Over the River and through the Woods

Last week, we arrived in Ohio for our bi-annual visit to see family and friends and to see new sights.  It was our first attempt at travelling with our tiny tot and although we had hopeful expectations of a stress-free journey, our trip was filled with every horrific toddler-related disaster that an Emmy winning sitcom writer could have ever dreamed up.

After finding our way to the check-in line at the airport, we saw that it was going to be quite the wait because it was at least twenty people deep.  Jackson was coping just fine for the first minute, but after that, we had to distract him with pre-downloaded episodes of his favourite shows on the iPad, fruit snacks, milk, and the "look" game where we point to new things that might catch his attention and say, "Look!"  We were grasping at straws, but we managed to stay calm, reminding ourselves that this too shall pass.

The bags were checked, but we still had to go through the intense rigmarole of security and at this point, Jackson was screaming and flailing about, working himself into a sweaty mess.  As soon as we rounded the corner for the basic, economy security, we were immediately fast-tracked to the priority line because the kind man at the entrance could see the distress we were experiencing.  We bypassed about fifty people or so by going down the special lane that we have only ever looked at from afar before having a baby.

Once through security, we had to find a spot to calm Jackson down and change his diaper.  There was a deserted, quiet corner where we decided to get things rolling.  To distract Jackson, we turned the Minions movie on which inevitably attracted a little girl out of nowhere.  She heard the opening scene  and it called her like a Siren from The Iliad to our mini disaster zone.  And of course, this girl was carrying with her an extra large purple slushie with a very precariously placed flimsy plastic lid.  She knelt down to join in our joyous merriment and in the process, dumped 95% of the icy drink all over our backpack.  I know that things 'can always be worse,' but we were barely an hour into our vacation and I would say that it was a pretty abysmal start.

Jackson settled pretty well onto the plane, but for five of the seven hours, we had a lot of screaming, punching, and kicking on our hands.  We were mostly shocked by his unending energy.  During the intermittent quiet, happy times, Jackson wanted to take laps up and down the aisles; but, since we didn't trust him to stay behind the first class curtain, he had to keep his harness and reins on, so from the other side of the plane, it probably looked like I was walking a dog or pacing at high speed.

The best and worst thing about finally landing was the line for customs.  Jackson somehow still had the energy to continue screaming and thrashing about and this caught the attention of the security guards.  A very tall, intimidating man in a suit approached us and said, "Come with me."  We were then taken up to the customs officer, this time, bypassing hundreds of people.  Thanks, Jackson!

We then had a six-hour layover in Boston which was just as traumatic as the flight, but in the last hour, Jackson was finally able to settle down and fall asleep.  From leaving for our trip to landing in Cleveland, it was a 25-hour journey and we had already felt like we had been on vacation for a week!

So in summation, and looking at the bight side of things, we got to skip ahead in nearly every line, no one bothered us on the plane with meaningless chit-chat because everyone tried their best to act like we didn't exist, and we had so much happen in the first day that we were definitely getting the most out of our days off from work.

Developmental updates:  Jackson turned 22-months-old on Friday.  His new words this week were 'way' (probably because I said, "This way" constantly) and 'turtle.'  Jackson did a full concert for us and sang his favourite nursery rhymes.  He has been doing really well adjusting to his new environment and time zone.  This week, Jackson got to go to a farm safari and got to feed giraffes and zebras!  He wasn't afraid at all of the animals that came up to him and gave him a good sniff before they ate out of his hand.

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

Happy Days

What a difference a week makes!  Before seven o'clock on a normal weekday, Jackson cries at least three times:  once for taking his pajamas off, once for putting his new outfit on, and once when we put him in his car seat.  Since we leave at 6:45 every morning, I think a lot of the tears are brought about because he didn't get a chance to sleep long enough.  He also usually cries again when I leave him at nursery so needless to say, Jackson goes through a lot of stressful moments every morning.

But now that I'm home from work, Jackson has slept in every morning--until nine o'clock one day--and he gets dressed in his own time.  It is such a relief to have days with very little or no crying at all.  Yes, one reason for that relief is that our house is quieter and more peaceful; but more importantly, Jackson's days are more relaxed.  He still has his tantrums over 'terrible two' type things like when I stop him from changing the dryer settings while it's operating, but I feel less bad as a mom when the tears are caused by a learning curve instead of a daily routine.

I am so happy that I get to spend all of this quality time with Jackson and that I have a job that allows me so many weeks throughout the year to be with my little baby.  We have crammed in tons of new memories this week already and I know the rest of the summer will be filled with many more.

