Cute Story About a Two Year Old

My darling Jaxson is so darn cute sometimes it makes me laugh while my heart is melting at the same time. Today was one of those days. Dave had his birthday round of disc golf today and so Jaxson and I were off to my 16week baby doctor appointment together. Jaxson was doing great, tagging close behind and not touching anything at all. I was so proud of him!

When we got into the room they do the measuring and the heartbeat. It was a little harder to find today so he sat wide eyed in the chair wondering what they were doing to his mommy. He heard the heartbeat and looked at me inquisitively. I told him that is the baby talking to him and he smiled. When I sat up he happily said all done! I had to explain that we had one more stop, which was at the lab for some blood work I had to get done on this appointment and a flu shot.

We get over there, sit down in the chair and once again he gets the worried look on his face. He saw the shot and quickly looked at me saying hurt, hurt, owie, owie. I told him it won't hurt, he seemed reluctant but ok. He saw the bandaid go on and he smile with an "all done!" Not quite. He then watched as they wrapped my arm and started to take blood. This he didn't take well. He was so upset that they were hurting me. He stared at her and was saying no, no, hurt, hurt. Then the tubes of blood began and his bottom lip stuck out and began to quiver and tears began streaming down his face. He didn't want them to hurt me, and was pretty upset. I didn't realize it would affect him so much. When they were done I reassured him I was ok and the nurse gave him a sucker and a sticker for being such a big boy. But nobody could deny how cute and pretty funny it was. It was so cute to see him be so worried about me, even at two he was trying to protect his mommy from getting hurt. I love him so much, but will be keeping him out of the lab next time. :)

Groovin..

Jaxson loves to watch those goofy stars run around on the dance floor on Dancing with the Stars. He doesn't really do as much watching as he does run and dance around the living room. I am not sure where he got his need to move but he certainty does. I know that it isn't me who looks like a dead fish on the dance floor, and I guess Dave gets a little noodle-ly but only after an entire bottle of wine and various other drinks (example: His sister's wedding!)


But Jaxson's favorite "dance" move is the somersault. He just does it over and over and over again. I am pretty sure he has both a headache and a bad case of being dizzy but it doesn't seem to phase him. From the beginning of Dancing until bedtime he just somersaults away. 

Fun and Games

Tonight after dinner I was thinking it would be nice if there was a game that the three of us could play together. Jaxson is now a two years old and is able to comprehend more and more each day, but I don't think I do enough new activities with him. Of course we play with his toys a lot and we talk about different things but there are many more creative moms out there with crafts and activities than me. I got an activity book but haven't looked through it thoroughly just yet. So before bed tonight I found an activity online with pasta. You pick out a few different kinds and they can sort, dump, or otherwise play with them. It took me about one minute to put it together, the hardest part was all my Tupperware falling out of the cupboard and trying to get it all to stay back in there. :) He quickly followed me and went right to work. I didn't have to give him any direction, he just began to sort. And sort again, and again. Then I showed him he could dump. So then he dumped it from one to another. He quickly learned that it all wouldn't fit in the small container and would reprimand me if I started to pour into that one, or even if I tried to sort them wrong. He was a very good helper and shared very well. The worst part of the pasta game was the fit he had when it was time to end it and go to bed. I will try to find two new activities from my book each day, at least on the days I have off. His brain is growing and learning and Dave and I need to make the most of his environment. If you have any ideas for fun activities that don't take much crafting send me a comment!

Funny to the Bone

Our second year anniversary came and went while we worked all day on Tuesday. It felt like a regular day but I did have flowers waiting for me when I got home. :) We did feel the need to celebrate somehow so the plan was to take Jaxson to Elaine's tonight and do something. It would probably be movie or dinner because we are stuck in our usual box of ideas. But because I married a Barry, the luckiest family (restricted to the men it seems) in Iowa, probably the Unites States, who win many of the contests they enter, it wasn't a movie or dinner. We started our evening with dinner cooked by Elaine, so ALOT of food and tastes like perfection really goes without saying, and then met four friends at the Funnybone with the six free tickets Dave won!!!! Dan and Anne as well as Kristy and Eric met us to use up all the free tickets and enjoyed the show. It was really funny and was something different which was great. We should go more often, and I am sure with Dave and his luckiness we will probably be getting more free tickets.

