Two Years Ago...

 Jackson  was born! Wow, that's hard to believe. We feel like we just had his first birthday, during which he wasn't walking or talking and now he's running and speaking in sentences! What a year.

We had a celebration during playgroup at our house yesterday. Here we are getting set up for our airplane party. We get a ton of air traffic overhead and Jackson's constantly talking about the planes, so it seemed like a perfect theme for him.

 The big 2 year old. He wanted to try everything on the table before people arrived. I guess that means he approved of the menu even though he's such a picky eater.

 Airplanes all around. I learned how to make the stealth bomber above and several other types of planes.

 It's hard to stop chugging your lemonade long enough to receive a birthday card

 Birthdays are GREAT! and Cosette agrees.

Turns on the slide. Our yard toys proved popular with all of the kids. We are so fortunate to have a small yard were we can put so many outdoor playthings.

A lot of traffic in the playhouse. Also, the chips and onion dip were the birthday boy's fav.

Opening a few gifts. We usually have a problem with this because he wants me to "open it!" right away when he gets a puzzle or a train set and the pieces get lost in a party setting. I had to make him wait until later this time to dive into the toys.

Cosette loves to get passed around. As long as she's held she's in heaven. But she has started pulling long hair, so be warned!

The sandbox was Jack's gift from us and he got it a few weeks ago. These gals love it and he does too!

Cupcake time. He was fascinated and seemed to really enjoy everyone looking at him and singing to him.

 He actually wants to eat it this year!

Blue beard

 Playing with his new train and trying to control this gal behind the wheel, which she did not appreciate.

 Just about the sweetest, coolest birthday boy ever! Happy #2 Son!

Snapshots

Just some family fun. I love taking pictures and admittedly I take them closer to every week rather than everyday like I did when Jack was a baby. We had to get an external hard drive because I keep filling the computer's memory full of pics and videos. A fun problem I guess.

Don't we look angelic? Maybe that's just the Photoshop affect.

 

 I love this Lady! Babies are completely addicting.

 Scribbling fun. Even with very close supervision as shown in this picture, he still manages to color on the couch pillows, table and floor. He's very quick.

This girly loves to crack up!

Fondue and Giants

I hosted a Fondue and Sweatpants birthday for my friend Melody. It was as chaotic as ever with 15 plus people in our smallish kitchen and living room, but so fun none the less with tons of cheese, chocolate and laughs.

 Melody and me, and trying to get the chocolate fountain flowing. It took several attempts.

 Other friends and opening embarrassing gifts like Twilight DVDs

Cosette was so cooperative and slept through almost the whole prep and party, but Jackson and Dan were banished for the night. They planned to hang out in the bedrooms and stay out of the way, but at the last minute, Dan bought a Giants ticket for that night's game and an hour later those two were on their way to the city.

What a stylin' little man. I love that kid!

 Doing the father-son thing. As expected, Jack behaved better for Dan than he probably would have if I was there too. How come mom brings out the melt-downs in kids?

Cheering. He came home saying "Go Giants!"

He made friends all around. He kept calling this little girl "mama" and she would say, "I'm not your mama!" and they'd both crack up. This is funny at least 100 times to a 1-year-old. Someone even gave him a foam finger!

 They somehow sat through the whole game. Impressive. Kind of glad I wasn't there, but instead was wearing sweatpants and eating chocolate. 

"What's That?"

All of a sudden Jackson is talking in small sentences: "that's a bagel," "ut-ohh it dropped" (unfortunately those happened in sequence). He's calling himself "Jack," labeling things as belonging to people "Set's blanket," "Daddy's chair," and has switched from calling me "Mama" to "Mommy," which I like. This language explosion comes with the constant and adorable question "What's That?" which he asks about everything that he doesn't know the name for. He has also memorized the names of sea creatures in his book and can tell you which one's the minnow, anchovie, guppy, sawfish, etc. I think "Max the Minnow" has officially unseated "The Pout-Pout Fish" for favorite read.

As he's approaching his 2nd birthday next week, Jack's doing all kinds of wonderful things: singing to himself in the car, commentating his own play, playing imaginative games ALONE for a few minutes (victory halleluiah), dancing and prancing whenever he feels happy, and playing a chase game with Dan who wears a monkey mask (Jackson is actually quite terrified of Monkey-Dan, but wants to continue playing the game after checking that it is truly Daddy under the "ee-ee" mask.) He's also constantly scraping his knees, trying to chew on rocks, and drinking out of the water-table in the yard. He's not very civilized. I have some work ahead of me yet!

Playing monkey-chase, wearing a bowl as a hat