In Which Jackson Saves Brian's Life

I had a very mom-centered birthday. Brian was still gone, so I spent the day with my boys. We didn’t do anything special, and I was feeling tired of the single parent thing. So I ordered a pizza for dinner and, after putting the boys to bed, I watched a movie and ate my cake straight out of the pan with a fork. It was quite nice actually.

Brian got home on Tuesday evening and dropped me off at the church on our way home from the airport. I was in charge of Enrichment night (a quarterly activity for the women at my church). It went great, and it was wonderful to come home to sleeping boys, a smiling husband, and a clean house.

Friday morning Jackson went to the dentist for the first time. He didn’t know much about what happens there, and was very excited to be there. He wanted to take the bib off, which wasn’t surprising; I couldn’t keep one on him as an infant. And he got a little nervous after the hygienist reclined the seat, but after a new-monster-truck bribe, he was awesome. He has 20 teeth, which he told to a couple random people, he has no cavities.

Brian was stoking the fire in our wood stove one day this week. We’ve been using it to heat the house, but he forgot to close the safety gate that surrounds it. Jackson hurried over and shut it and said, “Dad, I just saved your life!”

Sugar Cookies

In Which Hailey Learns to Knit

Brian flew out west to attend his grandmother’s funeral this weekend. He was able to spend time with many relatives he hadn’t seen in more than a year. The funeral was a moving experience, and the whole family enjoyed relating happy memories of grandma.

The boys were feeling pretty sick at the beginning of the week, but they seem to be recovering now. We went to a playgroup at the Superior Dome and Jackson kept lying down on the bleachers and kept asking to leave. He must have been feeling pretty bad.

Tuesday morning I learned to knit. Brian teasingly said I looked like an old lady knitting. But I really like it and I’ve finished my first washcloth and have started on my second. It’s great to have something new to work on, despite what Brian says.

Jackson really doesn’t like to talk on the phone, even on speaker phone. He cowers away from it whenever we try. Brian was trying to talk to him this week. Brian asked Jackson a question which Jackson answered then promptly said, “bye.” Brian didn’t hear him say it and asked another question. Jackson responded by saying, “I already said goodbye!” Even Dad doesn’t get special treatment. Grant on the other hand was ecstatic. He kept holding his breath, he was so happy.

Anna, Jackson’s friend, and her mom came over this week and we made sugar cookies. The good news is the cookies turned out really good, the bad news is my kitchen was completely covered in flour! Jackson is pretty good at rolling the dough and cutting the cookies, so I just kind of let him do it himself. When my back was turned he poured a whole cup of flour on his dough and kept spreading it all around. He had a good time, but the cookie dough wasn’t salvageable.

We started really working on potty training again this week. And to our pleasant surprise it’s actually working. So keep your fingers crossed.

Sleepy Grant

In Which the Mommy Fish Eats Tuna

Tuesday evening, Grant was eating dinner in his high chair. After a few minutes, Brian realized that he had fallen asleep. We debated on whether we should put him to bed, because it was only 6:30. But we did and he slept until 8:30 Wednesday morning.

We’ve been reading The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten; it’s about underwater food chains, to Jackson lately. He’s learned that Phytoplankton are eaten by Zooplankton who are eaten by anchovies who are eaten by tuna. We’ve mentioned a couple times that we, especially me, eat tuna. Today when Brian was quizzing Jackson on this particular food chain, Jackson ended it with Mommy Fish eating the tuna.

Saturday morning, on the way home from a photo shoot, we received some bad news. Brian’s paternal grandmother passed away in the night. A few hours later we learned that my sister-in-law was in labor. The baby, Eliza Brooke, arrived here safely and is healthy. Brian is heading to Boise this weekend for the funeral. It was a bitter-sweet day.

This morning we woke up to a lot of snow on the ground. We joked that it would be great to have a snow day from church (I had 2 lessons to teach), and lo and behold, we received a phone call: church was cancelled due to the weather. We felt guilty for a while, and then we enjoyed a nice family day together by the fire.

Thanksgiving Trip

Grant in the middle of eating cookies.

Jackson got a remote controlled

monster truck from Uncle Evan.

