fair

Lots of fun.

haircut

I gave Jackson a haircut yesterday. I was letting it grow long to protect his head from the sun, but I have him wear a hat anytime he's in the sun anyways. And Dan thinks it will be a lot cooler for him now.

training

I'm trying to get in better shape. So I'm training for a 5k in a little less than 4 weeks and a sprint distance triathlon in about 7 weeks. The sprint distance means it's a 500 yard swim (in a pool), 12 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. I've always wanted to do a tri, just never trained enough for one. So hopefully . . . hopefully I'll train enough to do this one.

I went and bought some new running shoes the other day and saw some running skirts. I've always thought they were neat and wanted to see what they were like. So I tried them on. But only tried them on. I wasn't about to pay $75 for one running skirt. However, I did like them. I went searching online and found this Running Skirts blog, it's cute. Don't know if I'll get one anytime soon though, I'll wait and ask for one for Christmas.

menu plan (not) monday

It's not monday, but I missed planning it at the beginning of the week and I don't want to wait till next monday. So...

Saturday: Mac n cheese

Sunday: Chicken enchildadas

Monday: Pepperoni and/or chicken pesto pizza

Tuesday: Chuckwagon casserole (from Crazy for Casseroles book)

Wednesday: letovers

That's all for now, maybe ideas for the rest of the week are Freezer sausage & rice (from Once a month cooking book) and chicken artichoke casserole (from Quick Meal Solutions book).

Last week I made steak fajitas. I so love the marinade recipe! I did modify it a little, don't remember where I got the idea. But I put 1/2 tsp of cinnamon in the marinade too. Good stuff.

update and a blue balloon

Since the last signing and talking post, I started writing down additional signs and words he was saying. It was a new word and sign a week for a little bit it seemed and then all of a sudden he was doing a couple new signs and words a day. So I stopped writing them down. He's got probably 25+ signs he says and who knows how many words, maybe about the same amount. But he will copy words I say all the time now. He just amazes me. It's so much fun to see him learn. I'm also having fun learning more and more American Sign Language too. I'd like to find somewhere else to use it though to get better.

This evening Jackson and I went to the Music in the Canyon. It was such a nice night and great music too. A business came through with a bunch of balloons they were giving out. Jackson saw them and got excited and started saying balloon (I think it sounds a little more like "baoon", but it's hard to tell). Here are some pictures of him playing with it at home.

new banner

I thought the old banner was getting kind of ... old. This one is just simple with an updated pic of Jackson.

cousins playing together

Dan's brother and family moved back from California recently. We took the kids to the new fountain park and tried to get a group shot, but didn't work too well. The last time all four were together was back in Nov here.

Jackson didn't get in the fountain much this time. He loves to walk around and then find a place to sit and watch though.

summer fun

It got into the mid 90's (f) today, so I set up the slip and slide this morning. It was a lot of fun. Jackson fell a couple times on it and didn't quite understand the concept yet, but he still had fun outside.

Wyatt and Amy came over too. Wyatt had a lot of fun with it. Amy and I both did it too, but I'm not posting pictures of that.

I got some finger paints for Jackson to try out.

two

Couldn't get them to look at me, but we couldn't even get them to smile at the same time either.

parade

We went to the parade this morning. We had lots of fun. It was great weather, very nice. Jackson is now taking a good nap from all the excitement.

happy 4th

screen shot

This is what my screen often looks like lately. Half with whatever I'm working on and the other half with Baby Signing Time for Jackson. He loves watching it and I get a little time to be on the computer. Without baby signing time, I wouldn't be on the computer unless after he's asleep, which I'm often trying to get other things done then.

Here is another picture from the other day, Jackson making a silly face.

underwear

We are trying out some new underwear... they are really training pants, but they are like underwear.

I don't think Jackson really knows a difference between underwear and diapers. I think what he really likes is to run around with neither on. Which I've been letting him do a lot lately, especially since it's finally warmer out. And since we've been doing that, he'll go pee in the toilet more and will now do the diaper sign for most poops before he has gone and we make it to the toilet too. He's signed diaper a couple times for having to go pee, but most of the time I just take him to the toilet every so often if he hasn't gone outside or on the linoleum lately.

signing & talking

I wanted to document what Jackson is signing and saying right now at 15 months.

He says the following words very often:

• Hi
• Daddy
• Mommy
• Please
• Uh oh
• Baby
• Hot

And says these words sometimes:

• Doggy
• Kitty
• Beep
• Bye
• Thank you

Jackson signs these a lot:

• Outside (probably signs the most)
• Please (second place)
• More
• Help
• Drink
• Eat
• Milk
• Kitty
• Train
• Diaper (which means he has to poop and/or pee)
• Bye
• Plane
• Thank you
• Baby (usually means he's asking to watch Baby Signing Time dvd)

And sometimes signs:

• cow
• pig
• car

Here is a video I caught this morning while Dan and Jackson were playing in the pick-up truck.

Jackson also says "psshh" to the animals when they are misbehaving. He gets it from me and I got it from Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer. It's pretty funny though, whenever Kaeli barks, Jackson makes a "psshh" noise at her.