Friday afternoon Jackson walked away from the bus holding something behind his back and had a huge grin on his face. He was awarded the “Terrific Kid” award from the Kiwanis club. There were 3 others in his class that also got it. He slept with the trophy that night.
Brian started a new blog. www.BrianMcMillan.blogspot.com. So he’s had fun getting it all set up and running. But he’s been taking my material for our updates and posting it. So feel free to skip sections of the update. But I want to record it here for posterity’s sake.
Jackson: “If someone is exclamationally strong, they’re really strong.”
Grant: Jumping in place, he says, "This is how you hexercise. Hexercising makes you eat faster."
After sprinkling a cup of water on the lawn, Jackson came back in for a refill from the bathroom sink. “I didn’t get the whole yard,” he explained.
Jackson got a Bernstein Bears book from the library that shows you how to make paper airplanes, tape an untied balloon on it and let go, supposedly sending the plane flying. While we were making the airplanes Jackson said, "Let's go down the street and see if anyone's having a paper airplane contest."
Saturday after our traditional tee ball game and Lowes Build and Grow we took the boys to a park so they could ride their bikes around. We grabbed a quick dinner and headed to the beach. We saw a very large crane perched on a rock, so Brian and Ellie took a little walk to get a closer look. We also saw two pelicans fly right by us and a man gutting fish. It’s great to see the Florida wildlife. The boys were told to stay out of the water (we didn’t bring any swimming gear). But as to be expected they both had to ride home in their wet underwear draped with Ellie’s blankets to keep warm.
Jackson was on spring break this week, and it was great having him home and getting to sleep in!
Wednesday we went to Orlando to the temple. It’s just under two hours away. Brian and I switched off going to the temple and watching the kids. Grant was really excited to see the water fountain out front, and they each got a small Book of Mormon and red pencil from the distribution center. They took turns “reading” from them.
Thursday I took the boys to an Easter party at the library. It was really crowded and they tried to play group games that didn’t work so well. Some of the games were more for adults than kids. Jackson did play a version of hot potato with an Easter egg, and he jumped up and down with excitement every time he passed it. But we got a few pieces of candy out of the deal and checked out a few books.
One of the books we got was The Bernstein Bears: No Girls Allowed. It’s about a boys club. Jackson and Grant have been pretending to have a boys club. Jackson made a sign for the door that says, “Grant and Jackson’s club, Girls welcome.”
Friday we took a little boat ride. Brian is writing about a new service where people can take a trip on the Intracoastal Waterway and learn about the water and plant life. In order for him to fully cover it, he went for a ride and we went along. The boys got pretty bored by the end, but it was a beautiful day and we learned a lot about the vegetation. Unfortunately we didn’t see any fish or dolphins to Jackson’s great disappointment.
Saturday we colored Easter eggs and made them into monsters. There weren’t any big spills, so it was a success.
We had a great Easter morning. The boys loved finding hidden Easter eggs and spent the day coloring in their new coloring books and made a plan to use their new sprinkler tomorrow. We ended the day with dinner with some friends.
We were able to watch General Conference at home this weekend. The boys were awesome, and we were able to watch all of it almost interruption free!
Wednesday afternoon we finally caved and bought a lawnmower. This lawnmower is definitely a Brian lawnmower. It’s a manpowered one. You just push it and the little blades turn, and it cuts some of the grass. It’s our way of going “green.” After I put it together, the boys wanted to try it. They pushed that thing over the whole back yard. They had a riot, and we got the lawn mowed—perfect combination.
Lately, Jackson has been giving us notes that have a list of questions for us to answer. He made one for Grant today, and when Jackson handed it to Grant, he said, “You can answer in any language you want.”
Grant was outside playing and pointed to a tree and said, “When I was little, I chopped that tree onto a tiger.” No idea where that came from.
Elle has two little teeth. Both the front ones on the bottom have broken through. She spends a lot of time playing with them with either her bottom lip or her tongue. Unfortunately, she’s been drooling like crazy. But they came in basically pain free.
Saturday morning we went to one of Jackson’s tee-ball games. We hurried home afterward and grabbed the kids’ Easter baskets. The city put on an Easter egg hunt. They had a great time gathering eggs.
After the eggs, we ran home for a quick lunch and then went to “Cracker Day.” We weren’t sure exactly what it would be, but Brian needed to take pictures for the paper so we joined him. It ended up being a rodeo with free lunch. The boys loved watching all of the events. Jackson was bummed we missed the bull riding, but he got to go in the arena and chase some chickens around. Grant chased chickens also, and he participated in a “boot race.” All the kids put one of their shoes in a pile in the center of the arena. They then race down, put their shoe on and race back. We ended the day practicing baseball in the backyard.
Monday Jackson and Elle had routine check-ups at the doctor. They both came away with a clean bill of health. Elle weighs 13 pounds and Jackson is 38. Last week when Grant stood on my scale in my bathroom, he also weighed 38 pounds . . . If you ask Jackson how much Elle weighed he says, “13 libs” meaning 13 lbs.
Grant was waving a book in the air. I asked him what he was doing and he said, “I’m wagging the book to make air so everybody knows it’s cold.”
Jackson wrote his name and phone number on a clothes pin and attached it to his shirt as a name tag.
Today Jackson randomly said that he wasn’t going to drink water because he didn’t want the pumpkin seed in his stomach to grow. He ate a pumpkin seed last June.
The boys have been playing a lot of baseball lately. Brian was showing Jackson how to hold the bat. Jackson said, “I’ll hold it up like number 20 on the Red Sox.” He meant Kevin Youkilis from the Red Sox who holds his bat very strangely. It was another odd bit of trivia to show that Jackson might have a good memory. Other times, he seems to forget that he has been asked a few times to go help clear the table…
Jackson had a fever this week, so he got to skip some school. He seems to feel the worst at the same time we have to decide whether to keep him home, and then he perks right up the rest of the day. But the school has had a lot of illness going around, so they have asked parents to be cautious. On Wednesday, we packed up the boys’ bikes and went to a park where they could ride. Since it was the middle of the week, there wasn’t anyone there, and we really enjoyed the beauty of Florida. We didn’t feel like making dinner so we splurged and went out. Jackson’s favorite thing of the day was “getting to eat somewhere nice.”
Friday night we went to a Dr. Seuss Birthday party at Jackson’s school. They colored a few pictures, and we ate dinner. They showed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in the school cafeteria. Jackson was alternately enthralled and terrified. Several times, he squealed at scary parts, so we made motions to leave, only to have him get sucked back in by the movie and sit back down. We ended up watching the whole movie.
Saturday morning we went to the Little League Opening Ceremonies. Jackson got to stand out on the baseball field in his uniform with about 500 other ball players. A few people spoke, the mayor threw out the first pitch, and Brian took pictures of it all for the newspaper.
After the festivities, he had a game. He was running around, jumping, and grinning the whole game. He got a couple of grounders and even got a runner “out” at home plate (no one is ever actually out in tee ball). Once, as he was running back to the dugout, he stopped and blew me a kiss.
Elizabeth turned 4 months old on Friday. We tried giving her rice cereal today, and she wasn’t too happy about it. I think it wasn’t fast enough. Maybe we’ll give it another week or so and try again.
