Mama Bear and the Chick Magnet

Yesterday we went to the mall even though Ryan was really tired. That Ryan, he's such a good family man. He stays up late watching tv or reading books with me, wakes up early to go to work, works all day, and comes home and hangs out with the fam. Then the cycle continues.

I usually offer to take Jackson out so Ryan can take a nap, but he won't have it. He wants to spend as much time with us before Jackson's bedtime. I married such a good guy!

Anyways, back to the story. Jackson loves the mall. He loves the Disney Store with it's tunnel display and princess castle. He also loves this tv display on the ground that is like a video game. You step on it and it responds to your foot. It's pretty cool.



Well, we were walking, and Jackson, without any prompting, started waving at these women. He's usually really shy around strangers, so I was pretty surprised he was initiating a greeting. The two women stopped and waved back at Jackson, exclaiming how cute he was and asking him what his name was.

We continued on our way. Then Jackson waved at the next lady he saw! She smiled at him and waved back. Jackson broke out into his dimpled grin. He never realized what kind of power he had until now! He continued waving at the ladies that passed having the time of his life. I think he has a thing for older women.

We then went to the Disney store. Jackson figured out that if you wave a princess wand in front of the mirror in the castle, it comes to life and you can watch Disney princess clips. He kept doing it over and over. This little girl came over and was trying to figure out how to do it too. Jackson was pretty confused as to why this girl was waving her hands in front of the mirror like a maniac. Jackson was trying to help her with his wand, but she turned and shoved him out of the way. She pushed him so hard he fell on the ground.

That's when my mama bear came out.

Her parents were no where to be seen. I couldn't really do much in this situation since she wasn't my child, so I grabbed Jackson's hand and said in a loud voice, "C'mon Jackson. Let's go to the nice side of the Disney store where there's not mean girls that push you."

I'm not really sure where that came from. I'm not normally a confrontational person, especially with little kids. I guess it's a mother's instinct when someone is bullying your child. Ryan got a kick out of it I think. We walked away and I muttered under my breath to Ryan, "Good luck trying to figure that mirror out."

Poor Jackson had no idea what was going on.

Later on, we went back to the castle and Jackson had a bunch of fun. The mean girl was gone, and he had four nice girls to keep him company.

It's funny, he's scared of girls his own age, but he loves the ones that are older than him. Whenever he plays at a playground, he always finds these girls that love him and coddle him.

Proof:

This was a random girl in Savannah that came up to Jackson and said, "I love babies!" then led him away. So funny.

I guess I need to watch out, Jackson's already a chick magnet!

19 Months

I was going to do an 18 months blog post for Jackson, but somehow time has escaped me. As of today, Jackson is 19 months old.

 

Sometimes during the day, I'll look at Jackson and realize that this kid isn't a baby anymore! It weirds me out a little.

Interesting facts about 19 months old Jackson

 

--Loves music. He is a great dancer! His favorite song right now is the ABC's. He will even stop mid-cry to sing along when he hears it.

--Can say all sorts of words now "Hi, Bye (they both sound the same--"ay!" and then he'll wave), Mama, Dada, kitty, Hi Kitty, Here Kitty Kitty (hey kee kee and waves for the cat to come towards him), shoes (soos), go, uh oh, this, no (na!), thank you, hello, etc. The other day, Ryan jumped in front of the car window to scare Jackson, and instead of being scared, Jackson smiled and said, "Hi Da-ee!" (Hi Daddy!) It was pretty cute.

--Loves to go places! I'll take him to the pet store, Barnes and Noble, the Disney store, the park, and Target to run around the toy aisle. He loves to be out and about and begs to go places.

Cute kitten at the pet store = Jackson heaven 

First time on a Merry Go Round
Part I

Part II

 

 



--Favorite foods are mac n cheese, smoothies, spaghettios, and fruit. He can pretty much eat anything we eat now. For awhile he didn't like eating from his high chair. He wanted to be a big kid and sit in a real chair. Unfortunetly our chairs are really high, so we compromised and instead of putting the tray on his high chair, we put him directly in front of the table. He is a lot happier now. He likes to feed himself and even tries to feed us. A lot of the food ends up on the floor. Thank you splat mat for easy clean ups!

--Loves to play with stickers! He also likes to color.

--Is attached to his tiger and green blankie.

Regretting his decision of throwing Tiger behind the fireplace screen

--Still drinks from a bottle. He drinks whole milk Lactaid.

--Loves it when we clap for him. Sometimes he'll clap for himself and then look at us like, "Why aren't you clapping?" Also, if he hears people clapping on the tv, he will usually clap along.

