Dude, Babe, Jackson

It's due time for a Jackson update. He is just becoming just such a big kid. When kids are little, their growth is obvious and their milestones are major! But as they get older, it kind of sneaks up on you. Then one day, you're just hanging out with the little dude-- laughing, playing, talking-- and you realize, he's not a toddler anymore!!

I love this picture because 1) he's super cute 2) you can see the blue patch in his left eye

Jackson is three years and three months. This three-year-old year has been a little difficult {definite power struggles and getting him to pay attention to follow instructions}, but yet so nice at the same time. He can entertain himself, Belle too, and is super helpful around the house! He even has chores. He can get himself some breakfast if I'm still in bed in the shower. {Most days it's yogurt, applesauce, or fruit. While other times he moved a chair to the kitchen, climbed on a chair, to climb on the counter, to reach the candy bowl on the top shelf, climbed down all to bring me a hersery bar to open for breakfast. I let him eat it after going to all that trouble} and he can get himself mostly dressed, once I convince him to get dressed at all. The kid loves to be naked.

He has started going to some classes at the community center {munity center} while I do exercise classes. Aside from nursery at church, it's the first time he's ever been in a class. I sometimes walk around the track just to watch. I just can't believe he's big enough to learn relay races and duck, duck, goose.

Jackson loves to read. We get new books almost weekly from the library. I've been picking up Cars, Toy Story, and superhero early reader books and he has them memorized. He really likes non-fiction, informative books--like the parts of trains, different trucks, and construction tools. The craziest part about it all is that he remembers it and will bring it up in conversation at appropriate times. We're starting to work on learning sight words.

Jackson is way observant and very detail-oriented. He hates when his socks are crooked {the seam doesn't line up perfectly on his toes} and you cannot skip a part of his bedtime routine without a meltdown. He also picks up a lot more of the things Derek and I do. At times is very humorous {when he rubbed in nose in the super annoying way that Derek does}, other times it's humbling {when he yells at other cars in traffic}. He is exploring new phrases like, "holy buckets!" and he always tells me "thank you for cooking" because Derek always does too! He told me that something was his "favoritest-everest" the other day. I clearly picked up on his enthusiasm! But one time, Jackson decided to tell Derek to "chill out" and that didn't go over so well... Humorous for me to watch, not so funny for Jackson.

Jackson likes to shave like Papa

As always, Jackson is very funny. I think this age is just funny overall, but he has a great sense of humor. A few recent Jackson-isms:

• When we have pork something for dinner, Jackson always calls it Evil Dr. Pork Chop
• After telling him that carrots are good for his eyes, he things that when he eats carrots they go up to his eyes unlike the rest of the food that goes down into his belly.
• He is still very aware of his manhood. We went through every single character to decide if they had a penis or not {even if toys/cars/trains don't actually have gender parts}
• He is also very proud. The other day at Walmart, Derek and I split up to get a few items. I went to the Shampoo aisle and Derek asked Jackson if he wanted to join him to pick out some car oil. Jackson was excited and I heard a few aisles over, "We'll get the car stuff because we have pensis!!" {followed by the loudest "ssshhhhhh!!" I've ever heard}
• He can't wait to "grow up tall so that he can be the boss"
• He calls his stuffed animals his "kids" and likes me to count all the kids when I tuck him in at bedtime... and I have to include him. I've tried to get him to name his animals, but they are all just Puppy, Soldier Bear, Monkey, etc.
• And lastly, Jackson is just soooooo picky about his name. His name is Jackson. Other acceptable names are strictly Dude and Babe. Nothing else. One little friend of his came over to play the other day and she called him "Jack". Not pretty. One day I even overheard him screaming at Belle, "MY NAME IS NOT GAGA!!!"... which is HALIROUS because of course, Belle just babbles! He takes his name very, very seriuosly. If this keeps up, I might have to legally change his name to Dude, Babe, Jackson so that he doesn't have major issues once he enters kindergarten.

