Thursday, May 24, 2012
Favorite Park
We have gone to several different parks around town, but no matter how many we try I think climbing on dada is their favorite of all.
Little Explorer
Graham is becoming quite the explorer. He is getting into EVERYTHING. Dinner time is the worst time. I am usually trying to make dinner and entertain Jackson, and therefore leave Graham unattended for lengths of time that no good mother should. I do sweeps of rooms to be sure he can't get into any trouble, but he always manages to find the one tiny crumb left behind from Jackson's snack time and gags on it. We have even had a couple choking scares. To fix the dinner time dilemma a friend let us borrow their exersaucer. Graham loves it! He loves being in it and under it.
All the moving around and climbing up on things has given him some great exercise. He is really starting to thin out some. Mainly, I feel like it has just made him softer. He has become my adorable little squishy and I just can't get enough of his cuddles.
All the moving around and climbing up on things has given him some great exercise. He is really starting to thin out some. Mainly, I feel like it has just made him softer. He has become my adorable little squishy and I just can't get enough of his cuddles.
Bed Time Reading and A Protest
We finally have Jackson back to sleeping in his bed, and no, we didn't have to tie him to it for it to happen either. He did it of his own free will and choice. . . Okay, so maybe there was some bribing with a piece of candy when he woke up in the morning if he didn't get out of his bed the whole night. That's right, I sure did bribe my child with candy, and gave him said candy for breakfast. Judge all you want, but it worked, and the bribing only lasted a little over a week before he had no problem sleeping in the bed and forgot about asking for his candy reward in the morning. Considering where we were two months ago with this kid and bed time, I feel pretty darn good about how it has all turned out. Sure, Jackson still tries to come up with whatever excuse possible to prolong the whole bed time routine, but at least there are no tears and Thom and I have the evening to ourselves by 8pm-ish. A parenting miracle has been witnessed in the Archibald home!
Bedtime has become reading time for Jackson. He loves to read his books and has a special name for everyone of his favorites. He also has developed a new obsession with stuffed animals. He lines them up on their own pillow each time he goes to sleep and usually makes me give them a kiss and hug goodnight as well. The below picture is what his bed looks like every time we go up there and look at him during a nap or after bed time. I don't know how he can sleep with all that. Love it!
Jackson decided to protest the Texas heat today when he chose what he wanted to wear (something he is wanting to do more and more lately).
I had to talk him into wearing a shirt under his jacket, so he could take it off if he got too hot. The high today is in the 90's, and he lasted all through a run in the stroller and a trip to store with the jacket zipped completely. I finally got it off him at nap time and he was half asleep and didn't know what I was doing. Too bad no amount of protesting can stop the heat from coming.
Bedtime has become reading time for Jackson. He loves to read his books and has a special name for everyone of his favorites. He also has developed a new obsession with stuffed animals. He lines them up on their own pillow each time he goes to sleep and usually makes me give them a kiss and hug goodnight as well. The below picture is what his bed looks like every time we go up there and look at him during a nap or after bed time. I don't know how he can sleep with all that. Love it!
Jackson decided to protest the Texas heat today when he chose what he wanted to wear (something he is wanting to do more and more lately).
I had to talk him into wearing a shirt under his jacket, so he could take it off if he got too hot. The high today is in the 90's, and he lasted all through a run in the stroller and a trip to store with the jacket zipped completely. I finally got it off him at nap time and he was half asleep and didn't know what I was doing. Too bad no amount of protesting can stop the heat from coming.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Lazy Saturday
For the second time in a week period the boys let Thom and I sleep in a bit. We didn't hear anything from them until 7:50 (okay, so I did feed Graham at 5:30 after he kept us up crying for a half hour, but he went back to sleep and it never woke Jackson). AMAZING!
We decided that laziness should be our theme for the day. Here is what we did:
We did some paroozing through the garage sales around the neighborhood, but unfortunately found nothing we were looking for. We couldn't believe both boys stayed happy in their car seats while we
did this for about an hour and a half. Rock Stars!
