The $%^& Jackson Does: loophole

Mommy was drinking a glass of wine at dinner.

Jackson: Wine is not for little boys and little girls.
Mommy: Yes.
Jackson: Wine is for big boys and big girls.
Mommy: Yes.
Jackson: I am a big boy so I can have wine.
Mommy: ......

Our winter wonderland

During Christmas holidays of 2016, we went on our first ski trip as a family of four. We chose Steamboat Springs as our destination since I have always wanted to go but was discouraged by the mid-day flight time. Now with two little kids, we love mid-day flights. We had a smooth flight of 2.5 hours. Norah napped most of the way and Jackson watched iPad the whole time.

Colorado was cold but with the layers we prepared for the kids, it was not uncomfortable. When we pulled in our condo complex, Jackson loved the sight of snow in the courtyard and asked to play in the snow. We geared him up and he played in the snow with Daddy till dark. We convinced him in for dinner and promised him more snow play the next day. 

Being a baby grew up in Texas, he didn't get much cold outdoor experience. And two years ago, when we took him to Wolf Creek, he was cold and cried a lot. We were happy that our boy shared our love of outdoor and snow.

Family grocery trip after we arrived 

Having so much fun playing in the snow the first evening till very dark

Because of skyrocketing lift tickets ($155 one day in Steamboat), we have planned to teach Jackson at the local ski hill. Howelsen Hill Ski Area is operated by the city and is much economical ($25 for adults & $8 for kids) for our trip purpose. It has one rope toll, one chair lift and two magic carpets. But it opens late on weekdays, not till 11am and closes on Christmas day and Mondays.

The next day we went on to our sledding adventure before the ski area opens. Jackson and Daddy had fun but Norah was not comfortable with the cold. She couldn't walk with that many layers of clothing and being stationary made things worse. But as the trip goes, she gradually got use to the weather. After sledding, Jackson put on his ski the first time. According to Will, he did really well and was eager to learn.

Sledding down Howelsen Hill

Enjoying cocoa after hard day of snow playing 

Skiing down Howelsen Hill

Waiting for Brother, Burrrr

Thursday we went to Saddleback Ranch to experience tubing the first time for all of us! Norah got used to the cold temperature and enjoyed the ride too. There are a green, blue and black trails down the mountain. The black one is off limits to kids less than 12 years. Jackson loved the blue trail and couldn't have enough of it. We came back to the tubing hill on Monday. Norah even fell asleep during tubing. Just like Jackson two years ago, he fell asleep sitting up while sledding. 

Norah Donut

Daddy working hard

Friday was a beautiful day and Howelsen ski area offered a free day of ski. Before it opened, we had the snowball fight that Jackson always wanted and built a snowman in our condo's yard. Our condo is a 2br/2bath old unit that just went through some remodeling. It is very conveniently located close to a walking trail near a creek. The next day Norah and I enjoyed the walk for the whole morning. 

Jackson's interest to ski grew after he got on top of the "mountain" from the chair lift. He skied on Saturday from the resort open at 10am to it's closing at 4pm without napping. We were impressed by his enthusiasm. It seems that we have successfully nudged our son to be a skier.  

Sunday we met up with Maiya's family as they just arrived Saturday night. Will and I shared one day of ski at Steamboat Springs on Sunday. Who would know that Will would only ski a half day in a 7 day ski vacation!

We ended our vacation with a beautiful walk at Fish Creek Fall on Monday afternoon. There are so many things to do other than skiing in snowy Colorado. We all enjoyed our winter wonderland. 

Our condo yard

Our snow man Frosty

Jackson's first chair lift ride

Getting ready for another day of skiing

Norah and Mommy went for a long walk around town

Three kids enjoying dinner at Sheraton

A beautiful family walk at Fish Creek Falls Trail

People ice-climbing the fall in the background

Jackson's first lift ticket

Yesterday we bought Jackson his first lift ticket. $8 courtesy of Howelsen Hill. 

The lift ticket lead to Jackson's first ride up a "magic carpet". The small magic carpet was closed, so we went for the big one. Jackson made it to the top ok, but I started sliding backwards down the carpet near the top. I had to jump off before taking out the riders below me. When Jackson reached the top I saw him talking to the liftie and pointing at me hiking up the mountain.  I asked the liftie how I could prevent myself from sliding backwards, and she said to take off one ski. That would have been useful to know at the bottom, but I guess Howelsen doesn't get many clueless tourists. 😏

Norah graduated from Corner Cottage

Norah will move on to the main building same as Jackson. We are so proud of that girl! 

Toddler Norah

We had fun on Jeffery's 2nd birthday this past weekend, especially Jackson and Norah got to play with Jeffery and his toys.

When it's time to go, Norah heard us and brought Will his Crocs. Then she giggled and took off with one of the Crocs! We looked at each other: What had just happened? Our girl has grown up without us realizing it!

