Christmas Magic

Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf movement?  As a primary teacher, I have the advantage of hearing about fads from the mouths of babes every year.  Otherwise, I would probably be completely out of the loop.  For a few years now, elves have been invading children's homes, causing chaos and mess at the beginning of December until Christmas Day.  It doesn't seem to be a fad that is fading, but rather growing to the point where most of the children in my class have two (or three!) elves who each create their own forms of devious destruction every night of Advent.

I still don't understand why the Elves on the Shelves need to create problems since I thought the original reason for their visit was to be a spy for Santa Claus and report back to him if the children in the home were misbehaving.  None of my students have been able to explain this conundrum, either.  (Looking back on it now, his name is misleading because he is rarely ever on a shelf.)  

This fairly new holiday trend could possibly become a permanent tradition, but could also be a major inconvenience.  I think we might have two or three more years until an elf may have to visit our house.  (But I guess if we have a perfectly behaved child, then we don't need anyone to spy and report back to Santa.  Right?)  Before we had Jackson, I decided that the Elf would not visit our house; but, when every student in my class has one, imagining Jackson being the only one who has no elf story to share with his friends made me have a change of heart.  Our elf might change his method of spying and cause a little less carnage which will take less time to commit and clean-up for the Elf during the day.  I think the modified Elf may just be hiding in a new look-out post and the new game can be to find his new hiding spot every day of December.  

Like other magical fads that began at one point and never went away, I hope this doesn't become a new way of spoiling.  For instance, my Tooth Fairy used to bring me 25 or 50 cents per tooth, but now she is much more generous, giving an average of £5 or even toys under the pillows of the toothless.  I don't know if or how the magical traditions can be brought back to their humble beginnings, but I guess it depends on not giving into what other elves or tooth fairies are doing, and hoping that the ones that visit our house stay true to their modest origins.  Keeping the magic alive in our house for as long as possible will be our goal for Jackson and if an elf will help with that, then we can roll with it.  

A relaxing Friday night in with Daddy during my work Christmas party

Making reindeer food at nursery

Excavating a Christmas dig with his friends on Christmas Sweater (Jumper, U.K.) Day

Developmental updates:  Jackson's new phrases were "open it"; "Yee haw!"; "Get out of here, guys!"; "kick the ball"; and "Oh my gosh!"  He also started calling Santa "Ho Ho."  Coincidentally, this is what I called Santa when I was two-years-old, but Jackson chose the same nickname for Mr. Claus without any coaching at all.  Yesterday, we thought Jackson was playing with his cars, but after a few minutes, we realised that he had cleared the ornaments off of the bottom half of the Christmas tree and lined them up on the floor in a fairly organised manner.  (We put the fragile ornaments at the top of the tree in the off-chance that this would happen.)  Jackson also started telling us important things in the form of multi-sentence speeches and ending each paragraph of his speech with, "Okay?" or "All right?"  If we don't agree to his statements, he waits until we do or repeats himself to gain our confirmation, then he continues with his lecture.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

This week was all about the man in red himself:  Santa Claus.  We prepped Jackson for his big meeting on Saturday by practising saying, "Santa," "Ho, ho, ho," and "Merry Christmas."

We opted for his nursery's Christmas celebrations again this year to have the meeting take place.  The wait for Santa wasn't too long, but to help the time pass, Jackson chose a vanilla cupcake to buy from his teachers' stall in the Christmas market.  It was really crowded this year because there was a brass band playing in the main hall, and they took up a big portion of the space with their stage.  Unfortunately, it made everything a bit uncomfortable and the Christmas fair didn't have the same feel as last year.

When our number was called, we walked outside to Santa's grotto through a very thin layer of snow.  Jackson loved the multi-coloured lights and started dancing to the Christmas carols.  He was apprehensive about being too close to Santa, but he did give him a high-five.  We tried to take a picture with Jackson sitting on my lap beside Santa, but he screamed and jumped down as fast as he could.  Before he left, he did say, "Thank you," to Santa and he was very excited to receive a gift.

After he met Santa and opened his sweetly wrapped gift, he gave it a hug and smiled; but then, he said, "More presents."  Uh-oh.  With some distractions of other things to see and do at the Christmas Fair, we changed his mind and he enjoyed running from room-to-room and navigating through the crowds.  Jackson wasn't interested in sitting down to get his face painted or to dress-up for the photo booth, but he did want to buy another cupcake from his teachers' stall.

Overall, the visit to see Santa was brief, but much more interactive and exciting than when Jackson was one.  He had a sense of where he was going and who he was seeing.  His love and spirit for all of the Christmas festivities filled my heart with joy.  Our little Jackson helps to bring the magic of the season back for us and we are eager to see his reaction when Santa comes to visit our house in just a couple of weeks.

P.S.  Good news!  After contacting the company about my USB drive, they were able to help me fix it (a free service) and recover all of my files.  What a huge relief:  there will be no wasted time or money now.

On his way to Dobbie's garden centre for a Sunday adventure out to look at Christmas decorations (and surprisingly, an animatronic reindeer!)

