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.”