Communication oh plenty...

Jackson is so close to making words.  We have even had some babble lately.  The other night we had taco’s for dinner, the boy ate two. After dinner he was babbling up a storm, I guess he needs some seasoned beef to wake up his vocal cords. 

Here are some of his sounds with the words he means:

Ø  Doo-doo-bah = Jackson, that is how he says his full name (accompanied by tapping his hand on his chest)
Ø  Dack = Jack, when you ask him what is his name he sometimes says the above or shortens it.  He also taps on his chest.
Ø  Duck = Duck
Ø  Dat = Hat (accompanied by the sign for hat)
Ø  Ba = Ball (accompanied by the sign for ball) or Balloon
Ø  Bu = Blue (accompanied by the sign for red, we are working on the right sign)
Ø  Pa-pa = Purple
Ø  Pah = Please (accompanied by the sign for please)
Ø  Ra = Red (accompanied by the sign for red). Sometimes he can say red clear as day
Ø  Raba = Red ball
Ø  Bubbas = Bubbles (accompanied by the sign for bubbles)
Ø  Bababas = Banana (he also taps out the syllables)
Ø  Bob = Bob the neighbors name. 
Ø  Ty Ty = Short for Tyler our 12 year old Chihuahua
Ø  Moo = Short for Mookie our 13 year old Border Collie mix
Ø  Doug = Dog (accompanied by the sign for dog)
Ø  Dah  (Sound made at a high pitch level) = Drink (accompanied by the sign for drink) also used for that and yes.
Ø  Dada = Nana (accompanied by the sign we made up for Nana, which is the sign for hat)
Ø  BaBa = Mama (accompanied by the sign for Mom)
Ø  I-pa = iPad
Ø  Oh-pa = Open (accompanied by the sign for open)
Ø  Ah-pa = Grandpa (Sara’s dad, sometimes accompanied by the sign for grandpa)
Ø  Weebles = Weebles, his toy Weebles tree house.  He has said this a few times for me.
Ø  Ah-da = All Done! (accompanied by the sign for all done) He has clearly said all done a few times.
Ø  Eh or Keh = Means just about anything, but uses mostly to get our attention, sometimes accompanied with the sign for what he wants, mostly accompanied by him sticking his fingers down his throat.

Jackson’s sign language has improved so much, but he still has some trouble.  He does obsess over some items which he is completely accurate on like cracker, cookie, drink, swing, and vacuum.  He will follow those with the sign for more or please. Jackson can sign a few colors; red and orange are right on the money, but he knows blue, green, purple, and yellow.  Jackson is really excited to do his colors with you and he will point out colors on objects without prompting.  I can ask him what is Nana’s favorite color and he will gladly sign orange with a huge smile on this face.  He will tell you his favorite color is blue and he points to something green for Mama’s favorite color.  

Jackson also loves to sing with his sign language.  His favorite two songs are “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “The Wheels on the Bus”.  Sometimes Jackson gets frustrated when we can’t figure out what he is saying or signing, but he has gotten much better at guiding us to what he wants.  Then there is the pantry which he will stand at, point too, sign and say open, guide you to, and bang his head on…now he is going for the knob.  He knows we know what he wants, but there are still rules and we aren’t going to let him eat the day way.  Seriously it is amazing this kid hasn’t turned into a cheez-it.   Jackson is close to figuring out how to open doors…  Man…are we are in for a real treat when he does, or is it he will be in for a real treat?!? You choose.. HA! 

The darndest things…

I love watching Bill Cosby’s “Kids say the darndest things”. Jackson might not say the darndest things, but he definitely “does” the darndest things. Those things lead you to wonder where on earth did he learn how to do that?  My favorites are the ones that amuse Jackson the most giving him the contagious belly roll laugh.  The newest of these magical darndest things I have no idea why or where he got it from. If Jackson finds a tissue (used or clean), drier sheet, or cloth of some sort he will lift my shirt to pretend wash my belly.  Sometimes he scrubs it really hard and it leaves scratch marks.  I try to get him to wash Sara’s belly and he will for a short period of time, but he is more interested in washing my belly.  He has made it into his own little game and I am not sure where on earth he learned that.

