Two-year old tid-bits

Jackson is at such a super fun age. I feel as if I've said that at about every stage he's gone through...but it's just so fun to watch him grow!

First, he is talking non-stop. My mother pretty much laughed in my face when I told her that I really just needed a break from him telling me story after story one day. So, I guess I had it coming. It is so fun to have real conversations with him! After spending time with grandparents, he'll tell me what they did together. Or he'll bring up a movie or a book he's recently read.

His vocabulary is growing rapidly. And I am reminded of how much he picks up on all of the things I say and do!    Like, when I hear him in the back seat going "dang-it" over and over again. Oops! Not all of it's bad. Whenever he coughs he says, "gracious" (as in goodness gracious) or he'll come up to me and say "icky cough!" He is currently in the stage of saying, "Aaawww!" at lots of things, actually, but mostly at clothing items and pictures of babies, however, he did say it while looking through the Hy-Vee grocery ad today. Not sure what that was about, but apparently, he's heard a lot of "ohhing" and "ahhing" over baby girl stuff!

Speaking of baby girl, he calls her "baby sister". He does know her name, however he has no interest in even trying to repeat it back to me ever... and in the few times that he does, it sounds nothing like her name. Feel free to ask him. Today he picked out one of the pink blankets I had out, and proceeded to "make her bed" on the ottoman (I'm super excited to post about how I transformed by coffee table into an ottoman!).

Jackson has been going down for bedtime really well for several weeks. And for the past couple days, nap time has been super easy too! Oh, it's such a relief! I purchased room-darkening curtains from Wal-mart (I don't recommend then, they are totally not-room darkening... but my windows are very short, so if I double them, they do the trick). Really, it made all the difference in the world having those curtains, so he's not distracted by the toys!

Jackson loves to give hugs and kisses when people leave, often multiple times. And yesterday when I dropped him off at the nursery at morning church, I totally thought he was going to have a melt-down with me leaving by the way he was acting, not letting me leave... but it turned out he just wanted to kiss the bulletin I was holding in my hand. At night church, it was my purse. Weird.

He is convinced that we have a cactus growing in our front yard... somewhere underneath the 7 inches of snow that is covering our yard.

His current sentence structure sounds a lot like, "Where James is?" when asking for a friend at church. He still says, "up you/hold you/help you"- whatever he wants at the moment. And it is very, very important that you repeat back to him what he says to you or else he gets extremely frustrated and will shout it over and over until you do actually repeat it.

Then at bath time tonight, he was unusually gassy. As if he didn't already giggle enough when he toots, he figured out that tooting underwater makes bubbles. And apparently, that's really very funny.

Sleepless in South KC

I am looking for advice, tips, suggestions-- anything, please! I've been in a general state of tiredness all week and Jackson has decided he just doesn't need to sleep all that much anymore.

First off, Jackson has always been the kind of kid that when he gets super tired-- he sleeps less. He does not make up for sleep; he just continually gets less and less, which is what's happening here. Second, he's always napped more than the average kid--last week he would have gotten around 11 hours of sleep at night with anywhere from 3-4 hours in naps during the day, at almost two years old.

It all started with a busy weekend and a messed up nap schedule. Sunday night he was up in the middle of the night for over two hours, but only took one nap on Monday. Since then, he's only taken one nap a day and I have just assumed it was time for that adjustment.

The thing is, is that he still needs more sleep than he's getting. I've tried moving his naps to later in the day, but he gets cranky around dinner time and stays that way until bedtime (has always been 8:30-9ish). And then, this morning he was up at 5:45am (his normal is 7:15ish). For the day. During the five o' clock hour. This is my indication that he needs more/longer naps. He has gotten progressively less and less sleep each day this week and I just can't handle him loosing anymore sleep. Last night he got 9 hours of sleep at night and if he naps like he has been this week, the nap will be 2-3 hours.

We went from 14-15 hours of sleep a day to 11-12 hours in a matter of days and statistically speaking, that's quite a bit. While for some kids, I know that's totally normal, it's just not Jackson's normal. And I would think this change might be okay if he wasn't showing signs of tiredness throughout the day.

And since he's able to climb out of his crib, I've lost a bit of the power in just putting him down and letting him cry himself to sleep.

Is this no sleep thing a phase? Is he just exploring his freedom of escaping the crib? Does it ever end? What's the best way to adjust to one nap (and to make it count!)? What can I do when it's 5:00 and evidently tired and cranky but we still have hours until bed time? HELP!

I have dreaded this day for a very long time

Jackson has learned to climb out of his crib.

This is just really unfortunate news for me. In a recent conversation with a friend about moving Jackson into a toddler bed, I said, "I don't have confidence that Jackson will stay in his bed, his room, or even in this house if he doesn't have the crib to confine him."

As if the kid needs more to distract him from taking a nap. He was up for over 2 hours last night playing (for the first hour) and screaming. He had missed his afternoon nap two days in a row and was getting progressively grumpier. So when I put him down for a morning nap this morning... and he climbs out! The poor kid has bags under his eyes. He desperately needs to catch up on sleep. At least he's taking a nice nap now that last late enough to keep him bearable until bed time. And hopefully he can have a good night's rest tonight.