Sweet Jackson

Life with our boy has been great lately. We whispered to each other: Maybe the terrible 2 and horrible 3 is over. He listens to us and the conversations are all so precious.

He noticed the wrapped gifts under the tree and Daddy just explained once that we could only open it on Sunday. He asked to open it now and we said no. And he just let the topic go.

A few hours later, he asked: What day is tomorrow?
I answered: Tuesday.
He started listing: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!
I asked: What is on Sunday?
He happily replied: Opening presents!
And then he asked: Mommy, tell me more about Christmas.

His teacher (second since August) quit because of medical reasons on Friday. And we just knew it today.

He asked me before bedtime: Am I seeing Mrs Sneeze tomorrow?
I answered: Jackson, she is sick and you are going to have a new teacher tomorrow.
Jackson: I think she doesn't want to come because none of us listened. (Maybe this is the real truth! :-))

A few days ago, when we were going upstairs, I accidentally kicked Jackson in the eye. I felt so bad and there were tears shed on the stairs.

Now each time we go upstairs, Jackson says: Mommy, please don't kick me in the eye.
I always reply: Okay, I will make sure.
He rushes ahead me: I need to make sure. I want to be in front of you.

We are so deeply in love with this sweet and goofy boy. He takes care of his sister by bring her toys and snacks (Most of the times). He focuses very well on lots of activities by himself: Playdoh, reading, blocks, legos and lining up cars. He is happy wherever we take him in the weekends. Even when we took him to an all adult Christmas party, he entertained himself most of the time by playing with the host's dog gently.

That is our sweet Jackson. <3

What did he just say?

Last weekend, we were at the Dallas Children's Aquarium when the following conversation transpired.

Jackson:  What's that?
Will: A vending machine.
Jackson:  What's it for?
Will:  You can buy drinks from it.
Jackson:  Does it have beer?
Passerby:  I wish!

Weekend

A successful Christmas show

Our star

Today Jackson's dance school White Rock Dance had a Christmas show off. He was by himself in the backstage for 45 minutes. His routine was super cute and we were so proud of him!  

Norah starts walking

Norah starts walking more than crawling this week. Yay!

The $%^& Jackson Does: smart Jack

The day before Barbara and Grandparents came over, Jackson was reading a book when daddy busily walked by.

Jackson: Daddy, what are you doing?

Daddy: I'm cleaning up a little.

Jackson (immediately): Who is coming?

He could be a good chess player if he gains patience growing up. Haha, like that will ever happen. 

Bike ride with Barbara

This past weekend we had a fun bike ride with Barbara to the lake. Below are photo credits to talented Barbara. :-)

Super moon

Norah says hi

Over the past weekend, Norah got more vocal. She made a series of different sounds and said hi a lot!

Norah's favorite thing is climbing

Weekend bike ride

First time biking in the bike trailer

Beautiful day for a family bike ride

We stopped at Norbuck Park playground to explore

A common myth

Before we had Norah, we heard from multiple couples that having two kids is more than twice the work of having one kid. We took note and now we understand.

From beginning of September, one or two or three of us have been sick. It started with Will's cold and then Norah's ear infection to Jackson's ear infection to Norah's fever from viral infection. Then it came to a stomach bug passed from Norah to Will to Jackson. Today Norah just got diagnosed with a massive ear infection in her left ear. She is beyond miserable and so are her sleep deprived parents.

We think that the two kids multiplies parents' workload is really about if one can take a break. And with two kids, it seems there is none for either of us. Our ex-neighbor Johnathan used to describe that going out alone with two kids at home is like pulling Lindsey's teeth. I chuckled at that saying but now it is like that for both of us. We will make plan month in advance if one has to leave the other with two kids. And we pretty much stopped hanging out with pre-kid friends.

We both know this (getting sick so frequent) phase will be over soon. (Hopefully! Fingers crossed.) And different phases will come. And now we are really prepared for them.

P.S. Another common myth is having three kids is the same work of having two kids. ;-) Who'd like to bust that myth?

From most stickers to least stickers

Today we had our first official parent-teacher's conference with Mrs. Sneeze. We showed up early and was thinking up questions to ask her about Jackson. When she left to get one more chair, we looked at the sticker board. We were shocked to find that Jackson only has one sticker!?? The next kid even has 6 stickers! What has happened?

We still looked surprised when she came back.

Mrs. Sneeze: That's what we are going to focus on this meeting.
Us : What happened?
She: He just got familiar with me...

So he is the same kid at home as at school after all. He is very independent and throws a tantrum if he doesn't get what he want. He refuses to play a game if he couldn't win. He doesn't eat well at lunch. He is very vocal about what he wants. etc...

We did talk about his academic performance and personal health and safety and he is pretty good in all categories.

