Snowman Fun!

Well over the past few days Colorado has sure gotten hit by a fair amount of snow! 15" in our area to be exact since Friday and boy oh boy are these Oregonians happy!

Colorado does an amazing job at keeping on top of the snow/ice and making things as safe as possible on the roads. There was quite a different reaction to this storm vs. other storms that have come through this winter. This time around the news named the storm "Winter Blast!" which definitely reminded me of Oregon's reaction to snow :) People scrambled to the grocery stores leaving the shelves which contained milk, eggs, bread and meat completely bare! Crazy! Luckily we had done our grocery shopping earlier in the week so we were set to just hang at home and hunker down.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing Jackson's reaction to the snow first thing when he wakes up in the morning...so priceless. And now that his vocabulary has started to grow at such a rapid rate the small sentences he puts together are so amazing and proud for me to hear! This time around Jackson came bolting out of his room and because the blinds were closed he didn't notice the snow at first. But when I told him to look outside he came running, plastered his face against the window and squealed "snowwwwwwwww....prettttyyyyyy....seeeee!" Made my heart melt :) Unfortunately during the first day for the snow on Friday the wind was howling so we had to stay inside all day because that's no place for a child with basically 0 body fat. But on Saturday we sure made up for having to stay inside all day on Friday!

Jesse, Jackson and I ventured out to build Jackson's 1st Snowman! Jesse and I both agreed that building that snowman as a family has been the most fun we've had since being here in Colorado! Such a wonderful memory for us all :)

helping Daddy!

Yes we did use Green Olives for the eyes & buttons, a cheeto puff for the nose and green beans for the mouth :)

I Love this!

Sneaky Mommy

It is no surprise that Jackson being 22months old and the delight he is that we struggle at meal times. The number of foods that I can get him to willingly eat I can count on my two hands so I have taken to the sneaky approach.

This kid is quite observant so I have limited options on where I can sneak different foods in. I've tried cutting up veggies as small as I can cut them and sneak them in to eggs but he finds them and won't even touch it. BUT I have discovered that sneaking different veggies in to meatballs then covering the spot where they poke out with ketchup seems to be a success! I know I know, one day he will have to see that he is eating these veggies but my hope is that by the time he sees them that he'll be out of this difficult stage and it won't be such a struggle to just get him to simply TRY it!

So for now I will continue being sneaky mommy :)

he LOVES them!

finger lickin good

rarrrrr

 

Tonight the sneaky veggie of choice was Zucchini

Helper Boy

I have noticed that Jackson's reach has grown quite a lot lately! He can now reach up onto the counters and I'm slowly running out of room of how far back I can push stuff out of reach. While this seems bothersome the majority of the time I have recently found a magnificent use for his little mischievous toddler fingers!

Since about 16 months Jackson has enjoyed "helping" lift piles of laundry up to me while I load it in the washer however NOW with his inspector gadget reach he himself can put the clothes in the washer!
With his willingness to help me with this task I am going to run with it...tonight he one by one loaded the entire pile of laundry into the washer and said "ready!" when he was done :)

I LOVE moments like this~

Oops one to many

Success!!

Peace & Quiet

Lately Jackson has taken to screaming at the top of his lungs to get our attention & pretty much everyone else's attention that happens to be around. We have been staying at home more as these outburts tend to happen when we are out and about. Jackson is a VERY active child, as most toddler boys are, so being cooped up in the house has been a little challenging.

Today I whipped out the play-doh he got for Christmas and man oh man I haven't seen that child that quiet in a LONG time! 

So sweet & quiet

Look at the deep concentration :)

what a goober

happy boy

It's such a beautiful thing to sit back and watch the wheels turn in your baby's head as he explores different colors, textures, objects and lets his imagination go wild.

Thank you Play-Doh manufacturers for creating such a fun activity that kept my child still and quiet for 30 minutes!

Another one bites the dust

Today started out pretty good, a little rocky but hey what day isn't with a toddler in the house right?

First off, Jackson started swim classes a few weeks ago and while the first week went off without a hitch (which was very un-Jackson like behavior) the second week was not quite as smooth. He was a bit apprehensive the first week with the kids and different atmosphere but during the second week he decided to throw the tantrum to beat all tantrums! This was a level 5 - gale force winds hurricane that sweeped through the rec center and continued on to the home front where damaging twisters tore through the house until the skies cleared 30 minutes later. So...naturally I woke up a bit un-easy today knowing that we'd have to show our faces to the people that looked at us with disapproving looks and would definitely not be my new bff's! Jackson once again surprised us and minus a few moments of toddler behavior ( wanting a toy and not wanting to participate) was extremely well behaved.

