Sweet times in San Antonio

This past weekend we decided to go visit some friends in San Antonio since Jack was away at a bachelor party. Tia Karla and Tio Tony were FANTASTIC hosts. They wanted to practice being parents, so they happily and generously applied their knowledge on our Jackson cub.  

Our day began with a trip to the San Antonio Zoo. Jackson had a fun time seeing the animals and the exhibits but his absolute hands-down-favorite were the monkeys.

Surprised? Yea, neither was I. Besides 'burros', 'monos' are Jackson's next favorite animal in the whole entire world, so he took his Tia Karla through the exhibit about 1/2 a dozen times and she's too nice to say no to him.

 Tony then showed our lion cub how to fish. The boy thought it was VERY cool and it was air conditioned so we spent A LOT of time here...
                   
He had some lunch, and then began to get sleeeeeeeppppyyyyyy so we decided to call it a day and head home. This kid doesn't have a long attention span so getting about 2 hours out of him at the zoo is what I call SUCCESS!

Once at home Jackson took a nap and then Karla and I took the boy swimming. Recently the cub has decided to forgo all of his learned safety rules concerning swimming and has instead decided to dive bomb into the pool and wished he could hold his breath for minutes (impossible) at a time. It made for a CRAZY pool experience and I'd show you pictures but Karla and I were too busy trying to keep this kid alive. 

 So I bring you instead a very calming and sweet picture of our boy enjoying his time with Tio Tony. He LOVED his tio and I've NEVER seen Jackson sit still (for almost 30 minutes mind you) for anyone. Maybe it was the fact that they were watching movies, but still. Amazing....

 Our night ended with a lovely dinner with more tios and tias (thank you for joining us Reg & Robert!). Our boy was so exhausted he was acting out a bit so I had him throw boulders around to release some energy. Made for one TIRED lion cub!

All in all a LOVELY trip. We are excited to visit again soon and to have them come visit us in Austin! As for their parenting....Karla and Tony are going to make AMAZING parents, and we are excited to meet Jackson's newest amigo early next year! CONGRATS friends!

Gordo Fish

Have you ever seen a gordo fish? Perhaps not. Well if you haven't, here's your fist glimpse...

Looks like those swimming lessons are paying off. He is very confident in the water, can hold his breath for seconds at a time and most of all understands the importance of using the stairs. 

We got pretty tired of hanging out in our bathing suits all day long so there was many a time at my parent's house where we just let the cub go in alone. With Achilles as a lifeguard of course and his people not-too-far-behind. I say this because it makes Jack (aka Mother Hen) feel better. Enjoy! 

4th of July

Hope everyone had a great 4th! Ours was spent in El Paso--relaxing, swimming, eating and playing...

 ...It's what we do best when we go to my parent's house. The days were glorious with some cooling rain that actually made it cold (for me) at night...in the desert....in JULY! Not gonna lie, it was awesome.

It also brought out some butterflies! The cub enjoyed chasing them around. 

 

 I wish I could tell y'all he was equally as interested in the fireworks his dada bought him but sadly he was not. We debated taking him to see professional ones but 10pm is WAY past his bedtime.

Jackson didn't mind the lack of firework activity though, he was happy enough with the 'water park' the grandparent's have going on in the backyard...

 

A Picnic with Peacocks

 Jackson likes to take power naps in the car, so we find ourselves in some pretty random neighborhoods/places/parking lots A LOT.

Our most recent venture out landed us at Mayfield Park. Mayfield Park is in the center of the city and is absolutely beautiful. It's very quiet, tranquil and FULL of peacocks. When Jackson woke up it was lunch time so we thought it would be fun to show him around and feed him amongst the birds.

He didn't even notice them at first because he was too preoccupied with his food but then he realized they were kind of scary.

 then he decided to warm up to them...

 and fed them even though you're not supposed to. 

 These peacocks made a new friend in our cub. 

This Boy...

He is all mine. I love him so...

Keeping Cool

 In case you haven't heard...it's HOT outside. How are we keeping cool? Everything we do lately revolves around water. Guess who's a happy camper?

 

Recently we've started going back to Barton Springs because it's hot enough to. I'm usually too cold natured to enjoy the water, (it's FREEZING {for me} at a constant 68 degrees) but it feels fabulous when it is 102 degrees++ outside. 

This cub doesn't mind the cold water either. We scream at first, but then we start moving around and get used to it. 

And Jackson's dada? Well he says we're babies (some of us are) and dives off into the sunset...

Jackson's Entourage

  

As you can tell from the picture above, Jackson has A LOT of friends. I'd be worried if they were always all pretend but we've talked about the cub's real-life amigos on this blog enough that you all shouldn't worry about that. 

These are the fake kind. His entourage if you will. He really wasn't into stuffed animals at all until a few months ago and now he can't seem to get enough of them. 

They go out to eat with us, to the grocery store, to chase guinea hens, and recently they even ask to drive....

Sometimes Chaucer gets a hold of one of them and tries intently to tear them to bits and pieces... 

Then I have the pleasure of washing/drying them. Elmo was hung out to dry because I recently made the mistake of machine drying Jackson's beloved Boo (you better believe we have the book) and now he doesn't look as cute... 

Regardless of their crazy texture though, this cub loves them just the same. I wish he only loved the cute ones (puppies, zebra, tigre, etc.) but he seems to really LOVE the Sesame Street characters. 

My mom isn't a fan of Sesame Street (and frankly neither am I) but she is a fan of Jackson so she "reluctantly"(as she put it) bought him ALL of the characters. 

And as you can tell they pretty much go everywhere with us now...

His absolute FAVORITE stuffed toy though are still his mai mai's and this makes me happy as they are my favorite as well. Every morning he brings them downstairs with him to drink his 'coffee' (aka milk) and snuggles and loves on them. He would take these everywhere if I let him but I don't like them to get dirty so we put them back in his crib so they are ready for his nap time. 

Isn't he sweet? Please don't get any ideas though. Jackson's entourage is full and he tells me he's not accepting any more 'members'. This cub is exclusive...