Mr. Congeniality

We all survived another week and I am very grateful to say that we are much healthier now.  For the first time in three weeks, we all had a full week at school, nursery, and work.

And so begins Holy Week and all of the Easter festivities that come along with that.  Today was the Easter Egg Hunt and activity day at Jackson's nursery.  It was really nicely organised with all of the crafting paper cut-out and ready to go and it was only for the toddlers three and under so there wasn't any fighting for eggs.  The nursery teachers had a really good idea of putting little piles of plastic eggs around the yard and then when a child collected six eggs of different colours, he or she traded them in for a bag of mini Cadbury speckled chocolate eggs.  It was difficult to get Jackson to give back his plastic eggs so we had to wait until he was distracted to sneak them back to his teacher.

Our highlight of the day:  We were so proud of our little boy because we kept getting compliments from other parents telling us how friendly and nice he is to their children.  Apparently, Jackson greets the parents and toddlers when they arrive every day and brings the little children over to play with him if they are upset to leave their parents.  All of his classmates seem to really enjoy his company and three sets of parents said that they are sad that their children are moving on to a new class after Easter because they know their kids will miss playing with Jackson.  How can one little baby have such a positive impact on the world?  I hope that Jackson is always this kind and welcoming to others.  We hope our baby stays a nice little boy forever.

Finding the golden eggs--he took about four of these ones

Choosing a soft and fluffy feather to decorate his basket

Hunting for more eggs

 

A very pensive Easter Bunny

Crafting with one of his favourite teachers

At this point, he exchanged his small cardboard basket for the entire pile of blue eggs in the yard

Hopping around and looking for the scattered treasures

Jackson loved getting his face painted and sat very still to transform into the Easter Bunny

Developmental updates:  This week, I think I heard the words 'giraffe,' 'no,' 'thank you,' and Jackson's version of 'Bubble Guppies' (his favourite show) which is 'Bup Bup Bup.'  Jackson rediscovered a driving toy he got for Christmas.  He enjoys changing gears, pushing the turbo button, and listening to the radio.  We hear him getting surprised by little things more often and saying, "Ooh," to show his amazement.  Jackson has also started making this grunting sound of exasperation when we take his Velcro shoes off.  This doesn't require any effort from him at all, but he makes the sounds as if he's working really hard to take his shoes off.  He does this when he takes his socks off, too.

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

We Had a Good Run

It has been a while since all three of us were sick at the same time, but unfortunately it has hit again.

Lee has had cold and flu symptoms for two weeks and has had no voice for the duration of that time.  Jackson had a mixture of conjunctivitis, a bad diaper rash, and a chesty cough for about a week-and-a-half (and after four trips to the doctor's office, we finally got him fixed).  I have a really sore eye due to conjunctivitis, but hopefully the new drops I got from the pharmacist today will work.  She said she's 'never seen an eye that bad' which wasn't comforting.  The over-the-counter drops I was using were making it worse since Wednesday, but I thought that I would wake up each day and it would miraculously be fixed.  That didn't happen.  Other than that, I was really dizzy and feverish towards the end of the week.  Lee and I both have the feeling that our throats are swollen, too.  So whatever that means?

Because of all of our illnesses, Jackson missed three-and-a-half days this week and two days last week, Lee missed eight out of the last ten days of work, and I missed the last two-and-a-half days of this week.  It is hard to take care of each other when we're all sick!  It's like the blind leading the blind (almost literally now with this conjunctivitis).

So to combat the various maladies, I filled our fridge with the 'best foods to eat when you are sick' as recommended by https://authoritynutrition.com/15-best-foods-when-sick/.  Most of the foods are ones that I absolutely hate such as tea, blueberries, and porridge and some of them were just additives such as honey, ginger, and garlic.  But, since we were at such a low-point, I was ready to try anything.  I must say that along with some ibuprofen for the swollen throats and paracetamol for the fevers, we have stuck to the list of healthy foods and have seen a big improvement in the past couple of days with energy and building appetite levels.

