Jackson's Interview

I got this idea from friend and had to copy it. I love all the crazy things kids say and this is a good way to get some of those things recorded and to get a little window into their world view. He just turned three last week, so I'm going to try to do this with them every birthday. I think it'd be fun for them to see what they've said when they grow up too. 

Jackson (age 3) 

1) How old are you today? THREE

2) How does it feel to be 3? Tickled

3) Why does it feel tickled? Because, like chai and mix it up!

4) Do you think you’ll like being 3? Uh huh-sure sure.

5) What is the most important thing you’ve learned in life so far? I played at school and had a fire drill and I didn’t see a fire.

6) How are you different now that you’re 3? Because I want to go for a walk. I have a new present in my box.

7) What’s your favorite thing about having a birthday? playing golf and playing baseball and playing Frisbee

8) What is your nickname? tickle monster

9) What do you like about school? I like playing in the dark. I’m not afraid of the dark. (yeah right!)

10) Who is your best friend? Ellie & Abe & Jonathan. Abe let me play with his baby, he’s so cute!

11) What do you like learning about?  pretzels! Cheerios! And stinker! I like learning about stinkers at school!

12) What’s your favorite bible story? Jesus stories (good answer)

13) Who’s your favorite person in the bible? Jesus! I love Jesus and he’s always with me, so that’s why. (sweet!)

14) What do you want to be when you grow up? A fireman and I want to drive, but I think I can’t.

15) Tell me about our family. I love you mommy so much and I love daddy and Hudson. And I like reading stories and playing with my trucks. (aw!)

16) What do you like about having a brother? Playing with my brother because I love him SO much, that’s why mommy. 

17) What is something mommy always  says to you? I will play with you and I will cook with you because I love you

18) And Daddy? Do you want to play golf or Frisbee, we can do whatever you want to do.

19) What is your favorite toy? TRUCKS!

20) What is your favorite place to go? To India and to play golf. (hasn't been to India yet)

21) What do you love to do? Play golf.

22) What is your favorite book? A bear story (Berenstain bears I am guessing)

23) What would be the best present someone could give you? 5 Monster trucks! I like monster trucks!

24) If you had a whole day to do anything you wanted to do, what would you do? play golf, that’s interesting.

25) Do you think you’ll ever get married? Yes! (no hesitation!)

26) How old do you think you’ll be if you get married? Get a wife, a wife like Dad. But how old will you be? Two. That’s interesting. (yes, it is)

27) What’s your favorite food? Pasta and noodles and pizza

28) Are you scared of anything? Yes, cars. (this is true for his bad dreams)

29) What makes you happy? Chuggington, that’s the best.

30) Anything else you’d like to say? Chuggington (starting to zone out)

31) Should I have asked you about anything else? no (he's clearly tuning me out now.)

Our growing boys

It seems like every few weeks I have one of those "press pause" moments where I wish I could just pause their little lives and hold on to the sweet stage they are in and savor every moment. Life goes by too quickly, especially lately with all our moves, transitions, and busier schedules. I don't want to look back and realize I've missed a year of my kids lives. So, I'm trying to savor them and take time to enjoy them each in their own unique persons as best I can. Before I know it, they'll be full-blown kids and no longer my "babies" or "little boys" anymore. I know I'll love those stages too, but it's hard to imagine loving them more than I do now.

 Jackson (3 years old!?!) is our entertainer. We've all known that from early on, but his love for being around other people and having a good time is growing! He does have  his limits and enjoys to be left alone to play by himself a little everyday (usually when Hudson wants to play most), but most of the time he wants to be where the action is and bring some more action to the table. He loves to play any instrument he can, or if he doesn't have one, he pretends he does. He also loves to sing and dance which always makes his mamma smile from the inside and laugh out loud. (You can see a recent drum/singing solo in a recent blog). He also loves any and all modes of transportation, including construction trucks and knows the names of specific machines I've never heard of before. (I'm catching on slowly). He is enjoying Vancouver mostly because of all the public transit we have to utilize and all the people we get to interact with. We live on the 27th floor of a condo building and he and Hudson love to play with their trunks in the window seal and watch the real ones go by below them.

Jackson is rambunctious but has a very sweet personality too (I pray he always does :) ) Just the other day I was holding him at some store and he was cuddling me and playing with my ponytail saying, "Your hair is so bewiful...bootiful...Hey! I can't say boo-tiwful!" He can also be surprisingly sweet to his brother, esp. when Hudson gets hurt. He'll say "aw Hudson! Are you ok big guy?"

