Yesterday, the universe was against me and it won. I finally had my house clean and decided it was time to stock the fridge after our long vacation. I got Jackson fed and ready early so I could make the drive to Winco. It's about 20-25 minutes in nice weather, but worth it when I'm getting a lot. Groceries are so expensive here! About 5 minutes into the drive it starts really raining hard, so I slow down a bit because I'm scared of hydroplaining when the roads are covered in puddles. I had several near accidents, one in particular when a car passed me and splashed a sheet of water on my windshield so that I had about 5 seconds of zero visibility on the freeway! I was really shaken up and kept feeling like I should turn around and go home, but at that point I was halfway there and I reasoned that it would be more dangerous to try to get off the freeway and turn around.
I finally made it to Winco and thought the worst of it was over. I could just hang out there for a few hours until the rain calmed down a bit. I went to get Jackson out of the back of the car and noticed that he had spit up a little. That's weird. Toddlers don't spit up. And then it came, the entire breakfast, covering him and the car seat. Jackson hates to be messy. He freaks out if he gets a little crayon on one of his fingers, so he started crying. And its still pouring rain, and I'm trapped 45 minutes (with the rain and traffic) from my home. So I climbed in the back and changed him into the spare pajamas from his diaper bag, which were size 12 months, and did not fit. Then I let him climb around in the front seat while I cleaned everything up with a few baby wipes (the pacakage was almost empty) and an empty grocery sack.
Jackson wouldn't get back in his car seat because it was wet and wet is yucky to him. So I decided to just get my groceries anyway. One little girl asked her mom why the baby was still in pajamas. I didn't hear her exact response, but I could tell by the dissaproving look on her face that it was something about how some mommys don't love their kids enough to get them dressed. (I tend to assume the worst) Then, as I was checking out, some lady started unloading her groceries right behind mine even though I still had a full cart, so there was no room to unload my groceries, so I had to hand each item to the cashier, while the conveyer belt sat filled with the lady behind me's gorceries. Why are people always rude at the perfectly wrong times?
The drive home was just as scary, but we finally made it. Then it took me over an hour to figure out how to disassemble Jackson's carseat to clean it, only to find that the seat cover can't go in the washing machine anyway, so it will all have to be hand-cleaned. Plus, do you know how many tiny crevices and parts there are on a toddler car seat. If you've ever had to take one apart, they are not really cleaning friendly. It took all day to clean and then all night to put back together. Not to mention how smelly our apartment was. Thank you lemon blossom Sol-U-Mel. What will I do when you run out?
On the bright side, at least I had those tiny little pajamas with me. I almost forgot his diaper bag but ran in to grab it at the last second. And at least we didn't get in a car accident. And at least I have some cute Christmas pictures to show. Sorry for the long rant. Just one of those days.
*We left our camera at my parents house most of the break, so we don't have as many pictures as I thought. If any of the Boyds or Hawkins have any more pictures, email them my way.
No kid likes Santa at this age.
Although, Jackson's cousin Madden seems to be doing just fine with him.
Jackson didn't like his snow mobile ride. He preferred a plastic sled pulled by Grandma. 
He was spoiled with attention the whole time. He's having a little trouble adjusting now that he's stuck back home with just me. He keeps following me around the house and trying to do entertaining things to make me laugh.
"These are not my shoes."
-Michael Scott
So we went outside and played catch together. After a few minutes, I was apparently being too boring, so he showed me where I needed to sit and then proceeded to play catch with himself, as shown in the video below. Every time I tried to get up and play with him, he grabbed my hand, escorted me back to my seat, and gestured for me to sit down. I always knew at some point I would become a mere spectator in his life, but I didn't think it would be this soon.
I'm not blogging about this to brag about my cooking abilities. I'm really not that great at it. I'm just bragging about the cookbook. I would absolutely recommend it. They have pictures of every single recipe and I would say about 80% of the recipes are things I would actually make on a regular basis. They are not quick-fix meals, but also not so complicated that they are impossible to replicate. The directions are fairly easy to follow and the meals actually come out looking like the pictures, which Tyler was thrilled about. The other night he said something like, "This actually looks like the picture. I am loving this new Martha Stewart thing you have going on." I would like to be clear, I don't want to be anything like Martha Stewart. Anyway, happy cooking!
You can go to their website for a 