Thanksgiving

So, for the first time since we were children, Brandon and I watched all of the Macy's Thanksgiving day Parade. Brandon had prefaced the parade watching to Jonas with "Santa is at the end!" "See-ta?! See-ta!?" So of course, we had to watch it all. Jonas decided, however, that the only thing that was actually the parade were the marching band and flags. Therefore, when all of the floats came by, or any of the singers were performing, he would shake his head and say "No... no... Mo Pade!" This is strange as he did not like the marching bands when we watched a real parade in progress weeks before... they were "too youd." Anyway, he seemed to emjoy the parade quite a bit. Whenever he saw drummers he would point at them and say "Ni! Ni!" (Because Supercousin Nick has a drum set that he gets to play). He also took from the parade that there are many ways to twirl flags. He has started taking his taggie and pig pillow (which he also believes to be a taggie) and, holding them in opposite hands, swinging them around as fast as he can and announcing "Flaaaaa! Flaaaa!"

Thanksgiving at the Browns was (as always) good times. The two girls are SO much bigger now. I didn't even recognize Ava with all her long blonde hair! Jonas and the girls (thankfully) played very nicely, and Jonas played quietly by himself for an hour and a half with Tommy's new car track. Of course, after all this excitement, we went to Grammy and Papa's to spend the night and get up early for the Black Friday deals. And what deals we got! Brandon, Jenna and I got up at 3:30 and went to Shoe Carnival, where we were the first ones in line! We therefore received $10 gift cards for being the first ones in the store, and we had two coupons for $15 off total, AND Brandon won their grand prize $100 shopping spree on top of all that!! He managed to sell off about $75 worth of it, and so we actually ended up getting 5 pairs of shoes for -$50. It couldn't have come at a better time to, because we have no jobs and no money! We also grabbed some deals for my parents, and just had a good time overall. I finally spent the rest of my birthday money, which I really had a hard time not spending on bills. But whatever, I needed some warm shoes for playing wiht Jonas outside in! =)

Brandon and Dad went hunting at Uncle Tom's yesterday evening after lunch at the Kennedy's, and Brandon killed his first deer! Yay! They had to get up at 5:30 this morning to go find it, but apparently it was only a few feet away from where he shot it, they just didn't see it the night before. Silly! Anyway, it's looking like a tradition!

Speaking of the Kennedys, I logged in to my facebook account there during some downtime to discover that Max had left his facebook account open. Also, Max was grounded and couldn't get on his facebook for a while. I, naturally took advantage of this to make him out to be a twilight fan, who also joined the groups "1000000 strong for Barack Obama", "I hate Video Games", "Donny Osmond Fans", "Dancing with the stars" and posted some comments to the light of "I decided that video games are ruining my life, I need to focus on my studies, so if anyone wants my games or consoles, let me know, ok?" hehehe, I had too much fun!

Worst Liar Ever

A couple of weeks ago, Brandon was driving with Jonas, and rationing him chicken nuggets (likes) and french fries (LOVES and asks for every time he sees anything he thinks could be a mcdonalds "f-fahs!"... gas stations, restaurants, anything red and yellow...). To keep Jonas from eating all the french fries, and not eating any of the (slightly) healthier chicken nuggets, brandon told jonas that he had to finish his nugget before he could have some french fries. Jonas took a bite and asked for "f-fahs?" Brandon asked if he had finished his nugget, and he said he had, so Brandon reached into his drink cup, and there was the nugget... liar!

Jonas again took a bite of nugget, and again asked for f-fahs... Brandon again asked if he had finished "a yes!".. found the nugget in his cup again... gave it back... and the song and dance a 3rd time. By bite 4 he had finished his nugget and got some french fries finally. Then Brandon gave Jonas another nugget and told him the same thing. THIS time, Jonas was quiet for a couple of minutes, then asked brandon for "f-fahs?" Brandon asked him "did you finish your chicken?" "a-yes" he then reached in the cup... no nugget. looked good. Brandon decided to ask another question to be sure... "Can I see?" at this point, Jonas holds up his chicken nugget, with 1 bite taken out of it. Nice. That would be a Lie Fail.

Monica told us on sunday that Chase said "Jojo my best friend!" . She also said somebody called Jonas "Jonas" and Chase said, "No, it's jojo!" =) aaaaadorable!

Jonas is now in the habit of asking for things all day that he doesn't want... mostly animals. IE, he asked to see Cookie (our neighbor's dog) ALL day, and he finally saw Cookie, and ran to me, cried and asked me to hold him. He has done this several times, with many creatures... silly boy!

Best Boy Ever!

So, this past week has probably been my favorite ever with my little boy. I don't know what's been different, possibly knowing that I won't have to worry about our finances for at least one more month... i don't know. But either way, Jonas has just been the best little boy ever this past week! We've had so much fun together =)

Monday the three of us went to the park near our house, where Jonas decided to put his climbing skills to the test and scale the "rock" stairs to get to the tallest slide on the playground and go down. He did pretty well for such a little guy, and he was certainly thrilled that mommy AND daddy were there to cheer him on as he went down the slide and up the wall over and over.

Tuesday we went to the childrens museum. They added a sandbox outside, and Jonas was all about playing in it. I bit off the nagging voice in the back of my head saying "don't get dirty!" and we both got covered in wet sand and built castle after castle after castle. Jonas had a great time "slicing" the castles like they were cakes after we turned them over... fun! Of course, he took his new skills inside and tried to build a sandcastle with the foam "coal" at the railroad train... fail... but still fun! Plus, wet sand dries fast and we were allll clean (ish) in no time! Then we headed over to the Reich's where Jonas ate all of his lunch (he usually doesn't care for any meal that isn't breakfast), and then TOOK A NAP (yay!) . The last time I tried to get him to sleep at the Reich's it was a disasterous attempt (in that he didn't sleep at all and wanted to play with the Jesus doll). But he slept this time for exactly as long as it took me to clean the house... yesssss!

Then we went back to the childrens museum, where he played at the train table for an hour. It was at this time that I was so proud of little Jonas. There were a couple of other kids playing with the trains, and he did such a good job sharing, and asking before he just jumped in. Plus, the kids were bigger and knew how to use all of the parts that he ignores, so it was fun to watch him watching the kids to see what to do with all the train parts, and he learned! The kids put the trains in the roundhouse to sleep, and so did he (with little snoring sounds to boot). The kids used the drawbridge, and so did he... just a cute little copycat!