The other day Jackson was over at his grandma SInky’s and grandfather Patrick’s.  Jackson’s favorite game to play at their house is playing ball on the stairs.  He loves to drop the ball between the wall and the banister so you can retrieve it and toss it back up to him.  Recently grandma and grandpa had their basement refinished and Jackson loves to run around silly like in the big space.  As we were watching him he was pushing his ball around while running he decided to roll over the top of it.  He didn’t do a full summersault or anything, but his head kind of skid across the carpet a ways…about a foot.  I thought he would stand up crying, hurt, or having carpet burn on his forehead, but he didn’t.  He thought it was fun and laughed as he continued to do this new trick.  We laughed along after we saw that he was OK.

Jackson is learning more signs thanks to his therapists and our hard work.  He has these baby sign language flash cards that he absolutely loves (I love Amazon: Baby Flash Cards).  The flash cards have a picture with the word on one side and the sign with the word on the other.  They are very colorful and grab his attention. Besides dumping the cards out of the box or making it rain with the cards Jackson has 5 favorite cards: Duck, Bubbles, Bath, Dog, and Hat. He will dump the cards out and look through all the cards to find those particular cards. When he finds them he gets really excited. He can say or make sounds for some of the words like duck and bubbles (bubbas) or he will do the sign for the card. Sometimes he will do the sign and say the word at the same time. The sign for hat is like putting your hat on top of your head. Since I wear hats all the time this is the same sign they are using for him to say my name, Nana.  We pronounce it like Nah-Nah not pronounced like the nickname for someone’s grandma. Lately I have noticed that he is also reading the words besides jut looking at the picture.  The duck card was upside down and he pulled it from the deck saying duck. My kid can read! When I got home from work yesterday Jackson started feverishly doing the sign Nana.  He was really excited to see me, although it took me a minute to realize that he was saying my name and not saying hat.

   

Besides his sign langue flash cards, he is using signs more often.  He is also pairing signs together mostly with please, which is good because being polite is important.  Last night he signed, “Cracker please”.  It made me chuckle because one of our favorite comedians, Mike Birbiglia, who does a skit on Cracker/Cracka Please. Although Jackson means the food; Cheez-It’s to be exact. Sometimes I don’t know what sign he is trying which has to be super frustrating for him at times.  I always feel bad and sometimes have to call Sara in to interpret.  He was making this sign I wasn’t familiar with, eventually I figured out that he wanted to play with my cell phone.  Seriously though, is there a baby class they take in the womb on how to use a cell phone?  I saw this with my nephews when they were toddlers, hand them the phone and they are calling people, texting, taking photos, changing your ringtones, setting calendar appointments, downloading games, turning it into a ninja weapon….  It is truly amazing what toddlers can do on those cellular devices, mostly better than most adults.

When we got the Christmas tree out this year Jackson walked up to it and started helping separate the branches and he pointed to the lights. Well maybe he was just feeling the branches, but it looked like he was separating them to me.  Pointing to lights might not be a big deal in most people’s minds, but for Jackson pointing was not an easy task to learn and at times he still struggles with pointing to things that he wants.  I was very excited that he pointed to the lights. The tree skirt has bells on the end, he really enjoyed shaking them. I say he was practicing for his performance.  We tried to put a few ornaments on the tree, got our fancy camera out to capture the moment, but Jackson enjoyed the noisy boxes in which the ornaments live in.  With some hand over hand assistance we put two ornaments on the tree and found that they came off more quickly than they were put on.  So we placed the two up high where he cannot reach and that is as far as we have gotten so far this year.  We might try again when is not around and see if he notices, otherwise we will have a top half decorated tree this year, which I am totally fine with.

       

This post could go on about all the darndest things that Jackson does….I think I will make it a monthly special and document them as my son does the darndest things.  I will end this post with the vamped up game of Peek-A-BOO!  I don’t know if this is a Fragile X thing or not, but Jackson loves to be startled.  He will close himself behind a door and open it expecting you to say Boo!  He will push you behind something, run away, and come back expecting you to say jump out and say Boo! He absolutely loves it when you startle him to the point where he jumps or falls down, like Sara’s does when she sees a spider.  He will even close himself up in a dark room and open the door waiting for you to jump out and get him.  I have never in my life met a toddler who loves to be startled or scared, but Jackson will hysterically laugh while playing this game.  I think he is receiving some sort of sensory input out it or he is becoming an adrenaline junkie. 

