January

January seemed to fly by! Jackson still loves preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-12 at LUMPs, when he actually goes, that it. It seems like we have the 'first-year-of-school-illnesses' hitting us and he's been sick on and off since December 18th. Mostly bad head colds with fevers and a little stomach bug. He graciously shared everything with us, including Rachel, so we have been quarantined for the end of January and start of February. We registered him for school next year and he'll begin the 5 days/week class! Yippee for all! 

 Thankfully, we have the best inlaws around. Grandmom and pop pop came to visit for a late Christmas on January 12th and BB has been able to come to the house when I was sick and JB was on nights. We are so grateful for how much our parents love our kids and how they give of their time, energy and endless love.   Jackson adores them and we are grateful for the relationships they have with him.  

 Grandad is even brave enough to take Jackson into the wood shop in his garage for projects! 

Although we are still doing the nighttime (I want water; tuck me in, where is my turtle, pray again...) and morning (up at 3am, 4am, 5am...pounding on walls....trying desperately to make it until the green light comes on) battle with J, one of my favorite times of the day is when we are all home and get to read books and cuddle in bed. We talk about the day and pray for each other.  When I was up in Springfield with the kids and putting a somewhat fussy Rach down for bed, Jackson ran upstairs, touched her foot and said, "Mom, let's pray for Rachel. Dear God, please make her strong and healthy." I broke down in sweet happy tears for my little boy and am so grateful for the friendship already forming between J and R.  

 In HUGE exciting news, we have a potty trained guy in our house! Something changed in him around December 23rd and we jumped on it, knowing that we'd be home for weeks ( and he was sick so we really were home a TON).  He'd been prepping himself over the past year so it went pretty smoothly. I did have a few freakouts where i called girlfriends and asked about frequency of accidents...what is normal, etc. I've been hearing lots of friends talk about doing a potty training bootcamp for 2 days where those two days are terrible but magically, it seems like their kids are fully potty trained after that. It was reassuring to hear from other moms who are just out of the potty training trenches (for at least one of their kids) that accidents are normal and I shouldn't be striving for no accidents right now. It was so amazing to end that recurring amazon subscription of size 5 diapers. Now our money can go towards little ones for Rachel :)  We started by setting a timer to remind him to go and recently have not used the timer but we just give him gentle reminders if it's been a while. We're down to about 1 accident per week (!!!) and he goes on his own without prompting most of the time. Yet another example of how the days seem long but the years are short and how God faithfully provides for us when we need many extra doses of love and patience for each other.  

 We got a dusting of snow last week (nothing compared to the rest of our families in Boston and NJ/CT areas). Jackson screamed and ran outside. He grabbed a stick and started acting out "The Snowy Day". It is always so encouraging to see books translate into real life for him and we hope that he always has a love of reading.  

 We have been watching more basketball than ever since UVA is almost undefeated! J was sick and Rachel looks like a chunky little dude, but at least we managed to muster up some school spirit for the Duke game. 

That's all for now!