On our way out he asked to go see the trains. I think he remembered going with Aunt Jenna and Aunt Julie (and maybe Aunt Nicole?) the week before, and knew he was close to the station. Alas, no trains were there when we drove by...

Wednesday we went to the park near our house and played for a long time. There were only a couple of other kids there, so Jonas had free reign again. I usually hover around him when he's on the big play equipment because I'm afraid he'll fall off the edges or something, but he did so well today that I actually got to sit and just watch him play most of the time. He got REALLY good at climbing the rock stairs, and he figured out how to climb up the plastic "hamster tubes" that run everywhere. Before wednesday, he could never figure out how to go up them, he always slid down, but not anymore, he used the hand grips and pulled his way up like he'd been doing it forever! So exciting! The whole playground is his to enjoy now!!

Punctuated throughout the week, Jonas and I have just wandered around the common area of our townhouses. Jonas learned to say "Miss Da-yeen" (Miss Darleen... very close!) and will now usually run up to miss Darleen's door yelling for her and start knocking. Well, of course, Miss Darleen just loves Jonas to death and loves having somebody come visit her, so it's a win-win-win situation =). Jonas has so much fun playing with her wind chimes, and sitting in her chair, and getting her to bouce his ball "high! **extends arms upward**". It's awesome.

Today, we went to Ken's house to set up the shipping there and get everybody trained on it. Jonas went with us, and let me tell you, he was a very happy boy! Apparently Ken's kids are really into animals, because he had a menagerie to look at. There were about a dozen dachsunds (bleh, JOe doesn't care for dogs he doesn't know), 5 pens of chickens (He LOVED THEM!), about 100 rabbits, 2 tanks full of frogs, a fish tank (also love it), a parrot, a hedgehog, and a tank of turtles. me oh my! If I was 10+ years younger I would have thought I died and went to heaven! Little Jonas was definitely thrilled, I know that much =). After we left, I got a call from sissy seeing if I wanted to go to adams farm and walk, and of course I did, but not before we went to see Santa (scary, of course).

Soo, Joe and I left daddy to his school work and went walking and looking at ducks, and making a racket in the tunnels, and (naturally) playing on the playground at adams farm. Aunt Jenna has officially taught Jonas to pump his legs when he swings. He says "in" "out" and does his legs just like he should and is so proud of himself! I even let him sit on the "big" swing and he didn't do awful today....

but now, it's bedtime. My, do I hope the next forever is just as awesome as this last week =)

Bah Dees!

Jonas has discovered a new game to play with daddy-- "Spot Thief" or, as he pronounces it, "Bah Dees!"The general idea is that Jonas sits where Brandon was sitting and yells "BAH DEES!" at which point, Brandon turns around and says "**Gasp** did you steal my spot, you spot thief??" and Jonas screams and giggles and waits for Brandon to come over and tickle him out of the spot. Boy, does that kid love to be tickled. =)

Last week, Jonas had what I will call another "first". He put his shoes on by himself. Sure, they were his rain boots, but still, one minute I'm eating breakfast and wondering if I can really endure another round of the early-90's-church-produced-excitement that is the "My Little Heart" music video, and the next, jonas is bringing me 2 (mismatched) shoes from the closet for me to wear and is pointing to go "oo-sssss!" (outside)... he's already got his boots on, no clothes or anything fancy like that, but hey! he did get the shoes! I immediately asked if I could take his picture whit his boots and he obliged.

In more recent news, it got super duper cold for a few days, like in the 40's and 50's. Laaame! It was, of course, during this time that Jonas decided that he DID want to pee like a big boy, but his opinion of big boy and ours were very different, so that he really wanted to pee like "Ru" (Rudy). Thinking he would surely change his mind the second his naked little butt hit the balmy air, I said, "ok" to this plan, and let him and Rudy out in our enclosed back patio to pee. I was, as usual, wrong. That kid was out there 10 minutes in a thin t-shirt only, following rudy around and "ssssss"-ing. he did not actually pee, he just pretended to... even lifted his leg once! He splashed in the water fountain, which was, in fact, clod enough for him to say "Co! Co! Bbbbbbb!". He also pointed out rudy's poop and asked me to clean it up, so I did. Anyway... after about 10 minutes Brandon thought he had been outside plenty long enough, so we brought him back in and he was very upset.

The past couple days Jonas has been a lot more to handle, as he is cutting his 2 year molars on the bottom. He has really been fussy and upset, and is now in the "MINE!" stage, so that is just awewsome on top of awesome. The worst has been when he wakes up. I don't know why, but he is so upset that he cries for about 45 min. before he is happy again. Well, he did take a momentary break to comment that "Ru? Bah Dees!" (Rudy!? Spot Thief!!), as rudy was sitting in brandon's spot. This afternoon we actually took him to the doctor to make sure he didn't have an ear infection. He was amazingly good while there, and didn't freak out as he had done in the past. sweet! He didn't have an ear infection, so that's good, at least.

Yesterday, Joe and I went to the childrens museum, then over to the Reich's where the plan was for jonas to sleep while I cleaned their house. This did not work out. Jonas didn't sleep, and had a fit because he wanted "Sus!" (Jesus). yes, evan has a Jesus stuffed animal whose awesomeness I cannot stress enough. Luckkkyyyy! Anyway, Joe didn't sleep, and then wayne came back (which I wasn't expecting, but was good anyway) and then wayne's mom came to visit, and the exterminator, and well... it was just a 2 hour cleaning job in the quiet that was reall a 4 hour cleaning job with hustle and bustle abounding... which was cool, i guess... it all got done. I just don't know what I'm gonna do next time if joe doesn't sleep! Hmm....

In other news, Brandon or I need a job pretty badly. Hmm... I wonder how many grammar rules I broke in that last sentance... Yeah, there aren't a lot of jobs, and we just found out our insurance premium is going up another sweet $120/month in january, so that's gonna be fun to pay. yaaay

first ear infection

oops! I've been forgetting to update again... not that I have a following or anything, but I like to look at these myself years later since I have such a bad memory.

The past few weeks have been pretty ok. Jonas has been getting better and better at talking and communicating, so that is (mostly) good.