Space Bound

Ask any mom—Indoor playplaces are like goldmines, especially during these yucky cold months. My kids have so much energy, like, all of the time I am desperate to find a place for them, as Jackson would say, ‘get all their energies out’ other than running laps around the house and climbing on chairs, kitchen cabinets, etc. We love Monkey Bizness but they are so far away that we don’t get to go often. All of this to say, is that we have our own indoor inflatable play place, Space Bound, that just opened up here in Belton and I am beyond ecstatic.

The basics:

• Cost is $7 for ages 3+, $5 for 2 and under {or free with paid sibling}, and parents are FREE.
• There are four inflatables and a baby/toddler corner.
• There are comfy/reclining type seats, as well as tables and chairs.
• FREE wi-fi.
• A few snacks and drinks are available for purchase, no outside food allowed. {water bottles and sippy cups allowed.}
• If you’ve paid a full price admission, you are allowed to leave {eat lunch, let the kids nap, do whatever} and then come back in for FREE.
• There are early bird specials—check the website for more information!
• Birthday parties are available and start at $50

We have been to play three times in two weeks. It’s really fun for all sorts of ages. Jackson loves it and he plays hard and fast. There were several elementary aged kids running around having just as much fun. Space Bound really put in some thought and even though Belle loves the inflatables, she also has so much fun in the baby/toddler section! It’s fun for bigger kids parents too! Derek ran around with Jackson for about an hour. He was exhausted, but he had fun!

So, here's a tour: This is the view from the front door.

The Castle.

It has a large bounce area, but also a climbing wall and a slide. Jackson normally spends most of his time in this one!

Next is obstacle course inflatable, number one

It's made with two lanes so you can race!

It starts with a tunnel and ends with a slide with lots of fun in the middle! Belle obviously can't make it through the whole thing yet, but she likes the poles she can knock over. In the bottom right picture you can see that it's a close race between Derek and Jackson!

Next, the big slide

This is pretty basic, but it's a definite favorite and it's fun for all ages!

Obstacle Course number two

This one is the largest inflatable! Jackson loves to race.

Lastly is the baby/toddler area! 

Look at all these fun toys to keep these guys occupied! Belle loves the inflatables, but it's nice to have things for her to play with on solid ground when there are lots of big kids around {or when I am ready to just sit down and relax for a minute}

Speaking of relaxing, check out the nice chairs. Super comfy, they bounce and lean back. Perfect for enjoying the free wi-fi. This may seriously be my favorite part. We love other area play places, but I have to sit on a hard bench or the floor. This is fabulous. 

Surely you've picked up on my enthusiasm for having Space Bound here in town! If you plan on visiting lots and lots {like us} you should get one of their punch cards for $60. It's good for 12 admissions, which breaks down to $5 a visit and saves $24 overall. 

I spent one afternoon sitting and visiting with the owners and they are a super sweet family. They have three kiddos-- the lucky lads! Can you imagine growing up getting to jump and play all the time? They were coloring when I visited, so I guess the awesome-ness might lose it's charm for some. But not my kid. He bounces on my couch day and night, which goes to further explain why I am in love with this place. 

Want to check it out? Please invite us! We want to go and it's really better for me if Jackson has a friend to play with. That prevents me from climbing through the obstacle courses with baby in tow while racing him. It's perfect for a group of moms meeting {unlike our local McDonalds that only has three tables in the play area!}. 

Okay, enough about me going on and on. Are you still reading!? Just go check it out. Be sure to "like" the Space Bound facebook page to keep up with the latest offers and extended hours! 

Disclaimer: I was compensated in a form of a pass to visit Space Bound and to write this review. All opinions are my true own and were not influenced by my compensation! I wouldn't tell you I loved something if I truly didn't love it! 

Eleven Months

Eleven months. Holy Moley! Next month we’ll be having her birthday party and I just quite believe it! It’s been a fun month and of course, we just love our little sweetie to the moon and back.

Dear Belle,

Wow! You’re eleven months old now! You have four teeth and you’ve started taking steps! Pretty soon you’ll be begging to get your license! Ha. Maybe not, but it all feels like you’re just growing so fast. You are still just the happiest little baby. I love when people say, “is she this happy all the time?” and I get to say, “Yes, she really is!”