Here's the latest clip I have of Jackson avoiding his nap. He just gets so hyper when he's tired as to convince himself that he doesn't need a nap. Trust me. He does!!

On a positive note. I went to my 12 week prenatal appointment today. My doctor couldn't find the heartbeat, which totally stressed me out, but she sent me in for a sonogram so I got to see the little fella/lady. The heartbeat was great (137) and the baby even waved. The sonogram tech was super fun and typed in "Hi Daddy" so I could send it to Derek. How cute!

The baby is on his/her back. Head to the left. The arm is under the words.

Not Mom of the Year

I've come across this Not-Mom-of-The-Year contest and I looked like too much fun not to join in. It's not even the fact that it's a contest, it's just therapuetic to go out there are read other peoples stories that make me feel a little a lot better about myself as a mom and how "un-June Cleaver-ish" I am.

1. I have actually picked an Elmo movie to watch specifically because it was the longest video so that I could take a longer nap while he watched it-- there is a big difference between 46 and 54 minutes. 
2. I am too cheap to buy my son summer pj's (the winter ones are always passed down from friends) so he wears his clothes to bed every night.
3. I put Jackson down to nap with a cup sometimes-- but I do know that he doesn't fall asleep in his mouth because I hear him throw it out of his crib along with his books, toys, etc... before falling asleep. Wait- why I am I defending myself.... I already know I am a qualified Not-Mom-of-The-Year. 
4. I dropped Jackson big time when he was only a couple weeks old. I was carrying him in the bouncy seat and the seat caught on the door handle and so I dropped the seat and he slid right on to the floor... head first.
5. I call my son gross so often that it was actually one of his first words-- after meals, during diaper changes. I never noticed it until he started saying it each time.
6. We've lived in this house for nearly a year and I just finished getting his room together yesterday.
7. Our laundry is always behind--even if I wash it, it stays in the basket probably until I need the basket again to take more dirty clothes downstairs. The last time I mopped, was-- oh wait.. I haven't while I've lived in this house. The toilet-- haven't done that either. (in my defense, I did get a cleaning certificate for Christmas and they did do these each once...). 
8. And I'm always to forgetful to even call the cleaning ladies. I complain about not having a maid, but then it's because I am too lazy to just call. So the house is a remains a mess. 
9. Jackson doesn't bathe every day and he hardly ever gets to play in the bath. Most of the time, he just gets to hop in the shower with me or Derek for a quick lather and rinse before getting handed back out to the other one.
10. I let my child eat dirt.
11. I'm not even cool enough to have lots of cute pictures on this post or to make a nice ryhming poem for this thing-- it's totally boring. 

So, I totally think all my mom friends should try this-- It's like free therapy. Go ahead and share some comment-love with some of the things that qualify you as a Not-Mom-of-The-Year and be sure to read some of the other entries just so give your self-esteem a little boost!

More fun than a nap

Jackson had a little bit of an off day yesterday and I really wanted him to take a second nap. I put him down and he played quietly for quite awhile and then we heard a ruckus. Derek went in to check on him and this is what he was up to:

Looks more fun than taking a nap, right? It was nerve-wrecking to watch anticipating him banging his head on the crib, but I guess he's got it figured out. This is another reason that we have no plans to switch to a toddler bed any time soon.

Weekend Report

We spent the weekend doing lots of fun things. Let's take a look:

This was actually Thursday, but I love this picture. Jackson is all about (double) dipping his chips in the salsa these days.

Friday night, we had friends over for dinner and headed out to Community Days to walk around and enjoy a funnel cake. Jackson loved looking at the big "gruck".

Saturday morning, we walked in the Community Days parade with our church. Jackson did an awesome throwing tootsie rolls when he wasn't putting them in his mouth (with the wrapper).

Saturday afternoon we took Jackson to see his first movie, Toy Story 3. He was mesmerized by the giant tv and didn't move a muscle for an hour and fifteen minutes. After that, he was pretty squirmy, but overall he did really well. He didn't quite weight enough to hold the seat down, so he sat in a slight v formation, but he didn't mind.

I went to work and Derek held down the fort on Saturday evening. After Jackson went to bed successfully fixed three computers-- one which was my laptop. If you listen closely, you can probably hear my singing the Hallelujah chorus right now! Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

Unfortunately I had a monstrous headache that lasted every minute I was awake yesterday. The good news is that I spent over four hours in naps, which lessened the time spent with the actual headache. We went to lunch with Derek's grandpa and some other family to celebrate Father's Day. Then Derek went out and bought the lumber needed to begin the work on finishing the basement and he cleared out the area we are going to start with. Oh! And Dad brought down the new kitchen  countertop that his wonderful friend made for us and that will be getting installed soon. Hallelujah, Hallelujah!!

We got a lot accomplished this weekend, but we had plenty of time for relaxing and fun too! And in case you are feeling a case of the Mondays this morning, check this out!!