Last week, brandon and I got our flu shots... brandon's made him sick for nearly a week, so I got WAAAAY more quality time with Jonas than normal. Sadly, I think that was overall not a good thing, because I just can't do morning to evening no break clinging and whining. Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that jonas has officially entered the "nobody but mommy" stage where he actually throws a tantrum if I try to leave the room... or sit him down, or any number of unpredictable other things. oh, i forgot another important ingredient. let's just start over.

about 2.5 weeks ago, I started getting some pretty sweet ice pick headaches. I have discovered since being pregnant that I have a newly-manifested slew of PMS symptoms, ice pick headaches being one of them. That week or so previous, I discovered a whole new level of awful in the pms region that i didn't even know existed. Here is the glorious list:

• bipolaresque mood swings
• extremely tempermental
• crying spells for no apparent reason
• body aches
• headaches ranging from mild, to migraine... occasionaly an ice pick headache would get thrown in there
• severe lethargy
• shortness of breath
• lightheadedness
• heart palpatations
• shaking
• panic attacks
  

I seriously thought I was having a heart attack one evening, which I guess makes sense... most of the symptoms of panic attacks with the palpatations and lightheaded and stuff kinda fit. Thankfully, that was a few hundred dollar trip i did not take to the ER. I finally got to the doctor after nearly a week of this crap going on. She looked over my tests and ruled out thyroid issues, anemia, and tested me for diabetes (which came back normal). Ugh, I do not care for this doctor. She failed to diagnose me with "anemia" years back when I was so anemic I wasn't able to sleep, and chocked it up to being stressed about just getting married... which I wasnt...and told her so. She clearly did not believe me. My faith in her diagnosis abilities once again fell short of the mark this time. Since brandon was with me at the doctor (i did not trust myself to drive), she cornered me when I was getting blood taken and started asking me about my relationships. At this point, she was surprised to hear that I had been happily married for 5 years, and that we had a 20 month old. I can understand the not knowing how long I've been married, but for goodness sake, she was referencing information from my OB for my medical history, it seems to me like being pregnant would have stood out. or at the very least the frequent monthly, bi-weekly, and weekly visits to the ob... geez. Anyway, she decided I was having a very, very long panic attack. what?? I have not been panicking for a week straight! Is it even possible to panic when you are peacefully sound asleep?? I don't think so. regardless, I got the anti-crazy medication and took one just to make sure. no help.


Let's move on.

So while at the doctor last thursday, I got a flu shot, and brandon did too (it's better to spring this stuff on him, or he just gets nervous... I guess its that way for lots of us). Next day, brandon is sick. I am still not feeling any better, but now must watch Jojo and keep him from brandon. Thankfully, jojo is a very sweet little boy, but did I mention i was having severe mood swings and got easily frustrated?? this is not a good combination when toddler-watchin. In conclusion, i decided it was best to leave the house, so I took a anti-crazy pill, and whether by placebo effect or not, it seemed to help that day. Jojo and I went over to the Carters with Aunt Nicole (mooow!) and we (with the help of Nick) worked on updating their living room. If you have never been to the carters house, then you don't know just how badly this room needed a makeover. Luckily, I have pictures!

Best of all, the responsibility of watching Jonas was shared, and frustration was diffused by getting something done AND having jonas quazai distracted! This method actually worked on day 2 as well!

Fast forward...

***TMI ALERT*** of course, within a day of starting my period (mondayish), all of this went away. so, i guess that's good... on the down side, I am terrified I am going to have to deal with this coolness on an arbitrary basis for the rest of my 'childbearing' years... nooooOOOoo! ***END***

Lisa came and got Joe on monday, because even though the antichrist PMS was coming to a close, brandon was still sick, and I was still extremely lethargic, my back had gotten hurt somewhere (probably moving furniture??), and all that PMS was replaced with cramps that rivaled birthing pangs of 2 years previous. Brandon and I spent one glorious day laying in bed and resting.... and of course since it was me, I still did some work (what can I say? I don't like to do nothing for long!). I have to say, this was probably the most brandon and I have ever needed a break from the boy. He wasn't ever being bad, we were just so sickly it was very hard to watch him.

Tuesday, feeling much, much, much better, I had an excellent interview for a job that I will hopefully get. Afterwards, we went over to get Jonas from the Kennedys and brought them dinner to boot. We came home with a whiny baby, who was hopefully not sick.

No luck, sure enough, Jonas had his first (real) ear infection. It was a lot of fun at the doctor for sure. He difinitely remembers that place! Luckily, he likes the amoxacillin, so he was ok with taking that. Sadly, he missed going to the fair that evening, which we had been planning on doing for months =(. Brandon watched joe that night since he had hardly seen him in a week, and I still went, though. I haven't seen needtobreathe play since before I was pregnant (RIGHT before, but still). Wooooah, it was crazy how many people were there! coraaazy! As an added bonus: Nicole brought Ivan to the event, which we deemed a "family event" so now Ivan is "officially" ahead of Spencer in the boyfriend ring. hahaha! spenny had better start showing up at stuff!

anyway....last night nicole allie (emily bivins for a while) and I went to a SW football game and watched them get beaten like a rented mule. otherwise, not a lot happened since wednesday, jonas seemed back to normal, then BAM! we got him up this morning and he had a fever and was coughing like crazy. called the doctor, and they said that is unrelated to the ear infection and give him lots of liquids. yaaaay. so poor baby is sick again.. or more. whichever.

Horse in the driveway

Jonas had been getting up really late the past couple of weeks, not that I am complaining. It's been pretty awesome actually. I get to sleep till 9:30, and when we go places (like the childrens museum) I can stay out longer because his nap time isn't at noon. This is especially awesome at the childrens museum where we went today. All the kids have lunch and nap at noon, but not us! It was actually so deserted today that I thought something was wrong because I couldn't hear ANYBODY. Like... weird, we were the only ones in that huge room with the train and airplane and stuff...

After Jojo and I got home, I put him to bed and then went to work as usual. Nothing amazing. Jonas got up, and we decided it would be a good time to take Rudy out and wander in the quazi-rain in our rain boots. Soo, we got that ready and opened the door, and what was out there, but a HORSE! Yes, in my suburban townhouse setting, there was a pretty chesnut mare outside of our house. (obviously) we didn't let rudy out because he was going ballistic, but we did go out to see the horse. It was our neighbors... i guess they have horses, and had to be inside for a while, so they let their 15 yr old grandson take one of the horses out for a while. YAY! Jonas was pretty excited (probably not as much as me), and said he wanted to pet the horse, but when we got close he said "No!" and shied away... so I petted the horse instead. Then Zack took the horse aroud the side of the house to munch on the grass there, and we watched. Of course, Jonas tried to eat some grass too, then decided he DID want to pet the horse. No, wait, nevermind, maybe not once we got back to the horse again. Silly boy!

