Jonas Sees His Shadow

On this groundhog day, we celebrated by preparing for this week's show and tell at Jonas' school. The theme for the week is groundhogs or shadows. Here is our fun little shadow project...

I'm ready, Mommy!

Jonas, hold still...

... hold still...

A somewhat lopsided silhouette of the J-man.

Time to "color Jonas"

The final, very interesting, product. I guess art really is in the eye of the beholder.

Caption Anyone...

All I wanted was to capture a good photo of Beckett's new hair cut, and believe it or not, this is the best I got. He was not in a photo-taking mood, but rather a "let's grab Mommy's camera" mood. Oh well, at least it captures those beautiful blue eyes that he gets from his namesake.

A possible caption for this photo... "My physical therapy cost how much!?!" Another caption from a Facebook friend was "Maplewood bacon?" Both would give me that expression!

Beckett's First Time-out

Beckett got in trouble for repeatedly unplugging a cord from the electrical outlet and had to sit in time-out for the very first time. Jonas was very excited by this...

Beckett's First Haircut

Baby B got his first official hair cut over the weekend. He did so well!!  Although I did have a hard time holding him still because he got so excited about the little fire engine that he was sitting in. The lady that cut his hair was a pro though, and able to anticipate all the jumps, twists, and head turns.

Going Retro

For my birthday, Jonathan gave me a Yashica Mat-124 G twin-lens reflex camera. Oh what fun it has been to revisit film! I have shot entirely digital since 2005 and using the Yashica has brought back the slow, calculated method of composing and creating a photograph that I originally learned photography with several years ago. Digital photography has really spoiled us (as a society). Practically anyone can buy a dslr and call themselves a "photographer" without ever knowing what aperture means. But I digress.

Here is my new "baby." She takes some fabulous photographs (some samples from my first black and white roll at the bottom of this post). The light meter no longer works on the camera, so we found an antique Vivitar No. 30 selenium cell light meter (no battery needed). This is entirely manual photography and I am having a ball.

Scanned prints from the first black and white roll...

Wrestle Mania

Just a regular evening in the Jackson house! I predict the wrestling will only get more rough...

Little Enstein

Under the Table

Beckett discovered that he can stand up and fit perfectly beneath our kitchen table. Jonas wasn't going to let Beckett have all the fun!

Playtime at the Playground

Now that Jonas is getting very proficient on the playsets intended for the bigger kids, Beckett has realized a new love for the slide. And of course he wants to follow his brother on these fun slide excursions. For now, B gets to enjoy the smaller toddler playset. Before long they'll be chasing each other all over the playground!

All By Myself

Jonas has been "reading" for the past several months. I put "reading" in quotes, because he is a wiz at sight words (check out the video below), been constructing sentences, and sounding out words pretty well, but I was never really sure if he was comprehending what he was reading or just regurgitating what he'd memorized. The child can do/read/see something one time and it's committed to his memory (that is if he's paying attention and "on" - not escaped into his own little world).

Last night, I decided to do an experiment. Jonas really enjoys the interactive stories you can download on the iPad. We have some of his favorites that we read at bed time. Last night I downloaded a new book to see if he in fact was reading. He was a little reluctant because I think he was tired, but my little over-achiever read this book entirely on his own last night (and what an appropriate title it has). He was even telling me about it the next morning and asking to do things that the Little Critter in the book had done.

All By Myself, By Mercer Mayer