Santa's Grotto

Jackson thoroughly enjoying his cupcake while waiting to see Santa

The best picture we could get of Jackson with Santa

Jackson preferred to pet the dancing dog instead of visit with Santa Claus

Opening his silky soft goat plush toy from Santa

Developmental updates:  Jackson had many new words and phrases this week:  "I'm better," "brioche," "with choo choo," "bless you," "she's sad," "Ho, ho, ho," "Santa," "Merry Christmas."  He is getting really creative with his independent play and using different voices for different cars to talk to each other when they are riding up and down the Little Tikes mountain or racing around the living room.  We had a full week of nursery drop-offs without any crying.  Jackson was very happy to get into his classroom and start playing right away--even if there weren't any other children there, yet.  He made lots of art projects this week (four) at nursery and even penned a letter to Santa.  (I hope he gets everything on his wishlist!)

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Bright Spots

Last year, I learned to take life day-by-day because if I carry past disappointments with me, I will be overwhelmed with worry and if I think about what could happen or try to plan too far ahead, then I will have unnecessary troubles for which I simply do not have the time.

This week was pretty hard for us.  Thank goodness Jackson is all right.  Lee and I dealt with some crummy things which made the days drag and made us feel like taking a break from life's responsibilities to sort everything out. 

First of all, I had conjunctivitis in both eyes which was more annoying than anything.  (Jackson had a mild case of it last week, but nothing severe.  Whenever I catch it from him, my eyes go completely red, swollen, and itchy.) 

On top of that, my USB drive on which I have all of my school files has something wrong with it and I cannot access any of them.  It's an encrypted one and I can tell that all of the data is still on it, but I am unable to open them because of some weird error message that I haven't seen before appearing.  Currently, I am trying to arrange for an IT person at the company to try to fix it; however, arranging that meeting and finding a suitable time when their offices are open is a pain in itself.  (Losing all of these files would be the equivalent of a filing cabinet of hard copies going up in flames.) 

Lastly, Lee's job is in a precarious situation because the head honchos are trying to save money by cutting people left and right.  One quarter of his team was let go in one day last month and every week, there seems to be a day of dismissal where people all over the 2,000-person company are called to an office labelled "Room 10," shown the door, and never to be seen again, leaving an ominous, empty void for those left behind. 

With all of these things to deal with this week, it was quite refreshing to have a few bright spots along the way to help us make it through the trying times.  Two of my good friends at work, Cathy and Linda, very kindly surprised me with a chocolate treat to brighten my day.  On Friday, when I went to the local bakery to get my lunch, the nice lady behind the counter, Sam, gave me a free slice of cake to try--and she didn't even know about our troubles!  Yesterday, when we ordered two pizzas for lunch/dinner to share with Lee's family when they visited, the delivery woman showed up with three pizzas because she said one of the pizzas 'touched the top of the oven' but that we could have it if we wanted.  It looked fine to me!  All of these generous offerings helped to brighten our week. 

It may be the Christmas spirit in full swing.  Or maybe we are just fortunate to be surrounded by really caring, thoughtful people.  Whatever the explanation is, we are so thankful for people's kindnesses and can only hope to share the love and spread the good feelings to those in need especially during the Christmas season. 

Beginning to set-up the decorations for Christmas, helping to put up the tree last weekend.  He liked putting the star on the top and laying out all of the ornaments in a row before putting them on the branches.

More practice with trimming the tree at nursery

Deep in conversation on a wintry walk at nursery--I can't tell if he's debating or settling a dispute

Sailing the Seven Seas

Developmental updates:  Jackson has come up with new ways to avoid following instructions.  When I put him in his car seat, but before I could connect the buckle, he decided that he was going to crawl out of the other side because he just wasn't ready to go home yet.  But that wasn't the end of his escape plan.  He played to his strengths (cuteness, being one of them) and danced on the back seat of the car to Jackson 5's ABC which was playing on the iPad.  I was worried about his balancing skills, but he safely danced until the song finished.  Other than the dance escape method, he relies on other distraction techniques to try to get out of doing things he doesn't like--having his teeth brushed being one of them.  Recently, he actually tried falling asleep on the couch to get out of this nightly routine!  He threw himself face-down on the couch, closed his eyes, and went into a comatose state within seconds.  Jackson keeps us laughing every day with his growing personality.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

What's That?

We only knew it would be a matter of time when the constant questioning would begin.  The start of a long era of "what's that?" came out of nowhere and Lee and I seem to have different feelings about it already.

Taking into account that we are only about four days in to something that could last years, Lee has already expressed the feeling of being fed-up.  This happened during an episode of Blue Planet when Jackson repeatedly asked what a jellyfish was that kept blobbing across the screen.  On the other hand, I like the repetition and hearing Jackson wanting to understand what he is seeing so I could answer the same question hundreds of times without getting annoyed.  I know that after a few weeks, Jackson will add his new vocabulary to his lexicon and never ask again what a pineapple is, for example.  And because of this, I am happy to answer his endless questions.

