Jackson just shy of 2.5...

- You love watching Go Diego go before bedtime. It calms you and makes for a nice snuggling ritual on the couch at the end of a day.

- When given the time you love to pick out your pull ups or your pajamas and get excited when you've been successful.

- You are a sponge. You learn new words every day and repeat them in a tone of question. As if to say "is this right?"

- You don't mind when mom or dad have to leave and always ask for a kiss and a hug. You often tell daddy to give mom a hug and a kiss when he heads off to work too.

- You love to sing to the baby in mommy's tummy. When asked where baby Addie is you point and say "inside mommy's tummy." Sometimes you also want to show others how babies get fed by pulling down mommy's shirt. Feeding the new baby will be interesting.

- You enjoy playing with play-doh and only ask to switch colors every five minutes or so.

- You read a lot, often "reading" stories to mom and dad.

- You know landmarks: which house is one of your grandparents, which building is daddy's work, the hospital, the library, your school when you pass by it in the car.

Rewards...

On Thursday we met with the owner of Jackson's childcare center. He's not been napping at school, which means for a crabby evening and falling asleep at the dinner table. We worked with Carol to find some new ways to encourage him to fall asleep. So if Jackson takes a nap, he gets to add a Diego piece to the spot under TV Show, and he can watch an episode of Diego before bed. No Nap = No Diego. If Jackson does not follow other directions throughout the day, he can have books taken away from him. We'll see if this helps!

Jackson sings his ABCs...

30 candles on this cake...

Today is my 30th birthday and today is a day like any other. I spent the morning with Jackson at Target. Came home fed him lunch and got him down for a nap, spent some time cleaning and now I here I am checking in on my blog.

I've had a lot of fun these last 30 years, I've seen a lot of amazing things, I've met a lot of fantastic people, I've had many good experiences, and I've managed to make some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for.

And I am getting older every day, or so the mirror tells me every morning. Since when can't I wear red lipstick?? Since it starts leaving my lips for the cracks that surround them, that's when! So I've decided that a lighter shade of lip gloss is more suitable for me. And if anyone notices that my hair is thinner, it's because I've resorted to plucking gray hairs every morning instead of finding the time to use the box color that I bought at Target a few weeks ago to cover them. These are just a few of the things that I've noticed as the thirty mark got closer, the rest I won't share for fear that you will look closely for these flaws or that I will gross out my husband completely.

Last night I picked a few black heads and did a fierce job plucking my eyebrows. When I came back out to the living room I shared this with Ron and told him that I am ugly now, but it's all so I can be prettier tomorrow.

Well my eyebrows look rather nice, and I bought an 30 year old appropriate outfit to wear tonight, and I'm going to do my best to party like I'm still in my 20s. Now let's just see how many days it takes me to recover.

Happy Birthday to me!