Catching Up

Okay, okay, I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything new. I'm sorry about that. It really was not my intention to go so long between posts. Part was laziness (but not a disinterest in blogging), part was lack of a card reader to transfer pictures onto the computer (Nate had it in his laptop backpack and I kept forgetting to grab it from him), and part was because I put a temporary time limit on my internet time so that I could catch up on some of the stuff I had fallen behind on around the house. But now I'm back. So Sherrie, this post is dedicated to you since you didn't think I would post again anytime soon- especially not only a couple hours after I talked to you about it.

As I've been trying to catch up on chores around the house, Mason thought he would help out and so he's taken to helping me unload the dishwasher. His favorite thing to do is put the silverware away, as you can see here:




Of course, he doesn't realize that he's not actually reducing my workload since I still have to go back and organize the silverware inside the drawer, but it's cute and it keeps him out of trouble elsewhere so I let him do it. Plus, I don't want to discourage him from helping out.

He was also trying to help me with the laundry. Here he is trying to climb up the washer so he could pull clothes out to put in the dryer:

It was a nice thought, but not something he can really do at this time. He's still welcome to help me put clothes INTO the washing machine though. Both Mason and Jackson enjoy helping me load the washer as long as it doesn't involve their precious monkey and dog.

A Sweet Bedtime Moment

Tonight I was a little late getting Jefferson and Jackson in bed, so I was rushing through bedtime routines. I gave them quick hugs and kisses before getting up to leave the room. As I'm getting up I hear Jackson say "Prayer!" So I turn to him and say, "you're right Jackson, I forgot." So I kneel down by Jackson's bed and as soon as I'm about to start helping him, he dives right in and says most of the usual stuff before needing any assistance. Wow! I am just so impressed. I've known other kids close to Jackson's age to pray somewhat unassisted, but I wasn't expecting Jackson to do it yet. And for him to even remind me! He is just such a joy. He is going to be such a fine example to both his older and younger brothers.

A Playgroup for Jackson!

Jackson started a playgroup at Kid's On The Move last week. I'm excited for him to have more socialization. He doesn't have much experience with kids outside of nursery on Sundays and his brothers. This will help him learn turn taking, sharing, interaction, and other social skills. I'm sad that his time with KOTM is almost up. He leaves the program when he turns 3- which is only a short 4 months away! They have been such a great help in providing Jackson and and the rest of the family the education and guidance he needs to improve his speech and language skills. He has really improved leaps and bounds since he started with KOTM.

Mason with Jefferson's Clothes

Mason has been in that lovely stage where he pulls out everything he can from any drawer he can open for several months now. But lately, he's started to also try to dress himself with the clothes that he pulls out from the drawers in the bedrooms. The other day he was digging around in one of Jefferson's drawers, right after I had taken his pajamas off, and decided that he needed to wear some underwear and some socks. Here's his attempt at putting them on:



When he gave up doing it himself, he brought the clothes over to me to put on him. Here's his "manly" pose for the camera:



He ended up wearing the underwear under his other clothes until his next diaper change. He was disappointed when I took them off. Maybe he'll potty train earlier than his brothers! Let's hope.

He also got into a pile of my clothes and pulled out some socks to put on. He's quite the silly boy:

Jackson Singing the ABC's

Jackson is learning his ABC's and loves singing the song. He still skips over several letters, but he's learning more everyday and he is recognizing more and more letters. He already knows all of the vowels and several consonants. I am impressed. I really think he'll be reading before he starts kindergarten. He loves being read to and he pays close attention when we work on reading with Jefferson. Here's a clip of him singing the ABC's:
(He always ends with a "yea!" because he now thinks it's part of the song. And of course I didn't have the camera with me when he was singing the ABC's spontaneously, so I had to prod him along to get him to do it for the camera.)

What do you think?

I thought I'd try out a new look for the blog, but it may be too bright. Let me know what you think. If it's not popular, I'll just revert to the old look until I find something different.

Their first taste of sledding!

Last Friday I finally took the kids sledding. We bought a sled at Costco a couple of weeks ago and last Friday was the first good opportunity to go once we had a sled. I took them over to a park by my parent's house that has a small hill. Even though it had been snowing like crazy all morning, I had to wait for Jefferson to get home from school, and by the time I got the kids all decked out in their snow gear and got over there, the sun was out and the snow was quickly melting. Luckily the north facing hill was still decently covered and we had a great time. My dad met me at the park so that he could help out if Jackson or Mason got bored or upset and, sure enough, Mason was done with the snow as soon as one of his mittens fell off (about 5 minutes after we arrived). Jackson was surprisingly happy the entire time- until it was time to go and he didn't want to leave. He's discovered that snow is a lot more fun when it involves sledding, and sledding is very similar to another one of his loves- slides! Here are some pictures and videos:





I even took a few turns down the hill. Here's the video of me sledding that Jefferson took:

My Eating Theory

So, for my kids (as I'm sure it doesn't relate to all kids), I have come upon a theory relating to their eating preferences. Jefferson has pretty much always been a picky eater, Jackson has become one, and Mason still eats most everything, BUT... Jackson loves almost everything breakfast related, Mason prefers lunch-/dinner-type foods and Jefferson would rather eat snacks .

So here's my theory:

All of my kids prefer the type of meal that coordinates to the time they were born!

• Jefferson was born at 11:19 pm, which is closest to the "midnight snack" eating time.
• Jackson was born at 7:56 am, which is breakfast time.
• Mason was born at 12:48 pm, which is lunch time.

How wacky is that?

Jackson and the Number Seven

My favorite number is seven. Jackson's favorite number is three and apparently Jackson's least favorite number is seven. Whenever we count with him, he always skips the number seven. At his last Kids On the Move visit, I explained this to Marsha and she took it to task to get him to say the number seven. Here's what happened, as related to Nate through Google Talk:

Me:
So get this- we were doing counting with Jackson and he was skipping #7 like usual.
So then Marsha had him stack blocks and count them and he still skipped #7.
And then she was helping him count the stacked blocks, touching each one as they counted, and he not only skipped saying #7, he even skipped over touching the 7th block.

Nate:
Wow.

Me:
So then, just as an experiment, she tried getting him to say seven in Spanish figuring he wouldn't know that siete was seven. So we are counting uno, dos, tres, etc. and when we say siete, Jackson instead says ocho. No lie. I don't even know how he would know 8 in Spanish since he doesn't watch Dora (or Diego) like Jefferson did.
Jackson seems to want to believe that the number 7 does not exist- kind-of like the number thirteen in buildings.

Mason, Ham, and a Broom

Mason may only be 18 months old, but he already has an understanding of cleaning up. He, of course, makes plenty of messes (he's still in the stage of throwing food off his plate, dumping bowls of food, etc) but he also is good at "helping" clean up. He likes helping me put the stools back in place at the island after I sweep the kitchen floor and he constantly pulls out the broom to "sweep" the floor for me. The other day, though, he did the cutest clean-up ever. He had a bowl of ham pieces that he was munching on and he had carried it off into the family room. It inevitably ended up dumped on the carpet. I was busy in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch when I suddenly see Mason run into the kitchen, shimmy in between the wall and the fridge, pull out the broom, and run back into the family room. My curiosity was peaked (I had not yet known that the ham had been spilled). I followed him into the family room to see him trying to sweep up the ham that he had spilled. It was so cute! He made quite the effort (although not much ham moved). I then bent down and started picking up the pieces and he joined me in putting them back in the bowl to be thrown away. We even missed a piece and when Mason found it he ran into the kitchen and put it in the trash can. Oh, if only children would remain so helpful.