I can't believe that two years ago I was in the hospital after a rather rough delivery with a precious tiny baby boy and now that same little guy is a toddler. Jackson loves trains and so his birthday was all about trains. He woke up early that morning and I made him his favorite breakfast - eggs and toast. Funny thing is that he was more excited about the balloons and the sign on the wall than his food, which I might add he did not eat one bite of! Jackson also loves animals so we spent the morning at the Kansas City Zoo. I thought two hours would be plenty to tour the entire zoo. Boy, was I wrong. After we had gone through the more kid-friendly section of the zoo (petting farm, playgrounds, etc.) we realized we weren't even half of the way through it and the kids (and Theresa and I) were exhausted. While we were there we learned that Jackson LOVES polar bears and these beautiful little birds that he could feed. Kate loved feeding the sheep and staring at the tigers. After the zoo, we went to lunch at Panera Bread (one of Jackson's favorite places). Gratefully, he and Kate took a good nap. Then, we opened a couple of presents (Jackson finally understands what a present is and he gets so excited to open them) and then were off again to eat at Olive Garden. Jackson loves pasta. He also loves the crayons they give him. We had a great time there though missed Jason terribly (he was doing surgeries in Des Moines until late that afternoon) so we extended Jackson's birthday celebration through the weekend. Jason and I took him to Gymboree play land. Each day he got to open a couple of presents. He also got to eat his own cupcake. He loved it (a big change from last year when he didn't want anything to do with it). He got a riding train from Grandma and Grandpa, a train with tracks, a train coloring book, a train reading book, fun games from Nana and Grandpa, and a darling book from Theresa (she is leaving next month so it was a voice-animated book where she left a cute message for Jackson and reads him the book. I couldn't even listen to the whole thing as it brought tears to my eyes thinking about how much we are going to miss her. She's become part of our family: a sister to me and and a best friend to Jackson and Kate). Jackson loved his birthday. He keeps asking about when he can open more presents and it was fun to see him actually be able to pick out the letters of the Happy Birthday sign. Jackson lives life to the fullest. He is as adventurous and active as they come, but he also has a very tender, sweet side to him. He loves his little sister. He loves cars, Curious George, Thomas the Train, his prophet book, and making big piles of toys and diapers and rolling around in them. He love "cookies" aka M&Ms, pancakes, and hot dogs. He loves chewing on ice. He loves learning Russian from his dad and knows more of it than I do. He is so friendly with those around him. He loves to bike rides, swimming and nature walks. He knows how to count to 20 (skips 15-17) and his ABC's (though that l,m,n,o,p part still trips him up). I love to hear him laugh and hate to hear his "siren" cry. He is such a precious boy. We love you Jackson.
