Two Wheels!!

Whenever we bought Jackson his bike this past spring, he asked for a kickstand. We told him that when he learned to ride his bike with two wheels, we'd go to the store and buy him one. When he figured out how to ride a scooter with two wheels, we started talking about taking his training wheels off. I felt pretty confident that he'd be able to ride his bike without them. Being busy with our move, we never got around to doing it. Friday, the kids and I went on a walk/ride around our neighborhood {I walked and Jackson drove Allison in his Power Wheels truck :) }. We came upon a church parking lot and I told him that it would be a great spot to try riding his bike without his training wheels. He said, "Yeah! Let's do it right now!"

I made him wait until Jason got home. Jason suggested a place on base, but as we were driving there, we came across a stadium parking lot really close to our house and decided to stop there instead. At first, we left his training wheels on but made sure they were as high as they could go. That wasn't challenging, so we took them off. I was a little concerned because it was SO windy...it was even hard for me to hold the video camera still...but it had no effect.

Jason helped him first. He held the seat and the handlebars for one pass across the parking lot and then held only the handlebar. He said that he wasn't helping him but merely holding his hand around the bar without touching it. They went across the parking lot a couple of times and then I got a chance to run beside him. I held the back of his seat just in case he fell {and to give him a secure feeling} but I wasn't helping him. Then I let go of his seat and wrapped my arms in a big circle around him {like a bubble}. He was riding by himself!!! And this all happened in 15 minutes. We were so happy for him!!

He has loved driving cars, tricycles, scooters and bikes since he was a tiny thing. I know he was thrilled with himself. It was amazing to watch him grasp something so effortlessly. And I've observed {through my minimal amount of parenting experience}, that when I let him lead me in his learning and wait for his interest in mastering a skill, it happens with very little effort. His bike-riding was a perfect example.

Getting started:

You can't see them because they were so far away and I was keeping an eye on my little rock-eater, but they were giving each other some kind of high-five, fist pump thing:

Only a couple of falls like this...and they only happened whenever he was trying to get off his bike:

Jason helped him get going...

Let go...

And then he was off!

Allison was such a trooper. That girl finds happiness wherever she is. Jackson is so blessed to have her as a little sister and she is so blessed to have such an affectionate and tenderhearted big brother. Whenever I wasn't pushing her in her car trying to keep up with the boys...

She was playing in the dirt...

Or trying to eat rocks!

Boy, does that girl know when she is doing something wrong! She just looks at me like, "What? Are you going to stop me? Watch. I'm doing this anyway. What are you going to do about it?" And then when I tell her, "No. No." she kicks the drama into high gear and gives me the most pathetic cry...as if I've just broken her heart. It is so funny!

Jason got one of his PT days for sure. He was running all over the place!

After about 30 minutes, Jackson was confident enough to ride around without Jason being by his side:

In this next photo, you can tell that the parking lot wasn't flat. It was sloped. But that didn't seem to affect him at all.

I just can't believe he's riding a bike! Let the fun begin!! Now we can go on family bike rides!! I LOVE to ride my bike!

After riding in the parking lot, we went to buy the promised prize...a kickstand!! {He was actually feeling bad all day...stuffy nose...which you can tell in this photo. However, he wasn't going to allow anything (sickness, wind, sloped parking lot, movie opportunity) to keep him from riding his bike!}

After buying the kickstand, we went and ate pizza at the Mellow Mushroom and then treated ourselves to Nancy's Italian Ice. It was definitely a Friday Family Fun Night!!

Saturday morning, I took the kids downtown to see the dragon boat races while Jason studied.

I thought Jackson would really enjoy watching the boats race on the water. And I think he might have if he would have agreed to eat breakfast and if he hadn't been feeling a little sickly. After a few races though, he was ready to go. I could tell he was hungry and tired and the boats weren't exciting enough for him. As we turned to leave, Allison caught a glimpse of something that she was very interested in:

Dogs! Alli loves dogs! And she does not get that from me. I love animals...from a distance, but there is no way I enjoy them licking on me. How do you think she felt about it?!

Did you notice the little smile on her face? She loves it! It doesn't bother her at all. It bothers me, but I try to let it go. God made her an animal lover and I don't want to do anything to change that.

Do you think I would have benefited from a double stroller? I can't tell you how many times we've rolled like this. I'm a super safe mom.

After a little nourishment at home, the four of us headed out for a bike ride.

