362 Wild Things

Saturday involved a trip to Wally World for diapers. And of course, no trip to Walmart is complete without buying something completely opposite from what you went in for. We parked at the garden entrance (which was my first mistake) and I was instantly seduced by the colors and smells. Flowers are an instant pick me up. So, I decided to pick me up two rosebushes. I have never grown my own roses, but I drive past a house with a profusion of them each day. And each day I want to jump out of my car and go snip off a couple ... but I have been raised not to enter another person's yard so I keep driving. Hopefully these will survive, and I won't have to covet the roses of others. I bought a "Broadway"And a "Blue Girl"And obviously you will have to put up with quite a few rose pics from me in the near future. (please don't pray for them to die, I will eventually stop flooding you with pictures of roses) I did get a few pics of not JUST the roses .... Like this one of a cute little bee.Or this one of my cute llittle boy. Connor LOVES the roses.We also experimented a little hile e were doing chocolate covered cherries the other day. I had extra chocolate and we had a kiwi, so we gave it a shot. Katie ate them FAST.And because no post is truly complete without antics from the Monkey and the Magpie ...

We had the pool cover laying out, hosing it off. Katie ran outside, saw it all wet and inviting, slid across it and decided it made a better slip'n'slide. She and Connor played all day!! And the next ... and they even played on it today. You guessed it ... more rose pics. I can't help it!

317 First Rule of Parenthood

This has been the week of Mean Mommy. No matter what I do, the kids end up screaming and crying ... and I end up not caring. Connor threw a fit because I closed the garage door. Katie cried for an hour because we had to throw away all her streptococcus filled make-up (even though we promised to replace it when she gets the all clear). Connor ran after me with his tiny hand raised, face turning red because I wouldn't let him stand on a chair and destroy the kitchen. Katie threw a fit because I made her go to bed ON TIME. My favorite though was when Katie cocked her hip, bobbled her head at me and tried to tell me that she could pick out whatever makeup she wanted and we couldn't tell her no.

Wait?!

WHAT??!!!

FIRST RULE OF PARENTHOOD, if the kid says they get to tell you what to do you immediately have to prove them wrong.

....And I did! I pulled out all the stops. I used the "You are the child and I am the parent" routine. It works like a charm to induce tears and low-pitched grumblings. I can only be positive I heard the words "meanie" and "not fair" but I am sure she maligned me quite well. If that girl has one thing it is teen angst. I don't know what we will do when she actually goes through puberty.

I know, it is all our fault. We have spoiled her rotten. When you spend every second of the day worried that something could go wrong and you could lose your child you tend to spoil. For the first 5 years of Katie's life we did that. I would put her to bed, and I would freak out if she cried ... maybe her blood sugar is spiking/dipping! What?! Who knows, it could have been anything! Or even worse, I would be scared shitless when she did NOT cry! I can't tell you how many times I climbed those stairs, mentally preparing myself to find her not breathing. And when she was a baby, we checked her blood sugar every two hours, so that was A LOT of trips up the stairs. We logged each morsel of food she put in her mouth. I timed breastfeeding sessions. When her sugar dipped we would force feed her juices and fruits and candy. And as she grew it didn't get much easier. She was more active. She would run around like a wild thing and burn sugar like nobody's business! And then, a miracle! A new form of diabetes was discovered, and we had her checked. And we had our answer to why her sugars were so hard to control. She was still producing insulin!! Her diagnosis changed our lives in many ways. Her blood sugar has been spectacular! She still has some highs and lows, but they are not as severe. Letting her out of my sight is not the terrifying experience it once was. I almost never climb the stairs in fear ...

BUT! It is hard to break the habit of trying to fulfill her every whim. Trying to do everything we can to make her happy. And throw on top of that, the addition of a little brother. A lot of the time we are trying to make sure she does not feel jealous. In no way do we ever want her to feel she comes in second ... but we need to also teach her that doesn't mean she comes first.

We have been lucky. We have a boy and a girl. We can qualify statements. I can say "You are the cutest GIRL ever!" or "Connor is the sweetest baby BOY ever!" and for now that works. I know it won't always, but I am holding onto it while I can. If it will earn me one less Mean Mommy point then I will qualify every statement I make for the rest of my life. If I fail at everything else in this life then I will know that the one thing I did the very best was to be a Mommy to Katie and Connor.

.... at least if I let Katie pick out the makeup she wants ....

308 Shadow Oaks Fall Festival

On Friday the 16th, Shadow Oaks Elementary held their yearly Fall Festival. Katie was excited that her Mimi and PopPop would be in town to go with us (especially since PopPop took her to her first Fall Festival when I was still recovering from Connor being born). She almost ruined it by throwing a fit before we even loaded up the van. I told her that we would buy a certain amount of tickets and when those were gone then we would be done ... and she flipped. Turns out she had nothing to worry about. We bought $20 worth of tickets and toward the end she was sharing them with a buddy and we still barely finished them all.
One of our first stops was to Mrs. Hite's room. This was Katie's First Grade teacher, and she absolutely loves her!! The object of this game was simple, you flipped over one leaf and there would be a number 1, 2, or 3. Katie flipped over a three! She was so excited because she won a pencil (she has a thing for pencils, you wouldn't understand). The funniest thing though, Kaitlyn and her family were walking around with us. Kaitlyn reached over and flipped the very same leaf ... she knew it was a winner. Sneaky little thing :)

This was also Katie's weekend with Shadow, her Second Grade classes chameleon. Each student gets to take Shadow home for one weekend, and you are supposed to take Shadow along with you everywhere. I am sure Shadow had a blast, even though he ended up spending most of his time with Connor.

