Bathtub 1, Jackson 0

It's my own fault for even mentioning it two posts ago. Jackson loves the bathtub. He loves all water. He loves the bathtub even when there is not water in it. Hence, tonight's mishap that has left me feeling sorely inadequate. It was bath time after the spaghetti madness covered my child's face. We had traveled upstairs to the bathroom. Jackson was standing next to me. I leaned over to turn on the water. In the 3 seconds between me leaning over and turning on the water and standing back up, my child had catapaulted himself into the non-full bathtub and landed on his head.

Thud. Screams. Lindsay scooping Jackson out of the tub while he looked at me screaming and not sure what had just happened and why there was such unhappiness in the bathtub as it is usually the happiest place on Earth. We were soon joined by Jason who heard the thud and impending screaming. Of course then I set Jackson down to try and get his wet clothes off, and what does he do? Tries to climb into the tub again. Really? Less than two minutes later he tries again? I had kind of hoped he would have learned from ONE faceplant and resulting goose egg for once. Alas, he did not learn this. I will now dread bathtime forever...or at least until he stops trying to climb in when it comes up to his chest.

Spoons and Please

We witnessed use of the word please. In sign language. Multiple times. We are trying to teach Jackson not to throw food on the floor. So I did some reading and we are cutting back on how much we give him at once, which seemed to work. Then once he finished, I would ask him if he wanted more and he would make the sign for please! Every time! It's awesome!

So I decided to take my chances and see if Jackson wanted to try eating with a spoon on his own. After I showed him a few times how to do it, I just rested the spoon on the bowl of yogurt to see what he would do. He picked it up, got some yogurt in the spoon, and put it in his mouth and ate it!! And then did it again!!! Yeah, he tried to use his hand to eat it too, but he used the spoon three times to eat the yogurt.

I was very excited and he could tell. My boy was all smiles.

Water Bug

Jackson loves the water. Loves it. A bathtub, full or empty, is a constant threat as he will attempt to climb in in the hopes that water will eventually be there if it isn't already. We haven't taken him to a pool since he's been mobile...if we take our eyes off him for a second he will jump in. I'm sure of it.

This is him at the splash park across the street from our house. He had it to himself for about 10 minutes out of 45 and was genuinely disappointed when it was time to leave. He has no fear of water. Kids that are 2 years old won't go near the fountains here while he practically sticks his face in the ground before the water jets out.

Bite Me

Or more accurately, bite you. I failed to mention that last week Jackson bit someone on the arm at school. I believe it was last Thursday. Someone antagonized him a bunch, so he bit them.

Horrified is an accurate description of how this behavior makes me feel. But I also can't lie...I am monumentally relieved that for once my child wasn't on the receiving end of the bad behavior.

Uh Oh

Jackson said Uh Oh this morning and it is adorable. He was playing with a toy and he dropped it on the floor and he just said "Uh oh" out of nowhere. So cute. What isn't so cute is that he has his fourth ear infection...his third in about six weeks time. That's not acceptable. We had to go to urgent care this morning because I was so sure that's what it was. I was right. I had floated the idea of tubes to the doctor last time and she didn't feel like he was having the frequency of them to worry about that yet. Well, I think three ear infections in six weeks....I think we should at least start the conversation.

What Would Mandy Pepperidge Say?

That boy is a P-I-G PIG! We need to have a serious discussion about table manners and toddlers, and how those are two things that do NOT belong in the same sentence, paragraph...you name it.

We have been blessed with a great eater (knock on wood). We are not the people who, at this point, have to worry about if our child is eating enough. It's really not a problem. I suppose we could be concerned about fluid intake, but we don't need to be...he's hydrated.

The issue are the sports of food flinging, bowl dumping and cup dropping. Sports for which my child is on track for a berth on the United States Olympic Team. With meals, he usually dives in and eats. And then somewhere along the way, he will casually drop a piece on the floor. Followed by dramatically drinking from his cup, which is then also dropped on the floor. This is IMMEDIATELY followed by a crazy swipe of the hand and more food on the floor, at which point Jason and I are now diving across the table to pop off his tray and end the food olympics.

