Dance Machine
I’m a gigantic fan of this 2 year old age. Jackson is more fun than he has ever been (i say this as we reach every stage, of course), and if I could freeze time and keep him as his is now forever, there is no doubt in my mind that I would do it. Tonight was probably one of my favorite moments with him. Just before bed, we hooked the iPod up to the surround sound in the living room, and Jackson put on a dance show for us. Zac & I were laughing hysterically at some of his moves, and he was SO into the music. He air guitar-ed:
He did his grandpa dance:
The Michael Jackson:
Clapped when each song was over:
And busted a whole host of moves, many of which I’ve never seen before:
I love that children have the ability to not give a damn about what anyone thinks. They are unashamed, outgoing, and literally have no filter. It is actually kind of sad that as they grow parts of their true self will be chipped away and repressed because of what others might think of how they look, act, or feel. I hope that I can bottle up some of this glorious part of jackson, and that when he is grown, some part of him will not dance like nobody is watching, but rather be proud of the dance moves, knowing that everyone is, in fact, watching.
Welcome Tiny Ryan!
Last Wednesday my sweet friend Emily went to her 37 week prenatal appointment only to find out that she was in active labor and already dilated 3 cm! She made arrangements for big brother Ben, and made her way to the hospital to welcome the sweetest boy into the world. I made my way there not even 24 hours later, and met the tiny guy myself. I cannot believe how alert he was for being less than a day old.
World, meet Ryan, or as big brother Ben would say: Meet Rhino:
Love you little dude!
Thank you all so much for your kind words and congratulations on baby #2. We couldn’t be more excited! I am having a hard time imagining Jackson as a big brother these days, but I am sure he will fall into the role with ease. I am 12 weeks 3 days and I must say that this pregnancy has been so very different from the last. With Jackson I was soooooo sick for the first 14 weeks, and unspeakably tired. This time, I have felt great, and if it weren’t for the sore boobs, and very telling bump, I would think that I am not even pregnant. It also took what seemed like forever to conceive this time. Jackson was easy - it was literally one try and 42 weeks later there he was. I had my IUD taken out at the end of November and it took 4 cycles to actually get pregnant this time. I am all about instant gratification and immediate results, so that part was difficult for me to say the least. Eventually I learned to not take the test every day starting 5 days before a missed period, and rather until after I had already missed it. The 3rd cycle brought what is known as a chemical pregnancy, where you have faint line positives, but miscarry within the first week of conception, so that was a bummer, but the very next month it was a strong line positive, and here we are today!
I had an ultrasound at 9 weeks and heard the heartbeat and confirmed that it is JUST ONE BABY, thank god. My master plan is to have a total of two babies, not two at the same time ;). However, my body didn’t seem to get that memo and is showing as if there are 15 babies in there. Whatever. I will probably be 300 lbs after this (especially if I get hooked on donuts like I was with J). Don’t judge. So to wrap up: 12 weeks, feelin’ good, and going to be fat. Here are some photos of my fully gestated nugget from the weekend:
He runs with his tongue out. Cute but dangerous. We may lose half of it one of these days : /
Benny Turned TWO!
Over the weekend Jackson’s little buddy Ben turned 2! He had a fun pool party followed by pizza & cupcakes. All of the little ones were so cute, and Jackson was more than happy to show off his swimming skills. Here is some photo spam of Ben’s party:
Shall we start with the many faces of Benjamin?!
:) Here are all the little buddies:
Sidenote: J & Diego might have the cutest toddler friendship in the history of the universe:
The three Amigos!
Ben was SO cute when we sang happy birthday. It started out ok, but then he decided it was far too noisy!
Happy birthday Benny, we love you!
I have been horrible at blogging lately. J’s party was nearly two weeks ago and I haven’t even posted about it! We have been moving and things are finally starting to calm down, so ill be catching up soon, but in the meantime here is a 20 second video to promote good self-esteem in toddlers ;)
Spring has Sprung!
We are so happy to finally be able to enjoy the warmer weather. Jackson has been spending as much time as possible outdoors, and as exhausting as it can get, I can’t say that I mind at all, because within seconds, the funniest and cutest expressions come across his little face: 
Wednesday marks two years for our boy, and I honestly have been trying to figure out just how we made it here so quickly. He was just a baby, and now he is BIG. Opinionated, carefree, demanding, sweet, loving, and BIG.
All I know is that I have loved every single second that he has been here, and I am so looking forward to the next 8 decades or so, just to see where this lovely little journey takes us. Big things are in store for this big kid.
king of the awkward forced smile
We celebrated Easter with all of the cousins and many of the grandparents yesterday. Jackson woke up to a basket full of stuff, and wanted to “ofen it” all without paying any attention to the next item :) I think the clear winners were the two chuggington interactive trains to add to his set, and the aquadoodle, which he is obsessed with already. He calls it painting and spends a minimum of 20 minutes per session drawing on the mat - which is an eternity in the attention span of a toddler. Here are some photos from our day:
I sure do love a kid in a bowtie!
Happy Easter Y’all!
Down on the Farm
Yesterday, we made the short journey to Whiffletree Farm for a fun little event called “Yolks & Folks.” My coworker, Thais, suggested that all of us baby mamas take the little ones to the event, and it was so great to see everyone, especially the ones who no longer work with us! The owner of the farm actually went to high school with me, though he was a couple of years older! He raises many animals such as grass-fed beef, chickens, pigs, and turkeys with no “genetically modified ingredients.” Many of our local restaurants offer his meat regularly as well!
We arrived at the farm midway through the event and started roaming around to see some of the animals. Jackson was really enamored with this lone brown cow, and was screaming “MOOOO!!!” at her. He also tried to entice her with rocks for snacks, and at one point tried to climb under the fence - only avoided by me grabbing his ankles at the very last second!
Jackson later happened upon an unoccupied wagon, and started pulling it along, until some mean old big kids came and stole it from his hands :(
They thought it was pretty funny - as evidenced in the above photo. Luckily, we found another wagon a few minutes later, and all was right with the world. Meaning, Jackson didn’t do a single other activity for the remainder of the afternoon, but pulled his wagon around, and of course, pulled his friends in it as well:
Diego had a ride!
So did Alex!
We also hung out with Ben:
And the baby of the bunch, sweet Caleb :)
It’s really a funny phenomenon that all of us just decided to have babies at the same time (except Caleb’s mama - she just saw how much fun we were having and needed a boy too!) and all had boys! Jackson is the oldest, born in April 2011, followed by Ben & Diego in May and June and Alex in September - Caleb came along in September of 2012. I’m just glad that Jack has so many cool boys to grow up with, all of which have even cooler mamas :)
At the end of the day, when we decided to leave, Jackson was very upset to go, and started having a tantrum screaming “I WANT MY WAGON!!!!!!” the entire way to the car. :)
