Sittin' Like a Big Boy

Jackson is SO close to mastering sitting up all by himself. Here are a couple of pics of him working on it. I took these during Brian's trip.

Here he is balancing so well while playing with the alligator xylophone. It looks like his back is touching the chair, but really it isn't... he is holding himself steady all on his own.

Sitting up and smiling!

Brian brought Caroline back a set of stacking dolls from his trip, so now she has a set from Russia and a set from Ukraine. Here she is pretending to be a little Russian girl with her new doll. Too cute.

Butterfly Festival

The weekend before Brian left for Ukraine, we headed to Southlake for a small butterfly festival. The butterflies were housed inside a tent, and we were given sticks with watermelon chunks to attract the butterflies. It was lots of fun.

Granddad is helping Caroline catch butterflies... she has 3 on her stick right now!

Grandmama caught one with her finger.

I put a little watermelon juice on Jackson's head, and the butterfly was happy to stay put long enough to snap this picture.

Caroline wasn't so sure she wanted a butterfly on her head until she saw Jackson with one, and then she was happy to oblige.

Uncle Mike and Caroline playing "red light, green light" in the rain. We walked to Mi Cocina for lunch from the butterfly tent.

First Day of School

September 9th was Caroline's first day of preschool, and she has loved every moment of it. We chose a school that places an emphasis on fine arts, and so far we have not been disappointed. Caroline has brought home tons of artwork, and she loves the music class portion of her school days. Here are some pics!

Dressed and happy it's the first day of school!

Heading out the door with her backpack

Walking into school...her backpack is almost bigger than she is!

When Caroline got home from school, a card from Emily was waiting in the mailbox for her. Emily's timing was perfect, and Caroline was so excited to get the card celebrating her start of school.

And I just have to throw this one in from that day because Jackson is so handsome :o)

So much to catch up on!

We've been very busy at the Peacock household of late, so I'm a bit behind in my updates. Caroline started school the week of Labor Day, and Brian went to Ukraine for 10 days right after that. He had been back home with us for about a week when we took an unexpected trip to Illinois this past weekend to visit all the Peacocks there. So sit tight for a flurry of posts sharing highlights from this past month...

Let's start with our Labor Day trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. We spent the whole day walking through their rainforest exhibit and then looking at sharks, penguins, flamingos, and fish.

Here's Caroline lunching on a PB & honey sandwich at the entrance to the aquarium.

There is a huge waterfall in the rainforest exhibit.

Here's Jackson seeing the waterfall for the first time. He loved it.

Meet-the-Teacher

We met Caroline's preschool teacher and teacher's helper on Sunday. Ms. Cindy and Ms. Lynn are sweet and easy to talk with. The school did a great job of organizing the visit. When we first arrived, we walked Caroline to her room to meet her teachers together. Then after a bit the parents went across the hall to review the policies and procedures with the Assistant Director, and the kids stayed in the classroom to play with their new teachers. It was such a smart way to ease the kids (and the parents) into this new chapter of their lives: PRESCHOOL! I can't believe this time has already arrived for Caroline, but we all definitely left looking forward to the first of day school, which will be next week. It is going to be so much fun for her! We were given the calendar for the year, and every single month has a big event planned... we're talking petting zoo, critterman, the Polar Express with Santa, splash day, meet the fire department, and a whole slew of parties. Let's just say that I wish I was in preschool! We didn't take pictures at the school on Sunday, but you can count on some when we drop her off for her first official day.

Caroline proudly showing off the name plate for my car for the carpool lane.

After meet-the-teacher, we did a little bit of shopping for more school clothes, and then we celebrated with Daddy's famous Whopper Shakes.

And, of course, we can't leave out Jackson! Here he is chillin' on the couch in his jammies, all warm and clean after his bath.

How does our garden grow?

The weekend before last, Brian built me a raised garden box for the backyard. Caroline was Daddy's big helper and spent almost the whole day in the yard with him. We've wanted to plant a vegetable garden since we moved in and finally got around to doing it. (I think the success of our sunflowers that Nana and Caroline planted helped to motivate me a bit... check out the picture and you'll see why.) I planted baby spinach, bok choy, brussel sprouts, cucumbers, and several varieties of lettuce. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. I'll do one more planting of lettuce this weekend in hopes of a rolling harvest.

With flowers like these, how could we not give veggies a try?

Here's the box with everything planted. Brian built it out of cedar, and it is 8'x4'x6". He tilled in "organic material" and new garden soil by hand with a spade. Is that true love or what?

My cucumbers were some of the first veggies to sprout.

Yummy Yummy

Jackson had his first serving of cereal earlier this month, and he loved it. Caroline was not crazy about cereal when she first gave it a try, so Brian and I were prepared for a howl-fest from Jackson. He completely surprised us! Not only was there not a single tear, he actually was smiling. Since then, we've added bananas and squash to his diet... he much prefers the squash!

Keeping his cool while he figures it out

We're all finished and he's smiling??? See below for what we were expecting...

That's what Caroline thought of cereal the first time she had it ;o)