Thankfully I started planning Jackson’s big boy room before the coronavirus shutdown and most of the big ticket items had been ordered and delivered before then. So we had the bed frame, dresser, mattress, comforter and wall decals — we just hadn’t put any of it together yet. Also, luckily my dad put up the curtains just before the stay-at-home order as well.
We spent the last few weeks putting these pieces together for his new dinosaur-themed room. The wall decals from Etsy turned out awesome — they look like a giant mural was painted across the wall. And Jackson has now learned the words brontosaurus, T-rex and pterodactyl.
The bed frame was from Etsy as well, actually a shop in Latvia. The mattress just goes straight on the floor — hopefully this will work out OK. Once it was all put together, I wasn’t quite sure if it was really cool, or just really crazy. But Jackson seems to like it!
I wish I could finish off the room completely, but that’s just not going to be possible right now. Some of the things I had already picked out are out of stock, plus shopping for dinosaur decor is not exactly essential at this moment.
Good news is we have all the main components though — so next up is getting Jackson to try sleeping in there!
I remember one of my friends posted a really sweet photo of her son right before their second baby was born. Her little guy was clutching a book about brothers while sleeping in his crib — apparently he was so excited he wanted the book in bed with him!
Now Jackson, on the other hand…
He got a book in his Easter basket about being a big brother: “What Brothers Do Best.” It was not even really about bringing a new baby home — instead it was showing all the cool and fun things big brothers can do with a sibling.
Well he wants nothing to do with this book.
We were in his nursery the other day and he noticed it in a pile of other books.
“What is this doing here?” he said as he picked it up, threw it outside in the hallway and then shut the bedroom door.
I couldn’t believe it. He has sooooo many books and he has never once done this to any of them before, even the ones he doesn’t like to read. This one, however, doesn’t even deserve a place in his bedroom!
The next day I put the book back in his room, again mixed in with lots of other books. He was browsing through his collection before story time when he spotted it again.
“No, I don’t like ‘Brothers Do Best’,” he said, once again chucking the book out into the hall before closing his door.
Another night, for the third time, he got rid of the book again. This time throwing it in my room, where it’s been ever since.
I was beginning to think we were going to have the worst possible timing for baby #2’s arrival.
With Jackson approaching three years old, we were already going to have to deal with a lot of big transitions for him — getting rid of the pacifier, sleeping in a big boy bed and potty training. Throw a new baby into the mix, and eek — so many changes coming for him!
Initially I planned to tackle the big boy room first out of that list. I thought the switch to a new room and new bed would go smoother if Jackson still had the comfort of his paci. Once he was comfortable in his big boy room, then we’d focus on the pacifier and lastly potty training — I don’t even want to think about potty training right now, haha. That can wait till after baby!
Leading up to this, however, Jackson happened to find a second pacifier somewhere in the house. And all of a sudden, he didn’t want just the one paci in bed — but BOTH. Then that somehow seeped into his routine, and he just had to have one for his mouth and one for his finger every single time he went down to sleep. (He has the kind with the hole in the back so you can stick your finger inside it.)
Well next thing I know, he comes across another paci somewhere in the house. And then another. So all of a sudden we are up to FOUR PACIFIERS now and he wants ALL OF THEM with him in bed!!!!
I couldn’t believe it. Here we are at about the time to wean him off the pacifier completely, and somehow his arsenal has grown and he can’t go to bed without four of them!
It also just became annoying trying to track them all down at bedtime. Plus he was very particular about them. Even though there were four total, there was one in particular that went in his mouth. The others were for his fingers, or for Lamb, I don’t even know. So if you gave him the wrong one for his mouth, he’d tell you that was the wrong one and we’d have to keep looking until we’d find it.
Well one night I couldn’t find the one for his mouth and was too tired to try and find it. I just told Jackson we can’t find that one, and gave him the others. I had to repeat it a few times that we just couldn’t find it, but to my surprise he went down to sleep just fine. The other pacifiers were in his crib but he didn’t use them.
I figured this may be an opportunity so the next night I told him the same thing — that we lost it — and again he went to sleep OK without it.
Eventually I did end up finding it, but he was doing so good without it, I never gave it back. And he didn’t seem to care about the other three any more, so I got rid of those as well.
In the end, he dropped his paci before his big boy room was ready. But it was a shockingly easy process — especially when I feared we were up against four!
“He’s a good little puppy. I love puppies. You can cuddle with them, hug them, or snuggle with them, or sleep with them. Or play with them. And doggies play with cars or play with trucks or play with horses. Or you can build something with the magna-tiles with the puppy or you can feed him some food. Or you can wear a necklace with the puppy or you can go outside with the puppy and ride a bike.”
After watching more YouTube videos and trying four different attempts at fixing Jackson’s bowl cut, I think I’ve done about as much as I could do without waiting for more hair to grow back!
Justin and I are starting to get concerned Jackson is a little TOO comfortable with quarantine life.
I’ve heard other parents talk about how hard it is to keep their kids inside all the time, but Jackson is totally fine being at home. I can’t even get him to go outside in our own back yard! Plus he loves staying in his pajamas all day long and he’s not really interested in talking to anyone via Zoom. Eek!
It’s going to be an interesting adjustment if we ever get back to normal!
If I am remembering correctly, I believe on my wedding website that I described my friend Lisa as “loves all things British.” Well, that is still true today. In fact, she recently sent me a picture of the Queen that she has hanging up in her apartment.
So, when Jackson developed his love for Buckingham Palace, I had to fill her in. I sent her some clips of Jackson watching the changing of the guard and told her the two of them would be the best quarantine buddies.
She ended up surprising us with some gifts delivered to our house: a children’s book about London and a little teddy bear dressed as a British soldier. They were quite the hit!
Soldier Teddy Bear, as he’s now called, even joins us for bed and nap times (along with Lamb). Jackson made a little crib using a step stool and an empty diaper wipe container, and puts Soldier Teddy Bear down to sleep each time.
My first attempt at giving Jackson a quarantine haircut did not go so well. I set up a “barbershop” in our bathroom, and while he was excited at first, he did not give me much time to work.
The end result was a total 1990s bowl cut!!! Not at all what I was intending!!
I was down on the floor in kind of an awkward position (trying to take a picture of Luc), when Jackson comes up to me and says, “Do you have a cramp? Are you OK?”
Easter was certainly different this year, but Jackson still had fun. As soon as he woke up in the morning, he said, “OK, I wake up. Next the Easter bunny comes.” I’m always amazed how he remembers things even after going to bed.
He raced around finding all the hidden Easter eggs — way faster than I was anticipating — but had a much tougher time searching for his Easter basket. We had to give him so many hints, and he walked right by it probably a dozen times. Eventually, though, he found it behind the curtain in the playroom.
The rest of the day he played with his new toys, colored Easter eggs (a paper version — we didn’t have any actual eggs!) and looked for the Easter bunny in the back yard (he kept spotting a blue one out there…?).
We also did another Easter cake challenge — except virtual, this year — with my family and unveiled our cake look-a-likes via a Zoom party that night.
