Catch-Up: February 2010

Going back through older photos, especially ones that are literally one year old, I am simultaneously amazed at how much Jackson has grown and developed in just one year's time but also how some of his favorite games or things to do have not changed. For example:

Here is Jackson in late February using a Tupperware lid as a hat. Using objects as a hat is a favorite game in our house - we've used buckets, sauce pans, baby food jar lids, and just recently one of his boat-shaped bath toys. In the upcoming March 2010 update, you'll see this idea revisited with a (thankfully empty) bread basket at our former favorite Persian restaurant.

Peek-a-boo has always been a favorite game as well. I honestly cannot recall when exactly he began to play this one, because he has been loving peek-a-boo for so long I can't remember him not playing it. Here he is in the beginning of the month playing with cousin Mary, and at the end of the month with his favorite place mat:

He loves pasta. I think it's the Italian gene. It could be the Jewish as well - pasta is derived from Marco Polo bringing lo mein from China to Italy. Lo mein is among Jackson's favorite Chinese foods. Coincidence? I think not.



And yet, a year ago Jackson had just learned to crawl, and had not yet perfected the art. Today, you can't keep up with him as he runs from one place to another. He doesn't stop running until he nearly collapses in exhaustion. But evidence that, just one year ago (nearly to the day) Jackson was still practicing:

We visited the Please Touch Museum with my sister Tara (Aunt "Ra Ra"), cousins Dylan and Brody, and Mom-Mom; Jackson still needed to be carried everywhere. These days, he loves slides (also known as "whee's" because that's what you say when you slide down one), but then, Aunt Ra Ra had to guide Jackson down. 

And yet, he was as inquisitive then as he's always been, and he remains fascinated by the world.

And a reminder that it was as cold in February 2010 as it has been this year - Jackson in his bear snow suit, only worn twice due to the fact my child grows at a rate that is designed to ensure pristine hand-me-downs.

Catch-up: January 2010

So, I've got a year's worth of back-log (if not more?) to go through. Let's assume a year's worth...

My project this weekend was to organize our photos, and group them by date and event. Previously our photos were just... in a folder. With no naming convention. So I couldn't figure out what pictures were what. Now, we've got a format (year-month-date descriptor). I'm able to easily find our photos and videos, and know what they are before opening them. It's much more descriptive than IMG_3495, which is how my camera names them...

Part of this was inspired by the fact that in trying to move images from my camera to my hard drive, I erased nearly eighteen months of Jackson pictures and images. I was inconsolable, thinking they were just gone. But then I figured that they were probably still there, just no longer accessible. And then in searching the beautiful beautiful interwebs, I learned that when you delete something from a memory device, you don't really delete it - you tell your devices that the memory the file was taking up is now available to write on again. So, if you delete something, you can technically still find it, with the right program, provided you haven't taken any photos yet. I found a great recovery program, and voila! I found all 846 images I had deleted.

But that's not what you're here for... you're here for Jackson.

My nephew Brody's birthday is mid-January. In 2010, he had a Spiderman themed birthday party at one of those awesome jungle-gym kid centers. For whatever reason, there were animals on the wall. Jackson loved them, and Mom-Mom (holding Jackson) would run up to the monkey on the wall. Jackson loves monkeys (as you can see from the picture of him with his cousin (and Brody's sister) Dylan and Sebastian the Monkey, and of Jackson touching the monkey on the wall.

Video of Jackson below:

We also had a lovely play date with our friend Kate and "Mama Greebel", Kate's mom. I think it's great Jackson has so many people who love him and want to be a part of his life. It gets me thinking that sometimes family is what you make, and not necessarily what you're born into... Jackson may be an only child (who knows?) so we like to extend our nuclear family so Jackson will grow up with an extended network of cousins that will have shared his life from the beginning... it's not the same as a sibling, I know... but it's as good as we can do for now.

And, a rare shot of Mommy and Jackson! I'm usually the archivist, which means there are very few pictures of me with Jackson. That's fine by me, but I'm wondering if I'll look back and miss that there aren't more pictures of me with Jackson... It doesn't bother me now, so I don't think it will bother me then. Just so long as Jesse jumps behind the camera every now and then to get a good action shot of me and my little Gentle-mine playing.

Jackson had one of his first play dates in January, with Alex (the son of some friends of ours via Jesse's Kung Fu school). Alex is short and round, and his parents Ian and Christie have taken to calling him "The Meatball." Jackson's the opposite - how any child of mine is in the 90th percentile for height is beyond my 5'1" self! So, when they're together, we call them Spaghetti and The Meatball. Tell me these two aren't up to some sort of mischief. Don't tell me that they can't crawl or walk and so they can't be up to something... they're up to something all right...

