Hold You

One of Jackson's new phrases this week was, "Hold you."  It took me a couple of tries of translating to figure out that he meant, "Pick me up and hold me."  And I don't know if he was excited to use his new phrase or he just really wanted cuddled this week, but he said this a lot.  I'm definitely not complaining because there are some days when he doesn't want to be hugged or kissed at all for whatever reason.  (Example:  He needs his personal space; He's too busy playing with his toys; He has days when he is too cool for hugs and kisses.)

But as I thought about it more, I think he is completely correct in his new phrase of "hold you."  Even if things are going fine, it's nice to get a hug and have someone show that they love you.

The only time I lived out of the house was during my study abroad and student teaching abroad experiences.  The other years of university, I commuted to campus from home.  And during those two times away from home, I had my first experience of going days on end without hearing someone say, "I love you."  (I wasn't much of a hugger per se, so it didn't bother me to go without hugs.)  But, to be in a place where no one actually loved or knew me was quite lonely.

I never forgot that feeling and so when Jackson says, "Hold you," in a way, he is reminding me just how much he lifts up my spirits and how much I appreciate his company.  For however long I can, I will hold my little baby and be here for whatever he needs.

Our handsome little gent

Learning his alphabet with some quick studying before going back to nursery

Colouring scenes from Cars

Carefully placing the caps back on the markers--"I can do it."

After colouring, he mastered naming the colours grey, blue, red, and purple

We called in the colouring troops because the six markers were not enough

Building dens

He was tentative about coming inside, so he mainly used the blankets as ramps for his Hot Wheels cars

Finally venturing inside for about five seconds

Developmental updates:  Another big leap in speech development this week.  Here are all of the new words and phrases:  toys, puzzle, tower, push, pull, I'm fine, of course, bless you, watch me, I can do it, that's better, show, and hold you (when he wants to be held).  He's also putting sentences together more.  For instance, upon finding me looking in the refrigerator for a snack:  "Oh, there you are.  What are you doing?"  When I saw Jackson scoop up a huge dollop of yogurt on his spoon and attempt to guide it safely to his mouth, I said, "Only a little bite," and he cleanly smacked half of his spoonful back into the yogurt pot.  Jackson sat through an entire haircut at the salon without making a peep.  I did use the iPad in conjunction with his favourite fruit snacks (from Ohio), but I was still shocked at his attitude towards the usually chaotic experience.  With his cars, which are his favourite things to play with, he assigned his bigger Lightning McQueen as the 'mommy' of the littler Lightning McQueen and he decided that Doc Hudson is the 'daddy' to the little Lightning McQueen.

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

The Holiday Special

I usually type the blog entries when Jackson is asleep--either really early in the morning or late at night; however, this is the first time during our Christmas Vacation that I have woken up early enough to sneak away to my laptop for a blog update. 

Also, I have been experiencing the feeling I had when Jackson was first born of not wanting to miss anything--especially during this magical time of year--and I knew I would be doing that if I was sitting behind a computer while time passed around me.  Knowing that we only get one Christmas a year--and this was Jackson's only Christmas as a fun-loving, boisterous two-year-old--I was finding myself wanting to re-wrap the gifts and have him open them again and again.  I wasn't tearful, but I had a longing to hold on to every minute and stretch it out as long as possible.  There are some things you can do whenever you feel like it which bring your children great joy; but, it's really hard to recreate Christmas and the magic that comes with it.  (You would need very supportive and slightly bonkers family and friends to celebrate more than once a year.)

Jackson had a wonderful Christmas and like last year, he spread out the gift opening over two days.  Every time he unwrapped a present, he wanted us to open it and play with it right away.  Sometimes, this was a DVD which was time consuming, but after a short portion of the film was over, he was ready to open another present.  He opened all of his presents from Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter and Aunt Paige on the 23rd so for Christmas Eve, he played with a lot of his new toys.  Jackson also learned a new word by the end of the first day:  presents.  Everything he got from sticker books to Little People sets to trains to cars, he played with over and over.  We were really happy with how much he appreciated each gift and even after opening many excitingly wrapped boxes of different sizes and shapes, Jackson remained interested and thankful. 

The morning of Christmas Eve, I got up to bake Christmas cookies.  I bought all of the ingredients the day before, but unfortunately, my grandma's recipe flew straight out the window of the car before I shut the door.  And being one of the windiest and busiest shopping days of the year, I had no luck finding it.  Thankfully, years ago, I compiled a cookbook with recipes from various cooking magazines and for some reason, I had copied my grandma's recipe into this book along with her recipe for frosting.  Phew!  After the Christmas Eve "Christingle" service later in the day, we came home and had ham, roasted vegetables, and potatoes.  The ham was roasting while we went to church so that saved a lot of time.  After dinner, I finished frosting the cookies so we had them done in time for Santa's arrival.