My favorite thing was "Make A Bracelet". At least you walked out of the room with a bracelet! Yup, that is my girl, staring off into space. *SIGH* This was Katie's favorite game from the year before.Jaclyn, Katie, and (I wanna say Brianna) Cute as can be, aren't they?! Katie and Abbey getting ready to go into the Haunted House. Katie had already been through once with Mimi so she was an old pro. Abbey had tried to go before and decided to turn back. I took both girls through the first time, and then they went through another time with another friend Shelby. I am so glad to know that our girls have a little bit of adventure! (but not too much) When we went outside to go to the Haunted House we sent PopPop off in search of Funnel Cake. After multiple trips through the Haunted House we headed back in to find him. He had finally acquired his very own funnel cake, and then he went off in search of us. He ended up outside the Cake Walk room .... ...Where he beat out four little girls dfor a six-pack of cupcakes. Poor little things. Connor did not mind that PopPop crushed the hopes of little girls for these cupcakes, they still tasted yummy to him!! And FINALLY, after two hours and $20.00 in tickets, we headed home. Katie barely even pouted! We grabbed some Chick-fil-A sandwiches and nuggets on the way out, and we hightailed it home. Another successful Festival extraction!

247 One day ...

One day Katie will learn to put up the stuff that she does not want Connor to get into. And on that day I will no longer have to hear her cry each time he grabs some of her make-up or whatever else she has deemed her "favorite" for that ten minute window. That day was NOT today! Katie woke up and headed to the bathroom, a few minutes later she came out with her face COVERED in purple glitter. She then left the container of glittered lipgloss (oh yes, it was lipgloss) in the sink where Connor discovered it. He did a much more thorough job of applying his glitter.

234 How about a quickie?

Just a quickie post, with some adorable pics. I know you need your Jackson fix pretty regularly. Ad if YOU don't, then I know that my Mom does.
We are trying to spend more time outside. Pretty soon the days will be oppressively hot and we will be more than happy to stay in the air conditioning.
Disregard the adorable face in this picture, Connor was having a wonderful time in the swing. Chip has been playing golf every Monday for a little over a month now, and Katie is wanting to go with Daddy sometime this summer. Guess it is time to learn how to hit the ball. Although lessons from the Great Slicer may not be the best method. Chip was very impressed with Katie's hand-eye coordination though. She may not be Tigress Jackson, but she can hit a mean ball! Connor has a new found love for hair products. He keeps bringing me Katie's detangling spray, so I decided to give him a spritz. We had Katie's First Grade Recognition Program yesterday. They sang us a little song about being considerate. Hope Katie can remember that ALL SUMMER LONG! Katie won the Almond Joy award for "always having a smile on her face, a kind word to say, and a smile" MY KATIE??? Wow, she must be a totally different kid at school. At home she crumples into tears at a moments notice. She is quite often a sass-butt. Maybe we can work on that this summer. I hate that she acts better at school than she does at home ... not that I want her to be BAD at school!! And, of course, Katie's number one fan was there for the event! More silliness from Katie.We finally went to watch Katie's little friends play baseball. Luckily they are on the same team, so we did not have to choose sides. They have an amazing little team. The final score was something like 22 to 7.

JaclynTravisAND ... more of a sneak peak!
Here are a few more from the wedding. I am working my way through the pics. Editing here and there. I have worked on some from every point in the wedding, but I haven't hit them all. Doesn't the bride just GLOW!!?? This couple was so incredibly sweet throughout the whole wedding. Little glances. Holding hands through the prayers. The pure joy on their faces! You are seeing the beginning of a LONG and HAPPY marriage right here!

231 An Afternoon - Katie Style

Katie needs constant entertainment. Even when she is actually entertaining herself it seems as though I have to be there to look at what she has created or to "watch me Momma!" Today was no exception. She finished her medicine and she could FINALLY play with Mia again, so she wanted to surprise her with a Tea Party. Okay, that's not too hard. But wait, Mia is allergic to gluten, so no finger sandwiches, no crackers, and no cookies. I know ... they make gluten free mixes and all that stuff, but I don't have it just sitting around the house. So, I scraped together a tea party with what we had on hand. The tea party snacks consisted of grapes, fruit snacks, black olives, and frozen berries. Of course there was milk and sugar to add to the tea, although Mia had never heard of putting milk in your tea. She adapted rather quickly. You would have thought I was feeding them ambrosia and the finest chocolate. All six year old girls care about is POURING the tea!They each poured their own so that the other did not get to have all the fun. Poor Connor wanted to join in so badly. I gave him some of his own snacks, but he still tried to climb onto the table to play with Katie and Mia. He wants so badly to be big. The tea party was a smash. Its a good thing that they are still at that "easy to please" stage. Well, in this matter anyway.

