Lately I've noticed that I've been loving on Jackson even more than usual. If he's within arm's reach, I'm either kissing or hugging on him, and the number of times that I tell him that I love him could easily be described as excessive.
I've been told this is normal {so hopefully it is}, but as my due date quickly approaches {7 weeks from today...or 3.5 weeks if he's born as early as Jackson}, I find myself growing sad about the fact that Jackson will no longer be our one and only. In the end, I know that I'm doing the best thing for Jackson -- giving him a best friend for life and someone to help figure out which home to put Ben and me into when we're old. But I also know his whole world is about to be turned upside down, and the poor thing has no idea...which is why I think it's probably best to cushion the blow with lots of hugs and kisses in the meantime.
When I was pregnant with Jackson, I had Ben take a picture of me and my belly every single week. Literally. I don't think we missed a single one. However, with this baby, I can't even tell you the last time we took one. 20 weeks, maybe? Poor second child...hopefully he's happy with a picture of my swollen feet instead because the days that I go to work {and that I'm not chasing Jackson all day}, they just balloon up so much that it hurts.
Last week, I had an eye appointment near my mom's house, so I dropped Jackson off so that he could play with Mimi instead of listening to me tell the eye doctor whether "1 or 2...or 3 or 4..." looked better. Afterwards, we played for a bit and then had lunch.
My mom brought out our old doll house and some of the furniture that G had when she was a little girl, and although he does enjoy playing with it, he'd much rather tease us by feeding the rubber frog fake poop. Seriously, this kid is all boy!
Ben's cousin's Molly and Madison were in town from Ohio part of last week, so as soon as Jackson was up from his nap, we headed over to Kyle and Steve's house...but not before making a quick stop at Megan and Tyler's lemonade stand on our way out of the neighborhood. I know that I've mentioned how sweet these kids are, and their frequent lemonade stands are a perfect example -- because not only do they always have an amazing selection of treats, they always donate all of the money, too. Their charity of choice is usually "Coins for Kids", but the proceeds from this particular sale went to the flood victims of Hays County.
I don't know about you, but digging in a sand box naked doesn't sound like the best of ideas to me. Not even if I was being spoon-fed my dinner as I played.
Swimming and washing the sand out of every nook and cranny. Two birds, one stone.
One night after work, we met up with the Allens at Ski Shores for dinner. I hadn't been there since I was little but remember it being nice, and it was. The food was great, the Lake Austin view was beautiful, and Jackson and Charlie had a great time feeding all of the fish and turtles, playing on the playground, and digging in the sand.
I'm not sure you can tell from the picture, but he was so incredibly dirty. He was super sweaty and covered in a fine layer of dusty dirt, and his entire scalp was filled with sand. Basically, it was his most successful digging adventure ever!
Whenever I cut Jackson's nails, he always has to take a turn cutting Daddy's, too.
Obviously Jackson was not thrilled with my decision to go to Stroller Strides {nothing says fun like a forced smile and having to sit in the stroller for an hour while your mom works out}...
...but the roles quickly reversed as soon as we walked out into the parking lot and saw this.
Jackson was perfectly happy to just sit there and take it all in. I, on the other hand, was not nearly as entertained and kept asking if he was ready to go. I even tried to bribe him with other fun activities and snacks, but his response was always "4 minutes" and "no...watch digging", so I just stood there in the hot summer sun...and forced my best fake smile.
A walk around the hood...and another construction site. Seriously, the boy just can't ever get enough.
On Friday of last week, Abby, Wendi, and I drove to Houston to meet up with Rachel, Alex, and Sabrina for a mini high school reunion of sorts. Although a few of us do get to see each other on occasion, this entire group had not been together since high school {over 13+ years ago!}, so it was long overdue. We had lunch at Sweet Paris, went shopping in Rice Village, and had a great time catching up. A lot has changed in 13+years, and between work, husbands, and babies {we currently have 3 kids between the 6 of us and 4 more on the way!}, there was quite a bit to talk about.
Saturday morning, we took Jackson to his big sibling class. It's the only class that we signed up to do this go-round, and although I knew that Jackson might be a little young for it, I'm so glad that we took him. The nurse that was leading the class asked every kid to bring their favorite doll or stuffed animal with them, so Hobbes came along to learn about being a big brother, too.
The kids sat in a circle with the dolls/animals and practiced giving them a bottle, changing their diaper, and wrapping them in a blanket. Although Jackson required quite a bit of help, it really was so sweet.
He was doing a pretty good job holding and feeding him, but of course, as soon as the nurse stopped in front of us and offered to take a picture, Jackson stuck the bottle in his mouth instead. Needless to say, I don't think Jackson is quite ready to feed baby brother by himself yet.
And he's definitely not allowed to walk around while carrying him {by the foot}.
After mastering how to feed/change Hobbes and a quick break that included fruit snacks and a capri sun {which I'm fairly certain was Jackson's favorite part of the class}, we went on a tour of the hospital. The nurse showed all of us the delivery rooms, the postpartum rooms, and the nursery. While on the tour, I started feeling all sorts of excited/anxious that we'd be doing this all over again soon and even teared up when we saw all of the tiny babies in the nursery. My mom later asked what Jackson thought of the babies in the nursery, and as I told her, he really didn't seem the least bit interested.
He was definitely interested in every single hand sanitzer station though.
He may have been the loudest and the most distracted kid in class by far, but it's official...he's also going to be the world's best big brother.
