2 Posts in 1 Day!

Yesterday Jackson was having so much fun being naked after a diaper & clothes change that I let him go for awhile. I really never do this, but he was being so good I figured he would be fine. In typical Jackson fashion, he grabbed a book and started to read. Jon and I were getting ready to go out to dinner for our anniversary (actually on Thursday but we're headed to the circus then) and when I picked Jackson up to get him dressed, he had peed everywhere! So his bottom half was quickly washed, along with the floor, before we went to Nana's house. Luckily the book was fine; that would have been the tragedy of the whole situation!

Jon and I got to have an evening out alone which was wonderful! (And Jackson had a great time with Nana...thanks again!) We haven't done that for a long time! We went to Red Lobster (thankfully I was over my stomach sickness from earlier in the week!) and then shopped at the outlets. We had a great date night!

PS...the original title for this post was "Naked Time" but when I decided to talk about Date Night, I decided against it!

For Pap

"Thanks for the new ball, Pap! Love you! Bye bye!"

This past weekend, we had a visit from my Dad! He is on business close to Philly for the week and stopped in to spend Saturday afternoon with us. Of course he didn't come empty handed! We took this picture to show him how much Jackson loves his new ball! Jack kept holding it in front of his face which didn't make for the best pic, so I told him to hold it at his belly. Evidently he thought that in order to do so, he also needed to lift his shirt up! Thanks for visiting us, Pap!

Happy Mother's Day!

Jon gave me a newspaper clipping this morning that said in part: "If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she'd rake in nearly $117,000 a year. That's according to a study released by Salary.com. The 8th annual survey calculated a mom's market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs. This year, the annual salary for a stay-at-home mom would be $116,805." Wow, those extra bucks would certainly come in handy! But being being paid in sloppy kisses (from Jackson to those who are wondering about Jon at the moment), smiles and big hugs, that is priceless!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Mom-in-Law, all those who have "mothered me" along the way and of course all my Mommy Friends!

The Week in Review

Nothing extremely exciting to say, but thought I'd update and just fill you in on some of the highlights of the last week. Sorry, I can't believe it, but I didn't take any pictures this week so I don't have any to post. Anyway...

Last Saturday was really a great day all around. I had planned to go to a big yard sale in Etown early to get the good deals. Jon didn't work so I was able to get up early and he stayed home with Jackson. But before I woke up, Jon had already gotten up (at 630), washed my car, and gotten me flowers and an iced coffee from McDonalds! Now is how a girl's day should start! Thanks to my husbanda for making me feel so special! I ended up getting a few things at the sale, including a Halloween costume for Jackson for next year, so I was happy with that. I also ran into Nancy and her friend...evidently I should have made sure I was there before them, because they cleaned up :) I came home to eat breakfast and then the 3 of us headed to Karen's development in Middletown where we met the Hixon's for a huge development-wide yard sale! The best deal of the day was one of Selena's bargains: a pink Bumbo seat for $7!

Our main excitement the rest of the week was our arrival into the age of technology - finally we have high speed internet! My laptop also came this week, as did Jon's ipod. So all of the sudden we have these fun toys to play with. Hopefully Jackson won't be too neglected! I am excited to start up on eBay again - business has been a little slow lately due to lack of time! I think now with my laptop I'll be able to spend more time on it. Plus I need to so I can pay my new high-speed bills!

In other news, go PENGUINS! Most of you probably know that I am a huge Pittsburgh Penguins fan. They are currently playing against the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Its a little weird living in "Flyer Country" during this time and it's very depressing that due to our minimal cable package, we can't watch any of the games. We did decide that if they make it to the Stanley Cup, we're going to order the extra cable for 2 weeks so we can watch the games!

Last interesting thing....I made my first cheesecake yesterday! I don't know why, but cheesecakes always seemed intimidating to me. It was a triple layer - butterscotch, chocolate, and vanilla, and it turned out really good. So cheesecakes are no longer intimidating. Maybe next I'll attempt my own pie crust.

April Post

I am finally blogging again, thanks to Terri's gentle reminder :) At least I can get one in for the month of April!! I just haven't been able to find much time to check email, let alone blog! We have been loving the return of spring, and with the nice warm weather (with the exception of the last few days) we have been outside doing YARD WORK!!!! Many of you may have driven past our house and seen huge piles of ivy...we have been spending much of our time pulling these vines out of the ground. For those of you who haven't seen our house, the yard is pretty much a disaster. It seems that the people who lived here before us didn't enjoy fresh air or sunlight. Hence the ivy taking over everything. Its not that ivy can't be pretty, it's just that we'd like to give grass a chance. Along with the ivy, Jon and Jerry have been taking down small trees, shrubs, and branches...pretty much anything that gets in their way. And we have the railroad ties for my long-awaited fire pit!! So we are making progress! We did have a pretty bad setback when Jon got TERRIBLE poison ivy this weekend!! I really wish I would have taken a picture to gross you all out. It was bad. He finally did go to the doctor's last night and after starting some medication he's feeling much better already today.

Jon is taking down ivy...but really I think it's just an excuse because he loves to climb trees!

In other news, Jackson is learning new things every day! He is picking up so much vocabulary and repeating everything! He does have some trouble with p's, b's, and d's .... for example, Peeps (Jon's dad) is called "Beef" and Pap (my dad) is "Bapf." Which brings me to my story... Jackson has been fascinated with all things outside this spring, and I've been trying to plant flowers, so he's been "helping" a lot. He also loves to watch butterflies and the birds at our bird feeder. We went to Kmart the other day and were walking around the garden section smelling all the flowers and all of the sudden he starts saying (in his loud toddler voice) "Hi Booby!" Over and over again. I couldn't figure out why he would be saying this or how he even knew the word for that matter, so I tried to get him to stop and eventually he did (after getting some strange looks from other shoppers.) Later that night we were watching our bird feeder and he started again "Hi Booby, bye booby".... finally I realized he wasn't being ornery and saying booby...in his mind, he's saying BIRDIE! So this definitely makes a lot more sense but at the same time I'm hoping he learns some better pronunciation soon. Not yet as evidenced by last night when Jon walked in as I was holding Jackson up to the window to see the birds ....Jon said "what were you looking at?" Jackson's reply: BOOBS!

What is it with taking pictures lately? This is what I got when I asked for a NICE SMILE.....

Birthday Party #1

We decided to have an early birthday party for Jackson last weekend so Hiromi could experience an American birthday party for a 2 year old! :) We had an Elmo theme (so excited that this is Jackson's favorite and all the decorations happened to be on clearance at Target!) Jon's family all came for cupcakes and ice cream. For the first time, Jack really loved opening presents so that made it even more fun! Birthday party #2 will be held tomorrow with my family in MD.


Some pics...
Elmo cupcakes (suprisingly easy)...

The Aftermath... (also note that Jackson contracted the lovely 5ths disease, which is basically nothing except it looks like he was slapped across the face...the red cheek is not icing...it's rash!)and Opening presents!

Hiromi

It's been a long time since I've posted...we're currently at my parents (with high speed internet) so I thought it would be a good time to catch up! We recently had the pleasure of hosting a Japanese exchange student in our home for 2 1/2 weeks. We had a great time with Hiromi and are so glad she became part of our family! Jackson was especially attached to "Homie" as he called her. Here's a picture of the 2 of them -

We miss you, Hiromi!!