--Can point to his eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, ears, hands, belly, and feet.

--Wears 3T tops and 2T bottoms. Size 5 diapers. 12 teeth. His teeth grow so slow, and he takes teething pretty hard.

Thanks for taking out the trash, Jackson!

--Used to bang his head on the ground when he was throwing a fit until he gave himself a bloody nose. He learned his lesson and now hits the ground with his hand instead.

Jackson loves to play with this little train.




18 month checkup stats:

Height: 35 inches (greater than 99th percentile)
Weight: 30 lb 5 oz (97-99th percentile)
Head circumference: 50 cm (97th percentile)

 

Ryan won this at the claw game. He was so proud of himself!! Jackson clapped for him.

Nursery

Well, Jackson has reached the magical age of 18 months. That means he gets to go to nursery at our church!

Let's just say that this picture pretty much sums up how his nursery experience went.

 

See, I thought it would be cute to take a picture of him with that sign. Unfortunetly, his picture taking cooperation has dimished somewhat since his monthly block pictures.

 

He would not hold the sign.

 

When I turned it into a necklace, he wanted nothing to do with it. Figures.

 

 

Finally, Ryan picked him up, and we managed to snap this shot.

 

 

Better than nothing, right?

 

 

 He then decided that the kitty needed the sign more than him.

 

 

What a nice guy. 

Nursery is great, right? It has lots of toys, snacks, and songs. What's there not to like? Well, it is a downer if you are afraid of the other kids.

 

Ryan dropped Jackson off at nursery because I had to teach. I told Ryan to stay with him the first week because I knew he would be scared, but the nursery leader kept hinting that Ryan should leave. Ryan did tell me a couple stories that happened before he left.

 

1. They fed Jackson goldfish and raisins. Jackson is pretty shy, so he didn't eat much. However, later that day, I pulled out our own bag of goldfish he had never eaten before. He stuffed his mouth full, said, "Mmmmm!!", and started clapping. He shoved more and more goldfish into his mouth before he even chewed the ones he had. I think he really wanted to eat more goldfish at nursery, but was too shy.

 

2. He doesn't care if kids steal his food or crayons.

 

3. During the lesson, the leader had a coloring book page of Jesus. She kept saying, "Jesus" and pointing at the paper. Jackson has always learned that "Jesus" is the man in the painting on our living room wall. He was really confused and kept looking around the walls of the room. He then would look back at the lady like she was crazy.

 

She then said, "Jackson, say Jesus." He glared at her. Everyday this week, Jackson has come up to me, points to the picture on the wall, and says "Jesus" just to prove a point. I always say, "That's right, Jackson. That's Jesus!" and he smiles.

 

4. When we went to pick up Jackson, he was sitting on the nursery leader's lap. When he saw us he started crying and panicking. Poor guy. The nursery leader said he was fine as long as she was holding him. There are scary nursery kids in there. (Not really, Jackson is the biggest one there. We have a Junior nursery and Senior nursery). Since nursery, Jackson has been really insecure and extra cuddly. He even held my hand the entire drive home from church. Unfortunetly, he was really mad at Ryan for leaving him and held a grudge for a little while. He's all better now.

 

All in all, it went pretty much how I expected. Hopefully next Sunday will be better!!!

Resume Booster

Remember this post?

I thought I would update you on this bizarre attraction cops have for Ryan.

Believe it or not, since that post was written, Ryan has had about 3 more cop encounters. And he rarely ever speeds.They just love him!

A couple months ago, Ryan and I were driving to my parents house. We had just made a left turn, when I saw a pair of headlights tailgating us. I think tailgaters are really annoying and for some reason, this made me think of police officers.

Me: That guy is on your bumper. So annoying! I hate it when people do that. Do you think police officers tailgate people so they'll speed up just to pull the poor person over?"

Ryan: "I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised."

That's when I saw a light reflect off the top of the car. A cop car.

Me: "Well, you better not speed because that's a cop behind us.

Ryan: "What! I thought this was a hypothetical situation!"

Me: "Me too."

Well, Ryan made sure to go the speed limit. However, the cop was following us every turn we made. We got to a 2 lane road and I told Ryan to change lanes and let the cop pass us. He only followed us closer.

I'm pretty sure Ryan was sweating. He was concentrating on abiding every little traffic law known to man (and woman).

Me: "Wouldn't it be funny if he pulled you over?"

Ryan: "No."

Me: "Don't worry. He'd have no reason to."

That's when we saw the lights flash behind us.

WHAT?!?

