The Whaleys: December 2012

It is amazing to see the similarities when you look at baby photos of me and Justin compared to Jackson and Rhett. No doubt, Jackson is looking a little more like his daddy every day. What do you think?

Here is a comparison of all three of us:

And now for Rhett, or as I like to call him, "mini me". He looks SO much like me as a baby, it is scary. My mom and grandparents can't get over how much he looks like me, although my dad says he still sees some of Justin. Here is my clone baby:

And now for the three of us ( I think I see a little bit of Justin here):

And sometimes I swear I look back at old photos of Jackson, and I see so many similarities in our boys, even though they for sure look different. Take a look at my beautiful boys at 7 months old:

Here are some family updates that I have been meaning to write down for quite some time now:

-I am a certified milk donor! Instead of letting all of my excess frozen milk go to waste, I began the process of donating it to a milk bank to be given to underweight NICU babies. I had to have my blood tested, provide DNA samples, answer a lengthy questionnaire and have my dr. and Rhett's dr. approve it, but I finally was approved! I have already shipped 200 ounces and will be shipping another 200 son. I am still breastfeeding Rhett about 8 times a day even though he is eating solids for 2 meals a day. I pump 1 bottle every morning for storage. Looks like I won't be weaning any time soon.

-Awhile back We got rid of our old cars (GMC Acadia and Toyota Prius) and got 2 new cars. This time we upgraded to a brand new 2011 GMC Acadia Denali and then we also got a 2009 Toyota Camry hybrid for our work commuter car. We are IN LOVE with the Acadia. It is the perfect family vehicle. The Camry has been great too. It is a little bit bigger and more comfortable than the Prius was, gets just slightly less miles to the gallon. We made offers on several Nissan Altima Hybrids before the Camry, but the deals kept falling through as many car dealers tried the ole "bait and switch" on us. We will keep the Acadia for a while, but we may replace the Camry with an Altima if we find a really good deal out there. The camry is fine, but I am not in love with the color. It is their hybrid green color, but it is a little to green for my taste. Jackson loves it and calls in the "green machine". ha

-Jackson and Rhett are going to have another cousin who is due to arrive in February! My older brother and sister in law are expecting a boy, which will be Jackson and Rhett's sixth cousin, but first boy cousin. We can't wait to meet you Eli!!

-Justin was asked to teach a pharmocology class at our local community college. He is looking forward to the opportunity and the good news is that it won't interfere with his current job. He has toyed with the idea of possibly teaching a few classes around town in the past, so he is excited to try it out and add "Adjunct Professor" to his resume :)

And now for some updates about our precious Jackson:

-He is in a "why?" phase. For everything we tell him, his response is "But, WHY?". It is cute and I love his curiosity, but sometimes it gets a bit redundant. I have to laugh at myself because I find myself saying "Because I said so" all the time.

-He is obsessed with street signs, fire alarms, and fire extinguishers. He asked Santa Claus for a fire extinguisher. He can name almost any street sign and tell you what it means. He loves to talk at length about what each sign says! (He did end up getting a play fireman outfit and extinguisher from Santa)

-He is also obsessed with naming every Soda drink that he can think of. Although he has never had any of these, he loves to name each drink-Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Pepsi, etc. You get the idea. He loves to talk about the drinks really loud in stores when we see them. Tonight while at Target, he is walking down the aisles saying in a very loud voice "MMMM mommy I LOVE Dr. Pepper!." So of course I am sure complete strangers are looking at me like mother of the year while thinking that I feed my child such junk.

-Jackson played fall soccer and did well. He kinda struggled to pay attention at the early practices because they moved slowly and they were just learning the basics. Once the games started, he did better. He scored a couple of goals and loved running back and forth. For the last few games he started getting a little aggressive at nudging and elbowing people out of his way. He also loved kicking the ball even when it was not in play or kicking over the cones :) Because he has an August bday, he was the youngest on the team, so overall he did well to keep up with the bigger kids.

-Jackson continues to thrive in preschool and his teachers are just wonderful. He had a Christmas program a couple of weeks ago so they had been practicing their songs prior to that. His teachers said he sings the loudest! They are amazed at how quickly he picks up the lyrics. Justin and I love watching him through the window before we pick him up at school. He is always seated right next to the teacher during story time fully engaged. It is also fun to see him play with the other kids. His newest game that he plays with his friends is "superheroes", although he has to be reminded from time to time to not play so rough.. Boys!

-Jackson is a wonderful big brother and just so loving toward Rhett. You can really tell that they have a genuine affection for each other. The only problem is that now that Rhett is crawling and pulling up on things, he can get to some of Jackson's toys (that are safe for a baby to play with), so we have had an issue with sharing. Also there have been a few times where Jackson has "loved" on Rhett too hard by tackling him...which gives me and Justin a mild heart attack but thrills Rhett! Nobody can make Rhett smile and laugh like Jackson can!

-Jackson has a little girl in his class named Claire that he talks about and he loves to tell me that he kissed Claire (with a big smile on his face). Then I tell him "you better not be kissing any girls besides mommy!" and he gets the biggest laugh. Here is a picture of some of his class after his Thanksgiving party. Clair is the third from the right in the yellow shirt.

-He is just an all around wonderful child. We have our special time together before his nap time where we lay in bed and talk, be silly, and "hide" under the covers. He will say "Mommy I think you are beautiful like a princess" and "you are my best best best friend forever and ever". I love it! He is also a big daddy's boy as well and is extremely close and affectionate with both of us. I love how he gets a shy smile when I tell him that he is such a kind, smart and handsome boy. We are so in love with and proud of our Jackson!

Here are some recent photos of Jackson, along with his 3 year old preschool photos that were taken back in Sept that I forgot to post. Enjoy!