Wesley Stays Overnight!

On Friday night, Wesley spent the night with Jackson. I was curious as to if there would be enough to do to keep them occupied, but in reality, the time went so quickly that in no time, they were bedded down watching the Scooby-Doo movie we had rented for them. I think they were in bed by 8:30 or so and both were asleep by 10:00 for sure. They first played a little Wii.

Then we went down to the "little" park at the end of our street. Jackson wanted to ride the trike and Wesley wanted the Big Wheel. They had a fun time at the park, although we didn't stay long. They threw some rocks in to a little creek for a while.

On the way home, Jackson did have quite the meltdown and freakout because Wesley passed him on the sidewalk, so Jackson proceeded to get off of his trike and physically ram it into the side of the Big Wheel. Wesley just looked at him like he was a fa-reak, which at that moment he was. I do think that sometimes he gets so excited that he doesn't know what to do with those emotions yet, but seriously, his temper is out of control sometimes.

So I am ramping things up around here a little. No more time-outs for temper flares, I am taking away all that is precious to him, meaning his blankie and his favorite bed things, like animals and other things he HAS to have to sleep. We'll see how this works...

After we got back from the park, it was about movie time. So Tom made them some popcorn and they got all ready for the movie.

Tom was going to sleep with them upstairs and I was sleeping downstairs in my own bed, but at midnight I heard Jackson crying so I went up there and he was in the bathroom with his pants down, but he was holding his nose. And all that I could get out of him was that he hit his head on the toilet, so he must have hit his nose on the toilet when he was pulling his pants down.

Anyway, I told Tom to go downstairs and I would stay with them, since he was not very fast to react to the crying! Thankfully, Wesley slept through Jackson's crying. So I guess around 1:00 or so I went to sleep and then around 6:00 when the sun came through the windows, I heard Jackson say, "Sun's up, it's up time!" Yay, it's up time. Ugh. I was exhausted all day yesterday!

Then before Stacy came to get Wesley, the boys got a little hammock time in. They really had fun playing in it!

Jackson sure will miss Wesley when he moves!

First Sleep-over!

Yes, Jackson had his first sleep-over on Sunday night. Normally I would say a three-and-a-half, almost four-year-old is too young to have sleep-overs with anyone but family, but thankfully, our friends Stacy and Michael are like family and I trust them with Jackson completely. So since they'll be moving soon and Jackson and Wesley's time together is numbered, I thought it would be a fun thing for Jackson to do.

So like any parent, I prepared him the whole week before about how Daddy and I wouldn't be there overnight with him and that he would be there all night and we would pick him up the next morning. I even put a little family picture in a little frame that's around the neck of one of his teddy bears for him to take with him. And I told him that if he started missing us that he could just look at that picture.

All that being said (and I'm sure when Stacy reads this, she's already laughing), when Tom and I go to pick him up the next morning, as soon as Jackson sees me he starts screaming AND crying and going nuts! He says to me, "I'm not ready for you to pick me up!" Took me a while to peel him off the ceiling. Broke my heart.

And of course I didn't want him to be upset at the sleep-over and I am sooooo glad that he wasn't and that he had a ball and that's he's secure enough at Wesley's house that it's not a foreign place to him, but geez! He just doesn't realize how sensitive old mama is yet. I had missed him like ca-razy! For real. I discovered that I really don't like being at the house without him. It's just too quiet. That was the first night that he has really been away from us except when he was like six months old and we went to Mexico and Mom came to town to watch him, and that nearly killed me.

Anyway, it was a huge success! They watched a movie, ate popcorn, giggled like little boys do, played and played and played and I think wore Michael out! We're planning a repeat of it this weekend when Wesley spends a night with us!

Thanks, Stacy and Michael, for the best first sleep-over experience ever! And I mean for Jackson. For me, it was rather hell-ish. But I'm sure to recover soon. ;)

Jackson just coming off the waterslide

Tom in the hammock

Jack, Gracie, Giles, Tom


Giles

So much has been happening that I don't even know where to begin. I guess summer has officially started, because we are getting so busy already! Last Tuesday was Jackson's last day of Mother's Day Out, so that was sad, simply because he's really enjoyed school and really loves his teacher, Mrs. Connie. Anyway, I had a little end-of-school party here at the house on Thursday, and that was a lot of fun. All of the kids in his class made except it for one little boy, and his mother was out of town, so he was staying with grandparents.


