The Week in Review

Jackson and I had a lot of fun this week. On Tuesday we went to Barnes and Noble for me to look at cooking and scrapbooking magazines. He loves playing with the train table at his cousins house and I thought that I could look at magazines and he could play for a bit. So we went and we did. The thing that surprised me was that Jackson pulled himself up on the table and walked all around it. At his cousins house, he normally sits on the floor when he's playing at the table (maybe because of the debris in the way?). It was fun to watch him. I spent half the time watching him and half the time looking at my magazines. We didn't buy anything but came home and ordered a book online from an "authorized reseller," The Great Santa Search. It's the third book by Jeff Guinn about Santa/Mrs. Claus. I think that they are great books and totally recommend them. The first one is called The Autobiography of Santa Claus and then How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas. The author combined a lot of the "history" of Santa Claus and how traditions were started in various countries and weaves it together in a fun narrative. He picks up friends along the way such as Attila the Hun and King Arthur. I think that I'll reread all three this season (they're quick reads).

Jackson and I also went swimming this week. We haven't gone for a few months because he just didn't seem to care or even notice that he was in a pool. As long as he had a toy to shove in his mouth, he was just fine. This time was a little bit more fun. It seemed like a big huge bath to him, with me. He didn't move around too much and wasn't interested in being toted along to some deeper water. But it was definitely worth it and made me feel good for doing something just for Jackson.

I have been in a singing group with some ladies from church since the beginning of the year and my sister-in-law has been watching Jackson for me while I go to practice. I took Jackson for a long time because he wasn't mobile and wasn't getting in to anything. But now he gets to go play with his cousins and the aforementioned train table and is in seventh heaven.

We were invited to go over to a friends house for dinner on Friday night. They have twin boys that are 17 months old and Jackson thinks that food tastes better from their high chair trays than from his. We had a delicious dinner (pot roast and carrots and potatoes-yum! We never get meat like that) and then stayed and played a few games. So fun. Jackson is such a trooper about going to bed at other peoples houses and being woken up and transported home in the middle of his night.

Yesterday, Jonathan hung a door in our study/third bedroom upstairs. So it slipped past all of us (us, the homeowners, our realtor, the home inspector) that one of the bedrooms was missing a door. Bet it didn't slip past the previous owners. They were probably hoping we wouldn't notice. And we didn't. However, we are having company this weekend for Thanksgiving (yay!) and need to use the room. We figure that a little privacy would be nice. Now we (Jonathan) just need to install the doorknob. We also got to go to a fancy "dress up" party last night. Some friends wanted to have a fancy party and we were happy to oblige and get all dressed up and spend a night on the town.

So that's our week. No, it's not. I also had a tole painting class on Monday and brought home a snowman and a candy cane (pics to come) and went out to dinner with a bunch of ladies from church on Tuesday. Jonathan spoiled me rotten by being on baby duty.

I am uber-excited for Thanksgiving this week. Jon's aunt, uncle and cousin are coming up from North Carolina. And Jonthan gets his first "vacation" since March. Party time! Here are some fun pictures of Jackson enjoying a smoothie. In fact, he enjoys them so much that Jonathan almost considered not sharing any with Jackson because of the mess he would make. He gave in and shared, I knew he would. And to our surprise yesterday when we went out for fancy smoothies, with a little bit of extra juice mixed in, smoothies work just fine from sippy cups. We didn't know that when we took these pictures.