Developmental updates:  Jackson is getting better at repeating and remembering new vocabulary.  He said the following new words and phrases this week:  star, hair, cheek, hand, bath, sky, tree, bear, cookie, snack, thanks, please, okay, Elmo, candy, and Oh boy.  With all of these new words, and with his understanding of even more of them growing each day, it is becoming easier to communicate and solve problems faster.  We found out that Jackson has games that he likes to play with each of us individually because he likes to tickle my feet, but he doesn't do that to Lee, and he likes to climb on Lee's back to pretend to ride a horse, but he doesn't do that with me.  Jackson loves to show how independent he is and this week, on our walk back from the duck pond, he wanted to walk and kept going for over a quarter of a mile.  This included steep sandy hills and he never stopped once.  I had to keep a swift pace to keep up with him and he continued a steady, quick walk the whole time.  Jackson's movie of the week was Dumbo and I lost count of how many times we pressed 'play.'  He gets really invested in the characters' feelings and gets worried or outraged or even laughs at the right places.  Jackson has also been making sense of new objects and if he doesn't know the word for what he sees, then he invents a new term.  For example, he saw a pair of roller skates and he applied what he knew to say "car shoes." I was pretty proud of his creativity and quick thinking used to combine the vocabulary he's built so far into his very own label for something he had never seen.

Due to technical difficulties, I could not upload any photos but I will upload extra ones next time.

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

Summertime

Officially, it has been summer since the middle of June, but in England our summer break began on Friday at 1:30 P.M.  (At least for our school.  Some schools are still in session for another week or so.)  Because of the nature of my work, I must remain confidential, but I will say that I was really looking forward to this summer break.

One thing that is going to be different this summer than any summer in the past is that I am not going to waste a day working behind a computer.  The summer before my first year of teaching, I spent five weeks from 8 A.M. until 5 P.M. every day decorating, making resources and games for, and creating lesson plans for my new class.  Looking back on it, I really regret not taking the time to travel or meet-up with my friends.  Obviously, I will prepare for this coming school year, but I will chip away at my to-do list a little bit every night when Jackson goes to sleep so that I don't miss the opportunity to create new memories with him (and Lee when he has the day off of work).
 
With remaining respectful to my friend's wishes, I will not include any names or specific dates, but I will mention that we lost a very dear friend this year at school.  It was someone with whom I had daily chats with about current events, history, politics, parenting, and do-it-yourself projects.  I greatly respect this person and admire him for his humour and honesty.  His untimely passing is something that still hits me daily and it has been strange to go to work without him there.  A motto he said weekly was, "Life's too short," and I must say that reflecting on my times with him has changed the way I live since he left.

I still care about my job just as much as before, but I definitely worry less and do things in a more efficient manner to maximise my time with my family, have fun, and enjoy each day as much as I can because tomorrow really isn't guaranteed.

So this summer, I will take more time than I ever have before for family, friends, and relaxation; and because of this, I know that it will be one of the best summers ever.

Jackson after his tantrum through the village

One of his new gestures as he shows us more of his personality

Developmental updates:  Jackson's new words this week were 'cookie' and 'bull.'  He's been a lot more expressive when he says, "Oh no," and when he gets excited.  Jackson has added crossed arms, a sulky, bowed head, and 'sad eyes' to his "Oh no" demeanour.  And when he gets excited about something, he has a Shirley Temple-like smile and puts his hands on his cheeks to say, "Yeah!" or give a giggle.  Jackson's tantrums have also become bigger and better than before.  I think what shocks us most is how long the screaming and crying can last even when we completely leave the situation.  For instance, yesterday we tried to get his hair cut but before we made it to the hair salon, Jackson threw a temper tantrum because we wouldn't let him walk into the street.  After offerings of milk, gingerbread cookies, baby rice cakes, and even a t.v. show on the ipad wouldn't settle him down, we had to strap him in the stroller and walk back home.  It took about eight minutes to get back to our house and he leaned out of the stroller, reaching and crying for the street he wanted to walk on the entire time.  The tantrum even continued inside the house!  (Eventually, he got tired of this and took a nap.  When he woke up, upon the second attempt of our walk to the village, we succeeded in getting his hair cut.)  Jackson of course still has his incredibly sweet moments--like wrapping his arms around my knees when I'm cooking dinner to give me a hug--and I know that in time, he will outgrow the 'terrible two' years.

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