Slowly but surely...

Brotherly love is slowly, but surely becoming a regular occurrence in our house. Mom has inexplicably been stressing over this issue, so here I am trying to throw her a bone by showing a little love to Sully.

Yep... just holding Sully and being sweet like all good brothers do.

And here we are being big stuff together (read, I declared that I no longer wanted to hold him and that he could and would sit like a big kid).

And here I am squeezing the daylights out of him. Can one love one's brother too much? I think not. (Mom and Dad keep saying that I am Lenny from "Of Mice and Men" but this reference goes right over my head. Whatevs.)

Oh - and get this. Somewhat shockingly, Sully has a social life and other babies appear to want to be friends with him! Here he is hanging with his buddy Charli.


And speaking of Charli... She is pretty remarkable... When this picture was taken, she had had brain surgery less than a week before because she had a brain tumor. Please pray for her as she is beginning chemotherapy this week. We love her.





Here is Sully showing his support.





Sully has also started eating cereal. This STRESSES me out. Everytime Mom says "Hey Sully! Want some cereal?!" I come barrelling in to wherever she is and demand that she not give him my square cereal (frosted mini-wheats) because that is my cereal. Sharing is coming, but I"ll admit... I'm not there yet.

Now that he is getting a little bigger, we have been taking baths together. This is great fun.

Note his pursed lips. One cup into the mouth and he learned his lesson. I keep reassuring Dad that I am helping wash him, not drown him...

See!? He is no worse for the wear!

In other news, we recently had "What I want to be day" at school. One guess what I was.

Yep - I was an "urrrrman." (airman) Specifically, I was an urrrman that flies planes, drops bombs and generally obliterates bad guys. Puppies was and is always my copilot.

And when I am not busy saving the free world, I have taken up a new sport - soccer!

Say wha-!? That's right... there is an organized team of 3-year-olds that play together. Our team name is the "Anklebiters" and Dad is doing an awesome job coaching us. Mom keeps likening our team to taking a can of marbles and dumping them out onto a tile floor and watching them scatter. I think there is an insult in there somewhere, but I can't find it...

At home, things have just been kind of status quo...

Here is a typical morning of my buddy and I tearing apart the playroom in order to find that one treasured, yet elusive toy. This confounds and makes Mom a little crazy. Her response when she finds me digging away is always "PLEASE KNOX. Just ASK me where it is and I will HELP you find it! This is completely unnecessary."

Noted, Mom. Noted.

At any rate, treasures were found. GOGGLES AND PIPECLEANER GLASSES!! We. Are. Awesome.

Well, I am pretty busy reading now, so I must go. And Sully is busy being..well...Sully.

Oh my heavens, he is not a complex child.

Crazy Summer!

The summer has been SUPER busy hence my lack of recent posts. However, it has also been really fun... see below.

I am finally adjusting to life as a big brother. As it turns out, Sully is actually pretty awesome. Why? Well, he doesn't take my toys, he let's me pick which cartoons to watch, he doesn't require me to "share" (yet anyway), and just generally, he seems like a laid back kid!

See?



However, I should note though that there are a few things that irk him a little more than others.

For instance...

Loud noises. If, say, a loud noise were to occur around him (you can imagine that this is a very rare phenomenon in our house), he immediately goes into the pose below. I swear - his hands will stay in that position for ten minutes before he finally eases them back onto his lap. We all enjoy this immensely.

Also... gratuitous photo ops. We recently had some awesome visits with Granny and Peedles and Poppy, but no matter. If the camera came out and Sully was required to perform, he would just outright refuse.

And not that this is a competition (or so Mom keeps telling me), you'll notice that I am positively beaming and performing just like a well-trained circus monkey.

Some things that Sully does like? Well, first up, he loves dead bugs and "wizards" (lizards). How do I know? I regularly give them to him and he never refuses them. It's weird - and annoying - sometimes though b/c as soon as I bequest them, Mom scrambles over and starts emptying out the stroller or carseat, mumbling something about how Sully doesn't need dead bugs/lizards on top of him.

Whatev. You can clearly see below that he enjoys his gifts immensely. This pic is post bug gift.

He also has taken a pretty serious interest in the political unrest happening in the Middle East. Here, I caught him showing Dad an excerpt out of one of his favorite books, The Dark Side.



And quite unsurprisingly, he is already developing a keen eye for the television. Despite Mom's best efforts to distract him, it is not happening. Give it up, Mom. It's a losing battle... Football season is upon us!

So that is pretty much the latest on Sully. Now onto me. I have been doing way more exciting stuff.

I think that picture needs no explaining. Sprinkler, no shirt, and my Chinook? Pretty much the perfect afternoon.

Ooooh - here I am at a baseball game with Poppy and Daddy. I loved me some peanuts. Shell and all - until Poppy clued me in that perhaps chewing the shell was not the best idea.