In Which Jackson Pets a Goat

Tuesday morning we flew to Colorado. During our layover in Cincinnati, the boys (all 3) were playing on the moving walkways. They were just riding up one and back the other. Then Grant thought he would try something different and turned around. So now he was walking against them, like a treadmill. That occupied him for about 20 minutes before we boarded our plane.

We celebrated my dad's birthday Tuesday evening and Jackson got to help blow out the candles. Grant tried to help but he couldn't because he was 5 feet away. He kept trying to blow out a big one my mom has, but he just can't. It's pretty cute to watch him try.

Thursday we had a typical Thanksgiving, lots of food, family, and football. It was awesome.

My sister and her husband brought their Nintendo Wii with them. They brought a monster truck game for Jackson and he loved it. He couldn't actually play, but we pretended he did. I think he played for 2-3 hours straight on Saturday morning.

Saturday we went shopping, went to The Bee Movie and to a goat dairy farm. It's open on Saturdays so the kids can pet the goats and you can see where they make cheese. One goat tried to eat Jackson's finger. He had been eating candy in the car, so I figured the goat was just after the leftover sugar.

Grant's been sick the whole trip and he doesn't seem to be getting any better yet. He's coughing a little, but pretty deeply, his nose is stuffy and we fear an ear infection. So the airplane ride tomorrow could be a little interesting.

In Which Grant Eats Garbage and Brian Hits 100

Monday I took the boys to the Superior Dome for a play group. They had bikes, balls, and hula hoops in a corner of the indoor football field. Grant kept trying to run away. One time I saw him at about the 50 yard line watching some college guys play soccer. Another time he was climbing on the metal bleachers eating whatever garbage had been swept into a pile.

Thursday I got to go on a Mom’s night out. Downtown Marquette hosts Ladies’ Night. The stores stay open late (meaning past 6 p.m.), and they have sales and refreshments. It was great being able to go to fun stores without worrying what my boys would break. It was pretty cold outside, but well worth it.

Friday morning I hosted a breakfast club at our house. A bunch of moms and kids came over and everyone brought something to share. Afterward, I got another mommy break and went to a friend’s house where she taught me some tricks about digital scrapbooking. I’m excited to have a little change of pace from paper and to be able to share the pages more easily.

Friday evening we dropped the boys off with our babysitting swap friend, and Brian and I went Christmas shopping. We are pretty much done. We ended early and got to go to dinner, too.

Saturday the little boys and I went to a birthday party. It was a princess theme, with a few knights thrown in. The boys got to decorate foam crowns with foam stickers (the girls had foam wands). Jackson decorated both sides of his and was there twice as long as anyone else. Grant figured out how to place the stickers and made a very cool crown.

Brian hit the 100-page mark on his book/thesis about the homeless man, and he figures he’ll hit 300 by the time it’s done. He also has sent out a lot of other writing to magazines for possible publication. He sent a group of four poems to 35 magazines; unfortunately, he is 0-for-4 so far. He also has a nonfiction essay out to 19 magazines, and a short story out to six. We should hear back from most of them over the next few months.

In Which Jackson Makes an Aquarium on Meat Day

This week I decided to start doing preschool with Jackson. We do basic things like weather, letters, numbers etc. Jackson absolutely loves it. He asks if Grant is tired because we do preschool during Grant’s nap. We focused this week on the Food Pyramid; I was secretly hoping it would make him want to eat better, but no such luck. We made an aquarium using a box and some fish cutouts for Meat Day. He is so proud of it. He giggles when he talks about it. It’s great to see him love to learn. It’s been really good for me too. I feel like I have some structure to my day and that I am spending good, quality time with him. I was planning on doing it every week day. But we did it Saturday (he scrubbed the toilet for about ten minutes), and today we made something out of the Friend magazine because he kept asking to have preschool.

At 6:45 a.m. Saturday, Brian headed to Chicago with the youth to attend the Chicago Temple. He drove six boys ages 12-18 in the van, seven hours down, seven hours back. Other than being kicked in the shoulder by one boy who somersaulted out of the back seat, it was a pleasant ride. The temple itself was peaceful and beautiful, as it always is.

Saturday morning the boys and I went to a primary activity. We heard some veterans speak, the kids put flags on some veterans’ graves, and we went to a park and had pizza.

