We had a great weekend with Jackson. He got to experience his first snow, built a snowman with Seth and made a gingerbread house. It was a big treat to get to do some of these things just with Jackson before a new baby comes. Don’t get my wrong, we can’t wait to add Owen into the mix but we know that Jackson will have a hard time sharing our attention and we will miss our one on one time with him. So, a weekend packed with things that we could focus on with him was fun.

Jackson is still very social and enjoys being around people. His nursery teacher and MOPs teacher comment on how joyful he is. He is. He makes us smile and helps us to be social by pulling perfect strangers into our world!  His enthusiasm is contagious. We are amazed at how Jackson keeps track of all of his friends near and far. He talks frequently about friends in Bogota, cousins that live far away and his friends from here. I was sad when we left Bogota that he would forget our friends but he continues to amaze us when he comes out with questions about them.

Jackson’s favorite pastimes at this point are playing with legos and going to the parks in our area. He loves to run and climb! He has a tough time on weeks when it is rainy and we don’t get out too much.  With all of the Christmas music playing another favorite pastime is dancing. Almost immediately when Seth walks in from work Jackson usually asks “don’t you want to dance with me daddy?” or “can you build me a pirate ship daddy?”. Seth doesn’t get much down time when he gets home! His number one fan is always on call and desiring his attention!

Jackson is recently puzzled by the concepts of God and Santa. He is a little nervous about Santa. He doesn’t quite know if God is connected to Santa. The snow was a fun example for him of something that God made.  We will be working on these concepts for a while! His questions amaze us and cause us to work hard to clarify things for him.

He has grown up so fast. It feels like he went from talking in short phrases to speaking in paragraphs over night. He has so much to say and so many plans. He wakes up on a mission. He has somehow figured out if he says “I need…” that he might get something faster. We are working on “I would like…, please” because somehow yelling “I need a cookie, NOW” doesn’t seem to be motivating us to meet his “need”.

When Jackson saw the snow out the window he shrieked ” I am going to build a snowman with a carrot nose, and I am going to say “hola” to him”. He had it all planned out. Very funny!

“Hurry, Daddy! It’s snowing”

We love our big boy!  We look forward to watching him grow into his new role as a big brother!

Last week we went to a fun public park that has a farm! Jackson loved it. It was a very chilly day so we didn’t stay too long but it was fun while it lasted!

We have really been enjoying the Fall weather here in Northern VA. As we drove through West Virginia on the way here we could tell that the leaves were gradually getting more and more colorful. The trees in our neighborhood have been gorgeous! We had a big rain last weekend and most of them are on the ground now but we still have a few sturdy trees that are holding on.The day after we arrived we went to the Cox Farm stand and got a few pumpkins, mums and apple cider. Seth has never lived anywhere with real Fall colors and tastes so we are enjoying!   Last week we made homemade applesauce and pumpkin spice muffins.