I think the trick to not getting tired of the "what's this?" is trying to treat each question as if it has not been asked before, thus essentially compartmentalizing the other hundred times you've heard it.  Also, knowing that one of the times you say it, it will stick and a new word will have been acquired.  Success!  My other trick is sometimes giving a lengthy and very detailed answer which will sometimes be too much information for the question being asked and will give a short respite from the line of questioning.  (For example, a pineapple can also be an 'oblong shaped fruit with a brown spiky coat that is grown in tropical climates all around the world.') 

A funny response Jackson has to learning new vocabulary is that he will sometimes respond with 'yes' or 'okay' instead of repeating the word.  If I say, "That's a doughnut," and he doesn't feel like trying to pronounce it, he will say, "Yes."  Listening from the outside, it sounds like I am answering a mini-teacher who is quizzing me on my knowledge of everyday foods.  (To his credit, I can understand when he doesn't want to repeat 'croissant' when I use a thick French accent.)

So wish us luck on our journey through this new stage of toddlerhood!  We'll see you on the other side.

Jackson was featured on his nursery's Twitter page this week for showing strong friendship bonds.  This is him with his current best friend, Benedict (who's been mentioned in previous blog posts).  Look at that embrace!

At nursery, they also had a 'car wash' on one of the milder days

We had our own little clearing (dance floor) at the annual Christmas light switch on 

Reactions from the lacklustre crowd rendition of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

We knew it was time to go when Jackson turned to pushing his new 'choo choo' around on the street

After Thanksgiving dinner, Jackson was really excited and started singing and galloping around the house

Developmental updates:  Jackson's new words this week were digger, "I'll do it," and purple.  He also started saying, "Doing?" with a furrowed brow when he asks what we are doing.  He usually says it about five times in a row and by the end of getting to our answer, he says, "Okay."  Jackson had his first parent-teacher conference of the year and it went very well.  His key worker said that he is on-track with all age-related expectations besides being a funny and well-loved member of the class.  Go Jackson!

P.S.  I hope that all of my family and friends back in Ohio (and all over the United States) had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I was given a day off this term at school and it just happened to land on Wednesday which was perfect timing to have our own little Thanksgiving celebration at home.  Even though it was a day early, we were able to eat all of the food through to Friday--and gave extra thanks for all of God's blessings!  (Jackson's favourite dish was Waldorf salad.)

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Christmas Shopping

I have even more respect now for my parents and everyone else who had to do their Christmas shopping before the Internet.  Yesterday, I completed my Christmas shopping by 10 A.M. and I never left the house. 

Here are some of my online shopping tips and perks if you have never done it before.  Hopefully, by the end, I will have made a believer out of you and you will never look back.

The List
The key to buying all of your items as quickly as possible is to compile a succinct and complete list for all of your recipients.  There are millions of items online and it is easy to start clicking here, there, and everywhere and once you know it, you have browsed nearly half of those millions of items and actually accomplished nothing.  If you have a list and go through it methodically, then you will finish your shopping in no time at all.

Prices
One tricky part of online shopping is making sure you find the lowest prices available.  This problem exists in the real world, too.  Shopping in the stores though, you would have to cover a lot of area to compare prices and then backtrack to get the item you needed to save £2.  But, with websites like www.pricerunner.co.uk, you can type in any product and the cheapest online location with your item will appear in seconds.  This also proves that Amazon is not the end-all-be-all to online shopping.  For instance, I saved £50 on one of the toys for Jackson this year by using this website to compare prices.  And, at this other website, the delivery was free and I got to choose my delivery date.  (That website was www.activitytoysdirect.com, if you're interested.)

Delivery
This is another perk of online shopping.  It can sometimes be a downfall, but still, it is easier than carrying bags around the mall and making trips to the car to stuff them in the back seat.  Home delivery is a perk if you can choose your date or a pick-up location.  The downfall comes when the deliveryman shows up and you aren't home.  In England, they leave the item with a neighbour, at the post office depot (depending on the company that is delivering), or they try to deliver the item again another day.  I guess it depends on who your neighbours are whether this is a downfall or not.  Luckily for us, we have pretty honest and kind neighbours.  Alternatively, you could have the item delivered to a friend or family member who you know will be at home.

Time
A definite perk of shopping from home is saving time--which is one of my favourite things to do.  Amidst my clicking and buying from the comfort of home, I could eat my breakfast, play with Jackson, put a load of laundry in the washing machine, and catch-up on television shows that I missed during the week.  I've heard of multi-tasking, but online shopping helps you take things to a new level.

People
Say what you want about me after you hear this, but this is my truth:  The best part of online shopping is avoiding the public.  In fact, it made me so happy that I wrote a poem/rap to celebrate.  So let's get wrapping:

Yesterday, there was no one
Running into me with a shopping cart,
Waiting in lines,
Finding a parking spot
Someone knocking my car,
Kids screaming,
Crying babies,
Morose store clerks,
Burnt out moms being shady,
Rolling their eyes
And pushing their way through
Dads clogging up the aisles
Watching Stranger Things 2,
Feels like the try-outs for Supermarket Sweep,
These are the ultimate perks
Of online shopping.