Grant has added a few works to his vocabulary:
“uck” for truck, “ya-ya” for daddy and for Jackson. Sometimes I think they sound a little different, but they are pretty much the same. He says “ah un” for all done.

We'll try to get some pictures of the aquarium posted this week.

Baseball and Cookies

Jackson Playing Baseball

In Which Jackson Gathers Loot

Saturday night was our ward Halloween party. Grant was the hit of the night with his chicken costume. I have to admit I thought he was pretty cute myself. It ended with trunk-or-treating. Jackson really got the hang of it this year. He managed to get away from Brian and made the rounds a couple of times.

Grant’s vocabulary includes: “deeze” for cheese; “eh oo” for thank you; “eese” for please; “all” for ball; mama; “oot all” for football. He says a version of Jackson and Dada but we can’t remember how he says them.

Grant loves it when Brian comes home. He squeals and runs to the door. Today I told him that dad was on his way home, and he kept asking me to open the garage door so he could see him. Unfortunately he had to wait 5 more minutes.

Jackson has started to make up songs. He just says random things that don’t have anything to do with each other. He also dances around, but it’s more like an Indian dance that takes up the whole room.

On this farm he had a chicken . . .

Day at the Beach

In Which Jackson Crashes and Grant Quacks

Grant has been trying to make animal sounds. He has a toy duck and he says, “ack,” a gorilla, “ah ah,” a dog, “ar ar,” and with any growling animal he makes a funny noise in the back of his throat.

Friday and Saturday, Avenue Photo (our photo business) was able to do a fundraiser for MOMs Club. Brian took pictures of 12 different families over the 2 days. It was pretty tiring, but it went really well. A friend watched the boys, so I enjoyed a little break although I was working.

Brian had the opportunity to meet with John D’Agata. He’s one of the biggest new names in nonfiction writing in the U.S. He’s the author of a collection of essays called Halls of Fame. Brian got to meet him for lunch, hear a lecture and a reading.

Today I was brave and let both little boys help make sugar cookies. Jackson rolled out the dough, and he and Grant used the cookie cutters. Jackson also helped put sprinkles on them as a finishing touch. They seemed to have a good time and it wasn’t too big of a mess.

Saturday we had a beautiful afternoon. We all went outside and raked for a while (though today you can’t tell we even did any work because the leaves are falling so fast). Then we decided to have a picnic. We got a pizza and headed to the park. Jackson is pretty comfortable on the majority of playground equipment. I didn’t actually see it happen, but apparently Jackson was at the top of a slide and tumbled backwards down the metal stairs—about ten steps. He was pretty shaken up, but appeared to be fine. He said his chin hurt where he had a little scratch.

It’s funny when Jackson mimics grown-up phrases. While playing Go Fish last week, he said, “This is a good game, I noticed.” On the way home from church this afternoon, he said, “I suppose we can have breakfast.”

Football in the Kitchen

In Which the Pink Pig Swims with the Fishes

Jackson’s been saying, “Yes, Sir!” lately. At story time the story time lady was saying something, I don’t recall what, and Jackson shouted, “Yes, Sir!” Another time, Jackson said it to Brian, so Brian said, “Yes Sirree Bob.” Then Jackson pipes in, “Yes Sirree Bob the Builder!”

Grant has been singing up a storm lately. He loves pat-a-cake and can do some of the actions. He’ll walk around holding a Winnie the Pooh doll singing (or cooing and moaning) and gets us to sing the Winnie the Pooh song. He also loves to sing along with the radio in the car.

Grant has a nasty habit of throwing things away. Lately, Jackson has been potty training a lot, so Grant has started to throw things in the toilet, too. Unfortunately, Jackson has already peed. He threw in a pink pig that sings “This Little Piggy”—not salvageable. The next day he threw in one of Jackson’s slippers. Luckily, we were able to save it and it washed fine.

We decided one night this week to see if Grant would go to sleep without his pacifier. He still hasn’t noticed it’s gone. Yahoo!

Jackson’s love for football has been growing. When we watch games on TV, he gets into the three-point stance at the same time the players do on the screen. When the quarterback passes the ball, he throws his little green plastic ball across the room. When the play is over, he falls down like he’s been tackled. Every now and then, Grant waddles over and jumps on the pile.

FHE Bowling

Ethan, Anna, and Jackson watching
Anna's ball.


