Chicken Dinner on the River

Here are a few pictures of the Gus's fried chicken dinner picnic we had on the river a couple Sunday's ago. It was delicious - great food, great company, and best of all....perfect weather!!! It's great to be home :-)

The Crew (most of us anyway)

Always driving the golf carts

Presley pulling Jackson in the wagon

Carts and Crew

Up close shot while eating watermelon

While I've been away....

Hi All!
So it's been a good bit since I last posted. The main reason for that is I don't currently have a computer at home, so I have to bother my friends to use theirs (mine is still in New York with Matt). Not to mention for the past 4 weeks I've been "single mama" while Matt wraps up his fellowship in Rochester. Thankfully he'll be back in Memphis in 2 weeks and we start living like a normal family again. Well...as normal as can be expected.
So what's been going on....if you don't already know, we're back home in Memphis (yay!) and of course living back on the island. We're renting a place until we can agree on a house to buy. I'm working at Vascular Transplant Services in Millington and love what I do....I just wish I was doing it more. Guess you can't have it all. Matt starts his job on July 15 and he's really looking forward to it and has a lot of great ideas on how to grow the business. He'll have a couple of well-deserved weeks off before he starts to get some much needed R & R.
Jackson is thriving at his new school - he's made new friends and the teachers are wonderful. He gets to do splash day every Thursday and the ice cream truck visits them every Friday. He's adjusted very well - I think he likes being home too :-). I'll get some pictures up as soon I get a computer.
Later!

Latest Doc Visit

Jackson went to the doctor last Friday for his (belated) 18 month check-up. He is meeting some and exceeding most of the milestones for other kids his age, (i.e. number of words in vocabulary, ability to identify, pronounciation, etc....), which the doc says is even more impressive because he was a premie. In fact, one place where he has continued to succeed since birth...head circumference :-). His latest dimensions were:

Height: 33" (60th percentile - up from 50th)

Weight: 28lbs 9oz (75th percentile - up from 50th....that got a good laugh)

Head Circumference: 20cm (maitained at 95th percentile)

And some updated pics...

Big fun in the "vroom vroom"

Pre-bedtime fun

Always on the phone

Strong Museum of Play

So Matt and I both took this past Saturday off work and we took Jackson to the Stong Museum of Play. Its a HUGE totally hands-on museum where the kids can play with just about anything and everything. By far, his favorite toy was the truck he could "drive". In fact, when it was time to let the next kid have a turn, he threw a full on, laying on the floor, crying fit. We had to physically carry him to a totally different part of the museum and distract him and after about 10 minutes, he moved on and all was right with his world again. It was a great way to spend a chilly day here in our remaining few weeks in upstate NY.

Looking at the fish

Flying the plane

Building Mr. Potato head with dad

The infamous truck

Jackson and mama with Big Bird and Elmo

Starfish of the Month

Each month, a child from Jackson's class is chosen to be "Starfish of the Month". Basically, a bunch of pictures and fun facts (e.g. favorite food, books, first vacation, pets, family names) about the children and their families are put up on the big board in the classroom so they can learn more about their friends. Jackson was chosen for the month of March. I took a few pictures of the board.

Night Night

Capturing our bedtime rituals in pictures...

We have to kiss the baby "night night"....every night

All smiles after a bath

Nose

Hair

Daddy's Coat

Jackson has gotten very good at identifying what's mine, his, and Matt's. He'll pick up my shoes, socks, phone, etc...and say "mama's"...and doing the same with Matt's stuff. He picked up Matt's coat the other day and managed to put it on and walked around the house saying "daddy's daddy's daddy's". It was pretty cute stuff.

Little guy in a big ol coat

All done...and showing a little diaper

Fun New Toys

The weather outside is always frightful up here...thankfully, Jackson got a lot of new toys to keep him entertained while we're homebound. A big boy chair, a horse (well, a zebra but he calls it a horse), and shiny new car (a.k.a. "vroom vroom"), not to mention lots and lots of blocks. He's adding to his vocabulary almost everday, most recently are: baby, knee, cheek, outside, hot dog and teeth. He's very good at pointing to his body parts when you ask him to (hair, eye, teeth, toes, knee, fingers).

Since its now official that we're moving back home to Memphis (yay!), I got Jackson into a daycare and we're looking for house (on the island of course). Matt will start his job in July, and I have a new job lined up as well. Just a few more months....

Happy New Year

It's been awhile since I last posted...work and travels have kept me pretty busy. Matt had a job interview in Memphis in early December. It sounded really positive, and having the opportunity to move back home is something that we would both love. We spent Christmas thawing out in Cocoa Beach, FL with Matt's parents. It was wonderful, especially because so many of the extended family members were also there. Jackson made out like a bandit...new cars, chairs, clothes, blocks...you get the idea. He's learning new things at an incredible pace. He now blows kisses when saying "bye bye", his words are becoming much more clear, as well as adding new words to his vocabulary every day (for example...cheese, all done, shoes, juice, socks, dog....to name a few). We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas wish you a very Happy New Year!!!

Family pic on Christmas morning

Opening presents

Sitting in his new "big man" chair