You are super ticklish, especially on your neck. You can’t control your deep belly laugh when you’re getting tickled and it is so cute!!! You always giggle when I give you lots of kisses. I love it!

Watching your reaction when Daddy comes home is one of my favorite parts of my day—his too. You will stop anything that you were previously focused on and crawl at the speed of light when you see him. You will push any toy out of the way and you will crawl over any obstacle; nothing will break your determination. It is *so* cute to see how much you love Daddy. It really makes him feel special and I hope you continue to give your daddy hugs all of your life. Dads need that.

Jackson is still one of your favorite people. He can make you laugh at the silliest little things. You two love to play together and I really enjoy watching. When we go to a friend’s house or even in the doctor’s office waiting room, you two gravitate to each other. I hope you guys continue to stay close! Don’t get offended when he doesn’t want to play all the time. He’s just a boy and he’s also older. But one day when he calls you old, you can just turn around and say, “well, you’re older!” {I had to do this to Uncle Phil last week!}

You started taking steps just last week!!!! You’ve been cruising around furniture for months and then it was just like one day you decided, “hey, I can take some steps!” I feel that the term ‘walking’ is ambitious, but you’re almost there. The thing that is most successful at getting you to walk—holding a stuffed animal. It’s amazing, you *love* stuffed animals. You always sleep with one. Whenever you first pick up a stuffed animal, you always squeeze it and cuddle close. Some of your Christmas presents were animals and you gave them kisses first thing! You’re already a loving, compassionate little person.

Practicing some steps while in line at Oklahoma Joe’s—
now if that’s not enough reason to walk, I don’t know what is!!

This month you celebrated your first Christmas. You actually spent most of Christmas morning cranky, but we took you all out of your element, so it was kind of our fault. Wrapping paper was your favorite. And you looked super cute in the tutu I made you!

We took you in for allergy testing this month. It is pretty early for this kind of testing, but your brother has some severe allergies and I just wanted to see if we needed to be taking special precautions with you. And the best news—no allergies! Well, no food allergies. But maybe you’ve lucked out and gotten my immune system. :) The not as good news is that you lactose intolerant. Crummy news, but it explains why you have always had the most catastrophic poops I have ever seen. I know it’s not very ladylike to mention it and I won’t announce it during your senior slideshow or anything, but it was seriously bad. Things are finally “normal” now that you’re off milk formula. It could be something you outgrow, but it’s not life threatening and easy to work with so I won’t complain. Sorry that it took us so long to figure out what was going on, but you’re such a happy baby we weren’t really sure if anything was actually wrong!

Let’s talk about hair. I am so, so glad that you have lots of hair. It is super, duper straight. Not a bit of curl, which really isn’t like anyone in our family. You’ll love it when you’re older! But right now, it just looks a little awkward most of the time. It’s really long at your side burns and the middle of your head, but not so much anywhere else. Bows are a hit and miss with you. When I blow dry your hair right after a shower or bath, it does look fluffy and cute, but that just doesn’t happen all of the time. And check out this bedhead—once it happens, there isn’t anything you can do about it without fully submerging your head in water. It’s way bad.

But I did get actually manage to get you in pigtails yesterday!! They are kind of like little horns, but at least it looks like I actually tried. And it beats the above hairstyle. You weren’t much of a fan, but I’m hoping you get used to it because I truly believe that little girls are made for pigtails.

Two words: Daddy’s girl. You sat like this for several minutes {which is like eternity in Belle cuddle time!}. You really have become more cuddly this month in general. Maybe you’ve figured out that it’s okay to relax every once in awhile and not always be on the move. Whatever it is, both Daddy and I love it.

You look so cute all bundled up in your fluffy coat. You aren’t really a fan, but I’m not either. It is a pain to get on you and then buckle you in the carseat. Let’s just hope for a continuation of the super nice winter and that we won’t need it much longer!

This is your favorite spot. If I am in the kitchen, you are here. You love this cabinet and cookie cutter drawer. You would actually prefer to play under the sink, but I won’t let you. Go ahead and sign me up for the mean mommy award.