Not too long after Mia headed off to cheerleader practice, Katie started lobbying for the sprinkler. When she couldn't find anyone else to play with, I gave in. And really, when she enjoys it THIS much then who could say no??!!She runs and jumps and screams! She even includes Connor in some of her sprinkler time antics. He is not a big fan of water in the face, but he will run with her for a while, just to be near his big sis. No one could ever accuse her of being a couch potato. She does still suffer from the horrible disease of "Noassatall". She is growing taller so quickly, but she is not growing out at all. Trying to put some pounds on that girl is a near impossible feat. She eats non-stop, but you can't tell that from looking at her. Now if I can just talk her out of wanting to be a professional cheerleader when she grows up.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that they had Career Day at school, so they talked about what they wanted to be when they grow up and Katie said a "professional cheerleader." One of the boys in her class, Dylan B (not to be confused with Dylan H) wants to be a professional football player, so she is going to cheer for him. One huge problem with that, Dylan B wants to go to the University of Georgia. I don't want her cheering for the Bulldogs! (unless we move back to Georgia) Although we talked about it today and she agreed that she wants to cheer for Ole Miss. I just wish I could talk her out of cheering altogether. She is just way to accident prone to do cheerleading! And she is such a skinny thing that I am afraid that she will end up on the top of the pyramid, or being tossed into the air. I can't take another broken bone, so I am going to try to keep her as close to the ground as possible.

And what is a trip to the backyard without a pic of flowers? This is the inside of an iris. I can't help being fascinated by the inside of the flower. The tiger stripes and soft colors. Gorgeous!

Deep in the Heart (of an Iris)

It's Love Thursday Y'all! Check out Chookooloonks for Love Thursday links and lovey-dovey goodness. Happy Love Thursday!!

220 When April Showers Overlap Into May

All my pretty flowers get wet.

And knowing that the summer drought is not that far away, I took advantage of the rain.
My peony will be blooming any day now!! It will be the first time and I am SO excited. It is another one of the offspring of my granddaddy's plants!

The rocks that Connor had sprinkled all over the deck are even prettier.

I think of this one as the two "vanilla" parents who raised a rockstar. Playtime moves inside. I could FINALLY see the floor of Katie's room, and then she HAD to have her tent put up. At least it amused her and Connor and for a little while. Until Connor realized he could pick it up :)

Wherever you are, I hope the sun is shining. If it is not shining outside then I pray it is shining in your heart. Yeah, I went there.

216 Sprinkler Season has BEGUN!

It is Katie's favorite time of the year. Time to unroll the garden hose and hook up the sprinkler. Remember how good the water used to taste right out of the hose! Lucky we are not in a "Water restricted" area like Grammy! It has not gotten to the scorching hot days of summer when you want to throw yourself into the pool with a couple bags of ice (or just stay in the nice air conditioning), but a run through the cold spray never hurt anyone. Katie likes to set up the slide where it can get wet, so she can "go fast". Poor tiny slide. Connor doesn't care whether the slide is wet or not. He is just so proud that he has figured out how to slide on his own, and I am inordinately proud of it, too!
It all started after the painting project on Sunday. I used the hose to clean the paintbrushes, and then Katie wanted to clean the paint off of herself. And then there was a water fight. She says that she was trying to wash the paint out of Connor's hair, but we all know better. That girl can't keep herself under sontrol when there is water involved. She starts to squeal and giggle. She spins in circles. She runs and leaps through the air. She even turned a plastic washtub into a mini pool. (I really need to try to get the pool clean so we can set it back up)

We painted again on Monday, and she wanted to play in the water again. To save Connor I offered to hook up the sprinkler. And then she and Mia asked to break out the sprinkler again today.

It is going to be a great Sprinkler Season in the Jaxon House!

Oh, you noticed that I did not mention the sprinkler on Tuesday, didja!? Well, that is for a very good reason. Mia's little brother Mikey turned 4 and his birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese. Katie loves that rat-infested place. I know ... he is a mouse. Can ya tell it isn't my favorite place? The kids love it, so there we were. Perhaps the true reason I hate it is that the lighting is horrible, and it is nearly impossible to get a good shot. Nah, I am pretty sure it is because the kids usually don't understand the "end of tokens" concept. Although they did this time, and I was amazed at how well they took it when we did not refill their cups. And, Connor is at that age where he wants to run free, and as much as they try to tell you on the commercials that you can relax while the kids play they are NOT talking about an 18 month old. I got so tired of chasing him down and hearing him scream. But, obviously this trip was not for me. The kids had a great time ... until Katie ignored me for the last time and I hauled her little booty out of there. When they are around their buddies they use their selective hearing. Nothing I said would break through, so it was time to go. Not to worry, everyone else was getting ready to leave as well. I had just reached my rude-child quotient for the day.