Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The MacGregor 4th Annual Picnic in the Park

This year was our 4th Annual MacGregor Picnic in the Park. This year, the picnic took place at Peckham Park in Old Town Katy. If you live near Katy, and you haven't been there, check it out! It's beautiful and has free putt-putt, a pretty lake you can walk around and fish in, playgrounds, a pavilion you can reserve for free, an indoor pool, work out rooms, and more!
Jackson had a blast! When he fed bread to the ducks, he laughed and laughed and laughed.

The Binetti Family won the award for driving the farthest for the picnic!
Jackson got to "fish" for the first time.
Here he is with his Uncle Stephen

Jackson sure loved Violet's bike!

Cutie Maddie!

These chairs with the cover were Father's Day/Birthday presents! Looks like they are being enjoyed.

Mimi is helping Violet learn to skate.

Jackson is giving high fives to Niki and her nephews.

Look at those mouths!
The picnic was a success, although it was hot and there were flies, everyone had a great time. It's always a nice reminder of our love for each other as well as our family and friends.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Faint Pink Line

Today is the day that we found out that I am pregnant with Little MacGregor 2.0. That name will work until we decide on a nickname. Before I tell too much, I am going to go back in time.

I'm going back in time 2 years to talk about finding out we were preggo with Jackson. I was extremely ill and throwing up/unable to keep anything down for a couple of days. We ended up in the ER due to dehydration. While we were there, we mentioned, that I might be pregnant. She nurse ran some tests, came back 20 mins later, went over some information, and in the middle of it said, "blah blah blah, and you're not pregnant, blah blah blah" and walked out. I was disappointed to say the least. Her bedside manner also left a lot to be desired.

Time went by. 4 days to be exact. It was September 4, Grandma Stockman's birthday. I was in a boring training learning to do to something in a database that I already knew how to do. While my thoughts wandered, I realized, I might be pregnant! I met my mom for lunch and was tempted to stop at a Walgreens on the way. I decided to wait until I got home with Rob. When I got home, I didn't want to tell him because I didn't want him to get his hopes up, just in case it wasn't true. Sure enough, it was true! Although I had all of these plans of how I would tell him, I just ran out and yelled, "This says we're pregnant" while holding the test. Telling my mom on her birthday, that she was going to have her first grandchild is probably the best gift I've ever given her.

Flash forward to yesterday. I had been pretty sure I was pregnant for a few days. I already had the nausea along with a few other random symptoms, including being VERY tired. Rob was running out to take care of our little mortgage (that we're hopefully about to get rid of!!), and I was going to mail a present for Felicia. While I was out I purchased a "Big Brother" shirt for Jackson and a book called, Waiting for Baby. I broke down and had already taken 2 pregnancy tests, even though I knew there was pretty much no way it would show up positive. It was too early. I stopped at CVS and bought another box of tests. This time I bought an actual brand, not just the cheapest one possible, that had the early detection capability. Then, I went home. On the way, I told myself I wouldn't take a test until the morning. Of course, I did anyway. Negative again. Of course.

I woke up this morning, took the test. This time, there was a line. It was faint. You had to look hard to see it, but there was a line!! I immediately dressed Jackson in his Big Brother shirt, and got out the book. I planned on waiting until Rob woke up to do this, but couldn't wait. I went in and told him that Jackson kept saying DaDa and that he wanted him to read him a book. Despite the fact that it wasn't 7am yet, he said, ok. Just bring him here and I'll read it to him. So I brought him in, handed him the book. He looked at it and said, "Is this a new book?" Yes, it is I responded. I bought it yesterday. Then he stopped, looked at me, and said, "Wait, do we know for sure?" I told him, the line was faint, but it was there. Rob read him the book anyway and we cuddled in bed, as a family of four.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

A Day at the Zoo for Grandma's Birthday

For Grandma MacGregor's birthday, we went to the zoo. Grandma was excited to get her senior citizen discount, but was a little disappointed that she didn't get carded. Here she is showing off her senior ticket and reversible hat from Penny's family.


Jackson hung out with the elephants for a while.
It was extremely HOT at the zoo. They had these fans set up that blew out mist. Jackson really liked them!I love this photo! Stupid trash can.
This cheetah was awesome. (S)he kept trying to eat through the fence. There was a mildly obnoxious school group that kept ending up at the same places we were. They all were yelling at this fella and (s)he jumped on the fence and hissed. You should have seen those kids! Hilarious.

Silly monkey and silly monkey 2.
Momm






Birthday high fives!



Since Jackson has taken a liking to trains, Jackson went on his first train ride!

Although it was a hot day, we had a great time at the zoo with Grandma and Granddad.

Jackson's First Astros Game

We went to Jackson's first Astros game on Thursday, 6/24. It was just Mommy and Jackson since Daddy had to participate in some interviews for a new English teacher. We had great seats on the club level, which made things a little easier. It was a day game, so the walk was not fun. We had to park pretty far away and I carried the heavy boy and all his stuff the whole time because if I put him down to walk, he wanted to pull away from my hand, walk into traffic, and pick up every loose cigarette on the ground. But, we finally got there and pretty much had the area to ourselves.

