)
21. “doggie”
I love that when Bear sees a picture of an animal or baby he immediately kisses it. He also loves stuffed animals and dolls and runs to snuggle them. After snuggling them he usually pats them on the back and then rocks and sings to them. He’s got a cute version of lullaby that is mostly mumbling but you can tell what he’s trying to sing. He’s such a sweet and tender little man and watching him grow and develop is such a joy to all of us!
