Teach Family Blog: August 2012

A New Addition to the Teach Family

NO- it's not a baby. It's a fish!

Jackson loves fish so we decided to get him one for his room.

He is in love.

We are still working on the dos and don'ts of owning a fish.

Like DO feed the fish twice a day. And DO name the fish (still working on that one).

And DON'T try to touch the fish, put your toy cars in the fish tank or dump the entire bottle of fish food in the bowl at once.

A Visit from Nici

My bestie, Nici, came in to town this past week for a short visit. We had lots of fun catching up and spending some time at the beach ... Oh and making pizza too!

Oceanside Pier

Nici taking surf lessons

Nici getting her surf on

Jackson playing in the sand

Eating a muffin on the beach

Jackson playing with the lifeguard flag

Cheese pizza!

In goes the pizza

The pizza oven

Nici with her pepperoni and mushroom pizza

Pear and Gorgonzola pizza

Jackson playing with this Good Night Moon board game from Aunt Nici

Out and About

When I run errands with Jackson, I usually take him to one place he likes to go to blow off a little steam before he is cramped up in a shopping cart.

Some of Jackson's favorite places include:

The park

Petco to look at the fish and birds

The water fountain

Borders to play with the train table (even though we have one at home)

The outlet mall to ride the cars, trains and play in the water fountain!

A Big Thanks

A big, huge thanks to my parents for coming out to San Diego and helping us move into our new home.

There was a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time and we got almost everything crossed off the to-do list.

And a special, special, special thanks to my mom for spending countless hours taking down wallpaper in our new house. I gave up and tried to convince her we should just paint over the wallpaper about two hours into the job, but she kept plugging along. The walls look great and we couldn't have done it without her. And I am going to try to keep my promise to her that our next house won't have any wallpaper-although I told her that two houses ago as well :)

We spend most of their time out in San Diego working on the house, but we did manage to have a little fun in between all the working.

We took Jackson to the Botanical Gardens and let him play with the boats and watch the toy trains.

We played in the backyard with Oliver and Jackson. We used the sprinkler, chased each other around and even pulled oliver in the wagon.

We went to "Pump it Up" and all managed to climb into one of the contraptions to rescue a scarred and screaming Jackson.

We went to a Padres Baseball game and enjoyed air conditioned seats with a buffet. YUM!

He Works Hard for his Money

Now that Jackson is two, I told him it was time he started helping around the house. No more lazy mornings watching cartoons and eating Cheerios.

First Jackson tried his skills at sweeping the floor ...

... but he couldn't keep his pants up and sweep the floor at the same time.

So then he tried his hand at cooking ...

... but soon remembered the fatal "pan in mouth"incident of 2011 and decided against that idea.

And finally he found his niche- watering the garden. He's got a great tilt on the watering can and aims like a pro. One less chore for mommy to do!

*Please note that I do not actually make my child do chores at the young age of two. But once he turns three ... game on.

Birthday Boy

Our little man turned TWO on June 14. Wow- how time flies when you are having fun ... and changing diapers ... and giving time outs ... and saying "no" a gazillion times a day ... and saying "don't pull Oliver's tail" non-stop.

We had some good friends over to help celebrate Jack's birthday. His best friend, Logan, helped Jack open his presents and play with them too :),

Unfortunately, the birthday boy was not in a good mood, so there aren't many pictures with smiles in them.