Tee Ball..

"I'm going to be a baseball guy!"

Be quiet mommy...

While reprimanding Ron for opening too many cereal boxes (I think you should only have one or two open at a time). It's maybe a weird rule, but Ron and I were joking about who makes the rules. Jackson was a the table watching this and said "don't talk to my daddy, be quiet mommy." All I could do was laugh.

Java train...

We've been meeting my friend Cari and her baby, Henry at Java Train some Fridays. This was the first Friday that it was nice enough to hang outside for our morning coffee. Jackson had a blast playing in the sand box. We'll be back again soon.

Sunfish Lake Park...

Our friends shared an area park with us that we checked out this week. After work we packed up and headed to Lake Elmo to get lost in the woods. Jackson didn't make it far in before he started snoring. This is very unlike him, but after two nap-free school days he was just tuckered out.

Play ball...

We attended Ron's first softball game of the year. Jackson brought along his own bat and ball and had a blast hanging out at the fence cheering on the guys.

The family update...

Jackson and potty training: We are going a bit in reverse the last week or two. Jackson is not informing anyone if he needs to poop for the second time of the day, though the first of the day is still making it to the toilet. I think part of the problem is that he is usually playing and sometimes playing outside, so he'd much rather go in his pull-up than tell an adult. We are working on it and he is getting stickers when he uses the toilet to make it a bit more exciting.

Jackson and the television: We try not to let Jackson watch too much television. However, Go Diego, Go! is helping to watch the boy a little lately. Jackson just loves this program and is learning about all sorts of exotic critters. On our way to the zoo a couple of weeks ago he was asked what animal he wanted to visit first. Jackson's response: "a kinkajou." He's also learning about white tailed deer, anacondas, humpback whales and sea turtles. Plus, he's learning some spanish words as well.

The Big Boy Bed: The big boy bed is working out great. We have yet to have any problems with him crawling out or worse falling out. He knows to stay in bed and sometimes sings or talks to himself for 30 minutes before falling asleep at night, but he never climbs down.

Sara's World: Sara has been busy with school. Her Statistics course this term has been taking somewhere around 16 hours per week to stay caught up and in addition she was enrolled in a History class. The history final was last week and she is now working on her final for Statistics. After this weekend, it's one week of Spring break, and then it's on to English Comp and Marketing on the Internet.

Last weekend Sara and her friend Emily took off for a 12 hour scrapbook day at Archivers, it was great fun and a much needed break for both.

With a reduced staff to get things done at MPR, Sara has picked up some new task that will continually challenge her. While she looks forward to the challenge, the time commitment is going to be hard to keep in check.

Ron's Recreation: The softball season has started. Ron's first game playing with Gulden's was on Tuesday. The gloves and bats were a bit rusty, but things picked up in the second inning. Unfortunately they still lost, but it looked like they had fun doing it.

The bicycling season is underway and Ron is getting a lot of requests to tune-up bikes for friends and family. The task will keep him busy for a few weeks and in some cases, even earn him some extra cash to be spent on woodworking items no doubt.

Hello from the MOA carousel...

I've been meaning to get to this blog post for some time, but haven't. A couple Fridays ago we met our friends The Schmidts and The Chandlers at the Mall of America for dinner and rides. Jackson being the youngest of the three children and never before exposed to the rides at the Mall of America, probably shouldn't have started out on the kiddie roller-coaster. Oops. Dad joined him, as I am not allowed to ride (pooh). Jackson had a look of terror every time they passed the moms who looking on, but no tears were shed. When we got in line for the next ride, I asked if he wanted to ride and he just kept repeating "no thank-you mommy". We decided not to push the issue, but thought that our $17.95-all-the-rides-you-can-ride-bracelet was a huge waste! However we got in line for the hot air balloons and though hestitant, Dad persuaded him and by the second time around he was smiling and waving at his Mommy taking pictures! Success! After the balloons, he went on the train ride, the carousel and the ferris wheel.

It is so nice to be able to meet up with friends who have kids of the same age. While it's a lot of action, and a bit hectic, it's so much fun for all. Thanks guys.