We played at the park for a little while on our way home from garage sale-ing. Jackson had definitely earned a little play time.
Thom stayed home with the boys napping/playing while I ran a few errands kiddo free.
We spent some time playing in the backyard with Jackson's golf clubs and throwing balls around.
It was so warm out that when daddy wanted to do some tweaking to the sprinklers Jackson and I just couldn't help but run through them to cool off. He enjoyed it a lot more than it looks in the pic. I think the camera snapped at the tail end of "Cheese".
Bath time for the boys.
A Super yummy dinner made mostly by Thom.
Boys go down for bed PERFECTLY!
Thom and I cuddle up on the couch and watch some Psych.
In bed by 9:30
The only thing missing was a yummy dessert, but we were just too lazy to make one. I think we should have more lazy Saturdays at home.
We decided that laziness should be our theme for the day. Here is what we did:
We did some paroozing through the garage sales around the neighborhood, but unfortunately found nothing we were looking for. We couldn't believe both boys stayed happy in their car seats while we
did this for about an hour and a half. Rock Stars!
We played at the park for a little while on our way home from garage sale-ing. Jackson had definitely earned a little play time.
Thom stayed home with the boys napping/playing while I ran a few errands kiddo free.
We spent some time playing in the backyard with Jackson's golf clubs and throwing balls around.
It was so warm out that when daddy wanted to do some tweaking to the sprinklers Jackson and I just couldn't help but run through them to cool off. He enjoyed it a lot more than it looks in the pic. I think the camera snapped at the tail end of "Cheese".
Bath time for the boys.
A Super yummy dinner made mostly by Thom.
Boys go down for bed PERFECTLY!
Thom and I cuddle up on the couch and watch some Psych.
In bed by 9:30
The only thing missing was a yummy dessert, but we were just too lazy to make one. I think we should have more lazy Saturdays at home.
Friday, May 4, 2012
"Za Za" and "Hamu"
Meet Savannah, or as Jackson says "Za Za"
Savannah is on of Jackson's closest friends. I run with her mom most mornings, so the kiddos are used to seeing each other on a somewhat daily basis. Jackson talks about Za Za all the time. Every where we go he asks if she will be there, and is very upset if she isn't. On the mornings I skip running he will literally cry for Za Za. Their relationship is so cute to watch. Apparently Savannah has the same type of attachment to Jackson as he has for her, and will always ask for him when her and her mom go places. The crazy thing is that Jacks doesn't always want to play with her, and some times won't even talk to her the entire time we are at a playgroup, but he just has to know that she is there. The above picture was taken yesterday afternoon on a quick trip to Sea World. There were people oooooooing and aaaaaawing all over the place as these cutie little todlers walked by hand in hand.
Speaking of Sea World. Have I mentioned how grateful I am that we live ten minutes from it? Well, I am so happy that we live so close to Sea World! It is a great activity for me and the boys. Jackson absolutely loves everything there. Jackson always talks about "hamu" aka Shamu. Usually he refers to all big water animals as Shamu. He likes to talk about and act out how they swim in the water and jump so high out of the water and then back in the water. And we wouldn't dare forget about the trainers that are Shamu's friends. Jackson refers to all trainers as man, and talks about how they feed him fish and swim in the water with the dolphins.
Speaking of dolphins - I touched one! We went to the dolphin pool for a bit yesterday and one swam right up to me and Jackson and just sat there and let me stroke its' nose. It was soooooo cool. I think I got a little too excited because I felt a little like a 14 yr old girl telling her bff that her crush just said hi to her in the hall when I exclaimed rather loudly to my friend that I had gotten to touch a dolphin. There were definitely awkward stares pointed in my direction, but who cares, touching a dolphin was stinkin cool.
The best part of Sea World is the splash pad. I really think we will be spending the majority of outside time at the splash pad this summer. There is a Sesame Street themed show that goes on right next to the splash pad that Jackson loves to watch and has gotten him all jazzed over the sesame street characters. He always asks if he can go say hi to them. I can't believe that he has no fear of the large, fluffy characters. Isn't something like that supposed to terrify most two year olds?