Project Two: Try Again

Well, I got good and bad news today at class.  I will start with the bad. My pieces of Addison project that I did I got the thumbs down on and a must redo. I was not supposed to use a flash, which I did, so that gave me an automatic redo. Also, I didn't have enough in focus pictures to choose from (due to the flash issue) so I am off to do it again. If she isn't up for it I may have to enlist someone else. Anyone want to volunteer their children??? :)

Tonights in class project at least improved my moral somewhat. We were sent outside to shoot nature. We had to stay within certain apertures and ISO but other than that no direction. I kept taking pictures that at the time I didn't think much of but once on the computer the teacher said I nailed it.  I would have rather nailed my second project but I guess I have to take what I can get.

Duds

I went to Beth's for my latest photo project in which I needed to borrow Addison, when I left I snagged two milk duds for my drive. Those lasted about to the car door and then I wanted more. more. more. I was trying to resist but as the idea of watching a movie came up I couldn't help it. Dave had to go to the store to get me some Milk Duds. The bad part was I kept saying Whoppers so when he came home with whoppers I almost started crying. Those are NOT what I wanted. I felt bad that it was totally my fault and felt worse when Dave went back to the store to get Milk Duds but once I had the chocolatey caramel melting in mouth I was so so so happy. I don't know if I can blame this one on the baby or simply my sweet tooth but whatever it was the baby bump definitely was the reason Dave went to the store to get them. hehehe...

Let's Get Moving!!

Today I was having an uneventful morning since my computer wasn't working correctly. I was just sitting around letting the computer tech run around my computer on his remote access and I just texted to Dave. Hmm... hope my boss isn't reading this. ;) Then just as quick as it came it went, a little flutter in my stomach. If I hadn't been pregnant before I wouldn't have even thought twice about it but I knew what it was. It was a little person tickling giving me butterflies in my stomach. This was one of my favorite parts of being pregnant before and so excited to have felt our little one so early. I thought it was a little crazy that I could be feeling it so early so I jumped on my phone (still while I waited for the computer guy) and found that when it isn't your first pregnancy you can start at 16 weeks, which is only a few days away for us. It is so exciting to (stop puking) hear the heartbeat and feel the flutter. Wow... I am really pregnant aren't I??

If those two things don't confirm the growing bundle then my growing stomach certainly does. Although, it still very much hide-able I don't think I will be able to pull it off as long as I did with Jax man which was around 6 months.  We are creeping into 4 months this week and I becoming very apple shape. I am looking forward to moving out of the "just getting fat" stage and into the "definitely looking pregnant" stage.  At least all my pants still fit... kind of...

Mummified: Project One

The Great Toilet Paper Caper

1. Wrap a mummy with toilet paper

2. Accessories: The mummy must wear some type of accessory but cannot be dressed

3. Occupation: The mummy must have an occupation 

I received this project the day before leaving for Washington and was coming back to Des Moines just three hours before it is due in class. That meant I had to tackle this one while on vacation. My first idea was to have Jaxson be the Coppertone baby and leave his little butt bear and on a beach with his bottle of coppertone sitting next to him. About five minutes into trying to wrap him up and him screaming NO NO NO NO!! I knew it wasn't going to work. Then I looked over at mom who was getting ready to pick the pear trees. She tried to resist but knew she couldn't because I had no other options!! My sister and I started the wrap and tape, wrap and tape, process all the way up to her head. Luckily she is short and thin so it only took a half roll of TP. 

Off we went to the orchard and luckily we didn't need to do any toilet paper touch ups. My mom went up and down the ladders, picking up boxes of pears, and cleared the tree in no time. I was able to get more than enough pictures to my relief. On Wednesday, when it was my time to go over my pictures with the teacher she didn't have much critique for me. She told me they were great. I was happy and relieved. She quickly handed out next weeks assignment.. so I began to worry all over again.. 

Here are a few from my pictures. The first in each row are the two I turned into her for review. 

There and Back

Jaxson and I took off on our first plane and I was a little worried. Ok, ok, alot worried. We got settled in our seat and luckily had an empty seat next to us. Jaxson sat and was so well behaved for our trip to minneapolis. On to our next flight. This time we had a whole row of three seats to ourselves. Wonderful! Jaxson was able to stretch out and sleep the entire 2.5 hour flight to Seattle. I didn't have to use one fancy toy or device to keep him occupied. He slept, played with the seatbelts, and looked out the window the entire time. We struggled with all the luggage to the rental car but we did it. One thing that I did learn was that I CAN get somewhere with driving instructions. Not one hiccup leaving Seattle on our 3 hour drive to my moms.  The other thing I learned is that my little Jaxson is a magnificant little traveler. To my relief.

