The terrible two's already!?!?

I knew when we moved away that there would be an adjustment period for all of us but never thought that it would push Jackson into his terrible two's this early! As Jackson has started this new stage I find myself thinking back to his colic stage as a newborn and how testing that was to Jesse and my relationship and our sanity. While both of these stages are extremely challenging and I can now say that having been through colic and come out on the other end and now beginning the terrible two's that the terrible two's are definitely more challenging in many ways.
First off, Jackson is now able to understand more and while I know his vocabulary is very limited right now I can say with certainty that he understands much of what we say and I believe it is that that aids in the challenge of this stage. At times it can feel that his actions and anger towards me or Jesse are on purpose, although I know that they are not. He has taken to hitting, pinching and biting and then when he is disciplined looks at me with a smile and laughs about it which makes holding my temper extremely difficult. We have decided to start timeouts which at first resulted in us putting him back in timeout every 2 seconds and the minute he was allowed to come out hitting me again but after only a week he seems to be understanding timeout more. I don't blame him for much of his behavior as we have completely turned his world upside down and taken him away from EVERYTHING that is familiar.
I have discovered that not only is having your child throw himself on the ground, scream and hit you in public embarrassing but having to punish him in public is equally hard. I constantly feel judged when Jackson acts out in public, when I have to keep my cool, talk to him in a calm and collected voice and then punish him it feels that every person walking by is scrutinizing every word I say and then talking to the person next to them about my punishment style. Hopefully this feeling will go away soon as we have to deal with this more in public, I don't think it'll get easier but perhaps less consuming.
Each day is a challenge and a struggle right now with this stage that he is in but I know if we stand our ground together and continue to nurture him with love and affection even through this time that we will all come out on the other side more patient, kind and loving as a family.

It's moments like these that keep me going every day...

Kimberly & Joshua come for a visit!

For the past 7 days we have been so blessed to have Kimberly & Joshua fly to Colorado to visit us! Joshua is just 4 months old and with this being his first long trip away from home he has done wonderful! His little coo's and caa's along with that bright eyed dimpled smile just melts out heart everytime and helps Jesse and I to remember back to when Jackson was a newborn :) Granted Jackson was quite the challenging newborn what with his colic and inability to sleep but when we think back we try to block that out and remember all those first milestones that he achieved and that we feel so blessed to see Joshua experience now.
Jackson was quite excited to see Kimberly & Joshua at the airport and couldn't wait to get his paws on Joshua! Of course Jackson is still too young to understand his own strength and often tried to lay on top of Joshua and get as close as humanely possible to his face. While this was very sweet and made for some memorable pictures it made my heart race and I would immediately begin sweating the closer he got because as I'm sure any parent knows, a 17 month old is completely unpredictable! As the visit has gone on though, Joshua has become less of a novelty and more of a constant so Jackson has been less interested which has done wonders for my blood pressure :)
We have gone on so many adventures since Kimberly & Joshua have been here, mostly involving water since it's in the 90's here:

The boys getting ready to hit the pool!

Joshua's first pool experience!

The best $20 we've ever spent! Thank you Ikea!

Clearly someone needs a haircut :)