I then went to a meeting for church, and when I got back Brandon and Jonas showed me the tent that they had made around Jonas's bed. Brandon said Joe entertained himself for an hour playing in the tent while I was gone... sweet! It was pretty great. We made some modifications and let him sleep under it tonight. Hopefully it will go ok.

ALlright, I need to go make some cookies!

Pooping in the Potty!

Well, we have certainly had an exciting week in the world of Jonas's kitten love. Monday, Jonas and I went to the Charles's to watch chase for a while, then we all went to the childrens museum. We got a message later that night from Monica saying they had taken the kitten to the vet and that it had a hole in its heart and wasn't expected to live long without a lot of expensive surgery. Sure enough, Wednesday Monica took it back to the vet with Chase because it was acting really sick, and it had congestive heart failure and had to be put to sleep =(. I'm sure the kids were devistated. According to Jen, ashlynn said "One terrible thing happened to the kitten today." Jen: "Just one?" Ashlynn: "Well, it was pretty terrible." Poor kids! Jonas is still looking for the kitten even now a week after we took it in. He even "moooow's" when I mention the Charles's =(.

Joe has gotten better and better at talking this week. He said "uh-oh!" (normal) a couple of days ago, and I said back "uh-oh indeed!" and he walked around for about 20 minutes trying to say "uh-oh indeed!". And he got pretty good at it! Lisa is getting him to say "ice ice baby" and Grammy is getting him to say "Yeah toast!". All very useful =). Brandon was watching Jonas earlier in the week and Jonas asked for a pick so he could dtrum the guitar, so Brandon obliged. Jonas walked over and strummed a few chords, then turned around and looked at Brandon and said "uh-oh, uh-oh!" and THEN proceeded to drop the pick in the guitar. Silly boy, its not an uh-oh until you did it! Stinker!

Tonight Jonas and I went to Advance to see mamaw and papaw (and fish), so we got home a little late. As soon as we got in, I went to get his stuff for bed, and he started pointing at the bathroom and going "Pee! Pee! SsSSssssss!" So I asked him if he wanted to use the potty... "yeahhh" (he says yeah now instead of yes). Well, I figured it was worth a shot, so I sat him down. He sat there for about 5 minutes going "sssssss! SSSssssSS!" and pointing at his lil' penis... he asked for brandon to help, and wanted to pee in the big potty, then changed his mind and went back to his little potty. Brandon and I walked out of the room and watched him, then BAM-- he pooped in his potty! Ammmmazing!! We were so proud. I let him flush his poop and he thought that was super and wanted "more! more!" Awww. I hope this trend continues, I could get used to it!

Cleaning up after Kitty

So yesterday I was explaining to Jonas (again) why he couldn't play with the cat litter box. The kitten was in it pooping and I explained that it was the potty for the kitten, and was yucky. This seemed to strike an instant chord with Joe, because he immediately stopped trying to get hte gravel and watched patiently while the kitten did its thing. As soon as it was done, Jonas ran over to the pantry and grabbed a bag out of the bag holder, ran over to the litter box, and proceeded to try and grab the poop out of the box using the bag. Bless his little heart, he was doing what we do with Rudy's poop! I blocked him from getting anything in the bag and explained that I had to do that just now, so I took the bag and pretended to scoop up the poop, and then threw the bag in the trash.

10 minutes later, I lost track of Jonas, and I found him in the kitchen, trying to throw away a small bag of cat litter he had scooped up... ewww! Sweet little guy, trying to be so helpful! At one point last night, I asked brandon if the cat was hungry, and Jonas took an immediate interest in the cat's food and water bowl, which were (mostly) empty. He took it out of the cat's crate, and I tokd him it was empty and we needed to put some food in it for the kitten, so take it in the kitchen... which he did. I emptied out the old food and water, and showed him how to put the food in, so he put some food in for the kitten, then he held the tray under the sink to fill it with water. I then took a risk. I let him carry the food and water into the other room for the kitten... of course, he only made it about halfway before the kitten met him. He was so excited to feed it he plopped the tray down and sloshed water out everywhere. The kitten was apparently thirsty because it started drinking water. Jonas, noticing that we had soaked its food to get it soft, took a piece of food, dipped it in the water, and held it up to the kitten's mouth to eat... awwww! Kitten wasn't itnerested, but it was still cute!

And on a different subject, I asked Jonas to open the door in his room yesterday, and he DID. Uh-oh, he can work doorknobs now... at least I am pretty sure he can... I didn't expect him to do it, so there is a chance the door was open already and he just pulled it, but I think he got it. We'll see...

terror puppets and kittens.

So yesterday was lots of excitement. Laura was planning on watching Jonas all day, but she got a cold, so we had to reschedule. Since I had a lunch packed and Brandon needed the day to work, I took Jonas to the childrens' museum for a while. Jonas had his usual good time, playing with everything and especially the trains, however, he did have an experience with a puppet that I think is worth sharing. One of his favorite rooms is the "stage". He LOVES pushing the buttons and turning the dials that work the "behind the scenes" stuff, and sometimes likes to get on the stage and play the drums. He is also perfectly happy watching the other kids play. When we walked in, however, he was immediately taken aback by some kids playing with the puppets. Not by their general puppet creepiness, he just saw this one puppet of a dark green frog that he clearly did not like. I don't know why, but he was probably 30 ft from it, and he instantly tensed up, ran for me and held my legs. After he got over the green puppet frog shock, he started to enjoy the room. Anyway, Joe was playing the run-in-circles-around-the-stage game, where he "hides" from me, then runs out of the side stage and announces "Boo!". Good game. Jonas ran behind the stage on one pass, and some of the kids with the puppets had run over to play the drums, carelessly tossing the green frog puppet on the stage. As you may have guessed, Jonas ran out from side stage and announced "Boo!" with glee. Side stage is about 2 feet lower than the stage, so Jonas turned to climb back on the stage and repeat the process. He came face to face, like, literally inches between him and this puppet. I have never seen the child freak out like he did in that moment. I lol as I type this. He did the foot stamping, hands waving, forgot how to move away, pretty-much-useless-because-you're-so-scared dance, coupled with a blood cordling scream, whilst backing away from the poor puppet. He managed to fall over a mom who wasn't looking at him (yet), and his long shreak of terror became loud wailing cries as he atttempted to will his muscles to work and find me. I about peed I was laughing so hard... poor little guy. In conclusion, we left the stage for a while.

