Monday, May 2, 2011

Jackson - 2 Years

Your birthday was nearly a week ago, but we just can't seem to get this entry written. The past two years with you have been amazing. People always talk about the "miracle of life" and it always seemed so cliche. Duh, of course life is a miracle. After watching you grow and change over the course of the past two years we have been able to truly see how much of a miracle it really is. It's incredible to look at your adorable face and see how you have Mommy's eyes or Daddy's lips. You've developed your own distinct personality that contains little bits of Mommy and Daddy, too. You have the "Jackson do it" from Mommy's stubbornness and at the same time the desire to make everyone happy from Daddy's personality. You get the silliness from both sides.

You talk. And talk. And talk. It's highly entertaining most of the time. You can now tell us about your day. Your favorite parts of the school day are playing outside, bubbles, bikes, and books. You especially like Daniella and Sophia. Oh yeah, and apparently Blakey cries a lot. You also still melt our hearts when you tell us, "I love you." This is especially true when you randomly say it on your own and not just because it's part of your bedtime routine. When is it not entertaining? Just the other day, Daddy said, "Jackson come eat breakfast." You said, "No." Mommy said, "Jackson, that wasn't very nice. Please don't tell Mommy and Daddy no like that." Of course, this was followed by, "No Mommy. No Daddy." Really? Already? You just turned 2. You seem to be picking up new words every day, or at least the sounds of words. Daddy has learned if he says "sucks" in front of you, you're going to repeat it without fail. That sucks.

You also have an amazing memory. Not only do you learn things quickly from the days of the week to almost counting to 30 but you also memorize a lot of the books we are reading. We can go months without reading a book and you still remember them. The other day, you told Daddy about your puppy Tiptoe, who is a stuffed animal we haven't mentioned in the past six months. We fear that later in life this great memory of yours will come back to haunt us. We can already see you using our words against us in future arguments.

You have sweet little ways of letting us know you care. You love your baby brother so much. If he's sitting near you, you'll hand him a pacifier or blanket. When he cried the other day in the car, you began singing to him while holding on to his car seat's handle. (You were singing "Golden Slumbers" from Abbey Road which happens to be what Daddy has been singing to you every night since you were a few months old. It was extremely sweet. Daddy might have teared up while driving.) You will randomly hug us or repeat our names. You run to us and hug us at day care and want to hold our hands all the time. Total parenting perk.

You love your pronouns. Anything new to you is "that," to be repeated while pointing. "Here" and "there" are big favorites too.

You are obsessed with outside right now. You've learned you need socks and shoes to go outside, so if you don't have them on, you'll sadly repeat "socks and shoes" at the door. You love to play with bubbles, your plastic car, and water outside, and with the addition of the water and picnic tables that came for your birthday, you will probably be having a farmer tan all summer. You also figured out how to work the gate. That's no good.

Now don't get us wrong. You are awesome, but you also have your frustrating moments as well. You're better about not throwing food on the floor, but sometimes you do it just to be annoying. The dogs love those nights. You don't go limp very often anymore, but when you do, it drives us crazy.

Despite these frustrating things, we can no longer image life without our little monkey. You're enriched everything we know about life. We can't wait to introduce you to more of the world.  We love you and we love being your parents.

Birth



One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months
Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months
Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

Twelve Months/One Year


13 Months

14 Months

15 Months
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17 Months

18 Months

19 Months

20 Months

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22 Months

23 Months

24 Months/2 Years!