Japanese Festival with Fragile X (times two)

Over the Labor Day weekend the Japanese Festival was in town at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Sara and I haven’t been since she was pregnant and we had a lot of fun, even though it was extremely hot then. We also got to attend a tea ceremony, which we waited in the heat for a few hours to enjoy. It was a great experience to say the least. This year we have membership passes to the Botanical gardens, so it makes it cheaper for us to go to special events like this. The weather cooled off and we selected Sunday as the perfect day to go. I could tell Sara was wanting the amazing experience we had a few years ago and she was hoping to get some really great pictures…a perfect opportunity to play with our new digital SLR camera. Jackson fell asleep as we got closer to the gardens and I knew it was going to be very crowded by seeing all the full parking lots. I went straight to the main lot because earlier I had requested a close spot from the Universe and so I knew we would get one. Thank you Universe we got a really great parking spot.

It didn’t take very long to get our tickets surprisingly the lines were short, but getting into the garden I could see was going to be extremely difficult. There were so many people in the main entrance and we all know how considerate people are when you have a stroller you are trying to maneuver around. It is really difficult for me not to punch someone as they rudely pass by and while doing so they give you a look. When we got inside Sara had to use the restroom, so Jackson and I parked the stroller over in a corner. It was very loud in the building and the line for the restroom looked long. I found some goldfish to attempt to entertain Jackson as we waited for Sara to finish. I could tell he was having a hard time; it definitely had to be sensory overload for him. Eventually he started thrusting forward then slamming himself into his stroller. Sara had left her purse with cell phone in my possession, so I couldn’t just take Jackson out of there I just kept giving him goldfish and tried to get him to laugh or smile. Sara finally emerged from the restroom and once we got outside and that nice cool breeze hit Jackson in the face, he was just fine. There were tents of stuff all over the place with tons of people walking around.

We agreed that taking Jackson to an open area to run around for a little bit might help his overstimulation. We found some open space, took him out of the stroller, and got the camera ready just in case there might be opportunities for some shots. Jackson was completely focused on the stroller, for whatever reason all he wanted to push it around and do nothing else. Sara was focused on getting the perfect picture, so she too was getting overly anxious. After a little while we agreed to walk further, maybe if Jackson walked and pushed the stroller he would be ready for pictures, it was obvious that now was not the time.

There are all kinds of tents and demonstrations going on throughout the park. Around each tent are herds of people. I could sense Sara’s frustrations level rise as we pass them because Jackson is on a mission to push the stroller around and Sara is on a mission to see everything. We walked right past the guy that spins things, saw a poster for a pottery demonstration that was going to happen in 15 minutes, but we couldn't stop at them we had to keep trucking on. Then we stumbled upon a path that looked less traveled. There were no festival signs pointing down this path, so we thought we could go that way for a little while to get a break away from the crowds. Jackson was now following behind me as I pushed the stroller, every now and then I would turn back and say, “Boo!” to which he would stop and laugh hysterically. When he wasn’t laughing and he was following me doing his Fragile X sound, “Ennneewwwww”. It was very loud and very constant, which isn’t normal for Jackson to do. We only hear the Fragile X sound when he is really excited, so I thought it was great to hear him using his vocalizations. You could feel the other people staring as they passed us by and at this point and time I could care less to be honest.

The path was fairly big and very green and floral, it was a beautiful setting. There was also a neat little hut thing with two chairs and a little table. I could see myself sitting there in the morning drinking a cup of coffee as the sun rises. Sara suggests giving Jackson some food, perhaps one of his Go-Go-Squeezes. Maybe he can sit in the chair as I give him a few bites and then she can quickly snap the picture. We can each take turns to try to get in with him. Jackson somewhat went for it, but that didn’t last long. He sat up in the chair all cute, took a few sitive reinforcer.

Along this path is a small garden off to the side named the butterfly garden. Sara really wants to get a picture of her in this area because the flowers are so beautiful. So we push Jackson next to me, while I give him some pretzels and snap some pictures of Sara. We also got some great pictures of a monarch butterfly who happened to be near by, I mean were in her garden. Jackson again started to thrust himself in the stroller; it is time to move on again.


We decided to walk towards the Japanese garden, our favorite place. Along the way were some Coy fish wind socks. Sara wanted to get some pictures of that, so I told her to go ahead and Jackson and I will keep walking. Jackson seems completely fine in the stroller as long as we are walking. Uh-oh there’s a fork in the path way, to the right Japanese garden and to the left…who knows. So we go up the path a little ways, and then come back to the fork. Sara isn’t too far behind so we can do this for a little while. There was a great breeze blowing, it was keeping Jackson calm. Sara is walking towards us and then he starts thrusting back and forth again. We take him out of the stroller and he is following behind me as we walk. Sara stops a few times along the way to take some pictures and we make our way back towards the entrance.