And lastly, girl, you love to climb. Anything and everything. Sometimes I see you holding on to something just trying to get your foot up high enough to climb higher. You can’t stop your feet from climbing! Of course, stairs are your favorite. Climbing up Jackson’s slide is your second favorite. You are quick and quiet. I was making Jackson’s bed and I didn’t even know you were capable of climbing until you just appeared on the bed! About gave me a heart attack.

Jackson got this little chair for Christmas and you like to stand in it more than he gets to sit in it!

And just the other night as I was getting you a bottle at some ungodly hour as you were screaming {no, you’re not consistently sleeping through the night. not cool} and as I was about to your room and I heard a giant thud and MORE screaming. Yes, you climbed out of your crib and fell. When I picked you up, you were still basically asleep—wouldn’t even open your eyes. I didn’t really sleep much more than night because I was so worried. We are going to figure out a way to move your mattress down even lower this weekend.

Daddy cannot stand for you to even get a tiny boo-boo. If you keep this fearless attitude, you might near drive him crazy. We love your outgoing, active, independent, determined little personality. As parents we will do our best to foster those traits and help you grow to become exactly who God made you to be. We love you so very much, but always remember that Jesus loves you even more!

Back to School

I went to my first class of the semester tonight. Remember just a few months ago when I wrote a super heartfelt post about totally embracing being “just a mom”!? Well, at some point in the mere weeks after that post, I was overcome by the finishing-grad-school itch. This January marks the fourth year of classes… obviously not full time. But classes here and there. A break after each kid was born, a summer off when we bought and remodeled our home.

 

Also in attendance was my faithful purple backpack that was purchased for my freshman year at undergrad. Oh my goodness, she’ll turn 10 years old this year! That totally just dawned on me! I love this backpack. It has spongy straps that make carrying books less annoying plus, it’s decorated with a keychain a friend got for me in high school.

 

 

 

I am 27 hours into the 60 hours required to graduate with my Master’s in Counseling Psychology. It’s this giant task at which I haven’t finished, and until I finish, I feel like I’m a failure. I just want to get it over with. {That sounds as if I don’t enjoy school, and I mean, I don’t love all the work, but I do actually enjoy it. I just don’t like it hanging over my head: You still have XX hours left. You still have to apply for candidacy. You still need to find an internship.}

So, I enrolled in classes. Three of them. We took a round-about process that will better suit our family schedule and our finances, which is awesome. But regardless, that is still nine hours of grad school in one semester. The most I’ve done was six and that was a very hard time! But I can do this {or so my husband keeps telling me!}.

We’ve gotten pretty organized in the process of planning for the semester. Failing to plan is planning to fail, right? I will be staying with my parents on Monday evenings and Mom will have the kids when I’m at class all day on Tuesdays {classes eight hours in one day!? Not sure I can survive this}. They live much closer to my Tuesday school. I have another class on Wednesday evenings. It’s a hybrid class, so we only meet for an hour and a half, but that also means I have to find additional hours of time in the week to watch the lectures and take notes.

Which, is why we have decided to employ a super sweet gal to come watch the kids one or two afternoons a week. This allows a dedicated time for school work and so I’m not trying to squeeze it all in after bedtime. We’ve been meal planning according to schedule and I have several frozen meals in place. Meals picked out for when I’m in class on Tuesdays and for when I’m gone in the afternoons doing school work. I still have my mornings open for MOPS, play dates, library time, and housework. Our babysitting agreement also includes one night a month to plan for a date night. I swear, if it’s not scheduled, it’s just not happening!

Good grief. I’m stressed out just writing that all down. Actually, I was stressed before that. I had my first class tonight and it was the first time it dawned on me that this is going to be a lot of hard work. Starting a little stressed has snowballed into all out ridiculousness.

I’m stressed about:

• school work/tests/papers in general
• diagnosing mental disorders—it’s is my least favorite thing to do in grad school and I have a whole class attributed to just that. Ugh.
• being the very first presenter in my diagnosis class!? Stupid last initial. Not that my maiden one was any better.
• am I even smart enough for this!?