Bert and Ernie just couldn't get enough of the cuteness that was my boys yesterday. Okay, maybe the park was completely dead and there were no kids that wanted to take pictures with them, and Jackson was the only kid that showed them any attention. But I prefer to think that it was his and Graham's adorableness that caused them to keep coming back for more high fives.
Graham got in the water for the first time. He didn't really care much for it. It was probably because I took his bottle away and tried to get him to play in the water. I guess I didn't learn my lesson well enough the other morning that this kid takes his food time seriously. He just grunted in disgust at me the entire five minutes I had him in the water. As soon as I gave him his bottle back he was happy as could be.
Savannah is on of Jackson's closest friends. I run with her mom most mornings, so the kiddos are used to seeing each other on a somewhat daily basis. Jackson talks about Za Za all the time. Every where we go he asks if she will be there, and is very upset if she isn't. On the mornings I skip running he will literally cry for Za Za. Their relationship is so cute to watch. Apparently Savannah has the same type of attachment to Jackson as he has for her, and will always ask for him when her and her mom go places. The crazy thing is that Jacks doesn't always want to play with her, and some times won't even talk to her the entire time we are at a playgroup, but he just has to know that she is there. The above picture was taken yesterday afternoon on a quick trip to Sea World. There were people oooooooing and aaaaaawing all over the place as these cutie little todlers walked by hand in hand.
Speaking of Sea World. Have I mentioned how grateful I am that we live ten minutes from it? Well, I am so happy that we live so close to Sea World! It is a great activity for me and the boys. Jackson absolutely loves everything there. Jackson always talks about "hamu" aka Shamu. Usually he refers to all big water animals as Shamu. He likes to talk about and act out how they swim in the water and jump so high out of the water and then back in the water. And we wouldn't dare forget about the trainers that are Shamu's friends. Jackson refers to all trainers as man, and talks about how they feed him fish and swim in the water with the dolphins.
Speaking of dolphins - I touched one! We went to the dolphin pool for a bit yesterday and one swam right up to me and Jackson and just sat there and let me stroke its' nose. It was soooooo cool. I think I got a little too excited because I felt a little like a 14 yr old girl telling her bff that her crush just said hi to her in the hall when I exclaimed rather loudly to my friend that I had gotten to touch a dolphin. There were definitely awkward stares pointed in my direction, but who cares, touching a dolphin was stinkin cool.
The best part of Sea World is the splash pad. I really think we will be spending the majority of outside time at the splash pad this summer. There is a Sesame Street themed show that goes on right next to the splash pad that Jackson loves to watch and has gotten him all jazzed over the sesame street characters. He always asks if he can go say hi to them. I can't believe that he has no fear of the large, fluffy characters. Isn't something like that supposed to terrify most two year olds?
Bert and Ernie just couldn't get enough of the cuteness that was my boys yesterday. Okay, maybe the park was completely dead and there were no kids that wanted to take pictures with them, and Jackson was the only kid that showed them any attention. But I prefer to think that it was his and Graham's adorableness that caused them to keep coming back for more high fives.
Graham got in the water for the first time. He didn't really care much for it. It was probably because I took his bottle away and tried to get him to play in the water. I guess I didn't learn my lesson well enough the other morning that this kid takes his food time seriously. He just grunted in disgust at me the entire five minutes I had him in the water. As soon as I gave him his bottle back he was happy as could be.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Failed Patience
At breakfast yesterday morning I found out just how far I could test Graham's patience.
