The McCarty Boys and Me

I know I am way late in posting Easter pictures, but I had a crazy week at work last week, so I am a little behind...oh and I am huge and lazy. Better late than never! The weather this Easter weekend was beautiful! We spent the entire weekend outside which thrilled Jackson to no end. Here's Jackson hunting eggs. He loved it and would have found every single one...even without Gigi and Tata telling him where all of them were hidden! Poor guy- he had to be fast on the draw or they would immediately run to where an egg was hidden and start yelling "Look over here, Jackson...right here in the red flowers!" Geez! Kinda takes the "hunt" out of the Easter Egg Hunt, wouldn't you say?? Here's Nate teaching Jackson to play soccer. Jackson has decided that he is way too old to call Nathan "Dada" now and calls him "Nate". No matter what we do, we cannot get him to call him Daddy, Dad, Dada or any version of "father". Oh well. There are worse things that we could call Nate. :) Sorry, I mentioned that I am huge and lazy, but did I mention MEAN??
The Easter Bunny brought Jackson an easel and loads of art supplies. Here is just one of his masterpieces. He said it's a "monster". If you look closely you will see that Nathan...being the mature father-figure that he is, drew some Monster boobies on the bottom of the page. And, he wonders why Jackson won't call him "dad".
Jackson's touchdown dance...or goal or whatever it is you score in soccer. This is Jackson speed all the time...FAST...really freaking fast.
In other news, the nursery is almost ready...I will post pics soon. And, Jackson is so excited about his little "brudda". It has finally clicked that a baby is coming soon. He talks about him constantly and was such a help getting Hudson's room together. I am so ready for Hudson to get here. He has dropped considerably and is pushing on my bladder (which is in a constant state of dribble) with all his might. SOOOOO ready. Please pray that he will make an early arrival. Please. Pregnancy is so not my thing.

Also, Jackson has an imaginary friend. We think her name is "Sally" but since he pronounces the letter "L" with a "Y" sound, she could be a he named "Syeed". My guess would be Sally, since I am not sure that Jackson has met any Muslim men. However, I don't think he knows any Sallys either. Well, whoever this friend is, he talked to her the entire way through Target on Saturday and told us when "Sa-yee" was ready to go home to take a nap. They also play and evidently she hides from him a lot because he has to scream her name EXTREMELY loud at least 20 times in a row before she comes out of her hiding spot. Damn it, Sally, stop hiding!

I am so happy to announce that the first Plastic's baby of 2008 has arrived! One of my bestest friends in the whole world and a fellow Plastic, Amanda and her husband, Andrew had their baby boy yesterday. We already have him an arranged best friendship with our Hudson (if he ever gets here). His name is Maxwell Cooper and he weighed 7lbs. 8oz. and is just perfect! We cannot wait to meet him. Here's a pic so that you can see just how perfect he is:


This makes me even more ready for Hudson to arrive! Congratulations Amanda and Andrew. We are so happy for you!

I will post pictures of our Jewish Easter tonight...I've had a very busy week!

Things have been busy, busy around the McCarty's. We are steadily preparing for Hudson's arrival. By this time in my pregnancy with Jackson, we had everything ready to go. We are sooo not prepared this time around. Nathan just painted the nursery last weekend, but other than that we have done NOTHING to prepare. I am 33 weeks pregnant. If I have this baby at the same time as I had Jackson that only gives me 3 weeks to go!
Jackson, however, is finally beginning to understand that a baby is on the way. Well, he understands that there is a baby in Mommy's tummy, but of course he has no idea what that is going to mean in real life! I'm not sure Mommy and Daddy do either! But, Jackson now talks to the baby and lifts up my shirt (not cool when I am wearing a dress!) and puts his ear to my tummy to "hear" the baby. He also got very mad at Nathan for feeling my tummy the other day. He started swatting his hand and yelling "No Dada- don't do that to my baby." It was very sweet. Believe it or not, he is even okay with the baby getting new things and a new room. We'll have to see how he feels when the baby actually gets here. Here are some recent pictures:

I think Jackson is tired of all the going and doing...he wants to stop and smell the roses. :)
Last weekend Pawpaw took Jackson to see Nanny (my grandmother) and Jackson insisted on wearing his aqua socks. This is his reaction when I told him that he could only wear aqua socks to the pool.
This is what Jackson calls his "funny face".
Here is his "happy face". Mommy loves this face!

Saturday we had tickets to the rodeo. The scheduled concert was Martina McBride. We didn't know a single Martina McBride song- Nathan and I are not country music people- but, we wanted Jackson to see the rodeo and this was an afternoon show. So, we told Jackson all week that he was going to the rodeo to see the "aminals" on Saturday. He woke up excited Saturday morning and we started the exciting day with donuts for breakfast. TIP: do not allow your 2-year old to gorge on sugar when you plan to take him in public. Just to give you an idea of Jackson's demeanor as early as 8 am:


After breakfast we ran some errands and bought everything Jackson asked for in an attempt to keep him quiet in the stores. Then, we went out to eat lunch with an arsenal of toys, coloring books, crayons, etc. to keep Jackson quiet in the restaurant. However, Jackson found the 70-year old librarians lunching next to us much more appealing. More specifically, he decided it would be quite humorous to ruin their lunch by screaming "I need to go poo-poo" repeatedly while they tried to enjoy their chips and salsa. Mind you- Jackson didn't need to go poo-poo, he was simply trying to get out of his seat...well, it worked and he was quickly taken to the car while mom paid the bill.
Once we returned home by 1 pm, Nathan and I were already exhausted and the thought of the rodeo was about as appealing as a colonoscopy. But, we all changed clothes and got ready anyways. Here's Jackson in his jeans, pearl-snapped shirt and new boots...watering the house pants with his sippy cup...keep in mind that this is a silk plant. Nice.

Pawpaw and Gigi picked us up and we battled the traffic, the parking and then walked half way across the world to the Livestock show before taking our seats at the rodeo. Below is a picture of Jackson's reaction to the "aminals" that he looked forward to seeing all week. Yes, that is a look of utter fear. He has seen 100 cows and goats in his short life, but for some reason found these completely terrifying. I will admit that the testicles on these things were rather intimidating...

Finally, we ended up in our seats to watch the actual rodeo. By this time, every single inch of my body was aching from the walk and I thought that child labor was inevitable. But, finally Jackson was entertained and actually sat still and watch the bull-bucking and calf scramble. Awwww...peace and quiet!

2 minutes into the actual concert with the fireworks and all, Jackson passed out on Gigi's lap. Now if this isn't the sweetest sight...

TIP: the rodeo is no place for pregnant moms with toddlers.

I finally got the computer away from mom long enough to post some pictures of my favorite peeps. I can't get enough of these two...my Pawpaw and Gigi...the apples of my eye. And, I think they like me alright too. Me and Pawpaw chillin on my bed. I was telling him about all my animals.
Here's Gigi and I watching T.V. I have found if I stay on her lap like this she is less likely to leave. So, I try to lay like this for as long as possible. If she tries to get up, I do this thing where I fall on the floor crying and scream "I want my Gigi...don't go bye-bye Gigi." That really gets to her and usually prolongs her departure, or if I am lucky, she will take me with her. She is by far the easiest of all my grown ups to manipulate.
Here's me and Pawpaw countin' his money. Pawpaw loves to count his money (that's what Jewish pawpaws do). And, I love to help him...especially since he tells me that I can have it all...it's my ice cream money.