This was my first time to ride with Allison. Jason rode with her a few times in Oklahoma while I was teaching my Bradley® classes, but this was my first time and I was so happy about it. She even took a nice little snooze on our ride!

My Little Andretti

There are so many things about Jackson that utterly amaze me. I wish I was more diligent to get them written down. Perhaps my new and current efforts at organizing my days will help me achieve that goal. So often, I neglect journaling about one thing because I haven't journaled about the previous ten things and I want to be chronological. What ends up happening?! I don't journal about any of it because time keeps ticking.

I've had enough of that. I'd love share about all of the amazing things that come out of his mouth...words that truly amaze me considering his age, but I'll save that for another day {yeah right!} and just talk about something recent.

We bought one of those filtered water bottle dispensers. I was putting the first five gallon jug on top. Whenever I turned it over very quickly in an effort not to spill any water, I smashed my finger between the jug and the dispenser. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Jackson was so sweet and very concerned about my finger. "Is it bleeding? Let me see it, Mommy." While I was wiping up the water that did spill whenever I saved my finger, I said, "This is Daddy's job." In other words, "I'm going to let Daddy take care of these kinds of things and stop trying to do everything by myself."

Do you want to know how Jackson replied? "I'm pretty sure Grammie puts her water bottles on all by herself."

Wow! Did he put me in my place. I said, "That's because Grammie's a stud. She's awesome."

And he said, "Yeah. She should probably live with us for the next year so that she can put our water bottles on for us."

What was he trying to say!! :))

Last night, Jackson really wanted me to make muffins...chocolate chip muffins. I was thrilled to bake something because I haven't made much of anything in our oven since it makes our house feel like it's 90 degrees inside. He was excited to help out and I was so happy to have him by my side {although, I'll admit that initially, there was a part of me that wanted to just hurry up and get it done]. He asked if he could please crack the eggs all by himself. I needed four eggs for the muffins {double batch if I'm heating up the oven} and then six for scrambling {it was a breakfast night}. The four for the muffins he just hit on the counter and then I put them in the bowl because he didn't want to get his hands dirty. When we got around to the ones for scrambling, I encouraged him to do it himself. I verbally coached him through the first egg. He got one piece of shell in the bowl. He then cracked six more {there was a lonely seven in that egg carton} without getting one bit of shell in the bowl. I couldn't believe it! He can now crack eggs for me!!

After dinner, he asked if we could play MarioKart Double Dash. We introduced it to him sometime this year in OK because he has an intense love for cars and driving.

{Speaking of his love for cars and driving, I've got to chase a rabbit for a minute. He has loved cars since he was able to hold one. When he was a year old, he would sign "keys", "car" and "drive" the minute Jason walked in the door. He wanted to hold Jason's keys, to get in his car, and to pretend drive. He is still obsessed with that to this day. He wants to know the make and model of cars he sees and of anyone he meets who owns a car. If you come to our house or if he goes to yours, he wants to see your car, get in it, and check out all of the controls. Right after he turned two, we got him a Power Wheels car. I could not believe how quickly he learned how to drive it. By the time he was 2 1/2, he could drive it all around our yard...around trees, between trees, in tight spaces, etc. And he could reverse better than me! He can drive in reverse to get anywhere he wants to go. He is like Mater - the world's best backwards driver. Back in Oklahoma, he used to reverse into our two car garage between both of our parked SUVs! I'm serious! He's gifted...and I'm not just saying that because I'm a proud Momma. It's truly odd how well he can drive.}

So that's why we {Jason} introduced him to MarioKart. We thought he'd like seeing all of the cars race. We never played it much and he didn't know how to race, but he had fun choosing which car he was going to be. Since we've been here, we haven't used the Game Cube. When he asked to play the other night, I thought it would be a fun time of talking about all of the different cars. Wrong! My little Andretti took off!! The light bulb must have clicked on somewhere between Edmond and here because he completed two races of three laps each all by himself!!! He's 3 1/2! I didn't think he was supposed to figure this stuff out for a long time. {And since I'm not a fan of sitting in front of the television, I'll have to put boundaries on how much time I'll allow him to play video games. And he's 3 1/2! That's crazy! It's a good thing he loves being active, loves to learn, and loves being outside. I have no plans to make this a battle. If he asks to play it all the time, my hope is to encourage him with other things and to explain why I value those things over television time.}

You might be wondering, "Christmas fleece jammies in the heat of August?!" He wasn't feeling well today and he was cold.

