Bye Bye Paci

Jackson has been a tried and true Paci user since birth. As a baby he had it in his mouth the majority of the time because it was the only thing that seemed to have a small chance of calming him down. As he got older we knew we needed to start using it less and less. We waited a good few months past moving to Colorado to start weaning him down to just nap & bedtime use and it went pretty well! With our few trips back and forth to Oregon and all the change he's gone through I wanted to wait till around 2 to start the process of saying bye bye to paci.

I've been spending tons of time lately researching tips and tricks on how to get rid of paci. I decided to get the Elmo video "Bye Bye Pacifier" because Jackson digs Elmo and I thought if he saw Elmo say bye bye it would make things a little easier. With Jackson's spirited personality I was SURE that this process was going to include screaming, fits and a few weeks of little sleep and naughty behavior.

2 days ago I decided to put the video on just to give ourselves a break from the obsession of curious george that has taken over our house. We talked a little bit about what was happening in the video and that Elmo was a big boy now and didn't need his paci anymore. That night...without even thinking about it I picked up Jackson to go rock him for bed time and realized half way through my rocking that he didn't have the paci in his mouth! I thought well...let's see what happens. And to my amazement he simply rolled over and fell asleep and slept all night! He hasn't mentioned the Paci since and goes down without any issues.

HE BLEW MY MIND!

Many stages that we've gone through with Jackson have been HUGE struggles. He is quite a strong willed and spirited child and constantly provides us with opportunities to work on our patience :) I am so thankful to my child for providing us with a mini break in a big change in his life! I am thankful to him for finally not fighting me on something and being the Big Boy that I know he is becoming.

Thank you Jackson from the bottom of my exhausted mommy heart!

My child...the food monster

Right around Jackson's 2nd Birthday (one month ago) he went through what I thought was a huge growth spurt. He was eating tons at meals and always asking for seconds! However, that was NOTHING compared to the growth spurt he's going through right now! This kid is a BEAST! I swear he is going to eat us out of house and home!

Here is what he's eaten so far today....and we haven't even hit dinner yet!

Breakfast - 2 cups of cheerios with milk
                  Half an eggo waffle
                  Cereal Bar

Snack(s) - 2 cups of Blueberry/purple sweet potato organic puffs
                 2 cups of strawberry/beet organic puffs

Lunch - 1 container chobani yogurt
              5 huge strawberries
              2 handful blueberries

Snack(s) - 2 cups strawberry/beet organic puffs
                 1 Banana
                 1 bowl ritz crackers
                 1 bowl of cheddar bunnies

(I clearly need to sneak some veggies in him at dinner!)

He's currently working on the cheddar bunnies and already asking for MORE!!! He's a food monster! I am in no way complaining as this is VERY positive for us...it's just so dramatic from the amount that he normally eats. Just blows my mind!

Sneaky Cookies!

Jackson is a 2-year old and of course that means he makes disgusted faces and runs from the dinner table when something that he doesn't recognize shows up on his plate. Now he does have some internal problems that prevent him from eating certain things but these things would not be such that would prevent him from eating any vegetable beside green beans and peas. He is a child that doesn't like his food mixed together so casseroles, lasagnas and pasta type food (besides mac n' cheese) are out of the question. All of this leaves us with chicken nuggets and other such items.

I just had to share this recipe for the mom's out there that are struggling like I am to get their kid to eat something that's good for them but they just refuse. I must say though if the food in question makes your child ill or he has NEVER liked it than maybe don't make the recipes with that food in them but in the case of this recipe Jackson has eaten carrots before and loved them as a baby so I know he likes them...he's just being a 2 year old :) I found this recipe in the magazine, Parents.

We're also in the process of trying some recipes out the book, Deceptively Delicious!

Here's the recipe for the sneaky cookies! (they are actually super yummy so you may want to make extra because you may want to have a few also)

Ingredients:
1 cup White or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice (i just used cinnamon)
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
1 cup Regular Rolled Oats
1 cup Finely shredded Carrots ( about 2 medium) - i think you can even add more and the kids won't notice - they are THAT good!
1/2 cup Raisins

Make it:
* Preheat oven to 350F
* In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; set aside
*In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugars, egg, flour mixture, oats, carrots and raisins.
* Drop dough by slightly rounded spoonfuls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake each sheet for 10-12 minutes or until cookies begin to brown.
* Place on cooling rack
*ENJOY!!!

Back Off Lady

Today Jackson started his first dance/music class. With the days leading up to today, I myself was very excited for Jackson to start this class because this kid has music just pulsing through his blood! I was ready for him to show these Colorado people what he was made off and get down with his bad self!

Of course I was prepared for Jackson to be how Jackson is and most likely throw a few fits here or there and for me to spend the majority of class redirecting him from destroying activities that other children were trying to enjoy. But I thought to myself...just stay relaxed, keep your cool and expect these things to happen so maybe it'll be a little easier if they do. Well....they did happen and it wasn't any easier.

For some reason I just can't seem to wrap my head around why my child is the only one in these classes that I take him to that acts out and can't listen to instructions. Why???? Now to be fair to Jackson the majority of kids in this class were girls and this may be where part of the difference lies. I have been told and witnessed in these classes that the girls tend to be more mellow and able to stand still and wait for things to happen longer than the boys can. This has been very much the case in all of Jackson's classes. However, Jackson is typically the only or one of two boys in the class that just wants to run and be free and play, play, play and unable to stop and listen to instructions. I know he's 2 and he's learning but it is so frustrating even still.

The class started off with the teacher throwing out a bunch of balls for the kids to play with. Jackson grabbed a ball, played with it for awhile, dropped it than ran off to get a different one. Typical 2 year old behavior right??? I would think that's normal for a 2 year old but apparently i was wrong because when I looked around every single kid was playing with their one ball and nicely passing it back and forth to their mom without any issues or fits. I thought to myself...hmmm robots??? haha no in fact I was slightly envious of those moms and their beautifully controlled children. I noticed that one of the little girls was from Jackson's last social play class he took in February and I remember that the mom would often give me dirty looks in that last class. Now the little girl is very small for her age so it's possible that this mother is VERY overprotective but STILL it didn't give her the right to do what she did.
Jackson was running around picking up different balls to look at the different patterns on them and he just happened to pick up a ball that this little girl had dropped but I watched her and she just ran and got another ball. Then when she dropped the next ball I grabbed it and handed it back to her saying "oh sweetie here's your ball." Nice right?? So then this mom looks right at me and instead of saying Thank you she says " Actually her ball is the one that your son grabbed off the ground after she dropped it." REALLY LADY?!?! Of course I was on my last nerve with Jackson because he had already attempted to destroy 3 different activities that the kids were trying to do in class and I had every mom's eyes staring at me while I was desperately trying to get Jackson to behave so my response to this mom was " well...it looks like she found a different ball that she likes so maybe you should back off." At this point we were 20 minutes in to class and I was DONE...I grabbed Jackson and we left.

Not sure if we'll try again next week...I have a week to decide.