...our exile to phoenix

As most of you know, Adam is a CPA.  Most of you also probably know (or at least you should) that taxes are due no, not April 15th but April 17th this year.  Awesome.  Thanks a lot Washington D.C....I really appreciate it-two years in a row.  Well, my point is that Adam is insanely busy this year and as a result, Adam and I agreed that Jackson and I should head out to Phoenix for a bit.  While we miss home, we have been having a great time visiting with family and friends.  Here are a few photos from our trip so far.  

On the airplane.  Please make note of the vintage Nikes....they were Adam's.  

Playing withe Grandma

Jack and Grandpa playing with the barn that Grandpa Kramer made...pretty cool.

Really wanting to to outside

We went to the zoo and Jack's favorite things were all the ducks.  

Pointing at the goat or "dog"  He was also a fan of the brooms/pooper scoopers in the petting zoo.  

Lunch time!

Giraffes

And...the broom

First scraped knee...this was after he re-scraped it twice

Sprinklers!

And finally, here is one of my favorite things about visiting phoenix in the spring...the orange blossoms!!!! I wish that I could put a scratch and sniff sticker on the screen so that you could smell how wonderful they are.  But, I can't-so these pictures are going to have to do.  

More to come.... :)

...on before and after

Before the walk:

And After:

...on outside and cotton balls

Today has been just as beautiful as yesterday!  Jack and I have spent a lot of time outside this morning.  First we were out in the front yard-I cleaned out my car while Jack carried around his broom, golf club, and shovel. After we came in and ate lunch we headed out back to play.  I think I have mentioned before that this kid loves brooms and brushes.  Well, here's some proof.  He carried this broom everywhere outside. 

This second picture was taken right before a face-plant that he quickly recovered from.  He was a man on a mission-looking for the neighbor's dog.  You should have seen him yesterday looking for the dog.  Chloe was in our yard, the neighbor's dog was in their yard and there was a dog over the fence.  They all kept on barking and Jackson was standing in the middle of the street saying "dog" and turning in circles.  He could not figure out which barking sound to walk towards.  It was pretty entertaining.  

We had a little incident with some cotton balls yesterday.  One of us got into the drawer and dumped out the entire bag.  Thankfully it was only about half full. 

...on a glimpse of spring

Today is lovely.  The sun is shining and the wind is not blowing.  I almost wore flip-flops to the grocery store-that's how nice it is.  The tree outside of our living room window is starting to bloom.

And, thanks to Adam's Mom, our house if filled with fresh flowers!  (Left over from a wedding shower that she threw this weekend)

Can you see the flowers on the kitchen island, too?  I only wish that I had pictures of the daffodils (my favorite!) at the entrance to our neighborhood.  

The nice weather is a great respite from the gloomy, cold weather of the past week.  I don't know how long it will last but I'm going to take full advantage while I can.  

This weekend was pretty uneventful for me and Jackson.  Adam worked, and worked, and worked.  We decided to have a home date on Saturday evening so I cooked paella and to make it feel more like a "date" I got out our fancy china.  Not to worry, we kept it casual with our Rudy's cups.  We're pretty classy like that.  

Isn't it funny that when you blog and you do something simple like make dinner you automatically think, "wait-I need to take a picture!"  

(Thanks, Annie, for the Paella idea-it sounded good to me so I made it too!)

...on lazy mornings

I love Friday mornings around our house.  They are super easy and laid back.  We stay in our jammys for a little longer than usual and we take our time getting ready.  After breakfast, Jackson shuffles around the house playing with his brushes or spatulas or ball...pretty much whatever he is into at the moment.  It seems like the rest of the week stays fairly busy with errands and things but Friday mornings are a nice and slow.

If you have any children, i'm sure you have been told repeatedly to "enjoy this age because it goes by so fast."  If I have heard this once i've heard it about a million times.  I know it is true, but sometimes hard to remember.  In the midst of tantrums, whining, and screaming, sometimes it is hard to remember.  Maybe I should take mornings like this a lesson in how to just slow down.  To remember that this tiny little person won't always be tiny and won't always need me like he does now.  I was somewhere the other day and Jack was either crying or repeatedly saying "mama, mama".  A woman next to me said, "That's so nice that he still needs you."  For some reason that statement kind of hit me.  I need to remember that he won't always need me the way he does now.  That is definitely something to remember.

...on a little confession

Confession time.  Sometimes when I get up in the morning and don't want to make the bed I just wash the sheets instead.  I know that this makes no sense because making the bed is much less work than stripping the bed, washing everything, and making the bed again....but in my mind it gets me out of the morning chore of making the bed.