Reading to his little brother. He has a few books memorized.

Drum solo!

The birthday boy eating his lemon-poppy seed muffin, as requested! 

Birthday lunch at Old McDonald's as Jackson calls it!

 Hudson (18 months-wow!) has always been much more quiet and laid-back, but he's showing to have a VERY strong will as he grows. He is so good natured, that it comes as a surprise when he throws a huge melt-down over not getting what he wants. He's the "quiet mischievous"one and so darn cute it's hard to get on to him! He plays that up for sure by laughing and smiling as you are trying to discipline him. He still isn't talking very much (just has a handful of words only we understand); but he is still an effective communicator. He uses his babble, pointing, and whining to get most everything he needs. Or he just gets it himself. :) He loves big brother and tries to play with him or steal his toys (as every little brother should) every chance he can. They are slowly learning to share and Jackson is starting to try to "teach" him things. He says he'll teach Hudson how to use the potty when we move to S. Asia! I am all for that! Diapers are expensive there! Hudson pretty much loves everything Jackson does. While he has his own unique dance moves that I'm convinced are strait from his dad's (and nana's) genes, he loves music, dancing,  cars/trucks/trains, and destroying big brother's towers. He loves to "read" now and his two favorites are Bugland (finding Bitsie Bee in all the pop-out doors) and Good Night Moon. He opens and shuts all the doors and says "Noooo" over and over until he finds her at the end of the book. His favorite part in Good Night Moon is when "the quiet old lady whispers 'hush'!" He also giggles at the 3 bears sitting in chairs for some reason! He's so precious, esp. when he's proud of himself!

Whispering "hush"

Peek-a-Boo!

Being mischievous as ever (his reaction is to mommy telling him to put her book down!)

Drum Solo & Trunks Arrive!

Tonight was a good evening, in part because our long awaited black trunks finally made it out of customs (a week late). They had a harder time getting into Canada then we did! We were mostly glad b/c our VOIP phone and router were in those trunks but the boys were so excited for the few toys and stuffed animals awaiting them. They already had two big trunks of toys with us (because mommy couldn't hardly part with any toys), but they acted like it was Christmas to have just a few more of their "friends" to sleep with at night. Jackson carried his "Roxy" dog around with a huge smile on his face. He said he needed to take him for a walk because he hadn't had one in a long time! Apparently Roxy kept biting Jackson on their walk because he got lots of scolding!

Right before the trunks arrived, Jackson graced me with a well-timed drum/singing solo while my camera happened to be out. I'm rarely so lucky to have that good of timing. So...get ready to smile....
Jackson's Drum/Singing solo- Youtube

Vancover, eh?

Well, after an hour a half in the car, 5 hours on a plane, 3 hours being detained in Canadian immigration, and another hour on the "Skytrain", we made it to our apartment in Vancouver (actually in a suburb called Surrey)! It was a long day, but the boys did so great, especially considering our extra time with our "friends" in immigration. You've got to be extra careful letting people like us in your country!

In the process of getting our internet hooked up today, I learned a couple of useful things from the installation guy–first, I learned that a “Canuck” (the mascot of the pro hockey team here) is just a nickname for Canadian, similar to “Yankee” for American. Second, according to the installation guy, we live in the “butthole” of Surrey. But don’t worry, he said it’s getting better.

We got to get out and explore our area a little bit this morning, and "butthole" isn't what came to mind. We actually thought it was really nice. (Wonder what he would think of Carlsbad?) We had breakfast at McDonalds and then walked through a local shopping center before buying groceries at a T&T Supermarket – which turned out to be a completely Asian supermarket, minus the awful smells. So we didn’t necessarily find everything we needed, but it brought back fond memories of Thailand. Plus, the boys got to see the tanks of live fish, oysters, shrimp, crab, lobsters, etc. And we even got to see the T&T employee pull out a fish, beat it in the head with a stick, and then clean it for the nice Asian customer.

Our apartment is a little small, but overall very nice, and perfect for the boys. For those of you that were worried about us being on the 27th floor, we only have one small window that opens to the outside and it has bars over it. We do have other huge windows that don’t open, but provide incredible views of the city and the bordering river/mountains. We’re directly across the street from Skytrain station, which is actually the last stop on the line. It took us about an hour and a half to ride it all the way from the airport to our apartment, but we got to see a lot of the city, and the boys loved the train.

The view from our apartment:

Stacy and the boys on the Skytrain:

We're excited about our new home! We'll post more later...