Gymboree!

Today Jackson & I signed up for Gymboree!

Steven & Jackson gave me a mini-spa day for Mother's Day this year (ahhhhh! relaxing!) and it's right next door to Gymboree, so I went to check it out. That's right, I can't let go of being a mom, even on my "me" time. I've been wanting to sign up for awhile now, since probably Valentine's Day... oops! That's embarrassing that I'm just now getting around to it. Anyways, when I stopped by to talk to someone about it, I ran into some other moms who have kids Jackson's age. They were going on and on about how much they love it and offered to introduce me to the manager. When she came out I recognized her immediately - she was one of my Mom's friends! When I was growing up, they had a group of ladies who had kids of similar ages and they would all go on "getaway weekends" together. We chatted for a few minutes and I signed up to visit the 6-10 month class today.

Ok, have you ever seen a baby more handsome than this? Since it was Jackson's first class, we (I) decided to make a good first impression with some big boy clothes & Jackson's first pair of shoes. Obviously, we had to get sandals for the Texas summer. Can I talk for a second about how sad it is that I haven't even bought shoes for myself since being back in the states? Hmm, that's going to have to change... but I digress!

Gymboree was GREAT!! First we sang some songs and played peek-a-boo with some of the other babies. It was very cute; each baby had a partner for peek-a-boo. It really encourages socialization. And even cuter - Jackson's partner was wearing the same shirt as him! They must both have very good taste. When we were done singing songs, we had a mom talk. This week we talked about how to stay (become?) healthy after having a baby. I felt like I was slacking after I heard all these moms talking about going to the gym! What? Where do you find the time/money/energy?! We have a gym at our apartment complex and I haven't been in there since we signed the lease! I've noticed that I have some great biceps from picking Jackson up all the time - rarrrrerrrrrrgh!

I'm so easily distracted.

After mom talk, we played with the equipment in the room. This is where I messed up. Yep, I let Jackson fall down & hit his head... hard. I didn't mean to, and he falls over at home all the time, but I think the floor was much harder, and the carpet was coarse, so he scraped his forehead a little bit. Poor sweetie! He had a good cry about it, so we cuddled and I gave him some kisses. He did the "silent cry" or the "calm before the storm" cry. You know, when their little face gets all red and scrunched up, but there's no sound coming out, and you start to wonder "who hit the mute button?" and then THE SCREAMING BREAKS LOOOOOOOOOOOOSE! Yeah, it was one of those. After he calmed down, we went down the slide a few times, which made him laugh, and then we played with some of the other babies. Then it was time to play with the parachute, which was also a lot of fun... until... wouldn't you know it? He fell over AGAIN and this time bonked his head on my knee. I think this time he was more scared and cranky than actually hurt, but I really felt awful for letting him get hurt again. I took him away to calm down again, and his peek-a-boo buddy's grandma gave him a little cuddle too. He has no stranger anxiety at all. He'll even reach for new people (especially women) as long as I stand nearby.

So, despite my lack of "spotting" ability, we had a pretty fun time and decided to officially sign up for the class. I can't wait! I really think this is a great thing for both of us to meet people and spend time together. I've already invited all of our family members to come to Gymboree with us, and I can't wait for Jackson to start crawling! He saw the other kids crawling around and just stared, as if to say "wait... why can't I do that?" Hmm, don't get any ideas! I'm still getting used to this rolling thing!

After Gymboree, Jackson passed out in the car (didn't help that Mom was a chatty Cathy afterwards) and I went to Chick-fil-A to grab Steven a sweet tea and head over to his office to surprise him. He was surprised - by Jackson's read forehead! He was not impressed that I let him fall over twice... oops! It's just the first of many bumps and bruises... or so I hear from other boy moms. Then Jackson and I went by Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things for my latest "projects." Steven has come to hate that word because it's usually synonomous with "spending money." For these projects though, I am using stuff we already have but don't use or I don't like anymore. It's too late (and I'm too tired) to write about them tonight, but I'll try to post pictures of my first "project" tomorrow. Good night!

My Bouncy Baby Boy!

Here is a video of Jackson enjoying his favorite pastime - bouncing to the music!



This jumper moves from room-to-room a lot because Jackson just LOVES it. It's gradually losing toys as he learns to reach, pull, and shake. We bought it because he wasn't able to hold himself upright without help for more than a few seconds, but he would cry if he was on his back... he wanted to be a stand-up baby! Ever since we've had this though, he wants to be a jumpy baby, so now if I do hold him in a standing position, he'll kick and kick, trying to jump. I swear, little boy never slows down! Lately he's been spending a lot of time on his tummy... so I know it's only a matter of weeks before he starts crawling. Ahhh! The beginning of the end!

I hope you enjoy the video of our Jumper Jackson!

Perfect!

"Perfect" is the word I use when I'm finally satisfied with something. I think that says a lot about the standards I tend to set for myself, much to Steven's annoyance. I have been meaning to update the look of our blog for a while now... and even though it took me until 1:17 in the morning, I think I can safely say "perfect" and get my sleepy head off to bed.

...PERFECT! :)

Came home and I found....

...my two favorite boys having a nap on the couch. Is there a sweeter sight than this?

