Meat

Rick and I have hoped for this day to come for a long time...Jackson ate MEAT!!!! Well, a different meat but this is a huge step for him. Let me give you a little back story to explain....

Jackson is such a picky eater and has been since he was born. He doesn't eat any vegetables, except iceberg lettuce with lots of ranch dressing on it. He eats maybe one banana every 4-6 weeks and that is his only fruit. He started eating bacon last September and that is the only meat he has ever eaten. At one time he ate a lot of peanut butter but completely cut that out a few months ago. We were afraid he was going to have some sort of nutritional deficiency. His new food for the past few months is grilled cheese. You have to understand that he doesn't eat sandwiches so eating this was a big step as well. Let me assure you that he takes a multivitamin daily. Poor fella needs all the supplements he can get.

Jackson's approved food list includes certain breakfast cereals, bacon, pop tarts, maple and brown sugar instant oatmeal, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese quesadillas, tortilla chips with rotel dip, cheese pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter granola bars, certain cereal bars, and most sweets (brownies, ice cream, cookies, candy bars, etc.). Yes, this is a long list of items (which is wonderful) but even with foods he likes he is extremely picky about the look of the food. He turned down a grilled cheese one day because the cheese was oozing out the side of the bread. He once refused to eat a grilled cheese because there was a WRINKLE in the bread. He doesn't eat the crust of his pizza or the crust of his grilled cheese sandwiches. He picks the meat out of his spaghetti and lasagna. He's so weird--LOL!!

Yesterday I asked him what he wanted for lunch and he said he wanted chicken nuggets. I had little confidence that he would eat them but we pulled into Wendy's anyway and ordered him a four-pack of nuggets. Can you believe that he ate ALL of them?!?!?! I don't know what made him suddenly decide to ask for them but I am so proud of him. I wish I had taken pictures of this milestone. Hopefully this is just the beginning of the end of Jackson's picky eating. Let's keep our fingers crossed!!!!

Community Helper Day

September 18, 2009---Jackson's class had to dress up like a community helper. Jackson doesn't have any dress up costumes so we were at a loss for options. Just as luck would have it, Anna Catherine came home from school on Wednesday with a fireman's hat (a fire truck/firemen came to school for a tour and gave out hats), and the same day a friend offered to loan us her son's fireman jacket. VOILA....Jackson the Fireman

Jackson's Dancing

August 22, 2009---To say that Jackson had a good time at Carmen and Jereme's wedding reception would be an understatement! He danced and he danced and he danced. At one point the dace floor perimeter was filled with people watching him dance. It was so cute and too funny all at the same time. The best description I can think of would be that he was trying to imitate the memorable Seinfeld episode when Elaine is dancing at the office party. I really wish I had it on video. Here are a few shots taken during his performance.

Meeting Jackson's teachers

August 21, 2009---This morning Jackson met his new teachers for his K4 preschool class this year.



I think he is really going to like his class. His lead teacher was a high school advanced science teacher for many years who decided to teach little ones a few years ago. The classroom has a jungle animal theme and they will be doing a dinosaur unit. The curriculum consists of Bible verses, devotions, science experiments, cooking, math, reading, and letters of the alphabet. The teachers are very organized and structured and they expect the students to be responsible and disciplined. He will be attending classes Monday-Friday, 8:45 a.m. until 11:45 a.m. I hope he has a fabulous year because this just all sounds so exciting!!!

Monsters of the Deep

August 12, 2009---For an end of the summer treat, Jackson, Chloe, and I went to the Monsters of the Deep exhibit at the Science Museum in Jackson.




The exhibit had re-creations of both current and prehistoric aquatic animals. And of course Jackson new the proper names of all of them. This was right up his alley!!

The kids enjoyed playing in "The Bone Yard" which had floor puzzles of prehistoric fossils.

Jackson was really good at matching the skull to the correct animal:

They also took advantage of the playroom:

Jackson and Chloe always enjoy seeing the permanent exhibit of native Mississippi animals (alligators, fish, turtles, etc.) but I didn't take pictures this time. The Natural Science Museum will be a place that we visit often. I wonder if they have a family pass?!?

Frogs and Tadpoles

Back in March when we found this fella next to our koi pond, we thought it was kind of cool that we had a frog.

Then, he started to "ribbit' at night.

It's not really a "ribbit" sound but believe me, he loves to make his sound.

By the end of April/first of May we began hearing another frog. Oh great, he has a friend!!

And they like to have croaking contests every night.

Well, apparently while we were on vacation at the end of May the frogs decided to throw a house party and their guests have decided to take up permanent residence. Since returning home from our trip we can now hear several different distinct frog sounds and think there are 4-6 adult frogs based on all the different locations we can hear them simultaneously. They put on a concert every night from 9 pm until 4 am.!!

And to top it all off, they have decided to mate and our koi pond is filled with zillions of tadpoles. SERIOUSLY!!!

Rick scooped out many of them and tossed them into the yard last week, hoping they would die in the 1oo+ degree heat. He also thought it would be a good idea to put some of the tadpoles in a bowl for Jackson to keep as pets!