Later that morning, Jackson and I took Ben shopping for some new shoes for Father's Day, and although we took him to a store where the sales guys are apparently highly qualified {I could barely contain my laughter when they told us that each sales guy has a different specialty and then proceeded to physically put the shoes on Ben}, Jackson insisted on helping and measuring his own feet, too. Our little specialty-shoe-sales-clerk-in-training.
That evening, we went to Kyle and Steve's house where they surprised him {and us} with a new big boy room and handmade truck bed. I don't know which was cuter -- how excited Jackson was when he saw it or how excited Kyle and Steve were when they were showing him every little detail. Gifts from the heart are simply the best, and you know you're loved when your grandparents convert one of their rooms into a construction shrine just for you.
No shirt, no pants, no shoes, but he insisted on wearing the hardhat. Safety first!
Since Ben was out of town for work at the beginning of this week, we decided to skip church on Sunday and have some family fun at the Thinkery instead. It had been awhile since Ben had gone with us, so Jackson had a great time showing him all of his "new" favorite things. Ben commented that last time that we had spent most of our time in the baby/toddler area the last time that we went, so he was amazed at how much there was for Jackson to do now and how quickly we blew through that whole place. Welcome to my life.
I know I'm biased, but my kid {just left of the center} is definitely the cutest.
You know you're a good dad when you're able to make leaving fun.
This week, they had a baby shower for me at work. It's become such a fun tradition for all of the ladies in the office to get together for a potluck lunch each time that one of us has a baby, and in my opinion, this shower was one of the best. The food was delicious, the conversation was so fun, and the baby and I got so many wonderful gifts -- a baby monitor with two cameras, a piggy bank, diapers, wipes, lots of fun little goodies, and a huge gift card to Target, too.
Rainy days = digging for cheerios at Mimi's house.
A couple of nighttime pictures for Daddy while he was out of town.
This week, I also took Jackson shopping for some new shoes. I had gone to Stride Rite the week before but didn't really like anything that they had in his size, so between that and Ben asking when he would be old enough to start wearing "real shoes", I decided to instead take him to some of the sport stores in the mall after Stroller Strides. He was way more interested in playing basketball than he was getting new shoes, but eventually, the light bulb went off, and I told him that I wanted to buy him some cool big boy shoes so that he could be like Tyler, and thankfully, things went much better after that.
We ended up finding two pairs that fit the bill {flexible sole, velcro strap, and on sale} and ended up going with the ones on the left, which I later realized was an even better call than I originally thought. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed that my current pair of Nikes are mostly grey with the same neon green as the ones on the right, and as cute as we would look all matchy-matchy and whatnot, I'm not sure how cool it is to dress like your mom -- especially when you're a boy.
Recently Jackson has gotten so good as using a screwdriver and is often able to change the batteries in his toys all by himself. Although this seems like it'd be beneficial, the problem is that he also enjoys taking out batteries that work perfectly fine and then throwing them away so that he can replace them with new ones. Needless to say, I've found myself digging in the trashcan a lot more often that I care to admit these days.
Oh, you know, just enjoying a {very messy} chocolate chip cookie while on a family walk...or ride in Jackson's case. What can I say? It's good to be king.
"Diggin' " is his favorite.
Yesterday, Jackson came with me to my 32 week prenatal appointment. I usually ask my mom to watch him so that Ben can go with me {except for the past two times when Ben watched him and I went by myself}, but I thought it might be easier to start taking him with me since I'm about to start going every other week and then eventually once each week, so yesterday was somewhat of a trial run. Things were going great, too, until we got to the appointment and realized that the iPad was dead. Dun-dun-duuuun. I was basically planning to let him play on the iPad the entire time, so that kind of killed that plan, but thankfully I had my phone and a bag of cheerios and raisins to keep him entertained. He did great, too. So good that he even got some Mater stickers from the "Cars" movie. I did get a good laugh however when he caught a glimpse of my urine sample and hollered "apple juice!" and also by the fact that he wasn't the least bit impressed by baby brother's heartbeat or sweet face on the sonogram and chose to watch videos on my phone instead.
Celebrating a successful appointment with a quick photo op in the same location that I made Ben take a picture after every single one of his prenatal appointments.
After my appointment, I took Jackson to the splash pad at Bailey Park. The water felt so good, and of course, Jackson had a great time.
I was a little worried about the splash pad's proximity to the sand volleyball court, and sure enough, as soon as Jackson spotted the sand, he ran over to dig in it while soaking wet. Water + sand = nastiness in my book, but he had a great time.
These late-night, in-bed milkshakes are becoming a little more regular than I should probably admit, but as the saying goes, when in Rome...or in my case, when your wardrobe consists of nothing but elastic waist pants...
This morning, my favorite sidekick and I went on another adventure and took my car in for a long overdue oil change. Thankfully I remembered to actually charge the iPad this time, and although the wifi was a little too slow for him to watch his videos {apparently that's what you get when you go to the cheapest place you can find}, his games kept him entertained and kept his squirming to a minimum.
I had originally planned to take him to the park afterwards, but because it was raining...yet again, we ended up just going to the grocery store instead. When we got home, I started unloading all of the groceries, and Jackson had the best time using the knife that came with his utensil set to take every single roll of toilet paper out of the packaging. Obviously the kitchen wasn't the most ideal place to do that, but I thought it was so sweet that he wanted to help out without me even asking.
Tonight, Ben and I met up with some church friends for dinner at Scholz Garten. Kyle and Steve came over to watch Jackson, and after seeing this sweet picture, I'm fairly convinced that they had even more fun than we did.
This boy is so loved by so many, and I hope that he always knows it.
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