On the way over, I called Julie to see if we could go see her, and she said that would be fine. Soooo, Jonas and I played at the museum for a while, then we headed over to Julie and Nicole's to visit. It was great to see Julie again after a summer of pretty much no sissies, and Jonas at the very least enjoyed looking for Summer (Mooooow!). I decided to let Joe take a nap there, so I set him up in Nicole's dark dungeon room for his nap. Julie had had to leave for school, and I asked her if she needed help. She replied it would help if I could get some of her stuff unpacked, so I got started on that... or DID I? No sooner had I thought about it than Nicole came in from work! So I got to visit with cousin for a while too, yay!

Jonas slept for a LOOONG time there, till almost 3:30, so I did end up getting all of sissy's stuff unpacked =), Jonas got up, and of course wanted to wash his hands, so I was holding him up to the sink to wash them, then dry them (yes, this is going somewhere). I had stepped out of the bathroom holding Joe, but backing out for some reason (can't remember why) when I caught the image of a really tall and big looking guy standing RIGHT BEHIND ME-- and I about had a heart attack. For those of you who have been to their house though, you know that the man I saw was none other than larger-than-life-john-krazenskyi (sp?)-modeling-for-the-gap hanging in their hall... now, larger-than-life-john-krazenskyi (sp?)-modeling-for-the-gap has never once bothered me before, in fact, I really like larger-than-life-john-krazenskyi (sp?)-modeling-for-the-gap-- however, when you are not expecting larger-than-life-john-krazenskyi (sp?)-modeling-for-the-gap to be RIGHT BEHIND YOU, its pretttty creeeeepy. I shall for give larger-than-life-john-krazenskyi (sp?)-modeling-for-the-gap, though, as we all have our faults, and his persistant eyes are really not his fault.

Annnnyway... Jonas and I went back to the children's museum for a while, till 5. We kept a wary eye on the stage room, but otherwise had fun. We headed back home, and once we got there decided to walk around outside and let rudy run some. Our neighbor, as we were walkinga sked if we had seen a kitten. "No," I replied, just as I heard a pitiful "mew" from a local bush. He said he had seen a stray kitten and was trying to get it some food. Well, instantly, I was interested because it was a baby animal, and JOnas was intereste because he heard "kitten" (MoooOOoooOW!) so we squatted down by the bush and started coaxing. Sure enough, a minute later a teeny tiny kitten.. maybe 6 weeks old if that peeped out from the bush. Immediately it ran back in because rudy bounded over with a tuba music accompaniment to see what was going on.

We put rudy away and got brandon "the cat whisperer" Kennedy to come and see the kitty. Yup, that was a kitten. and it was very friendly. We realized pretty fast this kitten was nearly starved to death, so we took it inside and immediately contacted our closest cat experts, Alex and Nicole. Nicole dropped everything and came over with all the supplies for kittens in hand (awesome!) and stayed for dinner and kitten playing. So now we have a kitten living with us for the next few days. We are trying to find it a home, so if you're interested, dear reader, please let me know.

Jonas was thrilled to have this kitten in the house... I mean, I am really scared for the poor cat's life because Joe wanted to rock it, and play with it and see if he could step on it. You know it's tiny if Iw as afraid JOe would crush it to death with one step... yeah. Rudy finally got to meet the kitten, and I believe the kitten remembered Rudy, because it gave its nastiest (aww, precious) spat and clawed the air when rudy approached... sending rudy running for the door. Yes, rudy was afraid of a 6" kitten. He cried at the door to be let out from the devil creature... which we laughed at. It looks like today they are better friends, now that the kitten know rudy is under its paw. Good grief, we have such a cowardly dog....

I think brandon is falling for this kitten... that's not good. we really shouldn't keep a cat too. but gosh, it's adorable, and it REALLY seems to like brandon a lot ("Finally, i'm SOMEONE's favorite!"). I dunno... maybe we'll find someone... maybe not? ugh.

...the bed!

In conclusion, YES Jonas CAN sleep in a toddler bed!! YAY!! Brandon and I went back to check on him at 11, and he was laying in bed... although we found him face crammed into the bed, butt in the air, and his singing thing on, so he had obviously woken up just enough to turn it back on and soothe him to sleep, but not enough to bother getting comfortable or anything =)

The next test was nap time today, but again, he slept just fine (in fact, he slept 2.5 hours- woo hoo!) what a relief!

So, I finally got my needtobreathe CD in the mail, and Jonas and I really enjoyed ourselves on the way to cell. We had fun bobbing our heads, clapping, and "pounding the air" with the music... all Jonas could say was "more?! more?!" in an effort to make the songs keep going after the car had stopped.

I was once again reminded of just how great my hubby is this evening. He is so good, I'm so lucky! You should all be jealoussss!

First 3 hours in his new bed...

It is now 10 pm. Brandon and I decided to go check on Joe and see how it was going with his toddler bed, since we haven't heard a peep out of him since I laid him down (and yes, I had the monitor up a lot).

Sure enough, he was sound asleep. In fact, he was snoring peacefully he was so asleep. One problem. He was definitely on the floor, his taggie about an arm's length away. The question now is, did he get out of bed, then fall asleep, or did he fall out after he fell asleep? I think he fell out afterwards. Either way, brandon and I about died laughing when we saw him.

After cooling off, brandon went and put him back in bed. We'll see how the morning goes... =)

Jonas's Toddler Bed

So, yesterday and the past several days I have been on working overload, which is generally a bad thing, as I not only have the pressure of a deadline to work towards, but also have to hear the screams and cries of my son in the adjacent room doing everything he can to draw me out. He will yell at the top of his lungs "MAAAA!!" and "knock-knock-knock" on the door over and over. It is very upsetting to hear, especially when you know you really can't go see him.

