I apologize for the serious hiatus in blogging, but without our computer set up during the interim move it was really hard to upload pictures. Not to mention that we were going back and forth between my mom’s house and my dad’s house every week day! Now that that silliness is all over, we can get back to business!

We absolutely love our house! It was so much fun unpacking all of our long-lost possessions…almost like a double Christmas. We have been hanging things on the walls, putting curtains up, and painting Jackson’s room. It was so beige in there I felt like I would be responsible for his stifled imagination! My mom made some great curtains from a fabric shop in Fort Collins called ‘Mama Said Sew’, which became the inspiration for the room. It’s not done yet, but hopefully this weekend we can put up a chair rail and I can start on the two trees that I want to paint on a couple of his walls. Its going to be great!

Christmas was really fun in the new place. Santa brought Jackson an eco-friendly play kitchen with utensils and a few food items. He came down on Christmas morning and had the sweetest excited face when he saw the kitchen next to the tree. Immediately he started cooking some cheese! Today, he helped me start water for some pasta and then went to his kitchen sink to fill up his measuring cups with water. He even made sound effects.

Jackson started going to daycare this week. I have mixed feeling about it because I really didn’t want him to ever go to daycare. I found a facility about 2 blocks from my school and its turning out to be a neat little place for Jackson. He is only there for half a day, every other day, so that is how I am justifying it to myself. They feed him breakfast and lunch, have circle time, art, music, Bible time (which wasn’t necessarily important to us, but fine just the same), and outside play time. When I pick him up we get a sheet of paper telling us what happened as far as what he ate, how much, what he did, and bathroom information. Its fun to see what he does! When I pick him up, he is so excited to see me (which makes me feel really good!). It’s just about nap time and the other little kids in his class are all zonked out on little mats on the floor. It’s amazing to me that they all stay on them!

Other than that, its been a constant struggle to remember to take out the trash. At the condo, we just took stuff to the dumpsters/recycle bins, but now we have our own things to heave out the the sidewalk.

I am probably forgetting something else I wanted to talk about, but it just might have to wait until next time. I hope you enjoy the latest pictures (I tried to take some around the house…in the places that weren’t too messy!).

Pictures: Jackson practices his ‘mad eyes’, Jackson setting the table with his food, boring room, at the outdoor mall in Loveland, playing naked in his ‘big truck’ tent, my snow tribute wreath (that actually made it snow the next day!), Phase 1 of Operation: Cute, Phase 2 of Operation: Cute, curtains, Phases 3-4 of Operation: Cute, Jackson with his apron from Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim (and his kitchen), pictures around the house!

Today, I am 28! Last year, Jackson said ‘mama’ for the first time and I thought that was the best gift a momma could ever get! This year, he woke up early so I brought him into bed with me. Miraculously, he slept about 30 more minutes and woke up saying ‘booger’ and pointing to both of our noses. Cute, sure, but not what I was expecting. Should I have said, ‘thank you’?

Jackson is growing and changing by leaps and bounds and just when he can’t possible be any cuter, he out cutes himself! He loves to talk- naming body parts, asking where various family members are, and his newest obsession is Dumbledore. One day, I thought it would be funny to ask him to say it. What I didn’t know was that he would say it perfectly and never stop saying it thereafter. It will just pop out at random times or when he thinks the conversation is lacking.

Today also marks a momentous occasion. I scheduled our closing on the new house! December 10th at 10 AM! I might just make one of those paper chains to count down the days!

In this post, I will include a ton of pictures from July to November. Some specific pictures to keep your eyes out for: Jackson helping label moving boxes and rediscovering his walker, modeling the overalls handed down by Aunt Patti, pumpkin picking (Ignore my bootie in the background!!!! Thanks, Jeremy!), new show pride, Halloween, and from today…enjoying his organic fruit snacks! Welcome back! P.S. I will do a separate posting of the progress of our house!

Okay, so the first few pictures are of Jackson playing…under the table, with toys in his toy basket, showing me his tummy, and picking up his leg! Jackson really likes showing me his nose and we are working on the other body parts. He now knows tummy, eye, and mouth!

The next pictures show Jackson doing what he loves best; climbing on top of things/climbing in things. Here, Jackson climbed onto the diaper box (hopefully one of the last we will buy–more on that later) while we weren’t watching. It literally took 3 seconds for him to get to and on top of the box.

The next pictures are kind of boring, but I already added them to the blog and I dont want to take them out and then re-do the rest. Jackson is enjoying a dinner of stuffed peppers. Any meal involving rice, which Jackson really likes, end up with Jeremy vacuuming him afterward. Then, you see Jackson posing in a cute way!

After dinner, its playtime! Jackson practices for what could be a future career in electronics. He is trying to plug the USB part of the mouse into the camera/computer cord. Genius. More playtime with the mouse has caused Jackson to lose his pants. Enjoy the chunka legs! (Yes, I meant to say “chunka”!)

I think the next pictures depict Jackson’s first ice cream sundae.

Now, we come to Jackson at the media cabinet with a wooden dowel. We thought we were sooooo smart with this one. Jackson likes to slide the doors open and pull out the CDs and DVDs. Jeremy got some skinny dowels to stick in the little groove to prevent the doors from sliding. It took Jackson about 3 minutes to figure out how to continue emptying the shelves.

Next, Jackson models his new floatie swimsuit. He liked laying on the ground in it.

As you can see, Jackson is cute in overalls. He is walking more and more but still loves to sit in a nice box. Here, he is sitting the box that our organic produce was delivered in! (He climbs in there himself, I swear…but I might take responsibility for piling toys on him!)