And we end the photo portion of our summary of January with Jackson and Mom-Mom playing "This Little Piggy." As you can tell, he is beyond delighted with the game. The other thing Mom-mom does is lick Jackson's palm. I think it's a little gross, but Jackson loves it and thinks it's hilarious.

But now, the piece de resistance - I can hardly believe that a year ago this month, Jackson was just learning how to crawl. Babies grow up way too fast. In this video, he hadn't even mastered the art of the crawl - he's still doing the army crawl, and only for short bursts at that. Anyway, here is video of Jackson one year ago, attempting to crawl:

Is that milk?

Because, we like milk. Wanna share your milk?

Snow Day!

I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am that my job allows me to work from home when necessary. Due to the weather yesterday, Jackson was home. I was able to get a lot of work done throughout the day while Jackson played with his blocks and toys or watched Po. It was nice to be able to eat lunch together, and take short breaks to read a story with Jackson (new favorites - "Touch and Feel Dinosaurs" and "Pat the Bunny). At the end of the day, we went outside for Jack's first real time playing in the snow. We built a snow man, and half-way through our neighbors next door (Natalie and Lucas) helped us finish. Jackson got really upset and cold after a while (he really didn't like wearing mittens, and HATED being cold); we went inside and had hot cocoa while watching Po one more time, at which point we were back on a regular weekday schedule.

I wouldn't want to work from home every day, because although he was fine yesterday, I can't depend on Jackson not needing someone available to his needs as he needs them and not when I'm able to take a break. But yesterday was a nice, fun stolen snow day.

'Donald's!

I have tried very hard to keep my expectations for my relationship with Jackson reasonable - I want to respect who HE is and allow our relationship to develop as it does, and not force the type of relationship I would like on him, since that ideal may not be reasonable or compatible with Jackson's personality or with what HE wants. Fortunately to date, we've both been on the same page. I don't get kisses as much as I personally would prefer, but in Jackson's defense, infinite kisses IS a fairly unreasonable request.

Anyway, the one thing I really wanted to do and that I looked forward to was having "dates" with my little man at McDonald's on nights when Jesse went to Kung Fu. I'm so glad that Jackson has always behaved appropriately when eating in public, and that he digs McNuggets too. Maybe that's why it was the only real craving I had when I was pregnant with him?

Last night was such an opportunity, and I took my little man to our local McDonald's for a date. So, without futher ado, video of Jackson describing what he's eating, and where. Please note that my little man is so big that he no longer requires a high chair to sit at the table, and due to the child-friendly table height, Jackson is sitting directly on the chair with no booster:

Not in this video: The McDonald's has movie posters on the wall, one of which is of King Kong. Jackson repeatedly points to it and says, "Monkey," followed by monkey noises (ooh ooh aah aah aah). He also will run through the restaurant away from me and his coat. This is apparently the best game ever.

Ride!

It's been way too long since our last post. It's my resolution for the new year to post more frequently - my goal is to post at least once a month to recap events. I didn't realize how many people do read The Ancestral Manse to catch up on their Jack Attack.

Part of the reason we don't post frequently is that Jackson is a button-masher. He's always liked to press buttons and manipulate things, and if Jesse or I are sitting at the computer, he wants to press the buttons too. As I write this, Jackson is sitting with an old computer keyboard on his lap and "typing". So the only time we can write is when Jackson takes a nap, which is only guaranteed to last for 45 minutes, or after he goes to bed, at which point we're so exhausted from playing, walking up and down the steps, or the hyper vigilance that is necessary to keep a growing toddler out of the cat food or litter box (why is it that the small number of items in the house Jackson can't have are the only ones he wants?).

Jack's becoming a gamer too - Grandpappy bought us an XBox Kinect for the holidays. One of the games is a driving game; Jackson loves to sit on Daddy's lap and go for a ride. After one game is over, he'll say "'Gain! 'Gain! Gain!" and "Ride! Ride!"

Kinect is a motion sensor, so you are the remote, and your hand movements control the game. Jackson knows to put his hand out to play, and will do so while asking to go for a "ride." It's probably the only thing that will distract him from wanting to watch "Po", otherwise known as "Kung Fu Panda." Although if we want to distract him further, we just break out "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" and read it over and over and over again.

So, if we don't write for a while, it's because we're either too tired after chasing Jackson around the house as he goes up and down the stairs, playing Ride, watching Kung Fu Panda, or reading Jackson "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" over and over and over and over "'Gain!"
 

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