Chuck-E-Cheese, Harry Potter, and Other Ramblings

First of all, I would like to say a big happy birthday to Mr. Harry Potter.

 

 

Nerdy? No. Awesome? Yes!

Anyways, moving on...

Did you know that I have this giant checklist on my phone with all the things I want to blog about and not forget. I also have about a million pictures and videos I have been meaning to post, but haven't. I feel like a world class #1 slacker when it comes to blogging. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be able to catch up!!

We took Jackson to Chuck E Cheese for the first time a couple weeks ago. He loved it. He was content playing on the little playground and watching people. We probably didn't need to get any tokens at all.

Here is Jackson dancing to the music.



Jackson was a little nervous to ride on the ride on toys. He rode his first one at the mall. He hated it! He started panicking and begged to get off. Goodbye 50 cents! We tried again at Chuck E Cheese, and he took it a little better.

Proof:



Ryan had fun competing with the other dads at skiball. They take it pretty seriously.

 Jackson was Ryan's ball boy.

 

We saw Chuck-E-Cheese, but Jackson could care less about him.

 

Other news: Jackson loves to push his push toys down the hall. Not so sure if the neighbors love it though...

 

Busted

Jackson knows the cat food is off limits. Unfortunetly, playing with Meow Mix is one of his favorite pastimes. He loves making kitty stew by putting the cat's food into the water. What can I say, he's a natural chef.

 

Whenever I see him sneaking toward the cat food, I always say, "No, no!" I guess I have done it so many times now that when I catch him in the kitty food, he looks at me and says, "No, no!" before I can. Little stinker.

 

One day, I walked around the corner and discovered Jackson trying to clean up the mess he made. He looked at me innocently, pretending like he didn't touch a morsel of food.

 

From the looks of it, he grabbed a kitchen towel, shoved as much kitty food in it as he could, and hid the rest under the tarp. It might've worked if the tarp hadn't of been see through.

Busted.

Also, just for funsies, here is a video of Jackson playing with his new kitten. (Just kidding....He wishes!) This was at the pet store, and no the kitten didn't make it home with us.

Rainy Times

It has been a very rainy summer here in Georgia. I joke with Ryan sometimes and ask him if it feels like home (Washington). He claims to love the rainy weather and cloudy skies. For me, it's hard to go out and do any summer-type activities with Jackson. We tried going to the pool yesterday, and swam for about 15 minutes before we had to go running back inside due to a down pour. Poor Jackson didn't quite understand why we had to end our fun early.

It was really funny because on Friday, construction workers were on the temple roof fixing something and it kept raining off and on all day. It would stay sunny and out of no where, it would start pouring. They would scramble and get everything under this giant blue tarp and hide out for about 10 minutes until the rain stopped. Then they would come out from under their temporary hideout and work as fast as they could before the next downpour.They did this 5 times at least. It probably delayed the completion of their project because they were still up on the roof at 10 pm. I guess if they waited until the rain stopped completely, the roof might not be done until Fall.

About a month ago, Ryan went hometeaching. Jackson wanted to get out and do something, so I took him to Target. I let him play in the toy aisle for awhile and then put him back in the cart to get some stuff we needed. I was almost done when the lights started flickering eerilyand then went off completely. I felt like a hush spread throughout the store as if everyone is holdind their breath. Everything was silent, until a couple seconds later the lights turned back on. Then everyone released the breath they were holding and continued on.

This lady next to me started exclaiming to her friend that they better hurry or they'd get stuck in the bad storm. Storm? It was sunny when I got there...

As I was checking out, the Target employee was asking me if I drove. Puzzled, I said yes. She exclaimed, "Oh good! The storm is so bad out there! Buggies are flying everywhere!" I had no idea what she meant by this and just nodded like I understood what she was talking about.

As I was walking to the exit, a different Target employee stopped me. "You can't leave, we are sending everyone to the freezer section." What? Okay...

I turned around and watched as other people were herded to the land of frozen food, when again I overheard a conversation. Someone was saying that tornadoes were spotted in the area. I glanced out the exit and saw a downpour of rain, lightning, and a pitch black sky that only an hour ago was bright and cheerful.

At this point, Jackson was starting to get restless, so I let him out. He decided he wanted to play with dog food bags. Whatever keeps him happy, right?

After awhile, I looked around and noticed that we were the only ones in the freezer section. Everyone else had left. I asked a worker if it was safe to leave, and they said it was.

I went outside and the sky had a weird yellowish haze. It was still pouring and lightning. I didn't have an umbrella and was a bit afraid of walking all the way to the car. I didn't want to wait around though just in case the storm get worse. I looked at Jackson and asked if he was ready. He just looked at me with his big brown eyes.

I took a deep breath and ran outside. I didn't make it 10 feet when a gigantic lightning bolt hit right in front of me. (It felt like it was right next to me, but it was probably pretty far away). I felt the warmth of it, and it felt like my hairs were standing from the static electricity. I turned right around and ran back inside. Jackson was crying. I called Ryan, who was still hometeaching, and told him I was stuck at Target.

He was having fun, hometeaching with flash lights (the power was out), and telling ghost stories. Just kidding, they were just chatting, but I felt like ghost stories would have been more fitting.

About 45 minutes later, the rain stopped and the lightning could only be seen in the distance. I was still weary, but walked out to the car. Luckily, we were not struck by lightning. As I walked through the parking lot, I understood what the Target worker meant when she said the buggies were flying. It was like a shopping cart graveyard outside. They were every which way and some were even smashed up against cars. My car luckily was unscathed, and I hurried and got us in the car.

On the way home, lights were out, wooden panels from construction projects were scattered on the street, its nails poking upwards, tree branches everywhere, etc.

When we made it home safely, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. Ryan had a little more trouble getting home due to fallen trees in the middle of the roads. He had to take some detours, but got home as well.

I'm glad the storm was pretty fast moving and that we weren't swept away in a tornado. I guess if I had to be stuck anywhere, Target is a pretty good place to be!

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!