PaperBackSwap

So I don't know if any of you are already members but if you aren't, you should totally check out PaperBackSwap. It's a lot of fun! I've already swapped several books...for myself and for Jackson. If you sign up, please put me down as your referral (using my gmail address)!! I get credit for it & I sure could use some more books! :) Have fun!

So behind...yet again!

We've been busy around here so I'm falling behind on updates & posts. I've been meaning to post Jackson's 18 Month update as well but just haven't had the time. For now, I'll just post a few pix and get to the details a little later.

Jackson & Daddy in Lockhart

A New Fence

we fenced in our backyard...i'm so excited about it!

Picking tomatoes with Biso

Afternoon treats

I accidentally deleted my original post. Here's the redo.

So Jackson & I have recently been taking weekly trips to Sonic to enjoy a nice afternoon treat. We get either a Strawberry Cream Pie Shake or a Strawberry Cream Slush and a large order of tater tots. It's not the healthiest snack in the world, but gosh darnit it's good! I usually don't get to drink too much of the shake/slush as a little certain someone isn't too fond of sharing just yet. I'm pretty much just guaranteed a few sips here & there. Ah, it's okay, I don't mind. I just enjoy the fun little ritual we have going. So if you're ever looking for us or wondering where we're at, we're probably at Sonic (or Chick-fil-a for breakfast but that's a whole other post)!

Oops...

So I accidentally deleted a post about Jackson & I making a weekly Sonic trip for some treats. If you saw it, great! If not, oh well, I'm too lazy to redo the post right now. Maybe later! Stay tuned...

What happens in the crib...stays in the crib

So I wish I knew what happened the other night after I put Jackson to sleep at 7:30 because when I went up to check on him before I went to sleep at midnight this is what I found:

He had one arm in his shirt but the rest was up above his shoulder. It was a long sleeve shirt and I've never seen him attempt to take off his shirt. So who knows what happened! It's between him, Glo, and Cinko I guess!

Good friends

A couple of weekends ago we went to visit our good friends, Matt & Deborah, and their new baby, Bryce. We try to get together once a month with them but it had been about 2 months since we'd seen them being as they just had a new baby and all. Bryce was a doll! Jerry had some sort of magical spell over him because every time Jerry held him, he would fall asleep! I don't think Matt & Deb wanted Jerry to leave! Anyway, we had a GREAT time with them. We had some refreshing smoothies, snacked on my all time favorite dip (Matt's specialty), had a fantastic spaghetti dinner (really some of the best spaghetti I've ever had), and tried some wine, which we all agreed we did not like. None of us are wine drinkers though so who are we to judge! We topped it off with some lemon cake and called it a night! Can't wait to do it again!!


Here are a few pics I snapped:

Toddler park, shoulder rides, and turtles...oh my!

So that's what those ears are good for!

(sorry jerry, i just had to go there)

A little unsure of the turtle!

Outside outside aqua!

That's what Jackson says when it's time to go outside and play in the water. ;)

That's Jackson's Blanket!

**Okay, this is a spoiler alert b/c I just realized that some people may not have seen tonight's LOST season finale. If you've seen it already, you can continue. If you haven't, you should leave and come back later! ;) **


My fellow LOST fans will know what I'm talking about. I noticed this in another episode but it was so quick I wasn't too sure but in the flash forward tonight where Kate checks on Aaron, that's Jackson's blanket that Aaron is sleeping with. It's the Cocalo Alphabet Soup blanket and we've got that very blanket hanging over our rocking chair. Very cool!

Now about LOST...sheeshola, what an episode! Talk about a range of emotions. I was so sad about Jin and Michael but so happy to see Desmond reunite with Penny. I really liked Frank. I hope to see him again. And what is up with Locke and this Jeremy Bentham thing. Ugh, as usual I have a gazillion questions! I'll be spending this summer catching Jerry up on everything he's missed but gosh darnit it's going to be a LONG summer. I can't wait for the fall!!

