Moments - A Jackson Family

In July our neighbors found the biggest caterpillar we’ve ever seen. They put it in a jar and we spent the next 48 hours watching it spin it cocoon. It was a fascinating process. We discovered after a few days of neighborhood excitement that this particular moth spends the entire winter in its cocoon, so we won’t be able to see the giant moth until next spring.

Emily wanted Andrew to pick up a certain kind of cereal from the store. I dialed his number and handed the phone to Emily. She was incredibly grown up sounding while she talked him through confirming we were out of what she wanted, where it was located in the store, and which kind she wanted.

Emily, “Take a picture of us!”

Nathan looks so much older wearing shoes.

The day before going on our trip to Iowa in August, Nathan was incredibly snuggly.

Nathan gets a streak of energy right before going to bed. He wiggles and shrieks with the best of them, especially when we brush his teeth. Today he had a little temper tantrum and fought hard to keep his toothbrush.

A picture from July when Nathan was just starting to figure out how to stand up. The bathtub is still one of his favorite places to play, and we’ve caught him a number of times from diving in.

Emily has little glitter flower stickers that she poked the center out of. While we were reading bedtime stories she carefully put the sticky centers on her toenails.

I’m always surprised what they find to play with together. This fly swatter has been Emily’s broom forever, and she and Nathan were playing nicely with it and laughing.

Nathan has entered the phase of preferring to crawl around at church instead of sit in our arms. He still has to sit, but when crawling was new I let him down for a picture.

Anytime Emily or I go out to our little backyard, Nathan crawls over to the door to play. He loves smashing his face against the window.

Climbing up the stairs has begun in earnest. A few days ago Nathan fell when Andrew and I were in the kitchen. Emily was with him and she said he was halfway up the stairs. Emily kindly snapped a few pictures for an aerial view of Nathan’s new skills.

I realized a few months ago after playing my mom’s violin for a few minutes that my violin is very, very quiet. My entire life all of my teachers kept telling me to play louder, and it turns out my violin was the culprt. Emily came with me to the local violin shop to have the sound posts adjusted and a new type of strings put on. It sounds like a completely different instrument!!! The shop owner handed Emily a tiny violin (1/32) to try out for a moment while we were waiting.

We decided it was time to switch from the pots and pans I got for college to the set we received for our wedding. Emily and Nathan turned our old set into a drum kit and used the packing materials of the new set for numerous games.

Nathan loves loves loves reading books by himself. He turns the pages and drums on each one. He doesn’t let us read him books yet, despite my best efforts.

Emily was sick for the second time in her little life. From noon to five she took three naps and if she wasn’t sleeping she was lying zoned on the couch. Nathan played by her all afternoon. She recovered with a good nights sleep, and we had a very peaceful afternoon.

All four of us hanging out downstairs during a tornado warning. We woke the kids up and brought them to our shelter area (the bathroom). They were both groggy and didn’t like being woken up, but then switched to being incredibly chipper. We had a great time playing for 45 minutes together and then everyone went right back to sleep without any complaints.

We are working really hard on discovering how Emily and Nathan can play together (as opposed to laying on him). Emily reading to him worked for a whole afternoon!

This has been the summer of swinging and underdogs. Emily and her friends couldn’t get enough and it was the most requested activity. One of the other neighborhood moms started the game of choosing what kind of underdog it is (pig, dinosaur, pony, etc.) and what sound it makes. Whoever runs under the swing makes the noise. Emily has started to figure out the mechanics of pumping too.

A neighborhood mom made a felt crown for all of the walking kids in the neighborhood and had a little party outside to unveil them. They were quickly strapped to helmets so the bike riding could continue. A frog was discovered and all activity stopped so everyone could see and hold it.

Biking is a favorite activity these days. Emily and her friends have become really fast and have fairly good endurance to go on long rides. Emily has also figured out how to put her feet up on the little platform and likes us to count how many squares she can go (I think 13 is the current record).

We cleaned out our spring/summer garden and planted our fall garden two weeks ago. We thought the carrot harvest would be pretty good based on the tops, but were really surprised to see how tiny the little orange guys were.