Jackson had fun...for a while. 9 innings is too much for a one year old.

The lady sitting across the aisle from us took this picture for us. She took about 5 and this was the best one. I guess it's my fault because she asked me if I checked them and I said, "Oh I'm sure one of them is bound to be fine." Yikes! But, at least Jackson is having fun!



Jackson decided that he wanted to walk to the row in front of us and sit alone.

Here Jackson is bored with baseball (2nd inning) and has moved on to reading. I love how intensely he is pointing to the car. He loves this book. Thanks again Felicia!
After a few innings, Mommy made Jackson go up to the control room where she worked to meet everyone. We stopped off at the writing press level to say hi to a few people. If you can't tell, by this point, Jackson was READY TO GO. There is one thing you can't tell from this photo, since his bottom half is cut off. Right before this, he peed on me. That hasn't happened in ages. I was holding him on my hip, and I guess somehow his diaper got moved funny and didn't catch the pee. Instead it went all over my side.
All in all he did well. Oh, and he loved the animations on the color scoreboard.

Words

For documentation purposes, these are Jackson's current words:

Mama
Dada
Uh oh
Puppy (sounds like Buppy)
Bye-bye
Ball
Door (his current favorite word)
Bubble

He tries to say shoe, but it comes out more like ssshhhhh
We think he says this and these. It sounds like it and he uses it at the appropriate times, but we're not sure.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Late Father's Day

Rob is an amazing Daddy. I knew he would be from the beginning. Not only does he do the yucky stuff (like changing diapers), but he does all the fun stuff as well. I love all the little Daddy/Son routines they have together. I love listening to him when he's in Jackson's room putting him to bed. I love watching them play together, read together, and laugh together. I love our little family.

On Sunday, to celebrate Father's Day, Rob wanted to have breakfast at Essence House Cafe. This place is his new obsession. Rob conned me into going for lunch earlier in the week by telling me they have the best tea ever. I love ice tea and agreed to go. (I am not normally a big fan of sandwich places. I think it's a waste of money because you can easily make one at home for pennies.) Although I hated their ice tea, the food was good! Neither of us had been there for breakfast yet, but I assumed it would be good as well. Oh it was. We both get Eggs a la Mexicana. Holy cow. They were good. We also had dinner at one of Rob's favorite restaurants... Chuy's of course.

Before leaving for breakfast, Rob opened his Father's Day presents. He got an Iron Man 2 card and a "Co-Pilot" for bike rides.

That evening we decided to bike to Rob's favorite Gelato place Spelato. At first, as you can see, Jackson wasn't sure what to think.

Then, he got comfortable.
Until we put a helmet on him. He won't wear a hat and apparently, he doesn't like helmets either.
Once we were moving he was okay... for the most part. By the time we drove to the gelato place, found out they were closed for Father's Day, and drove back to our neighborhood he was DONE. We had to stop a few streets from home to get him out. Poor guy. I don't know what we did wrong, but the straps just didn't seem right and seemed to be to tight on his neck on one side. He isn't too small according to the product information. Any tips?

Jackson's First Toddler Time at the Library

Jackson went to his first toddler time at the Cinco Ranch Library today. He was a little more interested in looking at the other kids than listening to the story, but I think he had fun. Rob was one of two daddies there. Awesome.

They read a couple of stories, do some songs with body motion and do a craft. Here's Jackson's first craft. We let Jackson do the coloring and place the pieces where he wanted; all we did was put the glue on and show him how to use the crayons. If you can't tell, it's a pizza. It's now hanging on our fridge with the monster magnet.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Max

Congratulations to Jill and Jason for having such a beautiful and healthy little boy! After Tripp and Violet's birthday party, we stopped off for a quick visit. I forgot how little babies are when they start out!


Jackson continues to love trains.

Tripp and Violet's Party

Violet just turned 3 and Tripp is about to turn 1! They had a join party yesterday afternoon. It was a pirate theme and Jackie (and KL) did a great job! Jackson had a lot of fun.
Jackson wore his monkey pirate swimsuit for the occasion.
Jackson wanted to hold hands with an older woman.
Violet says "cheese" (literally) for the camera.
Jackson liked Violet's scooter.
And LOVED Tripp's dump truck. He enjoyed having someone his own age to play with, but as you can see, he couldn't completely let go of the truck while they played.

Happy birthday, kiddos!

Jackson's First Movie/Violet's 3rd Birthday

For Violet's 3rd birthday, Jackson went to his first movie (yes, we know that children aren't supposed to watch TV/movies until they are 2). We saw Toy Story 3. The movie was a 3D movie, which was neat...except Jackson refused to wear his 3D glasses. If you don't wear the classes, everything is very blurry.

Jackson was so enthralled he didn't even take his eyes off the screen to hand me the 3D glasses that he didn't want to wear. Disclaimer: Do not look too closely at this seat or you will not want to go to the movies again. It looked fine at the theatre. Darn flash.
The birthday girl turns 3!
Jackson spent much of the time hanging with lil David. I have never seen him be so gentle. He lightly touched his hair, rocked him, and admired his shoes. He also did a lot of staring.
Awww. Will. We don't get to see enough of this cutie!
The hit of the party...