Because today was Jesse's day off and I like to suggest activities that I've been wanting to do but need an extra set of hands to help me with our spirited child I suggested we go down to the outlets. Jesse and I dispersed and performed the getting ready to leave routine ( I pack the bag & Jesse goes to the bathroom then gets Jackson's shoes on).

Unfortunately Jackson decided to take this time when his parents were busy to find his little Ikea chair, push it over to the wall, climb on top of it, stand up and fall straight into the wall. As we picked up our screaming child we noticed that blood was coming from somewhere and of course he had taken a big chunk out of his lip and bruised up his gums :(

A little doopy

It looks bad...but he seems fine

Still happy as a clam!

So while the day started off super awesome with a very successful swim class there is no telling when your child is going to decide to smack into a wall :)

Patience

Most days I wake up excited to see my little munchkins face and ready to face a new and trying (as the days have been lately) day.

I wake up knowing that my day will consist of make a meal, have the meal refused, screaming, whining, having my body abused and taken to the very edge of my sanity yet, I do this without question everyday.


Lately however i have grown tired of  the constant being climbed all over ALL day long, having my shirt pulled down in public and being bitten, scratched and poked at. This raising a human being business is HARD!

My new mission.....to become a more patient mother.

A little bit of this...A little bit of that

Yes! We are alive! :)

I just realized that I haven't made a post since the end of November! Obviously the hustle and bustle of the Holidays certainly got away with me :)

A little update on the happenings of the wacky Gardner household:

*Jackson and I headed back to Oregon for 9 days in December to celebrate the Holidays with mine and Jesse's families. We had so much fun! We celebrated Thanksgiving one weekend and Christmas the next and feel so blessed that our families were willing to put together these events for us :) Jackson had such fun making Christmas cookies with Aunt Melissa and stood in awe as he watched a Christmas tree get cut down for the first time. He made some amazing memories with cousins Henry and Joshua and learned about new traditions with Grandma Brigette! What an amazing trip we had!

*Jesse, Jackson and I experienced a new kind of Christmas this year. We have always celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our families and while this year was difficult and challenging to be away from everyone it helped us to realize something beautiful. We are now our own little Family. This is something that I think I've known since Jackson was born but I guess I've never really thought about until this holiday season. Realizing this has meant that I now must admit that I am an adult....obviously I have been an adult for some time now...but it's a hard to describe feeling of new found responsibility. We make the traditions now, we are responsible for all decisions that we make and further more we are the ones that have to make the decisions.
Jesse and I discussed how this year's Christmas didn't really feel like one but when we came to the day and saw Jackson's entire face light up as he grasped the concept of Santa more and the beauty in his eyes as he looked at the "Prettttyyyyy" lights (as he calls them) our hearts couldn't help but be filled with joy. All in all it was a wonderful Christmas and we can't wait for the excitement Jackson will have next year being a year older :)

*I have not so patiently been waiting for 4 months now for Jackson's darn 2nd molars to cut through! Now I know that while I'm waiting, Jackson is clearly doing all the work here. But I certainly have lost out on quite a bit of sleep with the 5am wake ups and the 40 min naps. FINALLY 2 days ago he cut the bottom right now and then in typical Jackson fashion yesterday he cut the bottom left one. This kid sure doesn't do anything slow as he now only has 2 teeth left to cut and he's only almost 22 months! This means that most likely he will have ALL his teeth by his 2nd Birthday! So crazy! But the minute he cut these suckers he's been sleeping from 7pm-7am and taking 1.5hour naps...I know it isn't likely to last but I am very very happy for the time that it will last :) It's the small things...

It amazes me what a BOY Jackson really is! He has recently become obsessed with the stereotypical planes, trains and automobiles :) I love it! He is using his imagination so much more now and takes parts of many different toys and makes a whole new toy with them all...SO cool!

He is growing up so fast and while I want him to slow down to savor it all I am excited to see what an amazing little boy I know he is going to become!

I may be a little biased but he is one CUTE little guy ;)