"I fast!"

The Lord has been good to provide an opportunity to serve some friends from our church as they bring their second daughter into the world. My friend Stevie had a baby girl this morning at about 10:25. Stevie and her husband Isaiah have a little girl who is 6 days older than Jackson. Her name is Erika. They really needed someone to take care of Erika so that Isaiah could be at the hospital with Stevie. Since I am still here, we've been able to help them out and it is such a blessing to both families. As I type, both toddlers are sleeping peacefully.

Last weekend, before we left for the Bernkastel Wine Festival, Jason was eating cheese and offered some to Jackson. Apparently, he liked it because he said, "More cheese" to Jason. This was the first time he'd ever put two spoken words together.

Today, as we were leaving the hospital, he was holding my hand as we were walking outside to the parking lot. I said to him, "Jackson, you are walking fast. You are walking so fast!" He smiled really big and then said, "I fast!" I couldn't believe it! It was so precious. I asked, "Did you just say I'm fast." He replied, "I fast!" He then repeated himself a few more times. It was so cute.

I actually can't believe how many words he's started saying over the last two months. And he says them on his own without any prompting. Like tonight, we took dinner to Jason because he had to work late. Jackson was sitting in his lap and he pointed to Jason's wedding ring and said, "Ring."

It's so funny when we try to figure out a word that he's saying. We'll guess several words and when we finally choose the right one, he'll say, "Ooooohhhh!" very enthusiastically. That is actually his new form of Yes. If we understand what he wants, or we ask him to do something that he wants to do, he'll reply, "Ooooohhhh!" His eyes open really wide and he kind of tips his head backwards as he says it. It's as if he's saying, "Oh, you understand. Yes." We think he says it because we often say that after we figure out what he wants. For example, we'll say, "You want..." and when we guess the right thing we'll say, "Oooohhh. That's what you wanted/were saying."

He just cracks us up these days. He's getting really funny. He likes to tickle us, which makes us laugh so hard. He and Jason have this special signal call (or whatever you call it). Jason whistles a 2-whistle tune to Jackson and Jackson squeaks it back to him. It's so funny. Jason will sometimes hide from Jackson and then do it so that Jackson can find him. Or Jace will do it if we didn't hear him coming through the door at the end of the day. Tonight, when we went to Jason's office, Jackson passed it up by one door. Jason saw him and whistled his tune. Jackson stopped in his tracks, smiled, turned around, and then ran into his office. It was so cute. I love that they have this little thing between them. I also must confess that I would like to have a little thing between us too!

Another thing that sends me into laughter every night is when Jason reads a Bible story to Jackson. He is very animated and makes the story very exciting. He makes sound effects and big exclamations as he reads. Whenever he does this in the story, Jackson will mimic him. It is hilarious! Jason will make animal sounds or weather sounds (wind, rain, ocean waves, thunder, lightning, etc.) and Jackson will mimic him. If we read something really great, Jason will say, "Yes!!!" to which Jackson replies, "Yesssshh!!!" Or he'll say, "Yeah" and then Jackson replies with a big drawn out, "Yeeaaahh." The look on his face is hilarious. A couple of weeks ago, Jason said, "Sweet!" Now, this is one of Jackson's favorite words to say during story time. Except, it sounds like, "Peet!" What makes it funnier is when I try to mimic them. Sometimes, Jackson will look up at me and say, "Dada" with a big smile. It's as if he's saying, "No, Mama. Only Dada says it."

Okay, I had no intention of this post going where it went but I'm glad it did! I just documented a lot of really great memories. I love my child! In the words of Dash on The Incredibles, "I love our family!"

For those of you who don't like posts without pictures (Michelle!), I'm including some photos taken about two weeks ago. Here's another thing that Jackson does that makes us laugh. He learned to sign cold. One day, Jackson and I went back and forth signing cold and laughing about it. When Jason watched us do it one day, he joined in too. Ever since then, my efforts to play the cold game are fruitless. It is now only fun when daddy does it! Here they are going back and forth while Jackson eats frozen peas: