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.