Also, in this picture, you cannot see player #6. He was my favorite and for a majority of the game, I stood RIGHT behind him and unintentionally heckled him. "Hey #6! Hey! You playin' baseball!? Hey Mr. #6! I'm KNOXXX!" Good times. And apparently, he was a patient man. Or so Dad and Poppy kept saying.

Later on, I got to visit a fire station and climb all over the fire trucks. Here, Fireman Nate and I are right after we put out a [pretend] fire. Notice my lack of smile. Apparently real firemen don't say "cheese!"

We have been hiking some this summer too. You can't really see it in the picture, but I am holding a turtle that is peeing all over me. Yes, that's right. Peeing. ALL OVER ME. Mom was thrilled. Sully missed the whole thing. Bummer.

I also have been learning to fish! So far, I haven't caught anything, but I'm not discouraged. Heck! I just have a great time getting ready, eating the bait (bread) and looking for alligators.

Lastly, I have figured out the fun in dressing up as superheros, pilots, etc... Here, I am dressed as a "horseboy" - not a cowboy. I have had to clarify this fact to many people. I ride horses, not cows.

So that is the hap-hap in my 'hood. Peace.

Don't try this at home.

Happy Birthday 'Merica! Hope that everyone had a great 4th of July!

We celebrated in style. How? By creating a rocket car of course. See below.

First attempt - one mid-sized rocket per car.



Countdown...



Result? Lots of fire, but no movement.



No worries. Trying again.

With more fire.



Second attempt.



Result - more smoke and fire, but still no movement.

No worries again. Time for the big guns.



Things started off promising with a tiny jiggle of the wheel which lead us to believe that it would only be a matter of time before it rocketed down the street.

We were clearly over-excited. While we had even more smoke and fire, we had no forward movement.



Post-experiement, I started to seriously question my love for rocket cars. They turned out to be more like stationary heaps of poo that casually spit out sparks than they are inferno-propelled vehicles of speed.

Better luck next year, eh?



In other news from the 4th, we learned that Sully doesn't like group photos.



However, it is just amazing how he preens when he is being zoomed in on. You have no idea how many family photos were ruined because of this.



He also fancies himself as Atlas these days. Weird, right?

While he was busy posing, I got busy celebrating the birth of America properly! And yes, I am saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Check it. That's all for now.

Another birthday? Check!

WHATUP FRIENDS!?!? Guess what... I had a birthday and turned THREEEEE!!!

AND - Sully is already one-month-old! Insane, right?

So back to me... and my bday. It. was. awesome. I woke up to find a pile of presents waiting on me.

Not sure if everyone is aware, but I am obsessed (truly. no hyperbole here.) with planes and all things military. So obviously this incredibly life-like aircraft carrier made my day. It is quite durable as you can see by its load - and also capable of carrying things other than aircraft. Digger on board? Check.

I also received a big-kid BIKE!!

While my ability to propel myself forward in a consistent, smooth motion is not yet perfected, I still enjoy a good ride around the neighborhood. I am also hitting a bit of a snag as I try to figure out how to properly use the brakes as well. I tend to build up a significant amount of speed and then brake hard. It's actually amazing that I haven't thrown myself over the handlebars, but I'm sure that will come.

After logging a couple of miles on the new ride, I then got to celebrate Day-O-Knox with some buddies! Here I am blowing out candles on my incredibly intricate caterpillar cake. It should be noted that I requested a brown worm (pronounced "waarrrm") cake to be made, but was told that this would not be possible.

And here is the first of many family photos that was a disaster. And this was the best one out of seven. Either I was sour or Sully was.

To make up for posting a pic of Sully melting down, here is one of him where he is as happy as a clam.

He really is quite cute when he isn't crying. It's just a crap-shoot as to when that will be...

So anyway - all in all, the birthday was nails and I had a great time ringing in my third year of life.

Onto other news... Physical fitness has become a new focus for me.

Here, I have made a make-shift barbell. I was busy doing some squats when Mom walked in and found us. She would like for me to point out that after this picture was taken, my barbell was immediately taken apart as she was fearful that I would break my toes.

Up next, some push-ups. I was disappointed to learn that Sully is still learning how to hold up his head, much less his entire body weight.

No worries though - we started him on his own fitness routine that includes:

boxing, and...

water sports!

While all of this exercise has been delightful, I am currently most fulfilled by my role as big brother/Sully's idol.

He loves it when I read to him.



See? You can't fake that kind of happiness.



And here we are about to head out on a nature walk. I like to narrate the entire trip - not unlike a tour bus guide. It is not annoying at all - promise. Although, sometimes I question my ability to entertain an audience since Sully almost always passes out at some point during the ride.

So there is the latest of what's shakin' at Casa Jackson.

One final note - if you have called/emailed and found that Mom isn't getting back to you as quickly as she used to, she'll get there. Sometimes it is hard to type when you're two kids deep.