Sara has to make a pit stop at the restroom. Jackson and I walk over to this fountain while she is gone. I am finally able to distract Jackson from the stroller with the water fountain. Sara walks up and we are able to a bunch of shots of him having a blast in the water. I am still noticing people walking by and staring at us. Makes me wonder if they are staring because I look like a boy, or if they think we are bad parents for letting our son splash in the water, or is it because he is making unfamiliar noises to them. I don’t even know why I am giving other peoples ignorance a second thought here, but seriously if you want I will glad you give you a picture of my family so you can stare at it all day long. If you are really that curious, lend me your ear so I can educate you on my family and how much love we have for one another, while I am at it….I can also expand your mind and teach you about a syndrome that so many people have never heard of. Opps….sorry…tangent, but believe me I look at myself in the mirror when I am thinking all these things, trying to remember if I have ever been a person that stared at others. I am sure there has been a time or two, but I do know that my mom taught me not to judge and in my religious days the Bible taught me the only one true judge is God himself. Even though I am not walking the Christian walk theses day, I still hold that teaching true to myself, so I guess I am at fault for expecting or hoping others hold that belief too. Anyway, after several pictures at the fountain we are able to get Jackson back in the stroller and head towards the crowded tent area.

I know this is important for Sara, so I tell her I will keep Jackson off to the side so she can look through all the tents. I knew she was really excited to see the tent with all the wall hangings. She isn’t gone too long and I can see some disappointment in her face. There is one wall hanging I can see from where we are at that gave me a huge chuckle, it is a picture of Buddha and below it is a scripture from the Bible. I am guessing this is the cause of the disappointment, and I am right. HA! We got a good laugh out of it as we headed towards the food area. I pulled Jackson over off to the side because the tent with tables was so overly crowded and I knew it would be bad for us to go in there. We agreed to use the tag team method on getting food. Sara went and found something, came back to us. While she was gone I was feeding Jackson a peanut butter and strawberry uncrustable. He was half way through it when he started to put his fingers down this throat. I guess too many snacks before sandwich = belly ache. I diverted his hands quickly, but in the process got chewed up PB&J all over my hands as well as Jackson’s. Sara had walked up around that time and luckily had extra napkins. We quickly get cleaned up and Sara hands me the money and tells me to go on and get my food. Then Sara is freaked out about sitting the grass, wondering if it is wet or if bugs will crawl on her. I am worried that as soon as I walk away things will become disastrous and Jackson will stick his fingers down his throat more and throw up, so I chose to walk Jackson around the area in his stroller. He was getting super fussy and by this time my patients is maxed out. Sara was still eating and I asked her she could bring it to the car so we could load up and go. She agreed that was a great idea and to the car we headed.

We took Jackson’s wet clothes off and got him in the car. Sara sat back there with him as I drove us home. Once we were in the car, he was completely fine the entire way home. Sara was finishing up her dinner when her fork snapped in half, I think some food got flung around in the back seat and all I could do was laugh hysterically. I couldn’t help it, I had to laugh. When we got home I needed some time to myself. I went to the refrigerator and had one of those moments where nothing we had was good enough and I didn’t feel like making anything either. I hopped back into the car and got something to eat. I almost had a melt down at the drive thru moron who repeated everything back to me wrong. My dad always complained about this issue and claimed it to be the curse of the Hamilton black cloud. Luckily for the drive thru guy the food in the bag was right. The quick drive was just enough for me to calm down, when I got home I shared my vittles with my little man and lovely wife.

Man, what a day!

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm

Last night was a rough night of sleep in our house again. I was ubber crabby to say the least. It was hard to not get out the shower to finish getting ready for work, but I made it through. The best parts of my day are leaving for work and coming home. You might think that is strange to include leaving for work in that statement, but let me explain. Even though today was rough getting out of bed I am still one of those morning people.  I have always looked at mornings as a fresh start to a new day.

Sure...going to work is not my favorite thing to do, it is the send off I get that makes it so special. One of Jackson's favorite things to do is watch people leave or come. He will stand at the window, knock and bang on it, flap his hands, making his "Eeeennnneewww" sound, jump up and down, and wave. He is so excited. If the neighbors are out, he will get just as excited and wave to them. He loves to see people on the other side of the window.

