Thank goodness we have a playdate scheduled for today! Jackson is going a little stir crazy without the routine of school. We spent 4 days at Grandma and Grandpa's house and he asks to go back about 100 times a day.

We went out to dinner last night with a friend and Jackson had a horrible time. When we first got there it wasn't too crowded, but as more people arrived and the noise level escalated, J fell apart. He kept telling me it was too loud and "no music". Before we had Jameson, we used to go to restaurants more often, but now with two of them, it's gotten a little harder. I felt so bad for him; he just sat in the high chair with tears spilling down his cheeks. I eventually went out to the car with J while Daddy and our friend packed everything up and got my food to go. Maybe that woman who asked for a different table because she didn't want to sit by the children knew what was coming.

Object du Jour: The "rectangle" remote.

Merry Christmas! The boys had a blast opening their presents! Jackson loves his easel, 80 piece Mr. Potato Head set and pretty much everything his brother got! Jameson got a Clipo building set, which Jackson has claimed for himself. Jameson's favorite toy is a Fisher Price baby baseball set. We have one more Christmas to go tomorrow and then we're done. Whew!

The top picture is an artist's rendition (using our new Christmas markers and Handy Dandy notebook) of what Ellen DeGeneres would look like in a microwave. Just in case you were wondering what Ellen would look like in a microwave.

Object du Jour: The Mr. Potato Head set (at the moment). Mustache is the word of the day!

Boy Christmas vakay is going to be hard. J is a boy that needs to be on the move. It's way too cold to take too many trips in and out (plus the 14+ inches of snow doesn't help). He asks at least a million time a day to go to Target, the store or just outside. I'm hoping all the new toys from Santa will keep him occupied!

I'm so impressed with the continued language explosion! He was labelling numbers in the newspaper today, he's now spontaneously describing objects with an adjective in front and he's using people's names more frequently in conversation. His sitter and cousin are both named Maddie. When he's talking about his cousin, he just says "Maddie". When talking about the sitter, he calls her "Different Maddie".

Eating is still trucking along. Still only dry and crunchy stuff and "banbans", but he's swallowing more of the pieces that break off of crackers and stars. We've decreased his tube feeds, he's drinking his allotment much better during the day.

Brother abuse. Jackson's jealously is really showing now that Jameson is more interested in toys and so close to walking. J will push Jameson down or pull his hair. He also tells me to put Jameson in the "time out chair". Where that came from, I have no clue, we don't have a time out chair. On the flip side, he can be so sweet to Jameson. J gives him hugs and says "love brother". I guess it just depends on the day and which toy is in demand at the moment.

Object du Jour: The rectangle teeth. J loves his Mr. Potato Head pieces and parts. The rectangle teeth are his favorite obsession lately. Thank goodness Santa found an 80 piece Mr. Potato Head set with tons of new pieces and parts to obsess over!

I guess I didn't realize how hard it would be to take a picture of two small children, both looking in the same direction, smiling, and not touching the tree or each other. Here's one of the better pics (of the over 65 we took) that I'll be sending out for Christmas Cards. Whew. We did it! Now if Walgreens would cooperate and actually print the cards, we'll be in business.

Object du Jour: The "rectangle house". One year for Christmas my brother gave me this really pretty jewelry box with 6 drawers in the front. Jackson loves to play with it and put little toys in the drawers. He calls it the "rectangle house".

OK, I'm getting all crazy adding bells and whistles to this site! I've added music, if you don't like it, too bad! Just kidding, hit the stop button on the player if you want to turn it off. The songs are ones that J likes and "I Will" by the Beatles is the song I sang to him when he was a baby.

Carry on.

I love listening to J talk to him self while he's playing or eating. He's currently watching Dora and saying, "Swiper, no swiping". I also hear him tell himself, "don't touch" or "take a bite". It's really cute.

Today was a little nutty. Tons of snow, so we didn't take J to school or therapy. He kept asking to go to the store or go outside. This kid needs to be on the move! But, when he's bored, I'm seeing him pick on his brother more. We have to work on stopping that quick.

Object du Jour: Still Jackson's Book. He asks for it a million times a day.

Jackson: Snowblower broken.
Me: Oh no!
Jackson: What happened?
Me: I think there's too much snow in it and Daddy needs to fix it.
Jackson: Take it apart?
Me: Yes, Daddy will have to take it apart to fix it.

Wow, just wow. An actual conversation! This took place after J was watching Daddy with the snowblower out the window and he saw it stop. And, they told us he would never talk.

Last night at dinner, I was attempting to feed him sweet potatoes. He turned his head quick and I bumped his nose with the spoon. He laughed and said, "Mama stuck in my nose". I love this kid!

Object du Jour: Still Jackson's book, still shedding pages. He carries it everywhere and sleeps with it at night.

J is finally wearing his glasses somewhat consistently. I'm still not totally convinced that we can avoid some type of surgical intervention though. His right eye is wandering more than ever. He can blink and bring it back in, but it's happening so often now.

The words and phrases are exploding. He's using 3-4 word phrases more often and J is actually conversational at times, rather that strictly commenting or requesting. It's so cool to hear! He's labelling more shapes, letters and numbers.

Eating is inconsistent. He will actively chew food that dissolve very easily like corn puffs or baby stars, but still spits out things like graham crackers or Cheerios. He licked a piece of pear in therapy yesterday (only to get a puff) but still a little progress! I'm working on getting him to eat puree of "non-preferred" fruits and veggies (ok, who am I kidding, I'm trying to get him to eat something other than bananas!). He's doing better if a offer him a puff or star for each bite. I've been increasing the number of bites in between. It's been sorta working. He was OK with green beans and sweet potatoes, but some of the other have been a big battle.

We have dental clinic, ENT, and GI in the first few months of the year.

Object du Jour: "Jackson's book" He made a book of "ing" words to practice at school yesterday. He's been carrying it around since, but it's slowly shedding pages. I'm collecting them and hoping to get them laminated and rebound at Kinko's. He needs the practice with verbs. Instead of seeing the action in the picture, he only sees the noun. Instead of talking, he only sees the phone in the boy's hand.

Whew! So I've finally gotten everything transferred over from the old blog and it's now formatted. That took forever! Some of it is still wacky, but it's good enough. I'll now be posting everything new here and discontinue the old blog. I've got a ton to add, but I'll do it after the boys are in bed.