Anyway, all that stress was over last night, so today I took the day off and did stuff with Jonas. We had a very productive day, naturally! I gave him a haircut, which he screamed through the whole time. He now has a "Lloyd" haircut (like don dumb & dumber) because I couldn't get his bangs done properly. Anyway, we also got his mountain of clothes put away (he has seriously got more clothes than me... maybe more than brandon).

Most importantly, we decided to go ahead and convert Jonas's crib to a toddler bed. Yes, we took the plunge. and since Brandon had a lot of school work to do, Jonas and I got to change the bed, YAY!! Jonas was very helpful trying to screw and unscrew the bed... he actually had it down pretty well. Sooo, we finally got it assembled and Joe was SO excited! I think he LOVES his new bed, but we will see how it goes tonight and tomorrow morning. Man, I hope he does well.

On a side note, he has now figured out how to unscrew lids on things. He has had the twisting motion down for a month or so, but he has now figured out that he has to twist, then take his hand off, and twist some more, instead of twist-untwist-twist-untwist and so on... basically getting nowhere. Plus, he can now close a door from the outside. He has now successfully closed himself in the closet several times... so far he has not been upset about this, so whatever.

Inunciating words and the Squirt Toys

So in the past 3 days, Jonas has suddenly decided to become much better at talking. He has known how to say a lot of words before now, but they have always been just the beginning syllable of the word... so Milk, would be "Muuuu" or Rudy (of course, he can say "ru" and "De" but not ru-de) would be "Ruuu!". But all of the sudden last thursday night, he asked for his "BATH!" not his "BAAA". And there it was. suddenly, "bye" wasn't "Biiiii" it was "Buh-Bye", and "baby" was a whole word....he says "ma-mee" instead of just "ma ma"... Rudy is still Ruuu!, but I think soon he will out it together.

He also very suddenly added the word "Mine" to his daily blabberings. He has never said it before last wednesday night... I suspect he heard Jen, Monica and I talking about the boys saying "mine" and I said something about Jonas not saying it yet... next morning **bam!** his spoon was "Mine!" and his clothes where "Mine!" and when he wanted something, instead of just pouting, he would say "mine mine mine mine". Sigh, so much for that stage not starting yet.

We've begun the very basic foundations for Jonas's potty training... talking it up. Actually, I guess we've been doing that for a while, but with more vigor now that he actually has a clue. Lisa said on friday she was at the store with Jonas and he suddenly grabbed his crotch and said "Peeeeeeeeee!"... so lisa said, "are you peeing?" and he replied with a "Ssssssss!" (his noise he makes for peeing). I guess that's a good thing =)

On saturday, Brandon and I dropped Jonas off at mom and dad's for the night. I think this was the first night he stayed there when we weren't also there. The night didn't start well.. ish. Mom was out shopping with Aunt Terri, and when they got back, Jonas had his familiar smile when Grammy walked in, but then he saw aunt terri (the identical twin), and his face fell, his eyebrows creased, and he started looking very confused. He didn't care much for this "Grammy clone". Of course, he has seen aunt terri before, but I think this was the first time he was old enough to make the connection that something was just not right... very funny! Anyway, we left Jonas and went to dinner with Julia Martin (and company) for her birthday, then went and bowled afterwards... it was good fun all around. I love old friends =)

We also discovered that Jonas knows how to open the childproof doors. How long he has known, we don't know... but saturday afternoon I noticed Jonas had the door on the cabinet in the bathroom open and was getting his duck out. I closed the door and asked him to open it for me... and as if he did it every day, he pulled the door out a bit, stuck his finger on the latch, pushed, and pulled the door open... sigh... its a good thing he doesn't care much for stuff under the cabinet. We'll see how it goes. This boy is too clever.

After the incident with the door latches, Jonas decided to leave I guess... He grabbed his big riding truck, drug it to our front door, reached up and OPENED it (he has done this before, but usually on accident or with struggling... not just an automatic thing like this day), and started stepping out, waving bye to me and saying "Buh-Bye! Buh-Bye!"... a smile on his little face. Oh my, but it was cute... sadly, I think that spells danger, so we got him back in and this time deadbolted the storm door.

After we got Jonas from my parents and came home, Joe decided it was time for a walk. Brandon and I were dragging our feet and trying to get Jonas to enjoy Aladdin (we were, after all)... but he had a one track mind. He managed to get me to open the stroller for him since we weren't taking his "OOUUUU SSSSSSSSSSS" (outside) hints. He then spent some time trying to get into the stroller on his own, which he did successfully, but he was also trying to get it to roll sitting in it, and he is nowhere near that coordinated. He finally managed to get us to understand that he wanted to go on a walk, so we finally tore ourselves away from aladdin and went walking... much to his delight =)

This evening, Brandon and I tried doing dinner early, at 6. We have been meaning to try this for a while, but finally had the chance tonight. I think it went well, Jonas at two bowls full of chili, and he was great the rest of the evening! I went to give Jonas his bath as usual after dinner, and Brandon had warned me that he had figured out how to use his squirt toys, but I didn't think he was as good as he was! That boy is picking stuff up in no time! He just figured out how to squeeze the things last week, and tonight, he was holding them underwater to refill them, and then he would benignly aim at the wall, then TURN THEM ON ME! =) He definitely got me good in the face the first time... which made us both laugh very hard... then it was a game... and one I could endorse. So we played with the squirt toys for a good half hour, then called bath time to close.

After getting pajamas on, Jonas proceeded to be exceptionally cute and playful the rest of the evening. He wanted to sing, so we sang "happy and you know it" and he had a big time clapping, stoping, and shouting "hooray!" Of course, we also had to sing wheels on the bus (which he also did all the motions and sounds to) and a few more favorites... very cute! We finally ended the night with Brandon pretending to be asleep so Jonas could see how easy it was... Jonas, however, did not understand what snoring was. He looked pretty concerned for daddy, until I explained the snoring to him. He now does a very adoreable child's impression of sleeping where he does the snort-"shooooo" sound. of course, he can't short on the inhale, so its snort-breath-"shoooooo"...which makes it even cuter. Ahhh... he is too adorable.

JENSEN IS HERE!