Jackson also likes to crawl/walk around with things in his mouth. This time its a green block. Apparently, Jackson missed sitting in something, so he climbs into my tote bag.

Ignore the next picture of Jackson…its awful!!!!! I stand by my taking pictures out stance, so I will leave it in. I thought that coloring might be a fun thing to try. I bought some triangular crayons and drew some stuff on blank paper for Jackson to color! He did really well—I helped a bit with the letters so he would know what to do! Thank goodness crayons are non-toxic because I had to dig a little red and a chunk of yellow out of someone’s mouth! Jackson would put all the crayons on the pad of paper and then take all of them off. This process was repeated many, many times.

Time to sit in something again!

Time to get on top of something again! Yikes! Notice he is standing on the box containing gdiapers!!!! More on that in a second.

Enjoying french toast while watching Princess and the Frog. Between bites, Jackson was dancing and dancing!

Enter gdiapers! Jeremy and I hate throwing away Jackson’s diapers! Did you know that if Christopher Columbus had worn disposable diapers, they would still be hanging around today? Yuck. We have been thinking about gdiapers for a while, and finally pulled the trigger. Its a bit of a cost up front, but ends up costing about the same…sometimes less if you can find a good deal online. Basically its the “little g pants” that have snap-in liners. You can choose to put the cloth inserts into the liner or you can use a bio-degradable insert that happens to be flushable! They work pretty well so far! Yay, Earth! I tried my best to get some good pictures of Jackson in the gdiaper, but he moves around so quickly, I was having some trouble. I think it worked out well, though. Notice the tabs are on the back, so little hands are less likely to mess with them.

The last two pictures were taken without my knowledge, obviously. Jackson was being a major crank that day. He woke up at 5:30AM and took a 30 minute nap, so by the time Jeremy came home from work, we were both asleep in the glider. How sweet.

Until we meet again.

Some new things Jackson is doing: Learning how to use a spoon, sticking his finger in his mouth and wiggling it around when I say “Time to brush your teeth!”, sitting against things and sighing.

Pictures this week: Playing at the library, Walking the Lorax around, Mother’s Day helper, Playing with squishy floor tiles, Trying to use a spoon, Naked pre-bath baby!

We got a free fish tank from one of my old high school friends. He was moving and didn’t have time to take care of his clown fish because he would be traveling a lot. So we went and picked up everything a couple of weeks ago. Jackson told me he wanted to name the fish Herbie, so we obliged.

Other notable moments: Jackson sorted his peas from the other mixed vegetables on his tray…before eating them (This, by the way, is seen in only a few 17-18 month olds and Jackson is only 14 months. Can we say genius?). Last, but not least, Jackson took three unassisted steps last night! I am trying to capture it on video, but no luck yet. We were wooping and jumping around- I think we might have scared him- until he plopped down onto his bottom. Jackson loooooves my cell phone and is always trying to get it. I have an old one, so I gave it to him to play with. a couple of weeks ago, he put it up to his ear like he was talking to someone! Today, he put it up to his ear and said “Oh!” as in “hell-O”. What a big boy! Without further ado, here are the pictures from the last few weeks!

Pictures: Green baby, Playing, Trying to eat oranges through the bag, “Where is your nose?”, Waking up with crazy hair, Pulling things out of daddy’s briefcase, Resting on the hearth, Standing on the hearth, Herbie and the living rock, Jackson with his new phone, answering the phone, Eating blueberries, Playing behind/under the table, In the hallway.

This past weekend was pretty fun. I had an all day crop (scrapbook event) in Denver. It was my first one and it was exhausting. Thankfully, I got a good chunk of Jackson’s baby book done. I still have a lot to do (like our wedding album!) but I think I will have some more time coming my way.

Jackson is having a lot of fun walking around…holding onto things, of course…but having a lot of fun! He loves to climb onto the fireplace hearth and sit up there looking out into the living room. He is starting to stand a bit on his own, but when he realizes what he is doing, he plops down onto his bottom!

I have been wanting to get Jackson some little Crocks for those warm weather days. I looked everywhere for some cheapo fake ones, but had absolutely no luck. Shopping at the local healthy grocery store the other day, I saw a sale fore actual little Crocks! Into the cart they went!

Pictures this week: Little Crocks, Playing, Playing Playing

Other than that, I took Jackson to see the Easter Bunny last Thursday. I saw the bunny and was a little freaked out. I worried Jackson would be scared, but he ended up loving the bunny. He reached out for him and was grabbing it’s teeth. He even attempted biting the bunny’s gloved hand. In Jackson’s world, a finger bite is like saying, “Its very nice to meet you!”. I still need to scan the picture of the bunny…maybe I will post it next week.

This week’s pictures: Jackson’s attachment to the blanket made by Aunt Carol, Playing, Behind the glider, Playing with his new shorts on (they are more like capris), Playing behind the glider again, Easter cupcakes, Getting into the Easter basket(s), “More!”, Waking up from a nap with no pants on, Jackson’s continued attachment to the blanket made by Aunt Carol! Enjoy!

I dont know if I mentioned this last week, but Jackson is now totally on cow’s milk…organic, of course! I just bought a gallon on Friday and am going to have to go get some more tomorrow morning. I am a little worried because it is blizzarding like a maniac right now! Eight to sixteen inches are expected by tomorrow. It was almost 70 degrees yesterday!

I am so tired! My brain will not function any longer. I don’t know what else to say, so I will just post the pictures. Pictures this week:

Playing with the dump truck, Before haircut, After haircut, Playing, Getting Olive, Crawling like a big boy, Climbing Daddy, Playing more! Enjoy!