This morning Jackson was really fussy, but after laying around a little bit with mamma, he seemed more his morning self. He knows when it is close to the time for me to go down the steps and drive away and he starts getting excited. Mamma and Jackson were sharing a banana at leave time, but that didn't stop him for giving me a kiss goodbye. Mmm, banana kisses. I get my kisses from everyone every morning and then down the stairs I go. As I open the garage, I can hear him banging on the window and jump'n up and down already.  I start the car, pull out, and look up...there is my son with the biggest smile on his face. I always roll down the window so I can hear him. He is waving feverishly while jumping up and down, I am waving back to him wishing I could sit in driveway until he is bored with smiling and waving at me. I need to get a picture of this, perhaps even some video.

Coming home I get the same reception.  As soon as Jackson hears the garage door open, he runs to whatever window he is closest to. The best days to see this is on Monday and Tuesday when I stop in the middle of the driveway to either take out or bring in the garbage cans. You can hear him from the driveway, "Eeeennnneeewwww!" and knock away. If he is downstairs when I open the door he runs up to me and pulls on my pants, then runs away and comes back. This goes one a for a bit before I get my welcome home kiss. If he is upstairs, he is waiting pacing back and forth at the top, arms flapping away.  He looks so happy and excited to see me. I can't even explain how good it makes me feel.  I get kisses from everyone when I come home from work every day.  When I say everyone that included the doggies. How lucky am I to have that much love under one roof!

Another thing to add about the morning drive in...  I am a huge fan of music and I am lucky to have Sirius satellite radio. It gets me going for the day and I also have a dock that allows me to listen all day at work. It is a total savior for me. When I drove away from my house this morning the first song was the Crash Test Dummies "Mmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm". I haven't heard that song in forever.  The line in the song that hit me and got me thinking was, "She couldn't quite explain it."  That line inspired my post today, trying to explain how lucky I am and my bubbly mood despite the limited sleep for the week. It also makes me think of the doctors, philosophers, psychologists, or therapists who can't always explain the whys or hows to the many things they discover about us humans. Or even when they have the science behind all the discoveries and still can't answer the questions.  Perhaps..."they'd just always been there....."

A lovely day for the playground

Mama went to the gym this morning. While she was gone, Jackson and I went to the park to play. There wasn't very many other children at the park this morning, so we got to go straight to the swings. The playground only has two baby/toddler swings and two other swings , so it is rare that any of them are free. Jackson loves being on the swings and it helps with his sensory needs. The good thing about the playground swings unlike his swing we have at home is that it doesn't have a hard plastic back. Jackson likes to slam his head into the back of his swing at home. I think his head banging is another sensory need, but no doctor or therapist has been able to figure out what that need is or why he does it. They also can't help us figure out how to stop it, but that is another topic to post later. Jackson was laughing and having a great time on the swing.  Soon other kids came over to swing and then there was a small line for the baby swings. This always gives me anxiety because the other parents are trying to tell their children they have to wait all the while giving you a dirty look.  I completely believe in the take turn system, so after a few more minutes I grabbed Jackson up and we went over to the slides.  Surprisingly he was OK with that, even though he was fussing a bit when getting him out of the swing. His fuss was nothing like the 4 maybe 5 year old who was there with her texting father who kept giving me the look.  Although the look could have also been him trying to figure out if I am a dad or a mom, I get that a lot.  

The playground we go to is really nice; it has a bigger kid slide system and a smaller kid system. Jackson likes them both. We started off with the little kid station. Jackson is getting better at the steps and will go up now all by himself, although after the first step he is on his hands and knees crawling up them.  There wasn't any children on the smaller play set at this time, so that was OK. He went up and down a few times before he was ready for the bigger slide system. Over at the big kid station was a little boy that seemed to be same age as Jackson named Henry. His dad was helping climb up this cool plastic wall, something Jackson doesn't even notice and goes straight to the stairs. The big kid station makes me nervous because it is twice the height of the little kid station and it has a bunch of big openings. So naturally I am right behind Jackson as he goes up the stairs. The big kids are not mindful of the toddlers as they run and jump around or even over them. When we get to the top Henry is up there too and was cute to watch the two boys carefully hold onto the rails as they go over the wobbly bridge. Henry is saying hi repeatedly to Jackson and Jackson is just smiling from ear to ear at him doing his Fragile X sound "Eeeennnnwwww". Jackson is about 3 inches taller than Henry, so it is hard for me to tell if they are both around the same age. Both the boys loved the wobbly bridge, going back and forth. Henry's dad asked me how old my little one was.  I told him Jackson was 2. Henry’s dad got all excited, Henry’s 2 as well.  He also continued stating he can’t believe how fast it does. At times I do feel like it has gone fast, but at other times I feel like it hasn’t. We are both enjoying watching our little toddlers play. Henry finds the slide he likes; Jackson opts for the stairs to a different slide. Then Jackson bolts off back to the little play set. Henry is close behind. Yay, a toddler friend for the day.