Last Sunday, we went on a bear hunt through the woods.

Well, we didn't see a bear (thank goodness), but we found a family of ducks.

Lee was quite artistic with this photo.

We let Jackson lead the way and by the end, he was so tired that he wanted us to carry him all the way home.

P.S.  Happy birthday to my dad!  Every time I would go to do my radio DJ slot in college, my dad would say, "Don't embarrass the family."  I hope the rap wasn't too much, Dad. 

Developmental updates:  Jackson's new words this week were piggy, snow, hug, everybody, and goat.  He is giving a lot more hugs now and likes to tell us when he is on his way to give us a hug.  Jackson will say, "Hug Daddy," with some of his other original language mixed in when he is coming towards us.  He is very independent, but there were a few times this week when he wanted our attention or acted like he couldn't do something on his own (something he has done a hundred times before).  When he was on the slide yesterday, he wanted our help to sit at the top when we all knew that he could do it on his own.   

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Field of Dreams

When I get emotional over a commercial, I get a little angry because I feel like I fell for a company's marketing ploys and I don't like to be had.  But, it happened to me again this week; however, I don't know if this commercial was supposed to create an emotional reaction. 

See what you think:

What got me was the fact that no one was stopping the adults from trying out their "unfulfilled passion" yet they looked afraid to take a single step towards it.  Some of them even looked nervous.  The other component leading to tears trickling down my face was that the adults in the ad were 30- to 50-years-old and for their entire life, they didn't have the opportunity to follow their dream.  That's three to five decades worth of days passing by and not having the chance to pursue their passion.  But then, when given free rein with the resources right in front of them, they still let the opportunity slip away.

When the children entered and started dabbling in the new hobby fearlessly, they eventually got the adults to join in and then proceeded to ask them, "Why haven't you ever tried this before?"  A couple of the people grimaced and looked like they either couldn't think of a reason, or were holding in a reason that they possibly didn't want to burden the children with.  Maybe their reason was not enough money, support from parents, discouragement from themselves or friends, or simply not taking the time from work obligations to factor in some self-fulfillment.  All of these things might be a bit 'heavy' to relay to a child they just met.

What is a life if we don't have time for fun?  There are so many ways to easily network and connect on the Internet and with one message, we can contact anyone in the world.  So, setting-up at least one trial session to give our dreams a try is literally right at our fingertips.  For Lee last year, I made arrangements for drum lessons since he said that when he was little, that's what he wanted to do, but for various reasons, he didn't get the chance.  Thankfully, when I was younger, my parents let me try any hobby that I wanted to and although that made me very busy, I have always been happy when I am involved in many groups and trying new things.  It also helped me to find my true passions and how I like to spend my free time best.

My hope for Jackson is that he is open with us and tells us what he wants to do when he is older.  On top of that, I hope that we have the means to facilitate his dreams and can find the right advisers, coaches, and teachers to help him to learn and enjoy his life.  A mind is a terrible thing to waste and I hope that Jackson's potential, hopes, and dreams are fulfilled to no-end.

Our little model who wanted to wear his hat last Sunday with his outfit.  He wore it through his entire play session in a soft play centre, forever staying cool.

Developmental updates: Jackson's new words this week were yellow, 'k' for okay, rabbit, 'nee noo nee noo' for the sound of a police car, and tractor.  At his football practice, the head coach gave us a great tip for going forward:  drama school.  I think it is inevitable that Jackson will enjoy being the centre of attention.  Every week, Jackson can be found in the centre of the warm-up circle dancing and making a myriad of faces.  He kicks the ball around when no one is looking, but when he has the chance to perform in front of a gathered group, he doesn't hesitate to steal the spotlight.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Brand New Boy

Jackson has turned a new leaf.  I had this week off from work and we worked really hard on saying the 'magic words' and listening when out in public.  He has really improved on both of these things and is consistent with his polite 'pleases' and 'thank yous' and fairly accountable with his behaviour while out and about.

Sunday, we travelled to Martin Mere Wetland Centre for the first time.  We nearly went there about six months ago, but seeing as there was easy access to water and Jackson was really good at walking, but not so good at staying by our side, we went to a basic farm.  Martin Mere is a wonderfully peaceful little retreat with a wide variety of birds (which are thankfully all contained to their individual ponds).  By the end of our walk around, Jackson was worn out enough that he wanted to be carried!  That doesn't happen very often.  He took a little nap before we headed to a new restaurant called Marston's Inn 'The Mad Duke' (a chain of pubs, but each one is given a nickname to match its locality).  Lee and I would highly recommend eating there because the food was delicious!  Since it was nice and sunny out, Jackson also took full advantage of the playground while we waited for our food and then after the meal, too. 