On our trip we spent time with friends and family I haven't seen in so long. I haven't been back to Washington in over 5 years. I did feel bad that I couldn't get a hold of everyone that I wanted/should have but did get to see 4 of my closest friends, one being my cousin Emily. I got to meet all their kids which was quite surreal. I know I have Jaxson and that was probably weird to them but in my mind they are just like when I left when I graduated high school with them.

One of my favorite things we did when in Washingotn was pick pears. My mom lives on a 13 acre pear orchard that my grandpa sold several years ago. Each year the orchard owner leaves my mom about 5 trees for her to pick and keep the fruit. It was time to pick while we were there and Jaxson loved it. He was having trouble at first but after he got the hang of it he was running to the next pear after gently placing his picked one in the box. He was so adorable and couldn't help but to take a lot of pictures!

After five days we had to head back to Seattle. Dave found an amazing deal on a suite at Radisson and Jaxson and I stayed in style for the night. My grandma came up for dinner in the hotel. I was a ball of nerves with the early flight in the morning and didn't eat much but Jaxson didn't seem to be bothered by it and ate a ton. I couldn't sleep at all because I was so worried I wouldn't wake up, even though I had three alarms set. So from 2:30am on I watched TLC's 19 and Counting and Little People, Big World. At 4:45am all three of my alarms go off together and somehow my little traveling two year old wasn't bothered at all. We were on our bus at 5:30am, and through security by 6am. We grabbed some breakfast and watched the "Choo Choo's" aka airplanes. We weren't as lucky on the way home and didn't have any extra seats but Jaxson was still an amazing traveler. Plane one he slept the entire way, and second one he giggled and played with no trouble.

I think the cutest moment was when Jaxson saw Dave for the first time from down the hallway in Des Moines. He smiled from ear to ear, yelled daddy!, and just took off running towards to him with his little backpack on his back. I wish I had taken a video because I almost started crying watching him. And finally, I had Dave to lug all the luggage to the car. And guess who was complaining about his back and arms before we got to the door of the airport. By the time we made it across the walkway he was telling me how heavy it was. uumm..... yah I know, I lugged it through airplanes, airports, rental cars, and hotels. I KNOW how heavy and obnoxious it was. haha... guys....

Goodbye and Goodluck

Stack on top of this pile a baby, a stroller, and a large, forward facing car seat and then you will have a full visual on what I have to (somehow) get from the luggage area in Seattle, on to a bus, off of a bus, and into a rental car. Yah, I am thinking the same thing. Impossible!! I am just hoping I look helpless enough (won't be hard to do) and someone will feel their duty to help me.

I stopped at Toys-R-Us yesterday and picked a few items that will hopefully keep Jaxson occupied during our trip. I got an etch-a-sketch thing but with the pen (not the one with the two dials), a Waterdoodle thing (fill the pen up with water and colors ONLY on the page), colorful, bendable pipe cleaners to be crafty with, an ipod touch with  little headphones loaded with episodes from all his favorite shows and games for toddlers, coloring book w/ crayons, three different books, a book with magnet cards to match, three new race cars, and will be making puppets with the barf bags if needed. Extra barf bags over here please! We have a change of clothes in the bag for both of just in case we have to use the puppets for their intended use. I was debating on dosing a little (a lot) benedryl, but since I had (as many) drugs (allowed) when I gave birth to him I figured I would give this a go al natural... :)

Also, no computer for a week since with the above list of items crammed into a backpack I obviously had no room for it. Which means updates will be few and far between. But I have Dave's Ipod touch so if we find ourselves in a coffee shop I will snag some wifi and let you know how its going. Or at least how the plane ride went, which is what you all will be wondering about I'm sure. So here's to two plane rides, a layover, a rental car, and 3 hour drive. All before dinner. Yay!

Oh, Mister Procrastination...

I have finally finished my cousins photos of his family. It has taken me forever to finish them, for no other reason then good old procrastination. Here are some of my favorites.