My Sweet Jackson

This little boy is something else. He makes us laugh ALL. THE. TIME. And he LOVES to make people laugh. His friend, Daisy, had a Princess and Knight birthday party.. of course when Mindy wanted to take a picture of all the princesses and knights, Jackson had nothing to do with the helmet.. but now that he has it at home, he wears it all the time. When he is building with blocks in his room, which he plays golf in the living room, and when he rides in his car seat. He makes me smile.

Clearly, my son likes to have things on his head. He is creative in the types of hats he wears. He has a small table in our kitchen, that he used to like eating at.. but now, he wants to sit with us at the big table. My little 2 1/2 year old can still fit in the bumbo, so thats what we use for him at the table. :) He ate his entire dinner with his napkin on his head.

He is a VERY good big brother. I know I have mentioned this in the blog a few times, but he really does love his sister. He talks to her and pats her belly. He loves to rub her head and give her kisses. If she cries, he always tells her, "its ok, baby" and if I dont run to her as soon as she starts crying, he comes running to me yelling "ITS OK BABY!", as if I dont hear her. The other day, they were both sitting on my lap, and McKinley put her hand on his nose (totally not on purpose), and he said "no, sister, no". It made me laugh. Sometimes, McKinley will be sleeping longer than Jackson will prefer for her to, so he will run in and climb up on her crib and just start talking to her. I will walk in, and she will be grinning from ear to ear. I sure hope their relationship continues on this path.

He can be extremely dramatic, which everyone thinks might come from my side of the family. :) I am still figuring out how to be an attentive mom to 2, and he is still figuring out how to share mommy's attention. Since McKinley has been home, I have felt like we have done a good job making sure both children are getting attention. But, Jackson has entered a pretty gross phase, that is evidently common among kids his age.. where he makes messes when he goes to the potty. Most of the time, it is just him taking it out of his diaper and putting it all over his room on the floor... so. so. so. so. gross. It has happened a handful of times.. and I finally felt completely overwhelmed about how to make it stop. I looked online finally, (which I have rules NOT to do.. because I feel like there is SO much false info out there), but this time, I was comforted in knowing that we werent alone. Evidently its a phase that some toddlers go through, called the Anal Phase. Evidently, they are just realizing what their body can do and they think it is interesting. They dont realize it is gross, they are just exploring. This can also happen, when there are added stressors in the house (aka.. a new baby) All people suggested not making a big deal about it, talking matter of factly about it, but not giving them a big reaction. They are looking for a reaction, whether it be positive or negative..and giving it to them, will increase your chances that the same thing will happen again. As you can imagine, because we are SO grossed out by this, our reactions have been negative. There were other suggestions like cutting out the feet in footie pajamas and zipping it in the back, and some even suggested putting them in a cold shower, because a warm bath was a reward. Craig and I both agree that the cold shower is a bit extreme and not something that we want to try. And our sweet baby is so hot natured, there is no way he can wear footie pajamas until winter. We decided that we would make a point after bathtime to give Jackson one on one time, whether it be me or Craig.. one of us would go to his room, we would read books, play with puzzles, or play on starfall.com to work on letters. But whatever we would do, it would just be us and him. The good news is, we went to our pediatrician for McKinley's four month appointment and talked to her about it. She also was VERY encouraging. She hardly blinked an eye, as if she had heard it all the time. She agreed that is is super gross, but that it is common. She told us to not give him a reaction at all. Tell him its yucky and that it goes into the potty but grit our teeth and deal with it. :) She also thought the one on one time after bathtime was a good idea, but it needed to be me. She really thinks that all of this is an act crying out for more attention from me. Break. My. Heart.

So more Jackson and Mommy one on one time will be had. :)

I sure am thankful for my sweet, funny little guy!!!