I visited school to secretly observe his lunch time to see if he was saving this amazing behavior for home or if he was treating his teachers and classmates to these theatrics. He did not disappoint. Today's lunch was chicken and dumplings, green beans and strawberries. He loves and will eat all these items with vigor. At school they have progressed to giving them food on paper plates, in bowls and with a plastic spoon...which is pure entertainment by the way. When I arrived and peered in the window, my child was holding an empty bowl of chicken and dumplings over his head with a sippy cup of milk laying on the floor next to him. Eight children at the table, seven cups on the table, one on the floor. Nice.

Then his teacher offered him additional chicken and dumplings. Which he ceremoniously lifted off the table and would have so dumped on his head had she not wisely snatched it from his mischievous hand. Seriously. My child' s table manners are a nightmare. We are doing everything we are supposed to be doing and it continues. I guess he's not the only one and that when I looked he was the only one that had the cup on the floor but there are five of them that do that. And only one of them actually uses the spoon. But I didn't see anyone else starting the food fight at Faber. All that was missing was a square of Jell-o to inhale.

On the upside, today he said please for the first time. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

I Love My New House

Because I love my new park!!!

Coldplay? Really?

I have populated the Endeavor, the vehicle in which Jackson is transported, with a few CDs of music I like that also happens to be free of colorful language. It takes us anywhere from 20-30 minutes to get him to day care, so we listen to the CDs rather than morning drive time radio. Blech.

One of the CDs has the song by Coldplay "Viva la Vida" which I kind of like. I am not the only one. My son lights up when this song comes on the radio and smiles, laughs and claps. When he's tired, it's the one thing that will settle him down to fall asleep. It's cute...something I'd like to remember.

Kill or Be Killed

This is my philosophy about the toddler 1 class at Jackson's School. Really any toddler class. They are learning about being independent, they are mobile, they have wants and needs, and they have anywhere from 0-20 words to communicate these things, and usually the other toddlers don't have the same 20 words. Thus, when someone wanders into their space and either tries to take something away or bother them, the responses they are equipped with from least harmful to most harmful are:
1 - Pushing
2 - Pulling hair
3 - Biting

The responses to those three responses are the same. Pushing, pulling hair or biting. My son seems to favor method two, the hair pull. He learned the hard way that this is not a generally accepted method of communication when one of his classmates responded by biting his arm in three places in a span of 5 seconds. Two days later, he still has the teeth marks to prove it. If he is pushed, he generally will push back.

He hasn't bitten anyone except for me and his father. He bit his dad on the leg on Wednesday night, which we now attribute to the brand new tooth that appeared this morning. He now has a fang...I pity any child who incurs the wrath of his bite with that new tooth...it won't be good.

Today we get his ears rechecked after our bout with a double ear infection two weeks ago. We'll see if we've got tubes in his future or some kind of intolerance for a food that's making it happen. Whatever. I'm just hoping for no accident report when I pick him up today.

200th Post

And wow, have you had to wait for it! Two weeks! Sorry about that, but moving and moving and going to Vegas with living life in between has made it impossible for me to make time to post a blog entry.

Over the last two weeks...Jackson busted his face at school...twice. Racked up an outstanding DOUBLE ear infection the 28th, which for those of you keeping score at home was the day before we had to start our move to Erie. Then the 29th was daddy's birthday, followed by moving day 1, cleaning day, moving day 2, then my trip to Vegas!

Jackson has handled the move well. There are tons of paths to walk him on, and he has been to the park a lot with Jason's parents, who came out to help Jason while I went to Vegas with mom and Sally and Co (incidentally, there was a DOMINANT craps performance whilst there...we're talking a guy shooting for over an hour and many dollars made by all).

We'll post some photos of all this soon, but I just wanted to know both of you who read this that I haven't forgotten about you!