Does anyone else use logic like this?  Or is it just me?

I haven't done any sewing since the cushion for the rocker-maybe this weekend?  I'll try to have something ready by next thursday as I know that all of you anxiously await my glorious sewing projects every week.

...on this guy

I don't know that I have ever really done a post that is fully dedicated to our little Ham but the time has come.  I can't help it.  He is just doing to many funny and cute things that I have to share.

I'm pretty sure the instruction here was, "Jack- let's look as handsome as possible".  I think they did a pretty good job!  Let start with words, shall we?  

It's kind of hard to make a list of words that a 16 month old is saying because, as parents, we understand what he is going for whereas other people might be entirely clueless.  So far, at 16 months Jack can say:

Mama

Dada

Papa

Clo-clo (Chloe)

Boof (fish)

No (no-that one is pretty clear)

More

Cracker

Cookie (seriously, this kid is JUST like his mama when it comes to sugar.  He gets visibly excited when he knows sugar is coming!)

Brush

Broom (All of these words kind of sound the same)

Bath

Trash 

Car

Dog

Ball

Cow (this one might be a little questionable)

That's all I can think of right now.  Box-did I miss anything?  It's amazing how much he can understand though.  For example, the other day I asked him if he wanted to put his shoes on and he sat down and started trying to put them on his feet.  He is very into trash right now and does not hesitate to let us know when he has found some.  He then proceeds to walk towards the trash can so that he can throw it away.  Today he was ripping wax paper off of the roll and saying "trash" so that I would open the trash can and let him throw it away.  He also LOVES helping me make the bed.  Most mornings when I start to mess with the covers he walks over to the throw pillows and tries to pick them up and hand them to me.  It's pretty cute because some of them are a little too big for him to pick up.  In that case, he just drags them across the floor to wherever I am.  One last thing that this kid loves-outside.  LOVES IT.  Outside and dirt. His Hammy was wondering why he started digging in her Jade plant that is inside for the winter.  Well, it's probably because when he is outside we let him do this....

How can you say no when he happily plays in the dirt for 20-30 minutes?  

Ok, one more little story to share.  Yesterday afternoon J and I went to the apple store for some assistance with my computer.  I was waiting at the bar while Jack was exploring near the kids area.  (he was very interested in the "ball" or the stools at the kid's computers.  There were two other children around with their dad and then there was a lady who sat next to me.  She was watching Jackson and turned to me and said, "Is that your kid"  I said yes and she said, "He's so cute.  He's totally the cutest one.  He's so smart too!  Look and how he reacts to people-he's so smart!  You can just tell.  I don't even like kids but he is so cute!"  I mean, I know she was a stranger and clearly not fond at all of the other children around, but it made this mama feel good to hear that she thought Jack was not only cute but incredibly smart, too!  Thanks lady at the Apple store-you gave me a good laugh!  

Oooh, and...I went by anthropology yesterday after the apple store just to see what was on sale and I found this....

It is a butter dish!  I have been needing one of these and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price-1.95!  There were a few left so if you need a cutie butter dish at a great price I'd head on out and get you one!  

...on thursday threads

Today is Thursday.  Today is Thursday but to me it totally feels like Friday.  Well, I finally sat down and sewed something yesterday!  It had been quite a while.  When my mom came out last week she brought Jackson a little rocking chair that belonged to my sister and I when we were little.  I decided that it needed a little something so I made it a cushion.

Jack loves the char!  He sits in it and rocks and every now and then he even grabs a book and "reads".  I know this is not a great picture of the chair or the cushion but I think you can kind of get the idea.  Jackson was screaming in this picture for some reason-I can't even remember why.  Maybe he wanted to sit in the chair?  Who knows.  

I want to share one other thing that I have started recently and I got the idea from Jen, Adam's sister.  Shortly after the new year I headed over to Barnes and Noble and picked up a calendar (on sale).  I hung it in Jack's room and I use it to write down things that happen each day.  Like, if Jack gets a tooth, or says a new word, or does something silly, etc.  Make sense?  I'm not good at keeping a baby book, I'm not really good at details but this is something simple that I can do to document things that happen in his/our lives.  Already I have enjoyed looking back and reading things from days, weeks, and months ago.  It is amazing how much you forget but how much you really want to remember.  At night, right after bath time and before we read books, I take a minute to write down a little memory from the day.  As you can see, I don't even remember to do it every night but I think it is a really neat way to keep track of little and big milestones.  

Thanks, Jen, for the great idea!