My favorite thing to do this summer...

Jackson and I have made a habit of eating breakfast outside on the front patio each morning (during the week, since Daddy has control of him on weekends and his habits are different).  Each morning, we come downstairs and Jackson goes out the front door to arrange his chairs.  One is a little green plastic Adirondack chair that he sits on, and next to him is a wrought iron chair to hold his plate and cup (the seat of which sits a little higher, providing him a perfect table).  I've been making him special chocolate chip pancakes for a while now--ridiculously healthy, though I purposefully put 2-3 chips on each one.  That's it, just 2-3.  It's enough.

We head outside when it's time to eat, and Jackson sits on his little chair while I sit right next to him on the front stoop.  He eats his vitamins first, then will start in on the pancakes after a little prodding from me.  He'll sit or stand, look around at the sidewalk, notice a few ants marching by or bees buzzing by the nearby rose bushes.  At some point, he usually stands up and walks behind me, leaning in and wrapping his arms around my neck from behind.  He'll smack his little pancake right in my left ear, and while that might drive me nuts from anyone else, it makes me love him all the more (if that's even possible!).  He bounces a little while he eats, and talks to me, occasionally trying to climb my back, which I often discourage as it doesn't feel all that good.

Most mornings, I prepare myself an energy drink that Jackson calls my Boo Boo Juice.  A while back, I had a sore on my elbow and he pretended to eat it, so I would joke that I'd make him boo boo soup, boo boo juice, and boo boo goulash, all to make him laugh.  Not sure how the morning boo boo juice came to be, but it makes me laugh every single day!

We sit out there for about a half hour each morning.  Sometimes, we see neighbors walk by.  These last few days, we've seen kids walking to the bus stop.  Jackson says hi to each person that walks by, and most say hi back.  One neighbor across the street leaves for work each day that we're out there, and as she backs out of the driveway and is ready to move her car forward, she'll glance our way and give a wave, and Jackson always obliges with a wave back.

Sometimes, we talk about the birds (mostly Mommy's cardinal, which is usually in the tree by our mailbox), we notice the moon, we watch the planes go by, and if the weather is bad, we watch the clouds come in and the rain fall.

This is, by far, my favorite time of the day with him.  He loves to be out there, and I love to be with him, and I dread the day when it gets to be too cold to go out.  Until then, we'll continue our little morning activity, eventually bundling up in socks, shoes, jackets, and hats, until that time when it's just unbearable to sit out there.  Then we'll move inside and wait for next spring.