21-month-old Jackson

Where is the time going? Dan is quickly approaching his 2nd year anniversary as an employee at Boeing and I'm about to turn 31. Life is moving fast! Speaking of fast...

Today we woke up and had a 21-month-old yelling to us from his crib "Good nap! Good nap! Cockadoodle-doo! Cocka-doo!" It seems like just yesterday that he was a tiny newborn snuggled between us in bed because we were too enamored by him to put him in his pack 'n play located just inches away.

21 months. Wow. That means Jackson's already three quarters of the way toward his 2nd birthday - which translates into 2nd birthday party - which means I'm starting to browse on Pinterest for party ideas - and that means that things are about to get crazily crafty here at the Blankenship House!

Life with 21-month-old Jackson is just plain fun. Dan and I laugh constantly at the funny little character that is always busily running around our house and simultaneously melting our hearts as we fall more and more in love with being his parents. I'll try to give you some snapshot views of what Jackson is like these days...Jackson's favorite things...
Favorite color: No crayon seems esteemed over the others. He's color neutral as far as I can tell.
Favorite number: definitely the number 6
Favorite letter: W
Favorite activities: playing basketball and golf, coloring/drawing, throwing rocks at the beach, spotting airplanes and helicopters in the sky, splashing in water/puddles, seeing the ferry boat dock, eating, looking at photos of particular friends on Facebook, and reading books
Favorite food: chocolate chip cookiesFavorite place to go: the post office (I'm not sure what is so fun about it.)
Favorite bedtime stories: currently we read Snuggle Puppy and The Going to Bed Book each night and before each nap (Except when Jackson "reads it himself" but I'll get to that in a minute.)
Favorite golfer: other than his daddy, it's John Huh (because it's so much fun to say his name)
Favorite thing to watch on TV/DVD: he still will only actually watch his 80's kid's worship songs DVD but he does look forward to seeing Ellen dance each afternoon at 4 o'clock
Favorite song: it's sort of dependent on the day but lately he's favored Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday (because it usually involves eating cupcakes), and a couple of randoms from his 80's praise DVD like "Rock My Soul" and "God Said It, I Believe It"...it's HILARIOUS to hear him sing any of these!
Favorite clothing: He's pretty much against wearing pants these days but I force him into them anyway. His favorite shirts are his Elmo and Buzz Lightyear shirts.

Some common phrases:
"Booyah!" or "Pi-yow!" when he's sinking baskets in the hoop.
"Da-da lay down!" is what he demands of Dan so that he can stand on his stomach and shoot baskets from his perch.
"Squeaky floor" is the excuse Dan taught Jackson to use when he lets out a toot.
"The human head weighs 8 pounds." Dan taught Jackson that line from Jerry Maguire.
"Hold you" which of course is supposed to be "Hold me" but it's so cute when he says it wrong.

He LOVES bath time and would spend hours splashing away in the tub if we'd let him.
With Jackson constantly learning new words and stringing them together in sentences more and more, conversations with him are becoming more fun and funny. Here's an example of a talk we had recently...
Jackson (singing): "Happy birthday to you..."
Me: "It's going to be my birthday soon and you can sing that to mommy."
Jackson: "Cupcakes!?"
Me: "Yea, maybe we can have some cupcakes for my birthday."
Jackson (shouting very excitedly): "So fun! Good idea! Happy birthday to you!"
Seriously, he cracks me up.Now, the past couple of days Jackson has been seeking his independence at nap time and bed time. Usually our routine has been to "snuggle" in his rocking chair while reading a story or two before bed. Now Jackson says he wants to "snuggle self" and he's reading his own story while he sits in his chair all by himself. Tonight Dan and I were listening from the other room as he sang and "read" through his Snuggle Puppy book alone in his bedroom. Thankfully, his independence is limited and he still seeks a few minutes of snuggles and hugs before succumbing to sleep. Oh man, I'm going to miss these snuggles when he's outgrown them altogether!
Jackson still likes to sleep with his Goodnight Moon book. Well, most of it anyway. It fell apart awhile back and has since been replaced with a brand new copy (thanks to Grandma Jean) but he likes to sleep with half of the well-loved copy.And he's still sleeping with his little buns up in the air!Here is some more photo fun:

home movies

The Grandmas always want to see Jackson videos so here are a couple new ones.

It was dark, but this was too cute to not capture on film...


And this morning Jackson was a wild, pants-less golfing machine!

We especially enjoy how he strikes his "golfer pose" AFTER he swings. It's a little backwards, but so cute!

Valentine madness

I don't know what got into me but I went a little crazy this year for Valentine's Day. In fact I believe that Dan's exact words were something like, "You went a little crazy...but crazy in a good way."

