What's New With Us!

On Sunday, we headed out to the 4th birthday celebration for TriangleMommies, my local mom's group. There was a huge turnout, and we saw many friends there. Jackson wasn't terribly interested in very many of the events going on, like face painting, dancing to the DJ, or playing on the inflatable slide. He was, however, interested in running through the park like a wild man, and eating some cake! We sat down to the table with some cake, and Jackson, without hesitation (for the third time in the past month), pulled the "snake eating a whole egg" routine, and stuffed the entire slice in his mouth! This kid knows what he likes. I was laughing so hard that I only grabbed the camera in time to capture the tail end of him choking the cake down. The cake's maker was the same person who made his fabulous 1st birthday cake, and will be making my baby shower cake in a couple of weeks (and hopefully Jackson's 2nd birthday cake, but I haven't hit her up for that yet :)). Her cakes definitely get the Jackson Seal of Approval! Here he is with his daddy, enjoying the cake!



Jackson's really been making progress with his speech. Today, he added a sign-"more" (food is a great motivator). He is also consistently signing for "milk". His word list includes "mama", "dada", "banana", "cake", "hello" (he loves to "talk" into a phone), "milk", "nite nite", "all done" (those last two were first done at Grandma's house at Easter). He's also imitated "kitty" and just today, "magnet". He also said "hey" to a friend's mom at a playgroup yesterday! Last but not least, he does a mean car noise. :) Many of these have only been said once or a couple of times, but they count! He's in love with his Baby Signing Time DVDs (thanks, Suzanne!), and Eric and I even really like them! The songs are so catchy- I know, hard to believe, but true!

Eric's been painting the nursery, and it looks Fabulous with a capital F! We chose two paint colors- Benjamin Moore's Pink Cadillac and Sweet 16 Pink. The only thing that's left at this point is the scalloped edge between the two pinks, and possibly adding an apple green accent ribbon to the scallops. I say "the only thing that's left" but this is definitely the hardest part! Here's a picture below of the progress! As for Jackson's room, his "big boy" furniture was ordered last week, and is on its way! We're still on the hunt for transportation bedding.



We are stuck between two middle names (we think!). We're 99.9999% sure her first name will be Ella. The full name choices are Ella Violet (Eric's choice), and my choice is Ella Katherine (calling her Ella Kate). We both like both names, but just can't decide. I told Eric today that I'm giving him carte blanche to choose the middle name. In fact, I think he came up with Ella, so she may just be a 100% named-by-Eric baby!

I got an update email today from my Aunt Ronnie on my cousin Peter's wife Clau, and the twins they are expecting. She's now at week 34, and she and the twins are doing very well. They're estimated to weigh 4.5 lbs and 5.5 lbs, respectively. Her due date was June 2nd, but the boys are expected to arrive at the end of April or beginning of May- so very soon now. Clau is being very closely monitored, and the twin to twin transfusion syndrome they were experiencing is not posing a real issue right now. We can't wait to welcome their baby boys to the family! In fact, there are lots of babies coming to the family in the next few months, in addition to Ella. Eric's cousin Jonathan and his wife Heather are expecting a baby boy at the very beginning of June, and Eric's brother Scott and his new fiancee Kelle (we just learned they're getting married in June) are expecting a baby in October! Jackson will have lots of company at family get-togethers.

Off to wake Jackson from his nap. It's super late (I guess walking and running all the way to the playground and back today realllly wore him out), and I don't want him thinking he's staying up late to play in the Bunco game I'm hosting tonight! :)