Jackson watching his ball knock
down pins.


Grant entertaining himself while the adults
finished their game.


Video game junkies already.

Jackson and Anna

In Which Jackson Bowls 92

For Family Home Evening this week, we took the boys bowling. Jackson absolutely loved it; with help, he carried his gold ball up to a metal chute that guided the ball toward the center of the lane, and he hollered and jumped around when the pins went down. Our friends, the Rayhorns, came too. Jackson scored 92, beating everyone but Brian.

I was walking through the Wal-Mart parking lot and Jackson didn’t want to hold my hand. I told him he needed obey and hurry into his car seat, which he did. When I went to buckle him in he said, “Mommy, I will obey your commandments.”

We watched General Conference this weekend and Jackson thought it was very cool. He got all excited when it was time for the next session.

NMU had a homecoming parade Friday. We took the boys and went with the Rayhorns. Jackson got a ton of candy and loved watching the fire engine and football players.

After the parade, Brian gave Jackson the choice to either go to Marquette High’s football game or go home and watch baseball playoffs. Jackson picked football. It rained pretty hard at the game for a few minutes so we stood under an awning. Jackson didn’t want to, so he put his hood on and got really wet. After a few minutes, when his jeans were wet, he said he was done with football and wanted to go home. On the way to the car he said that we needed to go and watch baseball now. He is becoming more of a little Brian everyday.

Dinner at the McMillans

In Which Jackson Tries for 60 Hits

I was putting away some Tupperware in the cupboard. As I was stacking it, I noticed that one bowl had the lid on and was full of Brian’s lunch leftovers (they needed to be refrigerated). I think his mind was elsewhere that day.

Jackson’s been practicing hitting off a tee. We’ve been trying to teach him how to take turns. He told Brian that it would be Brian’s turn after he got 60 hits.

Friday night, Brian and Jackson went to the local high school football game after our ward party. Jackson watched it the whole time, while following the line of scrimmage. His only question was where the yellow line was. (That’s the computerized first down marker on TV.)

I mowed our lawn yesterday. This may not seem like a big deal but I don’t think I’ve mowed a lawn since I was about 10 years old. I did run over a rock, but I blame the fact that the grass was more like a forest since it’s been ages since it’s been cut. I couldn’t see it.

Today I received a new calling. I am the second counselor in the Relief Society presidency. I will still be teaching primary throughout the end of the year. I’m excited for the change, but I will be busy.

Jackson said he needed his sunglasses to keep his “eyes out of the sun.”

Brian brought out a pair of shoes for Jackson this morning and I told him that they were still too big for him. Jackson piped in, “Grant would like to wear them because his feet are so long.”

Moms Club Picnic

Sack Race


They played a game where the parents would race while holding
their child in a blanket. Jackson rode with his friend, Garrett.
Luckily for us, Garrett's parents raced with them.

Pinata

In Which Jackson Jumped in a Sack

Grant's started to sing. He will sing along with the radio, while playing the piano, and today he sung his own version of the hymns at church. He also does a lot of pointing. He points at things out the window of the car, and he taps his tray--pointing at where he wants you to scoop his food.

I hosted a playgroup this week. One little boy was playing with a semi truck. Apparently, he had the truck attached to the wrong trailer. Jackson spent a good 5 minutes convincing this little boy that he needed to switch trailers, because it wasn't matched right. It's a sad day when you see yourself in your children.

I finally got around to doing some simple sign language with Grant. I've signed a little with him over the past couple weeks, but not enough for him to grasp it, or so I thought. The other day I said, "more" while signing it. He instantly repeated the sign back to me. He's also figured out "please." It's great to be communicating with more than just grunts.

Saturday we went to a picnic hosted by moms club. Jackson participated in his very first sack race. He had a good time but still seems to struggle with jumping. I think it goes back to his broken leg. But he got to hit a pinata and didn't have any problems swinging the bat.

Silliness

I also did Brian and I. I look 21% more like my dad and Brian looks 4% more like his Mom.

Grant

Jackson

Brewer's Game

We didn't want to have to carry the better camera,
so some of the photos are fuzzy, but you get
the general idea.

We each got a bobble head Robin Yount as we

entered the park. Grant broke his after about

ten minutes.

We were on the highest row in the stadium.

The real nose bleed section.