Meredith, Marty makes a great gaming chair! I'll bet you didn't think it would be used for that when you bought it for him four years ago. Thanks!! We love him!

Dear Amy AKA Railroad Track Repairwoman,

Since you have tons of time on your hands and really enjoy railway building in your spare time, I probably shouldn't share this with you. But, on the chance that you'd like to move on to other things, I'll share possible solution #1 to putting an end to railway destruction in your family room.

Enter Suretrack Clips:

Slide the clip onto a rail piece:

Connect that rail piece to another rail piece:

And slide the clip so that it's in the middle of the rail connection:

It's that easy!

It even works pretty well at junctions:

But isn't designed for spaces like these:

The track can still be lifted {and it will still slide}:

But it won't fall apart {I should have moved that clip on the left over to the left some more...I did this in all of my spare time:) }:

The clips don't interfere with the trains moving smoothly across the tracks:

It's a possibility that with these clips, your train table could look like this for more than five minutes:

However, I can't guarantee that a small hand {say the size of a one-year-old} won't grab the track and pull the entire thing off the table. For that problem, I can only recommend nails or glue. I hope this solves your problem. If not, resort to glue or take joy in the fact that you may have a career in railway construction some day!

At your service,
Missing You in Montgomery

P.S. The clips are working great at my house! The thrill of taking each rail piece off and throwing it to the floor or chewing on it is gone. {I do have a girl though. Perhaps she doesn't share the same level of intensity as your little man?!} Now, we just enjoy train stealing! :)

The Splash Pad & Other Montgomery Moments

I can't believe it's been almost one month since we got to Montgomery. Once I got past the first two weeks {or maybe it was three}, things started getting better. The Lord has been working in my heart and helping me to make some much-needed changes, which I am so very grateful for. I'm starting to see the blessing of this move and this house and how He will use them to mature me and strengthen my faith in Him. That, is very exciting to me!

Last Tuesday was a rough day. I remember wanting to post this picture with the comment, "Nothing good happened today but this..."

But this? Two children who are happy and loving to one another is much more deserving than a "but this" kind of statement. Jackson and Allison are playing together more and more each day and really enjoying each other. I wish you could see the hugs Alli gives to Jackson. They are precious! He, of course, is very loving to her, but too many hugs can get on her nerves quickly. {Do not ask me why my toddler insisted upon wearing a long sleeve shirt with an undershirt in 100 degree weather!!! I am tired of arguing with him about this kind of stuff. I say, if he wants to wear it and be blazing hot, then let him go ahead and do it!}

I think it is a possibility that Jackson is outgrowing his naps. He still needs them, but maybe not every day. Last week, he assured Jason {who was home for the day while I went to his school for a spouse orientation} that he was not tired. Jason let him have one toy on the bed to play with. I went in to check on him and this is how I found him:

He wasn't tired at all!

One thing I am really enjoying about having Allison a little older is that it makes it easier to get out and do things that we can all have fun with. While we are in Montgomery, I want to get out and explore this part of the country. I love going places and visiting the sites of new areas. I love getting my children out and allowing them to experience different cultures and ways of life. I think they learn so much this way. I've been filling my calendar with lots of activities so that the months don't roll by before we ever do something. I need to make plans in order to see the things we hope to see while we are here.

This morning, we visited Montgomery's Riverfront. They have a fountain area called the Splash Pad. I put the kids in swimsuits and we headed downtown to have fun.

Jackson rode his scooter all over the place. He loves scooters...both 2- and 3-wheeled. Here he is in front of the river:

My back was to the train station while taking that photo of him. Here is what he was looking at:

Trains and boats! A boys dream! This is a boat that does dinner river cruises. I would love to do that with Jason some time.

Allison loves to stroll. She was happy and content:

Here's a quick shot of the river just below the Splash Pad area:

The Splash Pad was a blast. I didn't bring my swimsuit, but it didn't stop me from running through the fountains with them. I was soaked from head to toe! I took a few pictures of them but put the camera away to enjoy my kids!

I'm not too sure about this:

I'm not sure how many million times we shouted, "Ready? Set. Go!"

Happy as could be:

Not in the mood for a hug...she was about to scream and let him know she was done:

I think there was a homeschool group there and they all joined in:

I thought she'd found a playmate, but it didn't last long. He took her ball and she was off to explore other things:

What a great way to beat the heat!