Back over at the little play set is two pre-teen girls. They are exchanging cell phone numbers so they can text each other.  One of the little girls says to me, your baby is so cute.  I say thank you to her as she and her texting buddy head off elsewhere. Both Jackson and Henry are face to face again up on the little play set. Jackson is getting really close, as he knows no boundaries. I tell him he is too close and Henry turns around to look at me.  I didn’t see it, but I guess Jackson maybe stepped forward at the same time and the two bumped heads.  Henry says, ouch… and starts rubbing his head, kind of whimpering a little bit.  I said, Oh… did you guys bump heads and Henry nodded as he said yes.  Then Henry turned to Jackson and said he was sorry… still rubbing his little head.  Jackson, well he is just smiling as though nothing happened. He is also flapping his hands in excitement while saying “Eeeennnnwww”. Henry’s dad said, rub it off buddy… and to that he was fine.  The two went up and down a few more times and then Henry and his dad left.  Jackson didn’t notice them leave, but I thought it was great that he made a connection with someone his age and that the dad didn’t ask any questions or pass any judgments.  So to Henry’s dad, thank you. I hope to encounter more parents like you in our future endeavors at the playground.

It was getting HOT and Jackson was still amped up. He noticed the swings again, but they were full and it was time to go. Jackson wanted those swings, so he didn’t like that I was taking him away from that. I scooped him up and he was trying to pull off my hat. When we got to car he was getting upset and would not go in his car seat. Luckily I had some snacks and juice ready. After several attempts and singing farmer and dell over and over, I finally got him buckled in.  After some juice and Cheerios, I figured we were ready to get going. Jackson was still signing drink in the back seat, so I reached back to give him more. Then he started to squeeze the box, juice everywhere.  I forgot the darn juice box holder. I tell him hands to himself, but he is still trying to squeeze the box and laugh. I get almost out of the parking lot when the fingers down the throat start. I try giving him more Cheerios, but he is just tossing them, laughing, and sticking his fingers down the throat. So I pull into the next lot, get out of the car, and walk around to him. He signs he wants drink, so I give him some more. Now he seems better so I start driving again. I have to keep giving him Cheerios, but no more fingers.  I am few stop lights from home and my Cheerio stash is now gone..  Jackson starts sticking his fingers down his throat again. The therapists say to ignore this behavior, but it is so hard to because he will keep doing it until his vomits.  Vomit in car seat is not fun, but I driving the car so not much I can do. Sure enough Jackson vomits and he is laughing.  So he knows this is an undesired behavior. I try not to show any emotion and keep ignoring. We are two stop lights away, this is where Jackson will nod off on the drive home. Sure enough I look back there and his eyes are getting heaving.  When Jackson falls asleep in the car, doesn’t matter for how long…he will not take a nap.  No nap means no break for Mama or Nana and for this trip means no time to clean up messy vomit in car.  So I am pulling on his leg and singing at the top of my lungs to keep him away, he just smiles as he closes his eyes. We get home; vomit is not too bad in the car, mostly on his shorts and a little on his seat.  I pick him up and he rests his head on my shoulder.  So hard to be upset when he is cuddly because that is a rare occasion in itself.  We get inside and the doggies are going crazy…I get them outside. Take Jackson straight to the bathroom to clean up. Most of the vomit is on his shorts and socks, nothing on his shirt, but I took everything off anyway. Clean him all up, take him to his room, change diaper, and put on some shorts.  Tried to rock him a bit, but he wasn’t having it. Tried to lay him in the crib, he is not having that either. Back to rocking, this time he is OK with it and finally drifts off and I am able to put him the crib. I get everything cleaned up of his clothes and in the car, let the doggies back in, Mama pulls into garage and Jackson stayed asleep, but not for long…  I scoop him up and take him in our room, he cuddles for a little bit and drifts off for an hour, giving Mama some time to take a shower.  I stayed with him as he napped and gave myself a little rest time too.  He is so freaking adorable when he sleeps. 

Mama and Nana have a funeral, dinner date, and birthday party to go to later and Jackson is staying the night at grandma Sinky’s. Oye vey what a day already…