The Little Gym

Jackson hanging out by the beam

Judah playing with a ball near the pie shaped mat (the mat is a reference in this post)




Both boys hanging from the bars...notice how happy Jackson is here.

So we had our first class at The Little Gym yesterday. We had visited there once before for Judah's birthday. It was such a cute and fun place that I decided to take Jackson for a class. For the most part, he had fun. He loved ringing the bells, participating in "head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes..., " playing with the balls, practicing walking, running and jumping (all with my help, of course), popping bubbles and pounding the floor to the beat of the music (no worries, not a temper tantrum, yet anyway). The only part that really scared him was performing tricks in front of the rest of the class. The first time a few kids went before us--all rolled down the pie shaped mat very nicely. When it was our turn I handed Jackson to the instructor. She got him about half-way through the forward roll (he was screaming like a mad man by this time) and then he just flipped around and ended up landing on his stomach! Impressive, J! The next trick was to hang on the bars, swing a few times and then drop down. All 6 kids went in front of us this time. All 6 grabbed the bar, swang for a few seconds, then dropped down with smiles on their faces. It was our turn...we approached the bar, I held him up to it to grab and all I got were loud screams in my face! In fact, he never got to hang on the bars because he was screaming so hard. It was a little embarassing, but what are ya gonna do? What's even funnier is that no less than five minutes before, he had done both of those tricks with me, no problem. Guess he's not quite the performer just yet. I'm thinking that all the cute little girls in his class made him nervous:) We're going back next week, so I'll keep y'all updated on his progress!

Wintery Sunday Stroll

All bundled up for our walk around the neighborhood.

In front of our house with Dad


"I'm done!" Weaseling out of the stroller with me trying to catch him:)



We had such a good weekend and really enjoyed getting to spend time with Jared. Yesterday we took a nice little stroll around the neighborhood, but didn't get to go until the sun was almost down. So, even though it was about 65 degrees, it really did get chilly by the time we went...hence the reason Jackson is wearing his mittens and toboggan! While on our walk, Jackson practiced talking--we just laughed while listening to him say all kinds of "words" like "ba ba ba" and maybe a little "mama" every now and then. The last picture is Jackson right after I unsnapped the safety belts. He just bucked back really hard and almost slid himself all the way out the bottom of the stoller! He's a wild man, I tell ya!

Learning to play nicely

"Racing" with his friend, Judah. In reality, neither kid moved a muscle for at least a few minutes. They just stood there and stared at us like we were crazy. Stage fright, perhaps?!

Having a blast in this really cool toy. Funny story... Monica asked Judah, "where's Jackson? where's Jackson?" Jackson heard her and peeped his head out of the blow up thing with a big ol' grin on his face like, "here I am!"

Sharing a toy with Hunter...didn't last for long because Jackson started pushing it and hurt Hunter's feelings, but at least it was a start!

Playing nicely with their own toys in Hunter's room

My child, the bully...just couldn't resist trying to take Hunter's cute little chick


Jackson had his first two successful playdates over the past week. He learned to share a little bit and really enjoyed playing with lots of new toys. He has pretty much stopped trying to pull his friends' hair, which is a big improvement, and will probably result in us getting invited back! He did act like a baby tornado in Hunter's room, though. Things he managed to do: pull out Hunter's clothes, pull off the books and toys on his bookshelf, break off a piece of the nightlight, open the closet and try to get in there, attempt to get inside the trashcan...the list goes on. He's an active little cat to say the least! We had fun with both boys, though, and look forward to doing it again.

Jackson's two favorites--technology and our dogs:)

Waking Tyson up this morning

Squealing with delight as Sadie runs away

Jackson sitting nicely next to Sadie (this was taken before the last pic, I just haven't quite figured out how to change it in the blog format).

Jackson with two of his faves--the phone and remote control.

My little guy really likes both of our dogs and they put up with him quite well. Sadie, our lab, is so docile and calm (as long as there are no thunderstorms) most of the time and will really let Jackson do whatever he wants. He still hasn't figured out how to really pet the dogs nicely, but she lets him pull her hair out and doesn't seem to mind. Much nicer reaction than I have when he pulls my hair! All Sadie really wants to do is lay around by the couch, but Jackson probably makes her move AT LEAST 30 times a day. He loves to go round and round our ottoman, which makes Sadie have to get up every time. Apparantly she never gets too upset, though, because she continues to lay wherever we're at. Tyson, on the other hand, could not be less a fan of Jackson. He can't stand to be petted and really hates it when Jackson starts squealing because he's so excited about touching Tyson. Every morning, Jackson crawls over to Tyson's little dog house and before he can get there, Tyson bolts out. This is even funnier to me because this dog used to not get up until about 11:00 every day. Hmmm, maybe that's a big reason he doesn't care much for Jackson. He's cranky because he hasn't gotten all his beauty rest in!

Jackson has always had EXTREME love for all technology. Although he has at least three different toy phones of his own and a toy remote control, he much prefers to play or "eat" the real ones. Seriously, you should see how this kid lights up whenever the phone rings. He gets so excited he can hardly contain himself! If I give it to him, though, he just puts it straight in his mouth, which pretty much defeats the whole purpose. He also loves the cable box, DVD and VCR that are underneath our TV--last week I caught him banging the cable box with his hammer. Nevermind that the hammer is supposed to be used with his other toys to bang balls through an opening....nah, the cable box is way more entertaining!