You are so your . . .

. . . father. Jackson tonight was running around in his underwear repeating, "Two girls. Jackson's house. Mommy open door." A dreamer, like his papa. 

. . . brother. Later while I was changing Maeve's diaper she was squirming about, so I said, "Maever, you're a little stinker," to which she replied with the biggest belly laugh. Already ornery at five months.

Reality check

I just logged on and realized my last post was dated June 10. Not sure if there are any minimums for blogging, but I am pretty sure I have fell short the past month.

Actually, I am doing a bit of a reality check lately. Am I on vacation? Did I move to Brisbane? Have my parents moved to Brisbane and I am just visiting them? We have been spoiled the past month as my mom has been with us for a little more than five weeks with my dad also visiting for two of those weeks. And now in less than 48 hours my mom, the kids and I will be travelling across the ocean again to Morton where we will be for five weeks. Don't think we're giving Drew a sabatical or something. He will join us over there for a little less than two weeks.

And if our last months have been exciting and busy the next five weeks are giving good competition. While we are home we will get to meet at least three new babies, includng my brother's in Colorado, celebrate Drew's sister's wedding, vaca at the lake, and introduce Maeve to all our beloved friends and family. We cannot wait.

Sharing

Sharing. It is one lesson every parent of a toddler desperately wants their child to learn. And so we were proud of Jackson tonight. After I asked him if he wanted to share the cookies with Grandma Schupp and Papa, he continued to line up the cookies on the counter assigning them to "Baby. Grandma Parker. Grandma Hodel. Sue." The only thing is that none of these people were present. But we'll take it as a step in the right direction. And don't worry guys, we ate the cookies for you. You know, just to reinforce the lesson.

Defense

Sunday Jackson, Drew and I attended our first Brisbane Lions footy game -- an Aussie rules football game, which left us all very confused. Huge field, no announcer, fans with flags, four goal posts. Jackson kept asking for a "soccer ball," probably offending fans within hearing distance. Jackson also had a great time yelling out "DEFENSE" (in a very loud voice) during defensive plays, offensive plays and time outs. Maybe he understood the game better than his parents.

Because defense wins championships, we continued to practice into the evening. We had some friends for dinner, including one-year old Charlie, who was offered a "team jersey" by Jackson. (I was just glad I didn't have to wear one -- while we were staying with my parents in January Jackson found an old Morton High School jersey, made of pure polyester or some other very uncomfortable fabric, that his very pregnant mom was instructed to wear for a daily hoops game.) Once the jerseys were on, you can see these boys were all business. The next morning Jackson woke up looking for his new red footy ball and yelling "Charlie. Defense."

Footy confusion

New footy ball

The boys on defense

Siblings

Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet. ~Vietnamese Proverb

Jackson is taking this proverb to heart as he likes to be VERY close to his new sister. He giggles everytime her hands or feet tickle him. But as you can see these two still require a referee.

Credit

We are implementing a new bedtime initiative at our house. I have come to the conclusion, however, that Jackson sees this new routine only as a challenge to the limits of his creativity. Following are some reasons he has presented as grounds for getting out of his bedroom.

-- "Too hot here."
-- "Too cold here."
-- "Can't find it. Cold night-night." This time he couldn't find his favorite blanket (the one he calls "cold night-night"). The blanket reported missing was later found by mommy. It had been planted in another bedroom downstairs by Jackson. Of course, Jackson first searched the house repeating, "Hmm. Nope." as he went from room to room.
-- "New pants. Too tight."
-- "Mommy make cookies."
-- "New shirt."
-- "Maever wake up."
-- "Change it. New one." (Change his diaper.)
-- "Juice." (We're not this stupid!)
-- "Fan. Broke it."
-- "Can't reach it." (This was in reference to some Thomas the Train catalogs in his top dresser drawer. With the help of a shelving unit, a few thuds later Jackson was able to get these flyers out of the drawer, but not before placing a nice, big scratch on the wall. Thank God he didn't hurt himself!)
-- "Fan. Broke it." (Take two.)
-- ''Dark here." (Yes, because you broke the night light.)
-- "Train. Build it, Papa."
-- "All done."

We gotta give the kid credit.

History lesson

It rained for five days straight last week and Jackson was down with a cold, so we decided to spend our time recreating historical events such as . . .

First Transcontinental Railroad

The Overland Trail

The Last Supper

Development of the Interstate Highway System

Building of Grand Central Terminal