On Christmas morning, Jackson was really excited to open more presents, although he did not yet fully grasp that Santa had brought them.  He loved his new kitchen, Lego table, and Mr. Bucket game.  He opened lots of books, as well.  Jackson also revealed that he got the Moana and Ratatouille movies from Santa so we put those on and they played in the background.  He even wore his little plaid Christmas pajamas!  I had to bribe him with the word of the week (presents), but nevertheless, he wore them for his pictures which is what's important.  Jackson is also at the point in his life where he will tear the paper in either really tiny pieces or one huge rip.  He does not like anything on the floor that shouldn't be there so none of the paper was allowed to be left behind and had to be handed to mainly Mommy, but sometimes Daddy, to be thrown away. 

We took a break during the day to go to Lee's family's Christmas in Chester.  For a few hours, Jackson got to open even more presents and play with new toys.  He also got to play with his cousins, Connor and Amelia.  We had a Christmas dinner with turkey and chicken, vegetables, and potatoes.  The best part of the day was singing Christmas carols with Lee's Grandpa Don and watching the kids have a 'race' which involved each of them running as fast as they could from one end of the room to the other one at a time.  I love moments when Jackson is experiencing pure happiness and laughing so hard that he can only fit a breath in to keep up with his giggling fit.  He got some more cars, a Toot Toot fire station set, a Fisher Price chameleon that teaches colours, and some colouring books.

After we got home, we were exhausted and saved the remaining presents that were under the tree for the next day.  Jackson opened more books, Duplo blocks, Hot Wheels cars and a Hot Wheels 'Flipping Fury' car (from Aunt Kirsten and Uncle Scott), and his electric quad bike.  Surprisingly, he wasn't wild about the quad bike and didn't even get on it.  We were a bit let down by this because we saved it for the end, thinking nothing else would compare.  There was even a big reveal at the park so he would have ample space to ride it around.  I anticipated that he would wear out the battery since it only lasts for 40 minutes at a time.  Oh well.  Today, hoping for a break in the rainy weather, we are going to give it another shot and see if he will try it out in the backyard.  (Update:  I am now finishing the blog at night and I can proudly say that the second attempt at presenting the quad bike went swimmingly.  He had a very nice reaction to his gift and hopped right on it.)

The rest of the week, we played with all of his new toys and watched Moana multiple times a day.  Lee and I even fit in a couple rounds of Trivial Pursuit and Top Trumps when Jackson retired for the evenings.  We also had our friends Ralph and Penny over for play dates (much better than going to play centres, in my opinion).  Jackson had his first dentist appointment on Wednesday.  This was much less-involved than I expected and the dentist basically looked in his mouth and said that his teeth were "fine."  (I'm glad that it was free.)  Jackson sat perfectly still on the chair while I had my teeth checked and polished.  He was wonderful!  I was a bit worried at first because she said that if he didn't sit still, we would have to reschedule.  After already having my appointment pushed back two months, I was not going to settle for that arrangement, so I got the iPad out, put a show on for Jackson, and he stayed there half-watching Spirit and half-watching and commenting on my dentist appointment shenanigans. 

Thursday, Jackson had his two-year review with the health visitor.  She said that he was meeting all of his age-related expectations and was happy to see how well he could use his imagination when playing with his cars and trucks.  He likes to make them fly, crash, and check if each one is 'okay' after they take a fall.  Jackson also uses different voices for different cars and managed to show this skill while she was here for her hour visit.  She mentioned that to help combat his hatred for teeth brushing, the nursery could help to normalize it by setting-up a dentistry role-play corner.  I will mention it next week, and we'll see if it helps.

For our New Year's Eve meal, we had filet mignon and potatoes.  I also had king prawns with homemade cocktail sauce. (No one else wanted these so I'm finishing them for breakfast.  Yum!)  Lee and I successfully made it to midnight, although just barely.  And for New Year's Day, we had pork, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes for good luck.  Let's hope it pays off! 

I also came up with a New Year's resolution.  It consists of a 3-2-1 method to make each day more productive and hopefully save time in the long run.  Every day, I am going to try to accomplish three things that need done for the following day (high priority things for work, most likely), two things to prepare for the following week (either for home or work), and one thing that will help in the more distant future.  These could include work-related tasks or family errands, a self-improvement task such as exercise, or researching for a family trip.  I did a trial run of this toward the end of the first school term, but I'll admit that on Fridays and Saturdays, I became a little complacent.  Hopefully, if I can keep up this regime, then 2018 will be my most productive year yet.

December 23rd through Boxing Day - Opening Presents

December 27th - Passing his Two-Year Review

New Year's Day - Playing in the backyard on the quad bike and feeding the birds with Daddy

Developmental updates:  Jackson had so many new words and phrases over the past two weeks.  Here are the ones that Lee and I can remember:  presents; I said no; Yes, I'm being a good boy; Ralph; Penny; Moana; Maui; "gickle" for tickle; "Minguine" for Lightning McQueen.  He has also started singing along to songs on Moana and can sing Jingle Bells.  Within the past couple of days, Jackson showed off his dramatic skills by saying the lines and acting out the motions to all of the parts in Moana.  (A side note for words and phrases:  Jackson has reached a pretty proficient level of remembering new vocabulary and repeating with fairly accurate pronunciation.)

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

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.