I've been spending the last few days doing Valentine crafts and photos with Jackson and I got so excited about finally revealing them to Dan that I barely was able to sleep last night.

Here are some photos from our fun day:This is the stash of Valentine goodies that Dan woke up to in the morning:This art project below was a Pinterest idea I stole from our friend Becky. It was especially tricky to get Jackson to comply with forming his 2 hands in the shape of a heart but he was pleased that it took 3 tries to get this close since it meant a lot of trips to the sink to wash his hands (an activity he really, really enjoys these days).And a special Panera cinnamon crunch bagel breakfast was waiting for him......and so was a special lunch:This is the photo I sent in an email to Dan letting him know he had a card hidden in his work bag:While Dan was at work, Jackson and I played. We had a play date with friends Stephanie and Gabriel. Jackson and Gabe had fun "hiding" and finding one another in the living room curtains.Jackson opened his Valentine packages from Grandma and Aunt Julie in Florida:Here's some video:
This one is for you, Grandma! (Grandma Jean)


A candlelit dinner isn't really feasible on a Tuesday night since Dan has little time between coming home from work and leaving for Proxy, our church's junior high ministry where he's a leader. That being the case, I opted for a Valentine's Day gift to myself of not cooking at all. Jackson and I took a trip to Papa Murphy's to pick up a Heartbaker, a heart-shaped take 'n bake pizza. We also picked up some old fashioned glass bottles of coke and I put those in an ice bucket in lieu of champagne. Add some red plates and some homemade "photo-booth" decor and you've got yourself a Valentine's Day feast!
Of course Dan came home with a dozen gorgeous, antique white roses, some of my favorite dark chocolates, and an amazing card because he's my Mr. Wonderful!HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

mini valentine date

The first thought that "Valentine date" should conjure is that of Dan and me (I would hope) but today's date was with the little man of the house. I decided that Jackson needed a special outing after an entire week of having to play indoors by himself or being passed around to friends and family last week while I was ridiculously sick. Sooo......I made an executive decision to take my little dude out for a pre-Valentine's Day mommy-son date.

Jackson and I have been working on a couple of low-key, top-secret projects lately for the upcoming V-day next week and we had some mail that was outgoing. While I don't understand the attraction, I do know that my boy loves -- and yes, I mean LOVES -- going to the post office! That being the case, I decided to forego the mailbox located just outside my front door and make a special trip to the post office. You should've heard the squeal of delight and seen the sparkle in his eyes when I announced our destination to Jackson!

A flurry of shoes, socks, pants, and jackets (not necessarily in that order) later, we had begun the long walk to the post office. The rain clouds were taking a break from sprinkling their liquid magic on the world below (which was good because I didn't bring an umbrella) and we were taking note of every previously deposited puddle along the way as we walked. I tried to keep the splashing to a minimum since neither one of us had on our rain boots.

I downright forbid picking up rocks on today's walk because the last time we were on a walk together Jackson picked up a rock so he could "throwed it!"...the "rock" turned out to be dog poo. Speaking of dogs, we saw lots of them and Jackson greeted each one of them with a "woof woof" because he speaks fluent dog.

Approximately 58 puddles and 7 dogs later, we arrived at the post office where Jackson hand-delivered the top-secret cargo and helped me put George Washington stamps on each envelope. (Be sure to quiz him later about George as he's hoping to impress a few people with his newly acquired presidential history knowledge.)You can't have a date without some type of food or drink and Jackson is a little young to start on coffee so I took him to the Edmonds Bakery on our way home where he got to pick out his favorite cookies (which just happen to also be MY favorite cookies!)...chocolate chip. The lady who sold us the cookies threw in an extra cookie for free because of how excited Jackson was. She also gave him a free sample of a blueberry doughnut. The sample was about the size of a silver dollar but Jackson savored every crumb and made it last nearly the whole walk home. All of that savoring put a cramp in his puddle-jumping and doggy-greeting but he still had a good time.

Once we got home, it was officially cookies and milk time and our mommy-son date drew to a crumb-dropping, chocolate-covered close.I can't wait for our next date!

Family Vacation

Mom & Dad Blankenship started a new Christmas tradition last year of gifting the family with a weekend getaway in the mountains. We enjoyed last year so much that we returned to the same area again this year, a destination favored by Blankenships and herds of elk alike...Packwood.

Fourteen adults, five kids, and one dog plus two snow-covered cabins and a nearby ski slope equal one, BIG, happy Blankenship family!The timing of this year's getaway was perfect since I was still recovering from a pretty terrible kidney infection and wasn't too mobile. Thankfully, Mom Blankenship and my sisters-in-law were a big help and Jackson was easily entertained by his cousins as I observed the weekend events from the couch.

Here are some photos from our wonderful weekend...