I read an article in the Boston Globe today about being on the internet and newborns.

• If you are on the internet it takes much more concentration than say knitting - and observers have noted that a mother will glance often at her children when doing such a task, but NOT when they are say blogging.
  

I strongly feel that technology has a time and place. Brad would say I am opposed to it or as is frequently said by him "hate" it. Hate is a strong word - I love the freedom to communicate (when I rarely do) via e-mail, and love to blog when I have a spare few minutes. But neither of these is a priority for me. I love to shop on line, but prefer to shop with friends in the real world. I love to hear how other mums are going, but not from a screen. and I love to see pictures of a beach, but prefer to walk barefoot in one myself.

anyway - the article I read - aparently some mums in one street e-mailed each other rather than going out for coffee! I much prefer dropping in on a friend and I think it shows that you are really interested in them and their life by showing up - and being present. (Anthea knows all too well about my 8am drop ins) but hey I think even she began to love them! and I bet misses them just a bit!
I am hoping to find some like minded people around my new neighborhood. In my two hour long walks today I only saw one woman outside walking - she seems lovely - is 6 months pregnant and has a son around 6.
The above sounds like a personal add "Friend wanted for desperate female with weight issues"

Beach fun in New England

Our local beach at dusk. It was a hot day here today and all the locals were out enjoying the sunshine - although there is still plenty of uncharted beach for us to play as the waterline goes for miles.




now what do I do with this?
mum knows! Torture by seaweed!

inspecting "pretty" rocks.

boating

It was a beautiful day for boating.

more swinging

some more photos from our stay with Bob and Vicki.

Paw Paw, Dad and Jackson

swinging up high

outdoors at paw paws

while we stayed with Paw Paw and Grandma we enjoyed playing outside - Brad came to visit one weekend so of course I tried to get a thousand photos - these are just a few.

Checking out the engin on the Deer.

Silver Dollar City

America does not really know the meaning of SMALL popcorn please!

Not to far from Joy's is a theme park called 'Silver Dollar City' - kind of a 1800's western inspired area, everyone is dressed up in olden day clothing. Jackson loved it - and I had a great time too!
taking time to smell the "goul" (flower in persian) yes - he still calls them goul.
It was international theme day - but no Persian food to be found - we were a bit dissapointed but figured probably the deep south doesn't do much Persian. I had southern ribs and beans instead - YUM!

Bunny, Ne Ne and Jack. At the petting area Jackson LOVED all the animals - especially the goats and won hearts all around by loving (as above) and petting each animal (he had the enclosure to himself) When it was time to leave he said bye bye to each of his new friends - running between each one to give one last pet.
On the move
Golden boy
Enjoying the flying bug - I didn't want to let go of him as you can see I pretty much had him in a death grip.

In other news about our boy - Jackson knows a lot of animals and the sounds they make. His newest is..... Mama says "No No". So along with the cow says Mooo, the horsey says nheeeee, the sheep says Baaaaa, the monkey says eeeh eeeh eeeh is now the Mama says no no. I am not so thrilled, but find it funny all the same.

Also - Jackson now puts his own nose on the wall when he has done something he knows he should not have. However - I had to put him on the wall 3 times myself in addition to the 3 times he did - so my now 16month old toddler had 6 time outs yesterday evening. Is that a record?

Living in New England

Well I have finally found us a place to live. It's south of Boston, and pretty close to a beach. I had a pretty hard time convincing people to lease to us when they found out we had a Jackson. The ones that were keen were just a bit too small for the kind of money they were asking. So I expanded my area and found a really nice stand alone cottage within a short commute to the city or airport. It was just totally renovated and has all new appliances. It is also a bit smaller than I had hoped, but the pros outweigh the cons in this case.

It is two bedrooms with a nice size sunroom that I plan on using as an office. It has a small yard with a fenced off garden area reserved for Christal and Jackson to grow me some tomatoes. It is a nice, flat fishing community about 0.3 miles away from a lovely beach(notice: the house I rented is not in this picture!! I wish!)

I signed us up for 6 months at this place thinking that we could keep our options open in case we decide it is too small or too far away from whatever. Christal will be happy to know that there is an outlet shopping center between us and the city though.


Here is the yard and the little garden in the picket fence.











And part of the kitchen.













I will put up more pictures gradually as the place looks a lot smaller than it actually is and I don't want to frighten Christal.
:)

And finally...the reason you all come to this page:

Attachment

I may have failed to mention that Jackson is attached to me. People keep comming in and out of his life, I am the only one who is always there. So I guess it makes sence - but these last few days he will not let me out of his sight. Last night I got up to pee as I had fallen asleep with him around 7 - before I had even sat down on the loo I heard a great thump - jackson had fallen off the bed, onto his head, and was balling his eyes out. He was seriously asleep - but when his internal mummy detector realised I was out of sight - he tried to come find me. I of course still needed to pee - so had to hold him while I peed. Is this unusual?

Also he is crying a lot - he cried when I went out side to retrieve his elmo bath matt - and cried when I came back in, cried getting into the bath, cried getting out, cried putting on his nappy, cried putting on his clothes.

The number of times I have heard the word "elmo" - 123568.

The number of times I wished I had never introduced him to elmo 123569.