Cat Door

So we put in a cat door about 2 weeks ago and moved the cats litter box into the garage. Thank you so much to my friend Bridget for giving me the idea! We've lived here for 6 years and I don't know why we had never thought about it before. It's the best thing we've ever done to our house! (Although I think all the dust in the garage may have contributed to Zoe's attack so we'll need to do some serious cleaning in there). Everyone loves it, especially Jackson. He likes to push it open and yell for his Dada when he knows Jerry is in the garage. Sometimes he'll even go check in on Amber & Zoe to see if all is well. It took both cats about a day to get over their fears

of using the door but they're both pros at it now. Success!!

Zoe

Thursday morning we almost lost our dear, sweet Zoe. It was a pretty stressful start to our day. ZoZo woke us up around 7am howling & moaning. It was so weird, we didn't know what the heck was wrong so we bolted out of bed. She looked distressed but we couldn't figure out what was going on. She kept moaning and then started relieving herself all over our bedroom floor and in the living room. We thought, crap, she hasn't been using the litter box! We bought a cat door and moved the litter box into the garage almost 2 weeks ago so we thought maybe she hadn't been using the litter box as we thought she had. So Jerry took her into the garage and encouraged her to go into the litter box.

At this point, Jackson was screaming bloody murder. All the chaos woke him up and scared him half to death. I went upstairs to get him and bring him down for breakfast. A few minutes later Jerry went into the garage to check on Zoe. I was busy in the kitchen getting Jackson's breakfast ready. Jerry then runs into the house and says he needs to call the vet because Zoe doesn't look good. I said, what!?! I ran into the garage and saw what I still can't get out of my head. Zoe was under my car completely lethargic. She was lying on her side, barely able to move, frothing at the mouth with her tongue hanging out. She looked horrible. I freaked out and immediately started bawling...and I mean BAWLING! Which of course scared the daylights out of Jackson so he started crying. Amber was freaking out as well. She kept hissing and scowling. I tried to comfort Zoe but she couldn't even move or respond to anything. At that point, I realized also that her breathing was extremely labored. Jerry then runs back in and says that the vet's office said to bring her in right away. Usually getting Zoe into the cat carrier is a HUGE ordeal but since she was in such distress Jerry was able to just slide her in. He told me to say my goodbyes to her because things did not look good. Oh god, that killed me. I called her name and all she could manage to give me was an eye blink. I told her that I loved her and that I was sorry for what we did to her. I was convinced that she was all torn up inside from having held her bowels for almost 2 weeks. She's a real scaredy cat so we assumed that maybe she had been too scared to use the litter box in an unfamiliar place. Oh man, I felt so incredibly guilty.

So Jerry left for the vet's office and I was a complete mess. I couldn't stop crying as I was trying to come to terms with the fact that my ZoZo cat was probably not going to come home. What a horrible way to start the morning. Jackson, Amber, & I managed to all calm ourselves down though and we were able to get through breakfast. Around 8 Jerry called to let me know that the vet tech took Zoe back, gave her oxygen, and started her on an IV. The vet had just showed up and was going to go assess Zoe and take some x-rays. About half an hour later, Jerry called back and said that Zoe's x-rays looked good. Her bowels were fine. Turns out she ended up having an acute asthma attack but was doing much better and she would probably be sent home later. I thought, seriously!?!? I couldn't believe it. I really wasn't expecting Zoe to make it. Apparently, neither did the vet staff. Everyone was surprised that she pulled through. My ZoZo, she's a fighter!

The back story is that Zoe was diagnosed with asthma about 2 years ago. Only 1% of cats have asthma and lucky us, we have a cat who is in that 1%! It's most common in Siamese cats and Zoe is 3/4 Siamese. Poor ZoZo, it was inevitable I guess. She's been on meds and has never had a severe asthma attack so this took us totally by surprise. We now have to make a monthly trip to the vet so that Zoe can get a steroid shot which should help control her asthma.