Jackson had already eaten his breakfast and was studiously working on coloring a picture. Graham very patiently watched as I got his peaches and cereal AND my own cereal ready. He also patiently waited when my sister called, we chatted for a minute, and I relayed a recipe over the phone. However, when Jackson needed help with his coloring Graham got tired of being patient. I turned around to see him holding and licking the bowl that once had peaches and cereal in it. Unfortunately, I took the bowl away from him before I realized how great of a kodak moment it was. While I was trying to get the camera out, he found the spoon and and kept sticking his hand in the mess and licking his hand. I could barely get him out of the mess long enough to scoop it all back into the bowl and clean the mess up. He was so upset with me that I had to give him bites while wiping him and the table down, and if the bites weren't coming fast enough, which most of the time they weren't, he would enthusiastically grunt and lunge himself over the side of the bumbo trying to scoop up more of the mess so he could feed himself. Because of Graham's urgency to eat, it felt like a much bigger mess than it actually was.
Lessons learned
1. A hungry little boy can only take so much before he feels it is necessary to take matters into his own hands.
2. Unless you like soggy cereal, eat breakfast before the kids wake up.
While waiting for Mom to finish with dinner Sunday night, Daddy did some entertaining by taking pictures of the boys laughing.
Jackson had already eaten his breakfast and was studiously working on coloring a picture. Graham very patiently watched as I got his peaches and cereal AND my own cereal ready. He also patiently waited when my sister called, we chatted for a minute, and I relayed a recipe over the phone. However, when Jackson needed help with his coloring Graham got tired of being patient. I turned around to see him holding and licking the bowl that once had peaches and cereal in it. Unfortunately, I took the bowl away from him before I realized how great of a kodak moment it was. While I was trying to get the camera out, he found the spoon and and kept sticking his hand in the mess and licking his hand. I could barely get him out of the mess long enough to scoop it all back into the bowl and clean the mess up. He was so upset with me that I had to give him bites while wiping him and the table down, and if the bites weren't coming fast enough, which most of the time they weren't, he would enthusiastically grunt and lunge himself over the side of the bumbo trying to scoop up more of the mess so he could feed himself. Because of Graham's urgency to eat, it felt like a much bigger mess than it actually was.
Lessons learned
1. A hungry little boy can only take so much before he feels it is necessary to take matters into his own hands.
2. Unless you like soggy cereal, eat breakfast before the kids wake up.
While waiting for Mom to finish with dinner Sunday night, Daddy did some entertaining by taking pictures of the boys laughing.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Success
Life has been so great lately! Here are a couple of successes we have been lucky enough to enjoy lately.
Yard/Garden
Because of last summer's drought and the newness of our yard, it has not been all that much to look at most of the time we have lived here. However, we now have green grass growing (with only a few bald spots), colorful flowers in bloom, and a seemingly successful garden full of green leaves. With a scorching summer looming around the corner we don't know how long we are going to be able to keep everything looking so nice and colorful. So we are enjoying it while we can. Lucky for us, Jackson enjoys being a big boy helper in the yard.
Hair Cut
I know how truly sad it will make most of you, but yes, we did cut those amazing golden locks Jackson has been sporting for quite some time. I think his hair was almost as long as mine. It was so hard to do, but it was much needed. His hair would get tangled up so easily and anytime we went to the park he would get wood chips and bark trapped between the curls that even baths were struggling to set free. To those members of the Jackson's Amazing Hair fan club, you can rest assured that his hair grows fast and it won't be too long before the curls make their come back tour.
Like most small children Jackson does not enjoy getting his hair cut. We usually use clippers because they are much faster and much more enjoyable for Jackson than scissors. But this time, we really didn't want to cut his hair that short (we really want the curls to come back fast), so scissors were our weapon of choice. Armed with Jackson's new favorite movie, Elmo in Grouchland, and his favorite person, Papa we made it through with no injuries, no screams, and only a few missed spots. Thanks Papa, we realize cuddling with a two year old during a hair cut is a dirty job. No one could have done it but you!
