Playtime with Juliet

Snow Day / Sick Day Shenanigans

Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night

Jax says Juju

A little dark but you get the idea.

The Board

Loved seeing my little ray of sunshine on the board at the Dr.'s office and being reminded of the moment she came into my life.

Just For Fun

New haircut!

A Day in the Life

Good Morning!

• Wake up immediately going over the day ahead in my mind - are there any changes to the normal schedule? i.e Dr.'s appointments, story time, business dinners, etc..
• If monsters are still asleep, go in and make sure they're breathing because Why are they still asleep?!
  *Note: This only happens on weekdays.
• Get in the shower - Complete darkness is preferred... due to Jax's new light switch habit I've become an addict.
• Out of the shower - brush teeth - make up - underwear.
• If monsters still sleeping - check again to make sure they're breathing because Why are they still asleep?! *Note: This only happens on weekdays. 
• Dry Hair (sure to wake them up).
• If only Jackson is up - go in. Hug, kiss, hold, rock ... rinse and repeat.
• If both are up, I take Juju and Joe dresses Jax. Get as much mushy snuggling in as possible.
• Dry diap for Jax? Offer up the potty (and new truck, candy, and other assorted bribes).
• Potty yes? Take Jax, clothes, etc. to downstairs bathroom and sit him on the potty. *Resign to fact I will have to pick out the first thing that's clean to wear because 1). I am STILL in my underwear and 2) Due to potty, there will be no time for appearance consideration, ironing, or choice.
• Potty no? Get Jax dressed, bring downstairs, put in highchair - hand him milk.
• Go upstairs and say good morning to the happiest little girl on the planet (in the morning) - Miss Juliet. 
• Hug, kiss, hold, rock ...  repeat.
• Dress Juliet. Bring her downstairs and be sure to grab blankies, pacis and whatever else is needed for the day ahead.
• Feed Jackson (yogurt and toast or yogurt and a cereal bar). Feed Juliet (cereal and fruiting). *Sometimes this occurs simultaneously.
• Slug coffee.
• Pour more.
• Slug more.
• Bottles (prepared the night before) in fridge bag. Wipe the kids. More kisses, small talk and hugging. and off we go.
• Jacket, "bu hat", and "cah" sneakers for Jackson while Joe packs up the car.
• Realize Jax has a poop. Everything off, change diap, everything back on again. "Why didn't you put those in a potty? Did you know if you put those in the potty you will get a new truck?"
• Run back into the kitch to take something out of the freezer to eat for dinner. 
• Run out the door hoping to beat the buses up the street.
• Stop at neighbors before putting Jax in car seat so he can say Bye "(Bah!)" to each and every one of their lawn ornaments.
• Put Jax in the car first - Car entry order is crucial as we don't want to leave Jax alone in the house for fear of being locked out.
• Car, Drop off, Go to work.

Happy

As a working mom, I am always asking myself this question, "Are they happy?" Even more so since there are two of them and one of me  - - and many of my hours are spent working or doing the 'behind the scenes' things to keep them happy (and healthy) i.e., having clean clothes, having nutritious foods to eat, etc. So of course, it made me oh so pleased that one of Jackson's first official words (official = said more than twice) was HAPPY...

He said it on his birthday - but I guessed it was a just a sound effect he was making into the microphone of his new, totally awesome, synthesizer. But tonight as I hugged him and played with him he said it over and over - "happy, Happy, HAPPY". At which point I said, "Aw, are you ..... Happy?" And I got the most gracious, angelic smile with a nod of the head. Yes mama. "Me happy."

He ain't no Jive Turkey

When I whipped out the fall decor Jackson was quite excited to find a turkey in the bin. "OOOH Wha IS DATT?!"  He wasn't sure what to think of this creature at first and did the 'hand shake, nnooo nnoooo'. But when mama told him that turkeys are friendly little birds, he swooped him up and they've been besties ever since.

Last night before bed, Jax had me put him down so he could run over to the changing table, grab a blanket and cover up his turkey.  "Baa Baa" turkey, he waved.

Guess who HAD to come for the ride to work this morning? :

He talks to angels

My 'little guy with a lot of love' turns two tomorrow. In shock and disbelief that it's been TWO years, I look back to find the absolute happiest time of my whole life. From the moment this child was conceived, life changed - and for the better. While he has his 'fresh' moments - he finds ways to show me his loving, humorous, entertaining and kind-hearted self, every. single. day.  If there's one word that takes me to *happy* tears - - - it's "MA!"

He talks to angels. See for yourself:

Dance Moves

Loved that in the middle of our usual Saturday night dance party, Jackson pulled the move I've been teaching him for months. He galloped around like a horseman, whackin his tooshie - - - out of the blue. I mean ZE'cmon people - this IS what life is about.