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Last Thursday Steven and I went to see the Dallas Symphony Orchestra using the tickets I won at the basket auction (see below). We had SUCH a great time!!! The lady who put the tickets up for auction (she's a season ticket holder & was going to be out of town) told me that she always eats at Allegro, which is one of the 2 restaurants at the Meyerson. So we made reservations and it was so good! Delicious. The menu changes every week, but we had seafood chowder (awesome, I wish I had the recipe), pork, pasta, Italian paninis, salad, and chocolate chip cookies, among other things. It was served buffet-style, which was awesome because we definitely both went back for seconds! After that, we still had some time to kill before the performance, so we went to the gift shop and I bought a new little toy for Jackson. It's a monkey with a round, flat body that jingles, and two teething pads. He's not really a big fan yet, but I hope that changes. I also got a beautiful wine stopper. The top is made of blue glass, and shaped like a feather. After we exhausted the gift shop, we walked around, had a glass of champagne, and went to find our seats. When we got to our seats we found out that we were in the fourth row, right in the middle!! It's not the greatest picture, but here's the view of the stage from our seats (no zoom!)


Steven's reaction was "We're going to be able to see the conductor sweat!"

The first movement was Beethoven's Leonore Overture No 2, which I don't remember hearing before, but it definitely sounded like Beethoven had composed it. It was the shortest piece of the night. After that, they brought out the guest cellist, Alisa Weilerstein, to perform the solo for Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Ok, first of all, she's basically amazing. Second of all, she's only 26. I couldn't believe it! I have a lot of practicing to do over the next two years to catch up with her. Ok, I'm kidding. I suggest that anyone who enjoys classical music check her out because she was really incredible. I could tell that she really felt the music. At the intermission Alissa came out to sign autographs, so we bought her CD and talked with her a little ("You're so amazing... I couldn't take my eyes off of you... but I guess you hear that a lot." I'm such a dork.) and she was really nice.

After intermission, they finished off with Brahms' Symphony No 1. Of course, it was wonderful, but I had wanted to see the guest cellist back again. Steven wants to get season tickets now, but I told him that this would be a "once-in-a-while thing" for me. It was a great "date night" and gave us an excuse to get out of the house and just be us for a few hours. Huge thanks to Steven's grandmothers and his mom for tag-team babysitting our little boy.

PEO, Baskets, and Wine

Since moving back to Texas, I have become more involved with the FA Chapter of PEO. This is special because it's the chapter than my Mom has been a part of for 25+ years. I am also a 4th generation PEO, and something I always wanted to be involved in while I was growing up.

Last weekend was the Chapter FA basket auction. I had no idea what to expect, but I have a lot of free time these days (which will change when Jackson figures out how to get his legs up underneath himself), so I decided to put together a few baskets. I did 2 baby baskets (hey, it's what I'm good at these days!!) with a play time and a nap time theme. They turned out TOO cute. Then I put together a wine tasting basket, that was so great, I almost bid on it myself. No lie! My mom almost did as well, but she said that she didn't want to pay for it twice - ha!

Here's a picture of my wine-tasting basket:

I went to World Market to get all this stuff. It was so much fun! I included 2 kinds of sparkling wine (one white and a rose), a Riesling (my signature - duh), Merlot, and a Shiraz. Each of the bottles is "single serving" but big enough for 2 people to share. Then I grabbed some crackers and a cheese spread variety pack, a wine journal, and 2 (adorable) wine glasses. They have a leaf & berry pattern that I just love! Finally, I picked up a basket and some grass (this took way longer than it should have) and I was done. When I got home I pulled the grass apart to make it fluffier, the added the wine bottles on top, and added the accressories I had picked up to round it out. When I was done though, it just didn't look balanced, so I raided our pantry and found these yummy Ferrero Roches in milk and dark chocolate. I don't like nuts, so I was happy to give them away. We auctioned this basket off for PEO charities and it did pretty well! One lady even asked her friend to bid on it for her b/c she needed to leave. Yay! Instead of bidding on it ourselves (though it was tempting...!), I bid on a pair of Dallas Symphony tickets and my mom got a different wine basket, complete with pink daisies and 2 bottles of wine. We split the second wine basket. It was so much fun putting these baskets together and we're already making lists of what we can do next time.

Next... pictures & more from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Baby Giggles

Recently Jackson learned to laugh. Can I please explain for a second how amazing this is?! We will sit there and laugh at each other all day. It's so much fun, like we're having a conversation in this weird, unknown language. Apparently we both find each other to be hilarious. He is turning in to a little boy before my eyes! His favorite toy right now is his jumper, which I have a picture of, but it's still on my camera. He jumps and jumps and then looks at me and giggles, then jumps again, grins again. I love watching him! It really tires him out too - always a good thing. He's also learning to really love peek-a-boo. He gets such a kick out of waiting for my face to pop out from behind my hands. Unfortunately, this also means that he starts to whine anytime he watches me leave a room. He'll be 6 months old in just a few days - I can't believe it's already been so long, yet I can't imagine ever having lived without him.


Switching gears for a second... one thing I never noticed about Texas while I was growing up here was how GORGEOUS the wildflowers are! We decided to take advantage of this fact and take some family pictures in a field of bluebonnets - the Texas state flower. We must have taken over 100 pictures... but we got a few good ones and the plan is to blow it up on canvas to hang over our bed. Steven has a phobia of hanging glass over beds... partially due to the earthquakes we had in Japan. Anyways, so this is our solution. I love that we were able to get some of Jackson smiling. We also thought that we had photographic evidence of baby's first crime, but it turns out that picking bluebonnets is not illegal in Texas. Who knew? It was still pretty funny to joke about it.

Here is the "crime" in progress:

What a rebel.