Thank goodness things turned out well. I was not and am not ready to lose my Zoe cat. I was so torn up that morning and couldn't bear the thought of losing her. She's been such a great cat to me. I'm glad we still have her in our lives and I hope we get many more years with her. We love our ZoZo dearly! Here's to Zoe!

Mother's Day

So last Sunday was Mother's Day and I'm just now getting around to posting about it. Jackson & I were sick so we didn't do much. We went to pick up some breakfast tacos from Dan's in the morning, spent most of the day at home, and then headed out to Chipotle for dinner. It was nice! I loved spending my day with my two favorite people in the entire world!

Not wanting to pose in either picture!

The Outdoorsman

Music Festival

A few weekends ago our neighborhood had their annual music festival. It was during nap time but we decided to push nap time back a bit in order to get to see Jackson's favorite group, The Biscuit Brothers!!! We headed over to the petting zoo first, which was so cute. They were so many precious baby animals...ducks, chicks, goats, a pig...just so, so cute! Jackson was overwhelmed. He didn't know what to do! :) We then headed over to where The Biscuit Brothers were going to play so we could stake out a spot. Jackson was so tired but he soldiered through and enjoyed a great show!

Sick!

Ugh, it's been a miserable week. Jackson & I have been sick and it seems as if there is no end in sight. We both have had a pretty bad head cold and he's come down with an ear infection. This is actually the worst cold I've had in 2 years. It's been no fun to say the least.

Here's crusty-nosed, crazy-haired Jackson fresh from his nap! ;)

Toddler park, a new hat, & corn on the cob!

I've been meaning to share these pictures but we've been busy and now we're sick...blah!

TODDLER PARK
Anyway, a few weeks ago Jackson & I went to the toddler park with our friends, Wendy & Daniel. Jackson loves Daniel. He likes to give him hugs and sit on him. Daniel doesn't like it so much. You'll see below. Anyway, the boys had a great time and Wendy & I have found our new favorite spot to wear the kids out!

So serious!

Jackson sitting on Daniel. Too funny!

Daniel was so tired. Proof that the toddler park was a hit!

NEW HAT
Here's Jackson sporting his new hat that his Mina and James bought him.

CORN ON THE COB

We had some burgers and corn on the cob one evening and Jackson begged to eat corn on the cob on his own. He went crazy! It was a hoot!

El Gordo y La Flaca

Bet you didn't know this was Jackson's favorite show. Somehow he managed to grab the remote, change the channel to the Spanish station, press the record button, and press the yes button to actually record the show. 3 minutes of the show were recorded before I realized what had happened! By the way, I don't even know what this show is about! Silly little guy!

Cracker Thief

There was a cracker thief on the loose recently. The little thief managed to find an open box of crackers in the pantry, pull them out, and start eating them before his mommy and daddy realized they had thief amongst them!

I don't have anything to hide!

Okay, well maybe I took just ONE cracker!

You got me! So I took the whole package of crackers but you'll never catch me!

The cracker thief leaves a trail....

Choo Choo Soul

Jackson has gotten really big into trains. He even has his own sign for train that is so cute. We'll have to try to catch it on video. He loves playing with choo choos, loves looking at them in books, and absolutely LOVES watching them in person. Luckily we live near railroad tracks so he's able to see a train go by at least once a week. He also loves Choo Choo Soul from the Disney Channel, especially the Blue Zoo Train video. He really likes watching the animals board the train and growls when he sees the lion. I think we had to watch it at least 5 times today. Thank goodness for YouTube!

Wildflower Center

Last week, Jackson & I went with some friends to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We were hoping to find fields & fields of bluebonnets to take pictures in. What a HUGE disappointment when after walking around & around for what seemed like forever we only found a teeny, tiny patch of bluebonnets. Not only that, it was way too sunny and I had a very uninterested toddler so I couldn't get very good pictures at all! This was as good as it got! Enjoy!