Naptime!

Jackson doesn't nap anymore, instead he spends time in his bedroom playing quietly. We call it "quiet time". This afternoon Jackson was done with quiet time and asked me to come upstairs to play. We played trains for a few minutes and then he said, "Mommy, I want to do whatever you want to do." So I responded with, "I would like to take a nap, would you like to join me?" YES! We crawled into my bed with the two bunnies by our side and fell fast asleep. You can't beat a nap with the two bunnies and your baby boy on a Sunday afternoon!

Catching Up....

I'm behind on blogging. Here is my attempt to catch up...

Easter was great. Here are some pics to prove it.





We spent a long weekend in Door County during Spring Break. It was so great to get away and relax. The weather wasn't great, but it didn't matter. We bundled up and went outside. The kids had a blast and the grown ups drank their fair share of wine. Another great Door County get-away!






My Mom got tickets to Medeival Times for Jackson, me, my nephew Trevor and my mom. Who knew that it would be that much fun? Jackson is still talking about it. Last night he told my friend Amy that it was better than Lightning McQueen. This morning we had to build the castle out of Duplos. I think he liked it.



My semester is over in 2 weeks. Maybe I will be better about blogging then. We'll see...

Happy 2nd Birthday Abigail Ann!

We celebrated Abby's 2nd birthday in March with her cousin Ephraim (they are two months apart), but she officially turned two on Thursday. She was very excited about the presents and the cake and was singing Happy Birthday Abby all day long. Pretty darn cute!

When I dropped off Jackson at school on Abby's birthday, his teacher asked me, "What were you doing at this exact time two years ago?" Hmmm....eating White Castle breakfast! Yes, that was our choice for breakfast on our way to the hospital. I had finished working the Friday before and my awesome doctor asked me if I would like to be induced instead of waiting around to go into labor. YES! YES I would! We couldn't do Monday, because she had tickets to the White Sox home-opener, so Tuesday, April 8th it was. The whole day went so quickly and without one single problem, concern or issue. When Dr. Brennan told me that the baby would be here in just one more push, I said, "Shut up!" Seriously, I couldn't believe it. Sure enough, Abby came out just that easy. That might have been the last easy thing she has done. :) She isn't easy, but she sure is cute! Rumor has it that the grandmas did a little dance in the waiting room when they heard about the little girl who was named after each of them. So, what is our little girl like at age 2? Well....

1. Abby is fiercely independent. She wants to do everything by herself...get dressed, get in her chair, climb the stairs, comb her hair, brush her teeth (including putting the toothpaste on her brush), get undressed....you name it, she thinks she should do it all by herself. We are always hearing, "Self!" (meaning, I will do it by myself), "Got it!" or "Abby do it!". It's so great that she wants to be so self-sufficient, but she is only two. Sometimes, she does need some help, despite what she might think!

2. She loves to change her doll's diapers. She takes off their diapers and says "Yucky!" "Poopy!"...puts on another one...and then repeats. Apparently her dollsa re very poopy.

3. Climbing and jumping....two activities that she would do all day long.

4. Reading books. The other day Abby was sitting in the den looking at books and I heard her yelling, so I rushed in to see what was going on. The book she was looking at was "The Monster at the end of the book" with Grover. If you don't know the book, Grover tries to convince you to NOT turn the pages because he is scared of the monster. So she was sitting with the book yelling, "You turned the page!" I have noticed more and more that she has memorized parts of a lot of books. She will sit and read and make a pile of books taller than her.

5. Santa Claus. Seriously...I can't tell you how often she insists that we sing, "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus". Although recently, she changed the words so that Daddy is kissing Santa. Hmmmm, that's a whole new story!

6. Her Hello Kitty cup. So, about a month ago, I lost her Hello Kitty sippy cup. She would not stop talking about it. On our trip to Door County last month she talked about it for about 30 minutes straight. She was really traumatized about losing this cup. Well, the Easter Bunny bought her a new one. So, she still talks about it, and then adds to the story..."New Kitty Cup!".

7. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Abby and I go to a Moms & Tots class. We play, sing songs, do crafts...and Abby thinks it is the greatest thing ever. She talks about "class" all the time. She sings the songs from class, talks about her teacher, the other kids, and asks when we are going to class. It is a fun class, I will admit and it is nice to have some nice Mommy & Abby time every week!