Monday was a basic day out to the grocery store and to order a rug from Homebase, but sometimes small trips out can be challenging.  Surprisingly, Jackson was perfectly behaved at both places, stayed by me the whole time, waited while I paid for items, and even held my hand when we walked to the car!  I didn't have to use any bribes, either.

On Halloween, Jackson wore his pirate costume to nursery for their party while I went to work to clean my cupboard and mark a few sets of books.  He didn't wear his costume when the trick-or-treaters came to the door--only eight this year--but he did get really excited to greet everyone when they were on our porch.

The rest of the week, we played together at home and made small trips out, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Friday, Lee took the day off of work so we went to The Ice Cream Farm in Cheshire.  We have gone there once before, but Jackson was only crawling at the time.  It was much more fun this time around now that he can explore on his own.  We also headed out really early so we missed the mad rush of people and got to enjoy the facilities during the 'off-peak' times.  Jackson wanted to ride the coin-operated quad bike, but this has to be controlled by a pedal which he could barely reach.  Lee was going to ride on the back of it, pushing the pedal, and letting Jackson 'drive' it around the track; but, holding true to his independent ways, Jackson didn't want anyone else touching his vehicle.  The poor child doesn't understand how to steer so it was quite comical from the sidelines.  Lee was visibly embarrassed, but I think now he can see the funny side of the situation.  Half-way through the quad bike experience, the motor stopped running because we had used our pound's worth, and being without a pound, Lee had no choice but to push the hefty metal contraption back around the winding track.  After that, Jackson enjoyed seeing the animals, pretending to drive the big tractors, visiting the soft play centre, and of course, eating ice cream.

When we finished playing at The Ice Cream Farm, we were right around the corner from Lee's grandpa, aunt, and uncle so we stopped to visit them for a little bit before the long drive back to Southport (there were huge traffic jams for some reason). 

Through all of this excitement, I managed to get all of my work done--and then some--for school which is the first time that has ever happened during a half-term break.  I actually got through my entire check list and had one of the most enjoyable weeks so far with Jackson.  All-in-all, a very successful week.

Reflections with Jackson

He loved the bear at Martin Mere

Our own little Jack Sparrow

Sporting his costume at nursery

Enjoying a snack and relaxing at home with Mommy

The long ride home

His affinity for inanimate objects grew exponentially this week

"One serving of chocolate honey crunch, please.  Bank you!"

Commandeering the tractor which luckily, didn't need a pedal to function

Developmental updates:  Jackson turned another month older yesterday (25 months).  He had a huge breakthrough with vocabulary this week:  apple, glasses, Trolls, Poppy (a character from the Trolls movie), Do it! love you, bank you or bah do (thank you), All right? Where are you? Okay? grapes, Help! hurt, doggy, pig, horsey, amama (banana), yum yum, Here it is! and sticker. He has become really interested in horses and his new favourite show is Spirit on Netflix.  (Thank goodness for a break from the Blaze show!)  Jackson likes to make his mind up when picking a snack from the refrigerator.  He wants to be held so he can be eye-level with the potential treats and then he says, "Hmm," over and over then points to what he wants.  His new phrase, "All right?" is used for his toys, mostly.  But, yesterday at football practice, he held my face with both hands and looked me right in the eye and asked, "All right?"  It was very sweet.  It's also a helpful phrase to check if he is okay after a fall because he will answer honestly.  Something Jackson has started doing with his 'please' and 'thank you' responses is saying them with expression depending on the situation.  For instance, if he wants jell-o (jelly, U.K.) and I say no and offer yogurt instead, then he will say, "Bank you," with a sad tone.  But, if he gets something that he's really happy about, then he will jump up and shout, "Bank you!" and sort of skip off.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Halloween

Halloween in England is much different from the Americanized version.  Although, it is growing a tiny bit every year to match what is seen in Hocus Pocus (which, I would say, is the most accurate screen version of what to expect in America for a classic Halloween night--minus the raising of the dead and stalking by the Sanderson Sisters).  Even in the last six years that I've lived here, I have seen the decoration choices and murmurings of parties grow exponentially.  Having said that, the holiday is still much different to what I grew up with and it is still a day that just comes and goes without much pressure to impress anyone with outfit choices or outdoor decor.  Here's a tale of two Halloweens:

My Ohio Halloweens

Mostly, our costumes were homemade or pieced together with charity shop purchases.  One year, my mom crafted robot costumes out of boxes and dryer ducting for my sister and me!  Another year, she bought a wedding dress from a charity shop, cut, hemmed, and dyed it golden yellow and presto!  A homemade Belle gown from Beauty and the Beast was created.  All-in-all, costumes in Ohio were happy and wholesome and served as the one chance per year that we got to dress-up outside of the house.  Putting a lot of effort into the costume, make-up, and hair was worth it because until we were about 10- or 11-years old, we would have a Halloween party at school where we could parade our costumes around to everyone else and show-off our parents' handiwork. 

