School Pictures

Jackson's school recently took class pictures and he was SO excited to get this done. We thought it was hilarious that he was running around yelling, "Picture Day!!! Fotos en escuela!" because I only take pictures of him almost daily and he never even bats an eye at me.

His class picture....

 And individual....

I thought they were cute and happy to purchase them. Jack is convinced they were taken by a blind lady who hates her life. Either way, we are pleased :) 

Healthy Ego

I know I'm prompting this particular situation by asking Jackson to perform, but I promise that this happens on a regular basis without me saying absolutely anything to him. He is constantly looking at himself in the mirror and giving himself 'affirmations' (as I've dubbed them) like, 'you look so cute' 'you are so cute' 'muy guapo Jackson' etc. etc.

While he is told on a constant basis how amazing he is,  I've never taught him to tell himself this. The mirror thing came entirely on its own.

I guess the self esteem thing was inevitable. I mean, he does have the most amazing parents like ever, period ;)

Potty Trained!

Not much more to be said right? Jackson has been officially potty trained! at 2 yrs and 3 months old our lion cub is D-O-N-E with diapers!

We started the process in El Paso during Easter weekend so he's actually been officially trained for a few weeks but I didn't want to say anything until I was certain he was free and clear of any/all accidents.

Well, it has been a whopping 10 days with NO accidents so I can scream it from the rooftops!

These pictures are of him showing off his big boy underwear (obviously) which he was happy to take because he is SO proud of himself. Just look at this stud ;)

Proud Punk!

I have to give all the thanks in the world to Jack, my mom, my dad, their 'people', my brother and sister-in-law. Without ALL of their help, none of this would have been possible. It was BY FAR one of the most difficult, excruciating things I have EVER done. ***Extra special thanks to my mom who read the most horribly written book of-all-time right along with Jack and I just to make sure we got the 'process' right.****

There were tears, there were cheers, but in the end there was LOTS of dancing, because you know what? WE ARE DONE WITH DIAPERS!!!!!

...Well except at night time, I don't expect lion cubs to hold it 12+hrs a night. He was doing well at night but it was because I was getting him up at 11pm and 3am to go. It wasn't good for this grumpy baby, and it definitely wasn't good for his momma. I need my sleep too. 

In the end, we are happy clams because I'm not dealing with changing tables/diapers/horrible smells/etc, etc. So no more diapers for this momma....That is until for another six weeks! YIKES! 

GREAT JOB JACKSON! You DANCE your underwear-wearing butt off boy! 

Hello Dos!

Recently I decided to get a 3D/4D ultrasound for Dos. It was a last minute decision and mostly done to put my mind at ease. My doctor doesn't do ultrasounds after 20 wks and I'm a curious person so as with Jackson,  I HAD to get one done to make certain things were going according to plan.

Turns out they're great! Baby is coming along nicely and thoroughly enjoys eating his hands, swallowing amniotic fluid and kicking his momma like crazy. Ahhhh the life of a fetus.

I'm thankful I don't have much more news than that. The sonogram itself was more eventful as Jack couldn't make the first one so both of my brothers went with me for moral support. We waited for an hour, the baby would NOT let us see him, the sonogram tech gave me apple juice to make the baby move, he didn't so then I did some jumping jacks. My brothers were not pleased, told me to stop jumping up and down and then the tech went ahead and rescheduled me.

The second time around Jack was able to attend and we got some pretty good movement from our little friend. I know the pictures themselves look like something out of Total Recall but like I said, I did for my peace of mind. Plus, it makes more sense in person. Trust me.

Also, we asked Jackson what he thought of the pictures of baby brother and he was more interested in the mint he saw in my purse. Dos, you are loved. Truly. 

THIRTY

The title of this post is enlarged because it's a big deal. I turned 30 last week. I know, I know, I'm getting 'old', but you know what? Not really. When I was younger I thought being 30 was pretty old but once I turned 18 and progressively got more boring in life, I've decided that I've been 30 since I was 21. So now I'm more like 40, or at least that's how I feel. Well actually being pregnant makes me feel more like 70, but I digress...

For my 30th birthday I wanted to sleep and eat. Jack asked me "Where do you want to go?" I said, "Eh, I don't know, there are lots of restaurants I'd like to try in New York I guess?!" so we decided to go there. FYI, if you need good recommendations on any city anywhere in the world, I'm your gal. I pride myself in collecting amazing information from friends, articles, and the Internet of course. I do not disappoint because there is nothing Jack and I hate more than spending money on crappy food. Again, off topic.

 

Once in New York, we checked into our awesome hotel in Soho. They upgraded us because I was pregnant AND it was my birthday. Brilliant. And?! They/Jack had cupcakes waiting in our room--it was a lovely way to start our vacay. 

 Once settled we decided to go discover the neighborhood. As we were leaving our hotel we were accosted by a few men carrying bags and cameras. I had no idea what was going on, freaked out and froze in the middle of the street. Turns out they were paparazzi and they were trying to take my picture! Not gonna lie--it made my year! Until however one of them said, "Oh, guys, she's no one". Shot. down. Those two seconds were heaven though. Jack kept asking them to take my picture because he was dying laughing, I kept walking.

 The following day we fueled up with an amazing Morrocon breakfast and delicious coffee...

 Cupcake for dessert...

 And then walked it all off...

 And kept on walking. ALL THE WAY TO BROOKLYN! 

I don't think walking to Brooklyn is too bad, but walking to Brooklyn 8 months pregnant? I really thought my water was going to break at some point. I got pretty sore, my feet were killing me, I felt LOTS of pressure BUT I made it!!! With LOTS of help from Jack. He's so nice :) 

 

Once there we celebrated with a gallon of water and what else? Brooklyn pizza! 

After lunch we cabbed it back to Manhattan and visited one of Jack's fraternity brother's, Andrew who works IN the Flat Iron building. He works at a children's book publishing/illustration company so it was neat to visit his office space. 

He showed us a library of published books where he let us choose as many books as we wanted to take back to our Jackson. We were floored, and elated at the free range of books! 

 

 The remainder of the trip was spent with more eating, more wandering and a few museum visits.

 

 

I have recently discovered that Jack makes us go to museums, exhibits, etc because he does NOT want to go shopping. He knows I won't say no to any kind of exhibition and so he keeps us busy so as not to shop. I caught on to his game though on this trip because all I wanted to do in New York was shop and he kept coming up with things 'to do'.  

 Needless to say, we ended up shopping. After going to 3 different museums and loads of other excuses. It was MY birthday after all.

And where was Jackson during all of this you ask? He was having the time of his life in sunny El Paso where I'm told he swam daily for a minimum of 3 hours. He of course had a team of people watching him (it takes a team people) including (but not limited to) my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, Mayra, Margarita, Lodis, Yoli and most likely any friend of my parent's that happened to drop by.

My parent's are very social people so when I say their friend's 'dropped by' I mean they most likely had a minimum of 2 dinner parties and 10 people come by 'just to say hi'--this is why I'm referred to as 'the boring one'. 

When we finally made it home to Austin, Jackson was waiting for us with open arms (Thank You Jorge & Mayra!) and was happy to see us. He demanded to see the contents of our suitcases but I managed to surprise him that night with all his new books laid out on his bed just in time to sleep. He couldn't believe all of his neat, new books from Tio Andrew! 

NYC--great success, and 30? Not so bad. My best gifts? My family. Jack and Jackson are my moon, my stars, my sun. My parents and brothers (and sister Mayra)--my earth. They keep me grounded, aka 'boring'. Thanks all for another great birthday, I really am a lucky girl :)