Saturday, April 30, 2011

Do You Believe in Magic?

Today I was talking with my future sister-in-law Jana on the phone and she told me that if I wanted to know the gender of the next child I would be having someday (no I am NOT pregnant) that she knew how I could find out ahead of time...and even if I didn't want to know, she did, so I should do the test anyway! :-)

Curiosity got the best of me so I did what she said I should do...

Thread a needle, poke the needle through the eraser of a sharpened #2 pencil. Hold the thread so the pencil hangs like a pendulum. Hold the pencil steadily but loosely over your wrist (left or right, doesn't matter). The pencil will start to move. East/West=boy, North/South=girl. Between each child it will move in a circle then move on to the next child in one direction or the other.  Once the pencil comes to a stop on it's own, you will know (or have confirmation in the case of already born children) what your future family will look like.

...Sounds like a load of bologna right?!  Well let's just say that I performed the test SEVERAL times on each wrist and once on each foot (just for giggles), and EVERY time was the same result....boy (Jackson), girl, boy.  SO CRAZY!!  Just for fun I tested Travis too....his results=boy, girl, boy!! 

Who knows if it's real?!...I guess for us time will tell. Jana learned of this test from a teacher in her nursing program (a nurse with 20+ years of experience in OB practice) She told me that she has tested many friends and family members of hers who have children already and so far the pencil has been correct 100% of the time. At any rate, it was definitely worth a couple of minutes time on a lazy Saturday afternoon!

You should give it a try, and if you do, be sure to comment and let me know if it worked!

.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Measuring Up





Jackson had his 12 month checkup this week.  He took his immunizations like a champ and impressed the doctor with his cute personality.  The doctor was completely entertained by his high energy level and told me that he had seen "a lot of 1 year olds lately, but your little guy is seriously dynamic and funny!" Jackson weighed in at 20 pounds 2 oz (10th percentile) and 29 inches long (25th percentile)

He continues to be a VERY busy boy.  He wakes up in the morning and basically only stops when he eats  (because he is strapped in) and when he sleeps.  He can crawl so fast and last night he took his first tentative steps!  It is a test of true endurance keeping up with him, but SO much fun!  His vocabulary is slowly expanding and we can tell that he understands so much more than what he is able to say.  Words that we hear him say on a regular basis so far include "ma ma", "da da", "uice" (juice), and "up".  

He has mastered going up the stairs and coming back down is getting better all the time.  It is especially funny when he turns to come down too far away from the top stair so he is pushing himself backwards on his belly for a foot or two before he even begins his decent.  He is into EVERYTHING! His favorites are the towel drawer in the kitchen, the drawer in our bathroom with all of my curling irons, the remote controls for the TV, and the xbox buttons. 

Jackson loves to go for rides in his red wagon and swing on the playground outside.  He loves to "surf" on his rocking donkey made my Grandpa Atwood, read/look at any book, chase balls, chase/be chased by anyone that will take the time, push trucks, build with blocks, and carry around the mardi gras beaded necklace that one of my coworkers brought back from a conference in New Orleans.

He is completely off of bottles which he decided to do on his own at about 10.5-11 months and so far we haven't found anything that he DOESN'T like to eat.  He is still taking two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon totaling 3-4 hours in addition to sleeping from 7 p.m.-7 a.m.

Jackson's sweet smile and disposition are incredible to wake up to each morning and every new day proves to be an adventure, a learning experience, or both!  We are so lucky to be his parents!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

ONE!

Our little baby boy turned ONE on April 9, 2011.  We had SO much fun planning his party.  The night before the main event Travis and I, with the help of my parents, were busy baking and decorating.  We had decided on a dinosaur theme and were sure to have PLENTY of bright balloons (Jackson's latest obsession), streamers, and dinosaur paraphernalia. 

As always, Travis did a PERFECT job capturing this special day for us.  I really am spoiled to be married to a photographer, these pictures are PRICELESS!....

The birthday boy with his birthday crown.  If he looks a little sleepy it's because he had just woke up from his nap and was greeted with a house full of guests and balloons when we came down stairs

The dinosaur cake we made ourselves!!  A team effort between myself, Travis, and my parents.

Color Burst cupcakes that I am am QUITE proud of...YES, I actually make those babies!
 (thanks for the idea Rachel!)

All guests were required to tattoo up with a dino tattoo....it was sort of like a meal ticket! 

About to blow out his first candle (with mom's help)

A tentative start...

....getting the hang of things.....

...sugar is AWESOME!!
The party was fabulous and everything turned out just as we hoped it would!  Thanks to all of our family and friends for making the trip to Logan for Jackson's special day and for all the wonderful food that you each contributed and special gifts that you gave to him.  We will definitely be sure to show him all the pictures and videos we took in a few years so that he can fully appreciate how awesome it really was!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

One Year Ago...

April 2, 2010
I was just about ready to POP!! 

It's so funny to see how I looked one week before I had Jackson.  Now I can see that I definitely looked A LOT bigger than what I felt/thought I was!  I still miss being pregnant sometimes and it is so crazy to me that our little bundle of joy is turning 1 this coming Saturday.  Stay tuned for plenty of updates on all the birthday festivities! :)