Now, when it came time for the big day to go around the neighbourhood trick-or-treating, we had one hour to gather the goods.  It was always the Thursday before Halloween (a couple of times, it actually ended up being on the 31st) and it was usually from 6-7 P.M. so that no one was out and about after dusk.  In my neighbourhood at least, there were probably a couple of hundred children trick-or-treating and sometimes, people would bring their kids from other neighbourhoods.  Children who lived in the country where they didn't really have 'neighbours' would also come in for the night.  We also always had school the next day so we needed to be home in time to get enough sleep. 

A lot of people decorated the outside of their homes (mainly the porches) with autumnal things such as corn stalks, bales of hay, different coloured dried corn cobs, and pumpkins.  Some people also used scary decorations and had hidden 'tricks' to make their visitors jump.

Before or after the trick-or-treating, sometimes people would have parties at their houses with powdered doughnuts, apple cider (pressed apple juice, in the UK), the bobbing for apples game, the Monster Mash playing in the background, and possibly some 'frightening food' mimicking ghoulish items one would see in a scary movie.

Note:  On the rare occasion, there was a house without their porch light on which meant that they were not handing-out candy that year.  There may be a few houses whose owners were not home, but they wanted to participate, so they left a huge bowl of candy out with a sign that read, "Please take one."

An English Halloween

Most of the schools' half-term breaks coincide with the 31st so they can technically knock on doors to ask for treats all day.  This doesn't mean that they do, though.  In the past six years, I have given candy to eight children.  Without a school Halloween party, the children mostly have Halloween celebrations at their houses or at a social club; but, that is if they have one at all.

Some neighbourhoods have a couple of houses with decorations, but they are extremely rare.  Here, the stores are mainly where one would see fake cobwebs and ghosts adorning the windows.  There are pumpkins for sale in the stores (at relatively cheap prices), but I haven't seen too many sitting out on people's porches. 

Most of the costumes are store-bought in the UK and they are truly frightening choices 99% of the time.  In my classroom, the common costumes were dead bride, dead cheerleader, skeleton, and rotting zombie.  Ew!  I think the English go super scary for Halloween because they have no reservations when it comes to dressing up at any time of the year.  Costumes are referred to as 'fancy dress' here and anyone at any age can have a fancy dress party whenever they want and it is completely socially acceptable.  So, at Halloween, that is their time to be as terrifying as possible with their costumes.  (Not being able to assimilate with this idea, Jackson will be a pirate this year.  Not a dead one, either.  A live, jolly, beautifully put-together pirate.)

Digging out the seeds

Ew!  Jackson didn't stick his hands in to touch the goop

After about five minutes, Jackson moved on to play with his cars, but it was fun while it lasted

Developmental updates:  Wow!  Jackson is getting really good at repeating everything we say.  He doesn't say the phrases again on his own, but he's in the beginning stages of putting meaning to these new words.  Jackson seems to be improving in his football dribbling skills, but we're still working on getting him to participate with all of the drills and games and take his turn at the right time.  We went to get his hair cut yesterday and it went much better than last time.  There were a few toys in a separate room which made Jackson feel 'at home' and then with some little chocolate cookies and his 'Blaze' show on the iPad, he made it through the whole hair cut without any tears!  Jackson is now cut off from the bottle.  We packed them all away and went cold turkey.  At nursery, he has open cups, so it shouldn't be too hard of a transition; also, if it's his only choice to use a cup and he's thirsty, then he will hopefully accept the change willingly.  This week was the dawning of the rolled-up sleeves.  Any long-sleeved shirts are too bothersome for Jackson and he has to have them pushed up past his elbows.  Jackson has been entertaining us with his exaggerated fake sneezing this week, too. 

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Grateful

I lived this past week with more thankfulness and appreciation for my little tot.  With last weekend's uncertainty, I tried not to worry until I heard the definitive news from the doctors, but I must have been nervous because on Tuesday's drive in to work, my stomach was twisted in knots and I struggled to get organised for a routine day of school.  Jackson's bubbly attitude and energetic playfulness was reassuring, but after dealing with such a fragile situation for three days, it was hard to just forget how 'up-in-the-air' things were during the weekend.

After the hospital room and amenities, I was also more thankful for our house which feels much bigger now, having our own refrigerator in which we have food that we don't have to label, and free parking for our car in our driveway.  Surprisingly, I was also happy to do four loads of laundry today and catch-up on other household chores that obviously didn't get done last weekend.  It was really nice to have a quiet, productive day at home--something that I may have not appreciated as much before last week's uncertainty.  The dirty diapers, screaming tantrums, and other lovely little perks of raising a toddler that popped up this week also didn't bother me as much as they may have before. 

I'm not trying to be morbid or dramatic; I was just surprised at how much seeing my little baby sick, stuck in a hospital room quarantined away, and seeing the doctors' concerned faces when they noticed his developing rash adjusted my thinking.  It also created more empathy in me for the families that were in the hospital before we got there and were still there when we left.  The worry that parents must have for their children who have serious illnesses must be debilitating.  I don't know how I would function if I were in their shoes.

