A little food for thought

A friend of mine from work had a nice thing happen to her this morning.  As she was waiting at the drive-thru to get her morning fix (aka Caribou coffee), she noticed the young woman in the car in front of her kept looking in the rear view mirror.  Well, when my co-worker got to the window to pay for her coffee and morning treat, the Caribou employee said that the woman in the car in front of her had paid for her order.  Apparently there is a Christian radio station in town that encourages these random acts of kindness.  What a wonderful thing!  I'm glad that there are still people out there that do nice things for others.  It oftentimes feels like we live in a world where everyone is strictly focused on themselves, sometimes to the detriment of others.  Anyway, it's a nice way to start the day and a good reminder that we need to think of others more often.

Now on to the center of our world.....

This past weekend we had some scary moments.  It started on Friday night.  Everything was great -- Jackson had had a good evening, was happy and went to bed easily, and Scott and I were enjoying another Twins victory.  All was calm in the Carter household until about 10pm when we heard some strange noises coming from Jackson's bedroom.  It sounded very odd, kind of like a seal barking, and I thought maybe it was the cats but they were accounted for.  We looked in on Jackson and it looked like he was struggling for air.  We woke him up and the barking noise intensified.  He had a very scared look on his face too.  Even though I had never heard this noise before, I just had a feeling it was croup.  After a quick call to the doctor, we were told to go immediately to the ER.  Jackson was given a breathing treatment and a steriod dose.  We were also told that he has another ear infection, an eye infection and a 102 degree fever.  The poor little boy was in bad shape. 

We were sent home after a couple of hours with some antibiotics and orders to come back if it started up again and couldn't be controlled with a steam bath in the bathroom.  It was a scary night but thankfully he seems to be doing much better.  Jackson has been sick before but watching him struggle to get air really freaked me out.  I'm praying we don't ever have to go through that again.  The one fun thing about the whole night was that Jackson got to have his first popsicle.  The nurse offered him one which I really didn't think he would like but he devoured it and in the process stained his chin orange.  Cute!  I guess I'll have to get some popsicles next time I'm at the grocery store!

Jackson has been doing really well with eating and trying new foods.  He has had the purreed foods from the jar, cheerios, mangos, peaches, pears, pineapple, turkey, cereal bars and pasta.  He generally will eat it all, however, we've discovered that he cannot stand the jar baby food (level 3) with chunks in it.  Here are some priceless pictures of Jackson being fed one of them.  I think it was chicken noodle dinner.  Not a happy camper.

Is this the saddest face you've ever seen or what?

Thank god it's over!!!

Jackson is such a goof ball.  Here are some cute pictures of him playing with his shape-sorter.  I couldn't believe it when he picked it up off the floor, full of all of the shapes, and almost got it all the way up to the table.  Such a strong little guy!  He hasn't quite figured out how to put the shapes back into the box, mostly he just puts them in his mouth.  Oh well.

Look how strong I am, Mom!

A couple of weeks ago we tried to put Jackson down for a nap but he just had no interest in napping at all.  After about 10 minutes of hearing him try to get our attention we walked in to find this...Jackson standing in his crib holding his favorite teddy bear over the side.

Cuddling with his favorite teddy.  I know you aren't supposed to have stuffed animals in cribs but since we put them in there, it seems like he sleeps better.  He is able to calm himself down and uses them to cuddle.  What can I say?  It works for us.

And finally, he has learned to climb the stairs.  Yikes!!  I'm scared for what this means.  This picture was taken just this past Saturday.  He loves to chase the cats up the stairs.

We are headed to Iowa this weekend for Jackson's baptism.  I know, a little late but at least it's getting done.  May is just around the corner too.  That means the countdown to cabin time is really on!!  I'm so excited to take Jackson up there this summer.  He's going to just be fascinated by everything.

Scott and I are doing well too.  Scott is recovering from a diaper bag/eye incident.  The details are a little hazy but I think the diaper bag won.  It resulted in a trip to urgent care and some wonderfully soothing eye drops.  We managed to make it to a Twins game on Sunday which was great!  Target Field, the new home of the Twins, is amazing and it was nice to get out of the house without the munchkin for a few hours.  I think we're planning on taking him to a game sometime later in the season, maybe to a day game during the week when it might not be so crazy.  He loved his first Twins game last August but he's quite a bit squirmier (is that a real word?) now.  

Anyway, until next time we'll enjoy the warmer weather, cheer on the Twins and look forward to cabin time!