True Love

There's just nothing that compares to when your little baby is laying on their back, smiling up at as you talk to them... and then all of a sudden, they stretch out their little baby arms, grab your cheeks and pull you toward them. True love.

Milestones

While it was never as important to me as a smile, belly laugh or first step, there IS something to be said about rolling over. I remember giving Jackson his requisite "tummy time" from a day old... with promises of early "roll over, crawling and walking" from hospital nurses in my head. Well... Jackson didn't roll over for quite a while and as a new mom, it very much stressed me out.

When Juliet came along I could tell she was strong from the start. She sits herself up, grabs the bottle/spoon right out of my hand and NEVER stops moving. So was I really surprised a few weeks ago when I left her on her back and found her on her stomach?... Not really. Nor have I positioned her or coaxed her to try and do it again.

Well, all of a sudden, Juliet has gone from nickname: "Itsybitsiest Prettyitiest" to nickname: "RollyPollyOllyiest". My goodness - play-gyms should be much bigger for baby girls.

Accents

Not only does 'Jackson speak' reflect some German influence: "ZE c'mon", he also has a slight Boston accent as well.... *as we're driving*... "Caaaah!"

Snuggle bug

Hmmm

He loves the swiffer.
He loves the duster.
He lines things up as documented here.
When I move the crayons out of the line - he quickly runs over to line them
back up.
Soon I'll have him matching socks...

The 'Bumbo Dumpo'

Well... today Juliet performed what seems to be a Burka spawn rite of passage. It's what we so endearingly (cough cough) call the 'Bumbo Dumpo'.

Bumbo Dumpo

What's created when an infant sits in a mostly flat chair for 'activity time' after eating any meal. It's the result of a shooting poopie with nowhere to go (besides up the back and out the sides)

Synonyms: Pancake Poopies, Projectile Poopies, Five wipe diap.

Bouncing bean

Take it off the pages

Jackson has loved books since he was four months old. Quite a blessing. We read to him and he digests and enjoys EVERY second. Until lately...

Lately, we open a book, and Jackson recognizes so many things. Trucks. Flowers. Birds. Baby Sisters. EVERYTHING. And when the little man sees something he likes... he looks over at mama, squints his eyes and gingerly scratches the pages with an "oompfh oompfh waaa" sound. At first I said, "oh, that's cute."

But then..We're playing with the Sesame street house and the Elmo figurine with the beach ball(C'mon, there are many elmo figurines PEOPLE!!)and he pulls the same "whiny grab scratch" that he does with the books. And I realize, my little guy is trying to pull the things he likes right off the pages. And off his toys. And I melt.

LOVE this moment. Also, thank god that daddy has his own version of "whiny grab scratch" - or there would be no Jackson to begin with.

Gotta wear shades

Ladies and Gentleman, here they are...The terrible twos.

We saw signs of it in the past: Jackson, not having gotten his way would do any combination of the following:

-Spin around and fall on the floor
-Throw self on floor and jump up in an almost exorcist type motion
-Throw hands over head and make 'owahhhhhhhhh' sorts of noises

Tonight we had the pleasure of experiencing Jackson's version of World of Warcraft: 'Food as Weapons' edition.

The little prince had three different dinners given to him. We tried singing, jumping, fresh beat band, bribery and the like. Nothing.  The situation culminated with a swift lift of the plate followed by a hurling of the 'weaponry' toward mommy's head.

Jackson 1 - Mom - 0

The little man followed that up with, what seemed to be, a choreographed sequence of moves which included covering his mouth, eyes and ears while executing a series of jumps in the high chair that took him (quite literally) from one end of the room to the next.

We all know about my love affair with the vacuum and the swiffer but a rendezvous wasn't scheduled for tonight.

awesome.

baby giggles

And the 'words' keep comin

"ooooooooo eeeeeis this?" = who is this
"oouaaaaaaaaas dat?" = what's that
"badee badee" = sippy

if only he could talk as well as he dances:

Gaba ck or bugabug

Jackson's first two words (with more than one syllable): Garbage Truck and Buga-bug

While we are so proud of our little guy's 'verbalization', he tends to start each word with the wrong syllable first i.e. 'gabuga' (bug) or 'baga ck' (garbage truck)... making things ever so difficult for daddy and me. Upon confusion over said "words," we look for gestures that accompany them to help us along. A finger to the ear (indicating sound) leads us to believe "Garbage truck" ... since you cannot HEAR a bug. For buga, we usually look for a pointed finger toward the ground and a shmaaashhhhhhh with the foot in a forward/backward type motion usually follwed by a wave and a kiss 'bye-bye' indicating Jax's bugabug friend has gone away to buga heaven.