Sleep
Jackson is still working on getting back to his normal self, but we are making a ton of progress. We tried a couple weeks ago to break him of having us sit outside of his room while he falls asleep, and it worked for a few nights, but didn't quite stick. Last night we tried it again, and it worked! We are not getting too excited, but he did so good last night and didn't get scared when we told him we would be right down stairs. We'll see if it works again tonight. Nap time is completely back to normal. He doesn't sleep as long as he used to, but he does for about an hour and a half. He goes down just fine and never has a problem with nap time at all. Sometimes he even asks for it. The funny thing is that he now sleeps on the floor. At nap time and bed time we ask him if he wants to sleep on the floor or the bed and he always chooses the floor. When we were trying to keep in on his bed he would always sneak onto the floor and fall asleep, so we decided it just wasn't an argument worth having. I don't really get it, but he is going to sleep happy, so that is all that matters. When we go to bed at night we always move him onto his bed, but it is rare for him to still be on the bed come morning time.
He has still been waking up quite a bit in the night, but it is seeming to taper off. The last week he has really only woken up once or twice, and last night he slept all the way until 7:30am! And it wasn't just Jackson that slept that good last night. Graham didn't do his normal 5am groaning until he got to eat. We didn't hear a peep out of him until 7am. Unfortunately our bodies are so used to waking up earlier that we were both in and out of asleep for a while before wondering if the boys were actually okay. Regardless of our own nervousness and disbelief of the time on the clock, it felt so good to stay in bed that long and not have any time sleeping on the floor outside Jackson room. Talk about tender mercies!
When Jackson does get good sleep at night it is so obvious. He is always in such a good mood those days and has so much energy. Sacrament was a little more difficult this morning, but not because Jackson was being difficult, it was solely because he was so playful and energetic. Thom and I had a hard time containing our laughter at his energetic cuteness. It is amazing how a good night sleep for the kiddos and the parents makes a day go so much smoother. I really think that a lot of the difficulty we have had with Jackson is largely to do with him being overly exhausted. I have learned a lot and changed quite a bit in my parenting/disciplining strategies, and between the two (more of the sleep thing) Jackson has been an angel for several days in a row now. There have been hardly any time-outs or power struggles. Both he and I have learned so much the past several weeks.
Sitting
On a Grahamer note - he can now sit! He still topples over some times, but he is getting the hang of it more and more. I like to think that his toppling is more because he is trying to get down and get on to his crawling around and finding toys, or things he thinks are toys.
I wanted to go out and document how beautiful our flowers are right now, and since Jackson was still napping and Graham was awake I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of Graham. He was being so cute that I completely forgot about the flowers. Who cares about pretty flowers when you can look at this adorable, smiley face. And yes, those cheeks are as fun to kiss as they look.
Cancer
Gotta save the best for last. The most exciting success we have witnessed recently is that of Thom's brother, Chris, beating cancer! As of now, Chris is completely cancer free, and we couldn't be happier for him. There have been so many prayers and family fasts offered in his name and we are so grateful that Heavenly Father saw fit to answer those prayers and bless Chris and his family with this miracle. It has been an adjustment to changing our prayers from praying FOR Chris's health to THANKING him for Chris's health. However, it is an adjustment we are willing to get used to. Congratulations Chris, Brittney, Alec, Charlie, and Gwen your family example of faith and strength has truly blessed us.
Yard/Garden
Because of last summer's drought and the newness of our yard, it has not been all that much to look at most of the time we have lived here. However, we now have green grass growing (with only a few bald spots), colorful flowers in bloom, and a seemingly successful garden full of green leaves. With a scorching summer looming around the corner we don't know how long we are going to be able to keep everything looking so nice and colorful. So we are enjoying it while we can. Lucky for us, Jackson enjoys being a big boy helper in the yard.
At one point while out working with daddy Jackson comes inside, grabs the bag of popcorn and goes back out and sits on the porch to finish watching dad. I guess he needed a snack. It made us laugh so hard.
And of course, he has picked up on daddies signature, scoop and shovel method to eating popcorn.
Hair Cut
I know how truly sad it will make most of you, but yes, we did cut those amazing golden locks Jackson has been sporting for quite some time. I think his hair was almost as long as mine. It was so hard to do, but it was much needed. His hair would get tangled up so easily and anytime we went to the park he would get wood chips and bark trapped between the curls that even baths were struggling to set free. To those members of the Jackson's Amazing Hair fan club, you can rest assured that his hair grows fast and it won't be too long before the curls make their come back tour.