Then Rick found this old fish bowl and decided to give them a bigger home.

What are we going to do with these things?

Carrie--your kids like frogs. Do you want them?

We can keep you in a constant supply of tadpoles!!

I am so scared that Chloe is going to get to the fish bowl and do who knows what with them!?!

We shall see...

Swim Lessons

Anna Catherine and Jackson took swim lessons from Maley Swim School the first two weeks of May. We wanted the kids to have some lessons before we go on vacation. Not that I expect them to be advanced swimmers in two weeks but I do want them to be comfortable in the water and to be able to get to the side if there were some sort of accident. In hindsight, I wish I had enrolled them for the weekly spring session. I know that many people who give lessons have to wait until summer because they use their own outdoor pools. But, if you think about it, why wait until summer to give swimming lessons? What good does it do to give lessons during the swim season? That would be like sports teams not having practice until the season has already started. How can the person improve their skills if there is no practice during the off-season? Ideally, I think children should learn to swim during the fall/winter so they are ready to swim in the summer. Enough of my ramble...


Jackson is afraid of water...at times. He screams bloody murder when you get his head wet in the bath tub. He also loves to play in the rain and will stand under the downspout for long periods of time. This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever!!! How can you hate water one minute and love it the next?!? Only Jackson could be capable of this. We enrolled him in the beginner class. He was freaked out and held onto Miss Jessica for the first week. He was terribly afraid to put his face in the water and he would barely kick his legs. Eventually, the teachers would let go of him and let him sink to the bottom of the pool. They would swoop him back up to the surface and let him regain his composure. Poor fella. He was the worst student in his class. I am hoping he will get more comfortable in the water this summer. We have a pool in our subdivision that we plan to use a few times a week.

Even though Anna Catherine has taken private lessons in previous years and absolutely LOVES the water, we enrolled her in the same beginner's class with Jackson to refresh her memory. By the end of the two weeks she was able to swim the width of the pool without taking a breath and she swam the length of the pool while only needing to take a few breaths. She was also able to roll from her stomach to her back while swimming. Not to brag, but she was the BEST in the class. The other mothers said the same thing.

Anna Catherine is eager to learn the different strokes and would like to be on a competitive swim team. We will enroll her in the next level for the fall session. We will also be enrolling Jackson and Chloe for the fall session. Jackson will remain in the beginner class and Chloe will be in the waterbabies class.

Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectactular

April 3, 2009--- Anyone who knows Jackson knows that he LOVES dinosaurs...is OBSESSED with dinosaurs...is ADDICTED to dinosaurs!!! He can tell you most dinos Latin names, the period of time in which they lived, the type of dinosaur they were, what they ate, what they did, etc. I have often told people that Jackson probably has 200 dinosaurs. Well, I actually counted them today and he has 141 figurines. So, my number is off by a little. If I include his dinosaur bedding, books, movies, tent, backpack, puzzles, wall hangings, stuffed animals, multiple clothing items, and crocs the number quickly jumps to around 185. With that in mind, my quote isn't that far off after all. Poor fella thinks dinosaurs are as real as a dog, horse, elephant, etc. He wants a baby diplodocus for a pet! Anna Catherine has been nice enough to keep the secret that dinosaurs are actually dead. I don't know how he would take that revelation!!



Santa brought Jackson the "Walking With Dinosaurs" movie. It was created by the BBC (makers of the Blue Planet and Planet Earth documentaries--also favorites of Jackson). The movie is made to look like a National Geographic video. It is amazing how life-like they appear. The BBC has a similar television show that Jackson watches daily on the Discovery Kids channel called "Prehistoric Planet" (narrated by Ben Stiller and Christian Slater!). Both the movie and the television show are big hits in our house!! Jackson watches the movie almost every day as well. Knowing this, Papa Gator sent us an e-mail when he heard that the BBC was taking a dinosaur live show on the road to several countries including the US and one of their stops was Birmingham, AL. Of course I had to check it out and wouldn't you know, our schedule was free the day of the show! It was meant to be!!



I booked us tickets and had to work hard to keep the secret from Jackson there was two weeks between the day I bought the tickets and the show. We had to keep it quiet otherwise every five minutes he would have asked, "Can we go now? Is it time to see the dinosaurs? I want to go now!" all while whining and crying. So, we waited until the morning of the show to tell him we were going to a surprise later that day. He cried for over an hour because he wanted to go to the surprise and he didn't want to be late for the surprise...can you see why I didn't want to tell him in advance? We picked up Anna Catherine from school around 12:30 pm and started the four hour drive to Birmingham. That is when we told him about the dinosaurs. Believe me, he was excited!!! He watched his "Walking With Dinosaurs" movie on the way, giving us a play-by-play the whole time. We were able to get to Birmingham early enough to have dinner with our friend, Ryan. It always nice to see Ryan. Then it was off to the the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.