Well, a lot has happened in the past 4 days, the best of which is that Dayna and Nathan are now the proud parents of Jensen Ace Musgrove... 8lbs, 14 oz, 21.5" born around 2:20 this afternoon (the third of august). Now, let's do a blow-by-blow of the past 4 days:

Friday evening was Muggle quidditch day (OBVIOUSLY, since it was Harry's birthday), so we met up at Sarah Arant's grandparents house, and played in their backyard. Since we met later in the evening, and had a smaller field, we had MUCH more fun. It didn't hurt that we were only 1 player short of a full team on each side, instead of 4 or whatever it was last time. Anyway, fun was had by all. OH! even better- brandon's cousin, Jennifer was there to play all the way from Japan (ok, well, maybe that wasn't the MAIN reason for the visit, but whatever...) his uncle tim played too, just FYI.

Anyway, next day, as Jennifer (and parents) were visiting, we all headed to burlington to play (read: watch) some disc golf, laugh at jonas as he 'played' disc golf (well, it is adorable like everything he does!) and do some geocaching. Both goals were accomplished, even though it was classic NC summer weather with the outrageous heat and humidity. Jonas was awesome the whole day, which is an accomplishment as we didn't have a stroller or a grandma to also watch him. Anyway... that evening we all went over to the Kennedys for dinner, and dayna and nathan were there, still without Jensen being out for us all to see =(. Since Kim is a pediatrics nurse, she gave dayna some advice for getting the labor going, and she tried some of it out with the giant bouncing ball. we all really wanted to see that baby!

sunday, since jonas spent the night at grandma and grandpa's, brandon and I slept in, only to be awoken by a call at 9 am (yes, i said awoken... it was tough, but we slept till 9!) This was all fine and dandy, except that we were both all excited that it was dayna finally at the hospital, but no, it was just lisa calling to remind us to bring diapers =(.... by that evening, we had pretty much given up hope that dayna would have the baby before monday at noon, when the visitng kennedys would have to go back home (they had come to see jensen, but he had other plans). We'd just decided he was going to be induced on tuesday, and we would see him then.

Wrong! We got the REAL call this morning at 6:45. I was so excited I couldn't go back to sleep, which was ok, since Jonas got up 30 or so minutes later. We didn't rush though, since they said Dayna had been there since 11 the previous evening and had not been progressing very fast. Jonas and I got to the hospital at 9:45 ish, at which point they had broken daynas water, and we came to find out later, that was the real turning point. she said her contractions went from a 1-2 pain to a "10 10 10 10!" very suddenly, so she got an epidural, and was good to go =). Marcy, Liz, Greg & I (later lisa and max) all waited in the waiting room (amazing) till about 11:30 to hear anything, but no word came. then, nathan came back out and said lisa and I could go visit dayna for a few minutes before the doctor came back... so we did. After we left, i was packing up to go home as the last dayna had heard she was about 3-4cm dialated, and it would probably be closer to 4 or 5 before she was close to pushing. luckily, at that moment lisa got a tect from scott saying dayna was 9 cm and we probably shouldn't go anywhere... so we didnt! Lisa put Joe to sleep on her shoulder for about 45 min, and the rest of us waited excitedly for more news.

eventually, around 1 or so, it came, saying she was dialated and ready to push as soon as the doctors would let her, so everybody started to get all pace-y and go back and forth from the waiting room to in front of the delivery suite doors, until... Scott got a text "HE'S HERE!!" at about 2:25, so the 4 of us in front of the delivery room celebrated. Moments later, Liz came shooting down the hall, just as excited-- apparently someone on their end got a picture. Yay!! Jensen was here! Of course, it was still an hour before they brought him out to the throng of people waiting, but still, very exciting!

Brandon, Jonas, Nathan, Scott, Marcy and I went to get some dinner, and when we got back we got to hold little Jensen. Scott was getting him to sort of smile, and when he did, he had big, adorable dimples!! yay! lucky little baby with dimples! I got to hold him next, and as soon as I had him, Jonas started pitching a FIT. We all thought he was just insanely jealous of me holding another baby, so after a few minutes, I passed jensen to Marcy, and took My baby, who continued to scream, and reached for Jensen. Yes, he wasn't jealous of Jensen, he was jealous of ME! He wanted to hold Jensen very, very badly-- poor little guy, he had waited all day to see him too! Marcy helped Jonas "hold" Jensen for a minute by letting Jone put his hands under her arms at his feet... Jonas was much happier then, silly boy! =)

Dayna looks awesome, especially for just having a baby... luckyyyyyy! All-in-all, everything went wonderfully and smoothly... could hardly have asked for anything better. Great day, great to have an almost-nephew... very very good!

passive aggressive

So, I don't know how I managed to miss this story, but I just found out that Jonas (not surprisingly) is passive-aggressive. Why, you ask? I guess back at the lawson reunion he and Kyndahl got into some kind of spat about crackers or something... I don't know. But Jonas, sweet, sweet, Jonas at some point had some goldfish crackers to eat. He decided to share his crackers with everybody... well, everybody except Kyndahl. Yes, he walked around to each person there, but when he got to Kyndahl, he looked at him, pulled his crackers to his chest, walked pointedly around him, and proceeded to offer the next person some crackers. Yes, he did that.

Although, I have to admit, that is pretty hilarious for a 17 month old.

In more recent news, I am really, really wanting Dayna to stop being pregnant ASAP. Yeah, I really wanna see little Jensen. Also, I'm going with Jonas on tuesday to visit a bunch of old high school friends who also have kids. I'm excited, it will be great to see everyone again and meet their little ones!

5th Anniversary

So, this past week Brandon and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary! (Exciting!) To celebrate, we went to Atlanta for 3 days to have some fun. Since I can't help it, I'm gonna give you a summary of the trip:

We left tuesday around 1 after dropping Jonas off for a stay with Grandma & Grandpa Kennedy. As usual, we spent a lot of the time down reading against time as we tried to finish (and did) Harry Potter and the half-blood prince before its movie release. Once we got to atlanta, we hit the historic landmark of Ikea, which we enjoyed browsing, and even purchased some chocolate and coffee smelling candles. More exciting (if it is possible) we had to get some milk for our breakfast in the morning-- and we swung by target to do so. Now, that isn't the exciting part, the excitement comes in that target's parking was UNDER the store-- in a parking deck (obviously, i guess). Woooow. It was hard to tell it was a target at all since we didn't see a giant lot surrounding it! Anyway, we got some pictures and our milk and headed back to our hotel.