Before
After
Like most small children Jackson does not enjoy getting his hair cut. We usually use clippers because they are much faster and much more enjoyable for Jackson than scissors. But this time, we really didn't want to cut his hair that short (we really want the curls to come back fast), so scissors were our weapon of choice. Armed with Jackson's new favorite movie, Elmo in Grouchland, and his favorite person, Papa we made it through with no injuries, no screams, and only a few missed spots. Thanks Papa, we realize cuddling with a two year old during a hair cut is a dirty job. No one could have done it but you!
Sleep
Jackson is still working on getting back to his normal self, but we are making a ton of progress. We tried a couple weeks ago to break him of having us sit outside of his room while he falls asleep, and it worked for a few nights, but didn't quite stick. Last night we tried it again, and it worked! We are not getting too excited, but he did so good last night and didn't get scared when we told him we would be right down stairs. We'll see if it works again tonight. Nap time is completely back to normal. He doesn't sleep as long as he used to, but he does for about an hour and a half. He goes down just fine and never has a problem with nap time at all. Sometimes he even asks for it. The funny thing is that he now sleeps on the floor. At nap time and bed time we ask him if he wants to sleep on the floor or the bed and he always chooses the floor. When we were trying to keep in on his bed he would always sneak onto the floor and fall asleep, so we decided it just wasn't an argument worth having. I don't really get it, but he is going to sleep happy, so that is all that matters. When we go to bed at night we always move him onto his bed, but it is rare for him to still be on the bed come morning time.
He has still been waking up quite a bit in the night, but it is seeming to taper off. The last week he has really only woken up once or twice, and last night he slept all the way until 7:30am! And it wasn't just Jackson that slept that good last night. Graham didn't do his normal 5am groaning until he got to eat. We didn't hear a peep out of him until 7am. Unfortunately our bodies are so used to waking up earlier that we were both in and out of asleep for a while before wondering if the boys were actually okay. Regardless of our own nervousness and disbelief of the time on the clock, it felt so good to stay in bed that long and not have any time sleeping on the floor outside Jackson room. Talk about tender mercies!
When Jackson does get good sleep at night it is so obvious. He is always in such a good mood those days and has so much energy. Sacrament was a little more difficult this morning, but not because Jackson was being difficult, it was solely because he was so playful and energetic. Thom and I had a hard time containing our laughter at his energetic cuteness. It is amazing how a good night sleep for the kiddos and the parents makes a day go so much smoother. I really think that a lot of the difficulty we have had with Jackson is largely to do with him being overly exhausted. I have learned a lot and changed quite a bit in my parenting/disciplining strategies, and between the two (more of the sleep thing) Jackson has been an angel for several days in a row now. There have been hardly any time-outs or power struggles. Both he and I have learned so much the past several weeks.
Sitting
On a Grahamer note - he can now sit! He still topples over some times, but he is getting the hang of it more and more. I like to think that his toppling is more because he is trying to get down and get on to his crawling around and finding toys, or things he thinks are toys.
I wanted to go out and document how beautiful our flowers are right now, and since Jackson was still napping and Graham was awake I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of Graham. He was being so cute that I completely forgot about the flowers. Who cares about pretty flowers when you can look at this adorable, smiley face. And yes, those cheeks are as fun to kiss as they look.
Cancer
Gotta save the best for last. The most exciting success we have witnessed recently is that of Thom's brother, Chris, beating cancer! As of now, Chris is completely cancer free, and we couldn't be happier for him. There have been so many prayers and family fasts offered in his name and we are so grateful that Heavenly Father saw fit to answer those prayers and bless Chris and his family with this miracle. It has been an adjustment to changing our prayers from praying FOR Chris's health to THANKING him for Chris's health. However, it is an adjustment we are willing to get used to. Congratulations Chris, Brittney, Alec, Charlie, and Gwen your family example of faith and strength has truly blessed us.
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