Our seats were pretty good---balcony, front row, center. The telephone operator told me that there was a bar and the kids would be able to stand with the safety of the bar and see the show without blocking the view of others. What she didn't tell me was that the bar was only two feet tall!!! Jackson stood up and it came to his waist!! Chloe continually tried to lean over or crawl over the bar. I was a nervous wreck!!! Once the show started the kids were mesmerized!! Chloe was so into it that she sat in Rick's lap with her mouth open, drooling all over his arm. The narrator would describe a dinosaur and Jackson could name it before the narrator could say it. Jackson again provided play-by-play during the show. Chloe clapped her hands and said "bye-bye dinosaur" as they exited the stage. The show was broken into segments that detailed different prehistoric time periods. Some of the dinosaurs interacted/fought with one another. It was an amazing show!


You can see information for the show at their website http://www.dinosaurlive.com/ To see video, go to "Watch Footage" and you have nine videos to choose from. The best clips of the show is the one with the eggs on it. The others are good too and show promos and/or how they made the dinosaurs.

waiting for the show to start:

the stage:

allosaurus:

trees and grasses around stage:


stegasaurus:

apatosaurus:

Jackson cried the entire time during the 20 minute intermission. He was so sad that the dinosaurs had gone away. Everyone around us felt so sorry for him. (This happened again at the end of the show.) He just missed the dinosaurs so much!

ornithochirus:

utahraptors:

flora around the stage:

toroceratops:

ankylosaurus:

T-Rex:

Waterfall outside the arena:

Of course Jackson was upset when we left the show but he got another surprise...we were driving to grandmother's house!! We drove straight to Pontotoc to drop the kids off for two days so Rick and I could attend a friend's wedding in Memphis. This made him happy and he watched his dino movie on the drive to grandmother's....and he asked to go back to see the dinosaurs again.

Jackson's Big Day

January 23. 2009---It was a day he thought would NEVER get here! He has been waiting for his birthday for what seems like forever. Anna Catherine can build up her birthday for weeks after Christmas but then Jackson only gets one day of bragging rights. Poor fella!! If I had actually gone to the hospital when I went into labor they would have the same birthday. I'm so glad they don't share the same birth date!


Anna Catherine woke Jackson up before she went to school. She made a big deal about it being his birthday (I was impressed). She even offered to let him wear her "Birthday Princess" button. Luckily, I had gotten him a "Birthday Boy" button and she gave it to him to wear. It made him feel big. He was so giddy with excitement and couldn't stop saying, "Today's my birthday! I'm 4 years old now! Thank you for letting me have a birthday!" We had wrapped his gifts and hidden them in our closet floor. Rick left the closet door open and Chloe found the gifts. She had almost completely unwrapped one of them when she brought it to us. We weren't going to let Jackson open gifts until that evening but, thanks to Chloe, he was allowed to open two before AC went to school.

Of course, he had to have his name on the van too. This made him feel special!

Jackson started asking for his dinosaur cupcakes at breakfast, and again at least once every hour for the remainder of the day. Grandmother called to tell him Happy Birthday--he LOVES talking to Grandmother on the phone. He also went out to the garage several times to look at the big tent (THANKS AGAIN PAPA GATOR AND LADY!!) Jack decided to get his other two presents from the closet and put them on the table in the living room. He would look at them from across the room, go over and touch them, talk to them, sit beside them, ask if he could open them, walk away, and maybe five minutes later starts the whole process over again. He kept asking if there was an ewkasuecus in one of them (no idea how to spell the name of the dinosaur he wants). He says he can't wait to get his ewkasuecus (I couldn't find one because I only know the dino by the way he pronounces it--I'm not sure it is the correct name). He got AC's birthday hat and wore it for a while too. He told me "thank you for letting me have a birthday!" I caught him slightly tearing the paper on one of the gifts. I told him to stop and that he can't open his gifts yet. He said he wasn't opening it, he was just making a hole. "But it's my birthday!" He's wasn't this pumped for his Christmas gifts. Maybe because Christmas is for everyone and this is just for him? As soon as Rick walked in the door from work Jackson immediately began opening his presents!

THANK YOU MIMI FOR THE ANIMALS AND DINOSAURS! For the past few weeks Jackson has not wanted to sleep in his room alone and we hope new dinosaur sheets would help. He also got a dinosaur play tent for his room.

We went to Gatti Town for dinner and play time. I didn't take any pictures though. We played to same games/rides we did last time except Anna Catherine and I played "Deal or No Deal". The highest amount of tickets you can win is 200. I was down to three cases and the banker offered me 37 tickets. Rick said, "I'd take the offer". The cases I had left were 1, 15, and 200. Well, I took the deal--STUPID!!! I had the 200 ticket case. Then AC wanted to play. She said "NO DEAL" to the banker every time and her case had the maximum number of tickets in it--that's right, she won 200 tickets!! We only played games for thirty minutes but the kids seemed exhausted and kept asking if we could go home.

We had dinosaur cupcakes and chocolate chip ice cream when we got home.

Rick asked if Anna Catherine and Jackson wanted to sleep in the tent in the garage again. They did but Jackson ended up coming inside. He and I went to sleep on the couch while watching his dinosaur movie. He refused to take off his "Birthday Boy" button because that meant his birthday was over. I think he had an awesome birthday!!