8. Abby is like one of Pavlov's dogs when we get into the car. You buckle her in and she immediately wants a snack. And then another one. And then another one. Not sure how to break her of this bad habit.

9. She must be tucked in at night with Cookie (her doll), Blue (the bunny), Pink (the bear) and Ella (the elephant) by her side. She lays down, positions everyone around her and then commands, "Tuck!" Cute.

Happy Birthday Abigail Ann! We love you!

Look! I got dressed all by myself!

Happy 4th Birthday Jackson!

Four years ago today, Jackson Harper Olson joined our family! After 31 long hours of labor, he was finally born. His tiny little 5 pound 14 ounce self was rushed away to the neo-natal care room and was given an IV in attempt to give him some nurishment. His umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck and he hadn't grown much in the weeks prior to me being induced. Despite a few scary moments in the delivery room, he was perfect! Now, he is four years old! WOW! It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years!

What is Jackson like at age 4? Well....

1. He LOVES trains. That might be an understatement. At any given time we have 2. 3 or 4 train tracks set up around our house. Currently, the Geotrax are in his room, inching out into the hallway, the Thomas tracks are at the bottom of the stairs and his new Lego Duplo train track is set up in the living room. Amtraks, Metra, Thomas, El trains,Geotrax....he loves them all!

2. He loves to go fast! At any time he will be happy to demonstrate just how fast he can be by running from here to there as fast as his little feet can take him.

3. He could watch Chuggington all day long! It's a new show on Playhouse Disney, and he is hooked. They have yet to produce any toys that we related to the show...thank goodness!

4. Sugar is his friend!...frosting, fruitsnacks, candy, cookies...he lovess anything with sugar! He has yet to ever complete a full cupcake though. He licks off the frosting and leaves the cake behind. Every single time! :)

5. He is oh-so-silly! This manifests in all sorts of ways each and every day! He likes to make silly faces, make silly noises, do silly dances, write his name silly, eat silly, jump silly, make up silly stories and words and then say, "that's silly, right?"

6. His favorite colors are red and black. If it is red or black, he likes it.

7. His favorite new food is Cheeseburgers. Who can argue with that?

8. He will sit and listen to you read book after book after book. His Pre-K teacher Ms. Mary always tells me that he is the best when it is story time at school. He will sit and read books forever.

9. He is obsessed with The Polar Express! Christmas is long and gone, but both Jackson and Abby refuse to let it go! Jackson likes to draw the polar express, pretend his trains are the polar express, sing the polar express song, dance to the polar express song and watch the Polar Express movie. (In the meantime, we have to sing Santa songs to Abby all day long!)

10. Sticky tape. (That's what Dora calls it!) He has taped paper and art projects to his wall, has fixed broken cars, made windows out of tape on Abby's doll house and taped trains together. It's wasteful, I know. But he has so much fun with it!



We have been celebrating his birthday all weekend long. Jackson requested a Lightning McQueen Party for his birthday, so we had Cars cake and cupcakes, decorations, presents and even cars made out of boxes to celebrate yesterday. The kids raced up and down the sidewalk and couldn't have been any cuter! Today we went to the ChooChoo restaurant for lunch where the train delivers your lunch (and your birthday cupcake!) and have been playing trains (Duplo, Thomas, Geotrax, Amtrak) all day long. Tonight when we dig into his last 2 cupcakes after dinner, it will be his 4th birthday cupcake this week! When we celebrate at the Olson household, we celebrate big! :)

Happy Birthday Jackson Harper Olson! (Choo-Choo!)

Abby, Jennifer...same thing.

Anytime I am out and about with Abby in tow, I hear, "Oh my God, she looks exactly like you!" or "Oh, she's just a mini you!" I get it. Abby looks just like me. Last night, my mom brought this to a whole different level...

Yesterday my mom and I drove with Jackson and Abby up to my brother's in Wisconsin for a birthday party. After a long day of cake, presents and playing, we packed up the car and headed home to Chicago. While Jackson was focused on watching The Lion King, Abby was making up her own songs and singing, stopping every few seconds to yell Mama or Grandma to make sure we were listening. My mom turns around to face Abby and responds with, "That's a very nice song you are singing Jennifer!" :)

Two Little Monkeys...