Toddler Coffee and Other Happenings...

I've figured out that Cheerios are equivalent to coffee for Jackson in the morning. If I give him a cup of Cheerios as soon as he's dressed and ready for the day, regardless of what we eat later for breakfast, he's a happy camper for most of the morning. He hasn't quite perfected the use of the snack trap cup, though, so I usually end up with a trail of Cheerios all over the house. It's worth it for a happy toddler, though.


Last night he figured out how to climb up on the fireplace hearth. I don't know why it's taken him so long to do this, but I'm glad he hasn't done it until now! It makes me totally nervous. He loves to get up there and walk around and then get down all on his own.

Everyone always says that J is a little clone of Phil, and he definitely is when it comes to mornings. I'm almost always a little grumpy when I wake up, but it's hard to stay grumpy when I have this little cutie following me around the house giggling and babbling to me in Jacksonese. I talk back to him just like we're having a real conversation, even though I have no idea what he's saying. I got a great video of him talking the other night, but when I tried to upload it I realized that the file is too big, so I'll have to take another one.

We haven't been doing too much of anything exciting lately. Phil had been working hard this past weekend to paint and put up molding (moulding) in the baby's room, so we hung out in there a lot to keep him company. J loved sitting in his own little chair. The room turned out beautifully, by the way!

Here's J trying to help me find missing toys... he does this quite a bit now and it cracks me up!

And last night was officially, "Everyone Pile on Dad Night". I missed out on the piling, though, having to be the photographer.


In other news, the language-barrier frustration level is steadily increasing. I know it's got to be difficult for J to not be able to tell me what he needs/wants, or should I say, for me to not be able to understand what he needs/wants. We've had a bit more whining and mini-tantrums lately. There's even been some hitting of mom when things don't go his way that I'm trying to nip in the bud. Overall, though, he's still a really good boy and his communication seems to be getting a little better every day... well, maybe every couple of days. :)

Baby #2 is still doing well, but boy, is he ever active. He does somersaults in my belly almost all day long. It takes me at least an hour to fall asleep every night because as soon as I lay down he decides it's time to party in there. Jackson has been sleeping until at least 8:00 every morning, though, so that really helps.

Oh, last thing - I went out to lunch with some friends the other day and after I paid for my lunch I stupidly let J carry my credit card around for a few minutes. I know that was dumb, but he was restless and a little grumpy, as it was past naptime and he'd been sitting in the high chair for an hour. Anyway, I guess I wasn't keeping as close an eye on him as I thought because the next thing I knew he had stuck my card into the air vent in the front of the dessert display case. The hole for the vent was the perfect size for a credit card and it just slid right on in there. Oops. The whole thing happened so quickly!! The waitress tried to open up the case to see if we could get the card out, but no such luck. At least it wasn't my car keys or some cash or something.