I feel guilty about:

• not having a job to earn money
• costing money to pay for school
• costing more money for childcare
• not being there to provide the childcare for my kids
• not having super lavish birthday parties for my kids like I see on some blogs because we spend money for me to go to school instead of renting out Gymboree, hiring a decorator, and having Dora show up.

Okay seriously, those are all things floating in my head. And honestly, I am super worried about gaining a bazillion pounds. I eat when I’m stressed {a habit I am diligently trying to change}! We have been working hard at adopting a healthier lifestyle-think trips to the gym, healthier foods—and it’s really hard to commit to change in the midst of chaos.

I feel a little ridiculous getting that all out, but I needed to have it in writing. At this point, I have to trust the Lord to guide me through it all. I need to know where I started so when I come out alive on the other end, I can look back and see how the Lord brought us through.

And because I refuse to let my overwhelming thoughts get the best of me, so I made sure to make a list of blessings to give me perspective!

Blessings

• successful permission to enroll at cheaper school
• having a schedule that allows for sufficient family time
• people I love and trust to provide childcare
• great supportive husband {and family}
• opportunity to study something I’m passionate about!

Whew! This was a long post. Belle turned 11 months today! I will post with her pictures and updates tomorrow!

Helping Hungry Families—a birthday celebration

The other day I told you about volunteering at Harvester’s with my Sunday School class. Today I’m going to share how we celebrated my mom’s birthday this year.
Mom turned 27-again {and again} this year on December 23rd. It’s hard when people have birthdays so close to Christmas because their celebrations often get thrown into the existing holiday festivities. This year, we made sure to give Mom her very own party—a volunteer party at Harvester’s!

Did you know you could have a volunteer party?!? How cool is that. You can have it for children as young as six {with lots of adult supervisors} up until age 56 27 or even older. You can book a party during any of Harvester’s normal volunteer hours with a minimum of two-hour blocks. Harvester’s provides a party room and even a cake!

Mom and Ruth’s Mom
{kinda embarrassing, but that’s the only way I know her by!}

Hanging out—waiting for cake! This is only about half of the people who came. Several people brought their families!

When having your party at Harvester’s, you invite the guests to bring 10 cans {10 pounds} of food as their gift! I was stocking up like crazy getting items to ensure that Mom was able to receive her special party shirt that is reserved for birthday honorees whose guest collect an average of 10 pounds per person. Of course, Mom’s friends are awesome and brought a lot of food—330 pounds {which equates to 260 meals!} from 23 people!

Mom got her special shirt! “My party made a difference at Harvesters!”

And then we volunteered! Can I say that our task for the evening sounds incredibly weird and boring, but everyone had a great time! Lots of sorting, lots of bagging, but mostly lots of conversation and laughter!
Before I explain our actual task I will explain a little information to put it into perspective. Harvester’s gets donations in a variety of ways including monetary and food donations. Some money is received from government agencies and others through individual giving. Food is collected through food drives, restaurant donations, and by companies {and don’t forget birthday parties!}.
We spent the evening sorting carrots that were donated from a grocery store chain in Canada. I hesitate to call what we worked with carrots as they did not look like any carrot I had *ever* seen. They were more like tiny orange logs.

See—I’m totally not kidding. Can you imagine the size a snowman
would have to be to support this as a nose!?

But the ginormous size and sometimes awkward shape were the exact reason the carrots were donated. If a grocery store would put these carrots in their produce section, people would pick all around them and they would eventually go bad. Basically, no one will buy these {not when the pretty, thin carrots are available} and these bulky carrots would waste shelf space and potentially cost the store money to have these displayed. Donating them offers a special tax break and also helps feed others who desperately need it!

The carrots were shipped to Harvester’s in 50 pound bags stacked high on several palates.

It was our job to divide the carrots into smaller {5 pound-ish} bags that could be distributed to a family or even local soup kitchens. Because really, what single person has a need for 50 pounds of carrots!?

We had three tables {work stations}.