So, I'm thankful to God for the doctors, medicine, His healing, and Jackson's strong spirit and good health.  We made it another week and I am grateful.

Another set from his two-year-old photo shoot

Developmental updates:  Jackson has come along really well with his new words and phrases.  This week's additions include "pretzel," "red," "blue," "help," "Benedict (his new friend at nursery)," "thank you," "hiya (a Northwestern English greeting)," "one, two, three, four, five, seven, nine, ten," "witch (inspired by Halloween decorations at nursery)," "yogurt," and "Huh? What?"  He started tricking us by pretending to need help by burying himself under some couch cushions.  His other trick was 'falling' while he was chasing me, making me go back to check on him, and then jumping up and laughing because his ruse worked.  Today, at football practice, Jackson sat in the centre of the circle during warm-ups and he looked like he was leading the group.  When a couple of children's footballs rolled into the middle, he kindly rolled them right back to them like a true professional.  Jackson started eating apples whole, one tiny toddler bite at a time, and even nearly polished a whole Pink Lady apple off today.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Annual Hospital Trip

First things first:  don't worry; everyone is okay. 

Jackson couldn't resist his yearly visit to the hospital during his birthday month, but I didn't expect a two-night, three-day stay in our own deluxe private room with adjoining bathroom!  It's nice to look on the bright side of things now that we know Jackson is all right, but we were quite worried until his blood tests came back.

It all started Thursday when I got a call from nursery while teaching my students how to write an original folktale that Jackson had fallen off of a bike and he had a 'gaping hole in his head.'  That was not extremely comforting, so I said, "A gaping hole?!"  And upon repeating it, the nursery manager confirmed that was what she meant.  I left work within ten minutes of hanging up the phone and after a dry-mouthed, near-fainting drive, I arrived to see my little babe with a cut about .7 cm long in the middle of his forehead with a large bump to go with it.  It was not 'gaping,' but rather a deep, narrow cut.  After taking him to the Royal Preston Hospital (which was a lot closer than driving to Ormskirk--the only other children's hospital I know of), we were seen within an hour and Jackson got liquid stitches and we were sent home with a pamphlet of what to look out for after a head injury.

Thursday evening and Friday, Jackson was his old self and so we didn't think anything of the head injury.  Saturday, though, he woke up being very lethargic, not wanting to eat or drink, and then threw-up which is something he hasn't done since he was about ten-months-old.  After the last symptom, we headed to A&E because he had checked-off everything on the head injury leaflet of what to look out for if something had gone wrong and needed a doctor's attention.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were seen fairly quickly and unlike the other times, the doctor wanted us to wait until Jackson was acting like himself again before leaving the hospital.  We were moved from the initial curtained room to another curtained room in the children's ward.  After about three hours from setting foot in the hospital, and a few doses of different medicines, we were preparing to leave when we mentioned to the doctor that a few spots had broken out on his arm.  Lee and I thought they were broken blood vessels from when he was having his blood pressure taken and it took a fairly long time, causing Jackson to become quite distressed.  The doctor said that he needed another doctor to look at Jackson's arm and then we were told that he may have viral meningitis.  Oh goodness gracious! 

Not too long after this, we were 'upgraded' to a private room in the children's ward where we knew we would have to wait overnight for Jackson to be observed and assessed.  They also wanted us to wait for the blood test results to come back.  The withdrawal of bloods was traumatic enough for us all.  It took two attempts, six adults, two bottles of bubbles, three episodes of his favourite show, blood, sweat, and tears to give the doctors what they needed, but we pulled through. 

The nurses started his first round of antibiotics through an IV Saturday night.  He had to keep his arm still for 25 minutes until it was all through and unfortunately, it caused him to throw-up again.  Jackson had a fever on-and-off all through the night and was still groggy Sunday morning. 

On Sunday, he took two naps for a total of four hours, but seemed to be playing more than the day before.  He had to have the antibiotics again Sunday night and was still not eating much food.  He was drinking his milk, but other than a banana and a sausage, he didn't eat anything.  At this point, we were happy that he was feeling better and more playful, but we were still worried because his spots hadn't gone away and we were still a day away from finding out the diagnosis. 

When Monday rolled around, the nurses and doctors said that we would be able to go home if we wanted to (and we did) and that a community nurse could administer the antibiotics at home if we needed to continue them.  See, the antibiotics need to be given every 24 hours and his first dose was at 10:40 on Saturday night.  There is a two-hour leeway so on Sunday, they gave it to him at 8:30 and then tonight, it could be given at 6:30.  We would only have to return to the hospital if Jackson's blood test results came back positive for viral meningitis or the cannula became twisted, pinched, or for some reason wouldn't work because those have to be inserted at the hospital. 

For Jackson's sake, we also wanted to leave because Jackson started saying, "Home," midday Sunday and pointing to the door, so we were happy to get him back where he could be a bit more comfortable.  When we were quarantined, he also wasn't allowed to interact with any other children because they didn't know what the rash was, so he was sad that he couldn't talk to the babies that he could hear out in the hallway.  I have to commend him on his ability to be creative in such close quarters, though.  The nurses provided him with a few toys from the playroom and the four 'choo-choos' and six cars he had kept him entertained for three days.

