Jackson Antics

Jackson is having one of his little growing up spurts. A few days ago he said, "I love you too" to his daddy for the first time and "Bless you!" to me after I sneezed. It was so fun.

I know he is at the stage where I need to start letting him "help" me with things. That will be a nice growing experience for this recovering perfectionist/control freak. On the day of his verbal enlightenment, we went shopping and I, having been moved by his big boy-ness, let him carry a bag into the house for me. He was so happy with himself. Just about every afternoon he and I go to the mailbox and he helps me retrieve the junk mail, bills, and occasional card or birthday party invitation. Now he gets upset if we go out the front door but don't get the mail.

Since Jackson doesn't have any siblings or cousins in town that he has to share with, we still have a really long way to go on that. (He's currently learning with Keegan and Jayk.) While we were in San Antonio Curt came up with "High five for sharing!" Jackson loved it and henceforth I shall confess that my husband is a parenting genius. We'll see if it sticks. I'm not sure it's as effective coming from me.

Speaking of that, Curt and Jackson have a secret handshake. I guess it's not much of a secret since they do it right in front of me. It's more like their special thing that I am not allowed to participate in. I have been known to make Jackson do it with me, but I always get in trouble. He understands now that it's only for daddy and he rejects me in my moments of rebellion. Curt confessed today that it's rooted in him feeling a little left out by all the time I spent one-on-one with Jackson while I nursed him. They needed a thing. Well, thank God, I no longer have that thing with Jackson, so what is my thing now? I'm sure we have one. I just need to think on it. Maybe a mom doesn't need a thing.

Please allow me now to share our favorite Jackson saying, which is "Dip it." He went through a few weeks when he said "Dip it" non-stop throughout the day. It sounds like "Dep it." "Dip it" is applied when he dips his waffles into a small bowl of syrup, tortilla chips into salsa, french fries into ketchup, etc. Hands down, one of the best parts of parenting is getting to hear your kid's speech develop. The process of them trying out a new phrase in a hundred different scenarios is highly entertaining. My previous favorite might have been "It's stuck!" Right now Jackson is constantly telling me that something is "broken" or "broke it." Now back to "dip it." Curt and I have taken over this phrase, to the point that we say it more than Jackson. If I ask Curt what he thinks we should do on Saturday, he might answer, "Dip it."

Jackson hit a huge and memorable milestone yesterday. He approached me with poop covered hands and said, "Stinky! Mommy, stinky!" That's going in the baby book, folks. It was sick and he's lucky I didn't vomit on those stinky hands, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We are at a stage right now where if I let him run around without pants or shorts on over his diaper, that thing gets stripped off or, apparently, dug around in. We have been very lucky so far not to have any disasters, but I am done tempting fate! Lesson learned!