And we were able tackle about two full palates between us all {I don’t want to brag or anything, but our table cleared our entire palate} and we were able to fill three large containers of carrots to be distributed.

See, if I didn’t explain a little at the beginning, it would have sounded weird to say we un-bagged ugly carrots to bag them into smaller bags. And really, when dealing with fresh produce it is critical to get the work done quickly so that it doesn’t spoil by the time it gets distributed!

We make carrots look good!!

Laura—she’s the weird one. I’m telling you, these carrots could be used
as a deadly weapon—Death by carrot {haven’t seen that on CSI yet!}

After our volunteer shift, we had a nice tour through Harvester’s huge facility! I had even been on a tour before and I was still fascinated. The operation is huge and it helps so many people through several programs. Our guide was super sweet and answered all of our many questions.

One person asked about one of the greatest needs of Harvester’s Food Network. The one thing that our super-sweet guide mentioned was that donations and volunteers are abundant in the holiday and winter months. However, once the nice weather and summer/spring seasons come around, the donations dwindle and the need for volunteers goes down as well. Yet people go hungry all year round. This is true for food banks, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters across the country. I just wanted to plant that in your head and maybe you can brainstorm a way to make a different and find some ways to donate this spring and summer!
Be sure to check out Harvester’s volunteer page and plan a time to come spend a few hours making a difference. Regardless of the season, your work will impact the community in a positive way!!

Helping Hungry Kids

Last night Belle started walking!! She took about 12 steps in a row, several different times! This is exactly the same age that her brother started walking too. We were visiting my Uncle Joel and there was a house full of people and three very large {and very loud} dogs so we didn’t capture a video. But, that is on my to-do list today or tomorrow {or whenever she decides she wants to walk again!}.

Back to what I was really intending to blog about today.

During the holiday season, I took part in several non-convetional celebrations—volunteering! Instead of a Christmas party, our Sunday school class volunteered together and we also celebrated Mom’s birthday doing the same! With these two groups, we went to Harvesters- Kansas City’s largest food bank. Our family also volunteered at a homeless shelter downtown!

The Sunday school party was first. When you sign up to volunteer {it’s way super easy!} you just sign up for a time slot. Then when you show up, you’re just assigned to do a job that needs to be done that day. Our task for the evening was to package the bags for the Back Snack program.

Basically, it’s a back pack of food given to low income elementary kids to supply them with food to last the weekend. These kids will get their breakfast and lunch at school during the week and often go hungry on the weekend. Isn’t that devastating?! We packed food in plastic bags that will be placed inside the backpack the kids will receive. On Friday afternoon the teachers hand them to the students discretely so that other’s don’t have to know they are getting food and then the students return the backpack on Monday morning. All items can be opened by the kids and are safe to eat at room temperature: canned pasta, granola, cereal, shelf stable milk, easy mac, canned veggies among other things.

Assembly line: section 1—the packers. {who occasionally stop for a photo op}

Assembly line: section 2—the inspectors, making sure all items are included!

Assembly line: section 3—My work station! We were the sealers. I have a love/hate relationship with this appliance.

Assembly line: section 4—Boxing it up. The boys had to assemble the boxes and put five sack into each box.

On paper {online} this might seem kinda boring, but we all had a really fun time. In my opinion, I think the boys actually had too much fun of a time—they were rather rambunctious. In a little over an hour, we were able to pack, seal, and box up nearly two palates full of food for hungry kids in our area. How cool!

So, this was a little wordier than I had imagined and to prevent this from being the longest post ever—I will write about my other volunteer opportunities later this week!

In the meantime, check out Harvester’s volunteer page. Set up a time for you and some friends

What are ways you like to volunteer in your area?

From Shorts to Snow boots

So yesterday Jackson was outside playing in shorts! Okay, it was kinda chilly, but it was *really* nice for January in the midwest! Well, anyway, today he wore his snow boots.

They say, if you don't like the weather in Missouri-- just wait five minutes! But seriously, I'm ready for yesterday's weather again. Brrrr! It's cold outside. I'm not a fan.