It took this second bout of being unwell to fully understand why rich people hire nannies.  Yes, I can even understand why multiple nannies are required for one child.  There was one time this week that we almost went to the childcare.co.uk website to look for someone who could help us for the day, but who would want to catch all of our diseases no matter what we paid?  So we were left to our own devices and we made it through to the other side.  But, if this were to happen again, and we had won the lottery in the meantime, then we would hire a nanny.

My little baby on Mother's Day--This year he got me a card, flowers, a handmade card with his footprints, and a painting!  Plus, we had a sunny day and got to get outside and play together.

Delivering his nightly speech

Explaining his ideas in his own language

Pretty impassioned at this point

And now, giving his closing statement

My friend's daughter is taking part in the National Swimathon to raise money for the Marie Curie charity next week.  If you get a chance, then please visit her Just Giving page:  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/swimathon-2017-AnnaCogan She's close to her goal of only £100 and it would be nice if she could receive enough donations to reach her goal.

Developmental updates:  Jackson knows how to make chicken noises and train noises now.  He also can point to his mouth and his belly when asked to do so.  Often, he will clap after completing these requests which confirms that he knows what he did was correct.  Another new skill Jackson has developed is speech-making.  He uses the fireplace as his stage and he gets on there with a purpose:  sometimes to deliver a speech, and sometimes to dance.  I was trying to clip Jackson's nails today and he said repeatedly what sounded like, "Go away."  Jackson can now reach the tops of counters and the top drawers so we have to be careful about what we set near the edge.  This week, he came into the living room with a bowl of fruit and tipped a small bowl of water on his head.  We are all on a learning curve.

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

I Want to Hold Your Hand

On Thursday evening, as I was tucking Jackson in for bed, he reached up with both arms as if he wanted to be pulled up to stand.  So I held his hands, but he just lay there and started nodding off to sleep.  That was the first time that he reached for me just to hold hands and it was precious.

Until Jackson went to sleep, I was thinking, "How many people in the world would feel better by holding my hand?"  That is why having a baby all to yourself is so special--there is possibly no one else in the world who needs you more and just the touch of your hand can lull them to sleep.

But there may be more people who may need our help than just our own children.  On Wednesday, when tragedy struck the city of London, the most moving moments recorded from that event took place as strangers passed those who were slain or injured and lay beside them and cradled them until help arrived.  They super-humanly put any fear aside that they had at the time in what was undoubtedly an unstable rush of hysteria.  Those people may have been naïve, or may have been perfect examples of what it means to be Christ-like.  I'm not sure I would have been that brave.

So, although I know for sure there is one person in the world who wants to hold my hand, I hope that I can be there for anyone else in their time of need.  Of course I hope that nothing happens like what happened on the Westminster Bridge ever again; if I do ever face anyone who is upset or in pain though, then I hope that I can be there for them.

The coolest baby at the park

Jackson waited very patiently to play on this swing until the other children were done.  His park etiquette far surpassed our expectations.

Local Celebrity and his bodyguard

Our Little Prince

A video Lee edited of Jackson playing in the backyard

Developmental updates:  Jackson can now do a very robust impression of an elephant by making a high-pitched noise accompanied by vibrating lips and of course, raising his arm at the same time.  This week, Jackson had to miss two days of nursery due to conditions that needed to be checked-out by the GP.  (He's all right; don't worry).  When he returned on Friday, we found out that his friend, Sadie, had been asking for Jackson for two days and when she was repeatedly told that he was 'poorly,' she kept saying, "Oh no."  I must say that I am surprised that the bonds of friendship are so deep when these little ones are only 12-18 months old.  While Jackson was taking a nap today, he was talking in his sleep which only shows how much his chatting tendencies are developing.  His spoken vocabulary still isn't matching the words he understands, but his key worker said that he is on track for his age group when I met with her at his parent-teacher conference this week.

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