Back to normal

Well we have recovered from our exhausting trip to Rome and Jackson has been happier than ever!  I'm sure he is just happy to be back to the quiet calm life of the Netherlands!  We have been playing outside all day everyday this week and he is worn out!!

Summer finally arrived so we have been playing in the pool a lot (the kiddie pool that is) and Jackson has been pushing around this horribly annoying John Deere green lawn mower!  It makes this terribly clicking noise that is louder than our actual electric mower we have here (did you know our mower was electric, it seems more like a vaccuum than a mower)

It's hard to believe it but Jackson turned 16 months old this week and more than ever is acting like a toddler.  He is walking, well more like running EVERYWHERE, climbing on the chairs, moving the chairs to get to where he needs, and he is walking around backwards until of course he runs into something and then laughs and runs forward!

Jackson's vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger!  I'm afraid we will have quite the talker on our hands :) Some of his favorite things to say are mama, mommy (on repeat), geese (Grace and all other dogs for that matter), something that resembles "bless you" (whenever any of us sneeze or when he coughs too), "go" has always been a favorite, and he is even starting to say his friends names!  It's so hard to believe how much he is learning each and every day!! Today our task was learning to drink out of a cup!  He LOVED it and did surprisingly well!! We will keep practicing outdoors while the weather is still warm!!

Josh and I are celebrating our 3rd anniversary today!  The time has just flown by for us.  We were just saying the wedding doesn't seem like it was that long ago but some of the fine details are just a little fuzzy now.  In just 3 short years we have had a baby, moved to another country, and traveled to a ton of amazing places!! Tonight we're going to take it easy, have a nice dinner at home with our little man and be thankful for all the memories we have made and look forward to our future together!

When in Rome

Well our lastest (I wish I could say & greatest) big adventure was to the amazing city of Roma, Italy. It started off a little rocky. Our late afternoon flight was delayed which made nap time even later than normal. Jackson quickly fell asleep and we thought it would be smooth sailing from there. We were not so lucky! If you have ever been on those cheap airlines you will understand when I say they never stop trying to sell you things. Every 5 minutes they were coming on the speaker and every time Jackson would wake up and cry. Let's just say it was not a relaxing flight for anyone around us!!! We got in late enough there was no time to do any site seeing so we headed to the hotel and ordered room service for dinner. During which Josh started to feel like he was catching Jackson's little bug.

With Day 1 down, I thought Day 2 would start out much better! I was WRONG! We had booked a tour through the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel for early that morning (hoping to work around nap times), but our bus tour didn't start in time for us to get there for it. So we thought ok no problem we will just take the Metro. Of course that was a problem. After traveling up and down the broken escalators with our stroller above our heads we some how managed to get on line B when we thought we were getting on line A. We made it back to our original starting point and by this time the bus tour was leaving so we decided to get on it and hope they would let us in late to the Vatican.

The tour took a long time to get to our desired location and by the time we arrived we were hot, Jackson was tired and GRUMPY, Josh wasn't feeling well and we still had no idea where we were headed. We decided to just skip the tour. We did get to see the outside and get some great pictures but we can only imagine what it would have been like to go inside!

After a little gellato we were back on the bus and looking for lunch!!! We ended our day by playing in the pool and having pizza for dinner! We found a nice little park by us and Jackson got to play and get a little exercise before bed time! I would say the park may have been the highlight of the day! It was shady and Jackson wasn't whining!

The Vatican

See how happy Jackson is :(

Still no smiles from Jackson

Finally happy at the pool

Big guy drinking from his cup at dinner

Yummy bread

and Pizza!

Playing in the park

Day 3: We had booked a 3 day bus tour that we could hop on/hop off at all the famous sites.  So we were back to that.  The day went a lot better but I don't think Jackson enjoyed the heat 34C or about 93 F. We got to see the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and had a great lunch while sitting outside the Pantheon. After nap time we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. 

Pictures from the bus tour

Piazza Navona

The Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Lunch with the Pantheon in the background

Almost feeling better at lunch!

Museum by our tour

Day 4: This was our last full day in Rome and we still had lots to see. We had a tour booked to see the Colloseum (which we made it to this time), and then we walked around the different parts of the city to see the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We made it while only taking a few wrong turns! We had a great lunch with pizza and pasta yet again and Jackson actually enjoyed himself at lunch!

The Coloseum

Josh and Jackson at the Coloseum

Playing inside

Inside the Coloseum

Another museum we walked by

Josh at the Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Josh and Jackson on the Spanish Steps



Running through the halls at the hotel

Happy while reading books in the room

Our last morning we just walked around and made sure we got all of our souvenirs. We always get a coffee mug and a small statue from the places we go and Jackson usually gets a shirt or toy. This time it was a really neat kids book on Rome and a shirt or 2.

Rome really was incredible!  I am not sure if I would go again but I am so glad I can say I have been there and have seen all those amazing sites. We loved hearing about all the history of the city and were shocked at the driving there!  Although we get frustrated living in the Netherlands sometimes we are happy we live in a slow paced, quiet environment!  Needless to say we were happy to be home.

So there you have it, the good, the bad, and I left out most of the ugly!

Jackson's First Haircut

You can only hear, "oh he is getting a little mullet" a couple times before you HAVE to get your son's haircut! So I figured we better get it done before our big trip to Rome in a couple weeks!  I was sort of dreading it, not because I'm so attached to his hair but because he can throw a nice back arching tantrum pretty well these days and I imagined this to be the case while we were there.  Boy was I wrong.

Pre-hair cut

I go to a lady in our town that has a salon in her home so I thought, well even if it was bad it's just us there, not an entire salon full of people! The lady was running a few minutes behind so Jackson sat on my lap and watched another lady get her hair cut.  He was watching with awe and didn't move a muscle, so when it was his turn the same thing happened!  He sat so still, I couldn't believe it.  I think he was so nervous about what was going on that he couldn't move.  He only turned to look at her a couple of times to see what was happening.  I felt a little bad for him but was relieved at how well it went!   At the end he got a little specullen (SP?) "marshmallow treat" for being so good. One for each hand!  He then even sat on my lap through my entire hair cut also!

Holding still!

Checking out his new do

Finished product, back to playing!

What a great experience!  It makes me wonder why I have to always think the worst of something!