Of course Mrs. Sneeze said it is pretty common for a three-year old to do all that. We are hoping with time and patience, he will grow into a star student again.

Fall in Texas

Snack time

Our favorite moment these days are after school snack time. Jackson feeds Norah and himself snack and talks to her. That's the quiet moment for us during their awake hours that I could cook and Will could take care of the house. And seeing them like that brings big smile on our faces. 

Sleep training of Norah

We were lucky with Jackson on sleeping habits. He has been sleeping through the night since 2 months old and only needs us during teething or having growing pain. So I didn't know what is sleep training and why every parent talks about it.

I hoped for same sleeping traits for Norah but alas, she is different. Despite a few random night she slept through which I always followed up with a celebration and memo of what might lead to it, she has been consistently woke up once a night till last week's sick episode.

She was up 3 to 4 times a night when she was sick. And I jumped up the first sound of her cry, fearing her temperature would rise again. Every time she would want some milk to calm her down and settle back to sleep. She recovered from her ear infection and some viral infection a couple of days ago, and I discovered in dismay that she got used to the comforts I provided in the middle of the night and still woke up 3 to 4 times a night!

I started to research in sleep training and decided to put a stop to this exhausting nonsense. Last night was my first sleeping training day of Norah. I am going by baby steps. First I am planning to substitute milk with water, so she doesn't count on a night diet and she could have good teeth cleaning habit. She wouldn't have it last night. Every time I fed her water, she would drink a few minutes and spit the nipple out and got screaming mad. I will let her cry 5 minutes and go back to comfort her and feed her water again. We did this iteration for a little over an hour until sleepy mommy finally won the battle and tired baby went to sleep.  I prided myself to persevere at the wee hour of 2 o'clock when usually my brain doesn't function.

My plan is to train her with water for a week and move on to just comforting her for another week. Then hopefully she would be trained by November at 14 months old. That probably means I plan to have exhausting nights for the next two weeks but it would be good for the long term. I have been too focused on the short-term gain by quieting her with a bottle that I am suffering at the long run. 

Earning His Keep

This morning Jackson and I headed outside to do some "hard work". 

This wagon was empty when Jackson started.

I tried to load some leaves in too, but Jackson wouldn't allow it. 

We can't wait till next weekend when we can do it again! 😉

Snapshot

Norah
Favorite things right now: Climb .. on benches, chairs, steps and stairs.
Struggles: Norah's doctor recommended us to move her from baby bottle to sippy cup and formula to cow's milk. She wants no part of either change.

Jackson:
He is in a copying phase. He tried to sound like a grown up and act like grown up. He even copies Will's coughs.
Food he likes: Yogurt, fruits, hot dog, waffle and eggs. Of course also cookie and milk. 

Selfie at neighborhood Oktoberfest

This year lake highland's Oktoberfest is at Flag Pole Hill. Four of us enjoyed beautiful walks, bounce houses and Kurby's bratwurst plus watermelon snow cones!

My baby girl

As I cradled a sleepy Norah in my arms, I looked down and noticed she's a tad too big to look natural there now.  It hit me that my baby girl's not so little anymore, and a tear came to my eye...

Our star student

Jackson has a new teacher since last week, her name is Mrs Sneeze. She has been given me good reviews of Jackson every time we met briefly in the hallway. We were skeptical.

Today is the first teacher-parent conference with Mrs Sneeze and both of us went. She started by telling us how great Jackson behaved -- He is most times the first kid to sit down in circle time so other friends will gather; He sleeps from 1pm to 3pm the whole time everyday; He enjoys being the caboose and keep the class in the line; He earned the most stickers(3 in a day) now they started the sticker award system; The list goes on....

She also talked about discipline issues for some of the classmates. Other parents looked at us so jealously that I can feel the pressure on my face. I was trying to hide my smile but it was hard. This feels even better than when myself was praised by my teacher when I was young, even though this achievement has nothing to do with us. :-)

We had this silly and confused smile on our face and asked Mrs Sneeze how did she do it. She thinks Jackson is naturally a disciplined child. Are we talking about the same kid?

Although Jackson still challenges his parents at home every chance he get, he is our star pre-school student! We are so proud of him!

First steps on first birthday

Today we took the family to Perot museum for a rainy day activity. Norah had fun in the infant area of the downstairs playground. Jackson discovered the sand pit the first time and all he did was sweeping the sand back to the sand box. He also gave us a lecture of how "rude" it is to bring the sand out of sand box and make a mess.

Norah tried to stand up without support a few times and she took a few first steps toward me

We had a new rule today that toys in the play area are common toys. The outcome of the new rule is that we have a super clean play area. Jackson started to put toys away just to claim ownership. Those kids... :-) 

Birthday photo shoot in Dallas Arboretum

Today we went to the beautiful Dallas Arboretum for Norah's 1 year old birthday photo shoot.