January Musings

January hasn't been particularly busy for the Jackson family, mostly because Mommy was sidelined for a week with the flu. Elise was glad to be a little nomad that weekend, and Mommy was grateful for the help from Aunt Lori, MawMaw, and Mammy. Thankfully, Mommy did recover!

Before the evil flu struck, we were very excited to have Baby Link stay with us for an evening. He's a good boy, and Elise had a good time cuddling with him (even though he's almost as big as her!)

Another fun activity this month was Elise's first basketball game. Our friend Tyler is a referee, and in order to hang out with the Porters (we've tried getting together for months!), we had to chase him down at one of his games in Nixa.

Elise's friend Lillie is quite the character. Elise was very entertained by her. Lillie liked Elise, too, but would get a little frustrated sometimes because she couldn't understand Elise's 2 year-old conversation!

Daddy and Mommy got a bit stressed out because Elise didn't want to sit with us--she was excited to be at a new place and wanted to roam. We told her as long as she stayed with Lillie and in our section, she could run around. She listened to that direction for about 20 minutes. Mommy only had to chase her down twice, though. Usually, a stern "get back here" was all it took to set the little adventurer straight.

In other January news, Elise is really big into building "towers". Don't try to help her, it makes her mad. She has quite the independent streak! Mommy finally thought to snap a picture of her with one of her towers (after a big day of play at the park, please don't mind the crazy hair :)).

Elise is also a huge fan of her "bicycle". She does NOT like to call it a bike, trike, tricycle, or anything else. She has gotten very good about getting on and off it, but still can't quite figure out how to pedal. She likes to rope people into pushing her on it though (and she often does).

Next month is all sorts of busy: there are FOUR birthdays in the family. We're also hoping for a good snow this week so that Elise can finally build a snowman. She got a neat "snowman kit" for Christmas that she's been itching to use (okay, she doesn't get it: Mommy's the one with the itch).