We didn't do anything wrong! He couldn't be pulling us over! I could hear my heartbeat in my ears along with the tune of Elmo's World, thanks to Jackson's mini dvd player. Jackson was happily watching a show in the back of the car oblivious to the situation.

We pulled over and the officer approached our car, shining his flashlight directly in our eyes.

I waited for him to say, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" so Ryan could say NO! but....that question never came.

"Liscense and registration please."

Long story short, the officer informed us that our registration had been cancelled a month earlier.

WHAT?!?

We had no idea how or why it had been cancelled. I let the officer know that and hoped he would let us off with a warning since we were clueless we were breaking the law. Plus we had a baby in the back of the car that watches ELMO!! (Haha, it didn't help). Ryan never gets warnings. He ended up with a ticket.

The police officer kindly told us to go to court. "It helps!" he responded cheerfully. "You folks have a great night!"

I wanted to throw the ticket in his face. Okay, not really, but I was upset. Ryan cannot catch a break. He was pretty sullen. I told him to go to court and maybe they would write the ticket off. He kind of laughed and said they never do that, but maybe they would reduce the charge? However, it was during school and Ryan couldn't afford missing classes to show up in court.

The next day, I called Utah's registration place to ask why our registration had been cancelled. The helpful receptionist was not surprised at all.

"Oh yeah! That happens all the time! We have a third company business that checks to see if people sell their cars or if the car is registered in another state. Sometimes they make mistakes and accidentally cancel registrations that aren't supposed to be cancelled!"

Huh. Interesting.

So basically his was not our fault at all! Plus, we were never notified of the cancellation, so we couldn't have done anything about it.

Ryan had told me that he would take care of the ticket and that I wouldn't need to worry about it. Weeks passed and Ryan was pretty busy. The night before the court date, the day before we needed to pay the ticket, I couldn't wait any longer. I grabbed the ticket. There on the page it said that it was REQUIRED for Ryan to go to court. Usually it's not, so I was really confused. It said if he failed to show up in court, there would be a warrant for his arrest.

I typed the ticket number in the computer anyways to see if we could just pay it...maybe I had misread the ticket. The computer processed my request and there it showed the cost of the ticket.

A whopping 800 dollars.

WHAT?!?

I had thought maybe $200 tops...but $800?? And sure enough, Ryan HAD to go to court. He was not a happy camper and was stressing out about missing class.

Fortunetly, court went well. Out of all the people there, Ryan and one other guy got their tickets written off. Ryan talked to the judge and the judge was really excited to find out that Ryan went to law school. They chatted and the judge even said, "I have never heard of this happening before! Usually a revoked registration is due to criminal activity, drug dealing, that kind of thing. It is a very serious thing. Actually, protocol is that the police officer should have arrested you on the spot. He probably didn't because your wife and child were in the car with you."

SO ELMO DID HELP!!! :)

Could you imagine Ryan getting arrested? I guess it would have made a better story, but then he would have had to explain why he had been arrested on all his future job resumes. *Phew*

I was thankful we didn't have to pay the $800.

Later, Ryan told his professor why he missed class that day, and she exclaimed, "You won your first case! You can now say on your resume that you have won 100% of your cases!"

Who knew that this hectic experience would be a resume booster?

Poor Ryan. Being attractive to cops is not fun, but at least he has good stories to tell!

Oregon Duck Kisses

Jackson likes his Oregon duck his Great-Grandma gave him. He plays with it in the bath. It's funny because it's supposed to be a duck football player. He then has 2 other rubber duckies that are yellow with eyelashes. It reminds me of the Oregon duck's cheerleaders or girlfriends or something. It's one big happy duck family.

Anyways, this is a fun video of bathtime with Jackson.

La Vida Loca

Jackson has recently fallen in love with a blue frog that sings "Living la Vida Loca". He asks us to play it ALL the time. He loves to dance to it and has come up with all sorts of dance moves, including the foot stomp, shoulder twitch, and rocking back and forth.

This video he was favoring the spin in circles move. It's funny because he'll get really dizzy and fall over. Then he gets really confused as to how he ended up on the floor. Silly boy.



Luckily, said frog lives at Grandma's house, so we can escape it's singing for several days at a time.

Jackson did, however, make me play this video 20 times in a row. Not even exaggerating. Whatever makes him happy I guess!

Monkeys in Trees are Fun

Jackson has gotten really good at the movements for this song. Of course he doesn't do it as well when anyone new is watching him or when we whip out the camera. Oh well. The video is still cute.

Sometimes I will catch Jackson babbling in the back of the car doing the hand movements. He is very animated when he does it all by himself. It's a sight that warms this mama's heart.