The community nurse gave us the 'all clear' tonight for Jackson to go back to nursery and to carry-on as normal tonight around 7 o'clock.  What a relief!

We are so thankful that Jackson is okay and looking back on the situation, if he hadn't had the head injury on Thursday, then we may have waited to go into the hospital in the first place and just assumed he had a cold.  Since we were sitting in the hospital when his spots appeared, then there was no way that a doctor could have actually seen him sooner.  In that respect, we were really lucky.  We were also thankful that we have jobs that allow us to miss a day if we need to for family reasons because we both wanted to take care of Jackson and on top of that, it is difficult with one car to shuttle one of us around when the other needed to stay with Jackson.  I think he wanted both of us to stay with him, too.

Jackson's nursery photos that were taken two days before he turned two!  Good timing for his yearly pictures.

Developmental updates:  Jackson's new words this week were 'great,' 'noise,' 'plane,' 'home,' and 'Blaze.'  (The last one is the name of his current favourite show.)  He had a conversation with his nursery friend in the parking lot (car park, UK).  Jackson and another little boy recognised each other and they said each other's names back and forth.  His friend pronounced Jackson quite clearly, but as far as I know, the other boy's name is 'Diddy.' 

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.

Birthday Double Feature

On Wednesday this week, Jackson turned two!  He loved opening his presents and even though this is something he only does twice a year (the last being Christmas 2016), he has a good method of finding the tiny opening and peeling.  Not unlike us when we were little though, when Jackson unwraps a gift, there ends up being 55 tiny pieces of paper scattered about.  With every gift, he also says, "Woah!" and wants to open it right away, getting out all of the pieces and in the case of a DVD, watching it that instant.  At least he appreciates his toys and doesn't race through opening them and then forgetting what he was given. 

Yesterday was his circus birthday party with his four little friends (inspired by one of his favourite movies of the moment:  Dumbo).  Thankfully, he woke up in perfect health this year and had a great time.  It was sprinkling all day, so we didn't get a chance to play outside on the new deck, but all of the carnival-themed games translated well to the indoors.  Jackson opened his presents from his friends right away.  Now, I have not been to an English birthday party yet where any children have opened their presents, so I wasn't sure that this was okay; but, who is going to stop a child from discovering what gift lies beneath the pretty paper and risk crying, screaming, and fit-throwing?  Not me.  Plus, the new toys he received served as great toys for everyone to play with so it was a win-win situation.  (In Ohio, I never went to a birthday party where the gift-opening didn't happen.  It was usually a 15-minute affair where all of the party-goers sat in a circle and watched the birthday kid open their gifts and cards, saying, "Thank you," after each one.  The unprepared birthday child would sometimes say, "I already have this!"  And the civilized children in the group would exchange looks because we knew that this child was obviously not prepped on the appropriate response to receiving a duplicate toy.)

Today, we had the same party, but Lee's family came to visit and celebrate circus-style.  It was a bit sunnier today so Jackson and his cousin could take full advantage of the Little Tikes climber that he got last year and could play on the new deck for a little bit.  It was easier to set-up for the second day of partying since we already had the food menu sorted; we just needed to replenish everything and reset the tables. 

Now after everything is said and done, I think I've had enough partying for another year.  Although, Lee's birthday is in a week so it looks like these decorations will come in handy if he's up for a big-top birthday bash!

Our little boy is now two!

Opening gifts (round two)

Party treats and gifts for our guests

Welcome to the circus!

Our lovely friends

Jackson couldn't wait to open his gifts, but who can blame him?

Everyone transitioning to clowns with their party gifts

One of the carnival games for the kids (and parents!)

Jackson's rainbow layered cake

Just a little help from 'Mimi' to blow all of the candles out

Jackson and Ralph enjoying a slice of cake together

Post-party cupcake that Ralph baked for Jackson

Racing his new Hot Wheels cars from Uncle Scott and Aunt Kirsten

A view of the big top

Enjoying the new deck with Grandpa Neil

Jackson with his cousin, Connor

Loving the two-year-old life and all of his new toys!

Developmental updates:  Jackson's continuing to be quite opinionated and instead of just saying 'no,' he says, "No way!"  I am still appreciative of the fact that he knows what he wants and doesn't mix-up his yeses and nos.  Jackson is perfecting his fake sleeping with sounds and a change of expression, but the funniest thing about this is he hasn't put that much importance on keeping his eyes closed.  So, he will look right at us and 'sleep,' and we have to play along that he is taking a nap.  (We'll get there.)  His new words and phrases for the week are 'sticker,' 'me go,' 'thank you,' and 'hot.'  He is also getting very good at repeating words and short phrases right after he hears us say them we as soon as he can attach the meanings to what he is repeating, then he should be able to add to his vocabulary quite quickly.

If you see Sammie Miles Davis, Jr. and Bella, give them my love.