Anyway, Tom had been out of town for two days, so I had to put up the bounce house and the inflatable waterslide. And let me tell you, that was no easy feat. Really, it was the deflating and putting them away that was the hardest. That stuff weighs more than I thought. Anyway, before the kids even got here on Thursday morning I was a sweaty stinky mess from trying to get that stuff put up! Thankfully, one of the dads dropped his wife and son off, so I enlistedh is help getting everything set up! I could NOT have done it by myself. I was very grateful he showed up!


We gave Mrs. Connie her gift of the photo book and she was really pleased with it, I think. I also got one for myself. It turned out pretty nice. I definitely would use Shutterfly again for a book. And I plan on making one after we get back from the beach!


Tom got home last night and he and Jackson decided to camp out in the back yard, which was fine by me because I had work to do. And I really didn't think Jackson would make it all night long. But he did! They both came in around 6:00 this morning! Tom said that Jackson didn't want to sleep out there at first, but eventually he talked him into it.

The pool opens this weekend! I have to try to find things to occupy Jackson's time all summer since I haven't found him a two-day program to be in. It's going to be pretty touchy for me to be able to work and have him every day of the week, because he hates for me to work when he's around. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to swing that.

Our friends Stacy and Michael will be moving in a few months, and their son, Wesley, and Jackson have been good friends since Jackson was about nine months old, I guess. So I made the above picture for them and also for me to hang in the house. The saying says, "Life's truest happiness is found in the friendships we make along the way." I found the saying first and then looked for a picture that would kind of "fit."

I really like how it turned out, and when I gave it to Stacy last night, we both cried. We're such saps! We had a little get-together last night as kind of a farewell party for Stacy and Michael and it was so much fun. We had a good mix of people here and I had a great time seeing everyone!

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I took the following pictures last week of different activities at Jackson's school. I put together a photo book for his teacher, Mrs. Connie, and I had come up short because the book had to be a 20-page minimum, so I had to go to the school a couple of times and take some random pictures!

Giles and Jackson on Bike Day


Jackson having such a great time on his bike!

Here Tom was calling Jackson "Jackie-poo" and making Jackson so mad!

Jackson and Gracie in music class

Connie Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Happy Mother's Day!

This post is a little late, but I just wanted to tell all the mothers out there Happy Mother's Day! I feel so grateful to be a mom. Sometimes when I think about how close Tom and I came to not having any children, it makes me really sad. Jackson is the greatest thing in my life! And I am equally grateful to have such a great mother with whom I'm still close. Mom was able to come visit us this weekend and spend Mother's Day, and we had a really nice, laid back weekend! I love you, Mom! Hope your days were nice, Mary Jo, Sherry and Mary!

Tom got a hammock from his dad and Mary for his birthday and he was able to put it up on Sunday. Jackson really loves it! He said he wanted to nap in it! I sat in it for this picture, but my big rear end almost made it hit the ground! It's not a graceful sight to see me get out of that thing. I basically have to roll out of it and just roll onto the ground and crawl away like the pig I am. :-)

Here's Jackson enjoying "his" hammock!

And finally, I was able to find some patio furniture. In case I haven't posted about it, I got the Target stuff in and HATED it, so it's on its way back via UPS. It was the wrong color wicker and also one chair was defective. ANYWAY, I ended up with some stuff that I had seen a month ago at Trees N Trends, and I like it fine. Tom and I were able to get it on Saturday in the Jeep and get it home! So I can mark that off my checklist of things to do!

Jackson and Tom got me a Vera Bradley purse for Mother's Day that I have been wanting, so Jackson was helping me clean out my old purse today. We went through hundreds of receipts, some from '07, plus toys, money, but mainly just junk. Then Jackson put his head in my purse and said, "Hey, look, Cheetos." And yes, there were some Cheetos in the bottom of my purse. That is gross, I know. I am really going to make an effort to do better! But my Jeep and my purse are just dumping grounds for me for some reason, always have been. I bet my purse weighed ten pounds before we cleaned it out from all the coins in the bottom of it!

Got our vacation all paid for today, well, not PAID for, but all put on the card. So we are READY for the beach! We won't be leaving until the end of June, but I'm getting in that mindset right now. I really am looking forward to seeing my friends and their twin boys. It has been a while since we have seen them, and we have never met the twins!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM!

Today is Tom's birthday! Hope you have a great day, Tom. Tonight we'll go somewhere to eat and celebrate, and I'm going to make some Red Velvet cupcakes. We have been unbelievably busy here lately, and so I don't really have much to say.

I did get my two wicker patio chairs in today and I hate them. They have to be sent back. Definitely not like what the picture showed, plus one of them is totally defective. I'm just worn down about it all. I don't know how some people can make quick decisions and everything work out, and then I fret and worry for six months over something and research and it still doesn't work out. Amazing.