The next morning we woke up bright and early at about 8 (sad, huh? and of our own free will to boot.) and headed off for six flags. we were there about 45 minutes before the gates opened, so we read more harry potter. This six flags holds a special place in my heart since it is the first year I participated in a marcing band comp. in high school, and we took home every award the offered that year-- quite awesome, if I do say so myself. Anywayyyy... So we were among the first in the park, and thankfully it wasnt TOO hot yet, so we managed to get about 60% of the rollercoaster riding out of the way before lunch. After lunch, we got the rest of the rides finished, and we were so tired we left at about 3 with nothing else on the docket for the rest of the day but laying in the hotel watching how I met your mother. Fate had other plans, though.

fate's plans were not too far from our own though. We watched most of 10000 bc, then heard a lot of noise down on the street. I called reception and found out they did a free movie ("flix on 5th" ) every wednesday in the summer, and we were on teh street that did it. SWEET! we had wanted to see monsters vs. aliens anyway, so we headed down and got a cozy spot on the curb. Tragically, they changed the movie to madagascar 2. We decided to tough it out through as much as we could, but after about 45 min we had had enough. THEN, we went back to our room and watched how I met your mother =)

the next day we packed up and left our hotel to go to our 'fancy hotel' downtown at the ritz-carlton (oh yes, that's right!). We then proceeded to walk to the coca-cola museum that was a few blocks away. it is a true mark of our age that this was our favorite part of the trip. we had so much fun watching the bottling process, reading about all the cool things coke had come out with, tasting all the coke varieties, laughing at the 'new coke' debauchal, watching the movies, and of course-- getting our picture with the coca cola polar bear.

I have never liked life sized costumed people... like chuck e cheese or something... I have alwasy thought they were creepy and not natural at all. I made the mistake of muttering this a bit too loudly as we approached coca-cola polar bear. seeing as how the line was pretty much gone (like I would stand in line for that!) he thought he would have some fun with me. he just started staring at me at eye level and blinking (yes, its head moved, and its eyes and mouth opened and closed... sooo creepy!). He finally gave that up, and we got our picture. Then as we lefte, that bear was 'creeping' after me! EEK! Luckily, it was hilarious after we hid in the artifacts room out of sight of the bear. I think brandon was pretty amused the whole time though.

after the coke museum, we headed over to the georgia aquarium, the largest aquarium in teh world. I was surprised brandon was cool with it since he doesn't like fish, but he was happy to go, yay! The aquarium was very cool. It was also very crowded, which took away from its coolness dramatically. Still, I petted stingrays and sharks while brandon said he was 'happy with my description of how they felt'. we crawled under the sections that were probably just for kids (whatever!) and had a big time looking at the dragon seahorses. We both really liked the jellyfish display, as well as the giant wall for viewing the sea creatures tank. It was like... 2 stories high and 67 feet wide or something... 2 feet thick. Very cool. We loved seeing the manta ray and trying to point out all the different fish... although we said if we were the fish in there, we would feel kind of belittled by the giant cool fish that were there... like the whale sharks. Anyway...

For dinner we went to a brazilian place a block up from our hotel. being who I am, i weighed myself before and after going, and noticed I gained 2 lbs. we. ate. SO. much. it was super. we in fact ate so much, that when we went to breakfast the next morning, we were still not hungry, but being who we are, we still managed to eat a ton of food since the hot breakfast buffet at the ritz is also AMAZING. In conclusion, we were still not hungry for dinner that evening, but decided to eat something small (just in case we got hungry). We stopped in concord mills to watch harry potter and the half blood prince in imax 3d on the way back, just to find out that imax 3-d doesn't come out till the 29th. WHAT?! This is insanity. First they push the movie back almost a year because of stupid twilight, THEN they still don't have the imax 3d version ready to roll?! those capitalists! =( . So we watched the movie in regular screen (but sat close) and just plain ol' 2d, and were very satisfied until the last 15 min. sigh... what were they thinking?? anyway...

so after all that, we finally got home super late in the rain. We had sucha great anniversary, and I can't wait to spent another 5 (and then some!) with my awesome Hubby!

We went to get jonas the following morning. It was an interesting feeling, getting him back after 4 days apart. I don't know about brandon, but I spent a lot of time carfully scrutinizing him to see what had changed since I saw him last... which was surely nothing noticeable, but I could swear he looked bigger!! His grandma tought him to say "joshua jackson" which we will waste no time in adding "is lame!" to the end of (hopefullly). I know he had a great time there, and so did the rest of the kennedys, though I think they are a lot more tired!! =)

learning words

Jonas has suddenly become mister talkative. At least, he has suddenly and alarmingly quickly gotten VERY good at copying everything we say. He has started trying to say all the names of people at church, and he casks for things by name now, stuff I didn't even think he really knew existed, like watermelon "wan mon" or "geez!" (cheese), and the best one he says, "Juice!" He is very good at saying juice =), its adorable. He asks for bananas, taggie, makes animal noises, and everything! It's just amazing... one day he can kinda say a few words, the next he is saying everything!

Yesterday we went to the Zoo with cell and Kane (he was in town visiting everyone before he went to Colorado). We had a good time. Jonas was a little less into the animals than I thought, but he was at least happy and very good all day! What a sweet boy, being so happy and quiet and cute =).

Today he was just as adorable, if not more. Jonas and I played "i'm gonna get you!" for a while, then went outside and played. Finally, we went back to church for a cookout where Jonas tortured Feemster's rodesian ridgeback with a soccer ball. Very funny but a little nerve wrecking watching that giant dog snapping at the air where the ball was.

Jonas also played pretty hard at church on their play kitchen set. He had SO much fun 'washing the dishes" and washing his hands in the sink. He is such a good pretender! He played with the blocks trying to make a train track like at grandma's too, but that didn't work as well.

Oh, what are we going to do for 5 days without our little boy? =)

pretending

Last night before bed, Jonas was pretending to be a dog. I have never seen him pretend so much. He was crouched over going "woof! woof!" and panting, walking with his arms all down like a dogs'. Then he grabbed his pajama pants and draped them around his neck like a collar, and looked up at me, very proud of his accomplishment. He then decided I would be the dog, so he draped the "collar" around me, and 'walked' me around the room. He was SO thrilled! Wow, it is amazing to me that he has the mental capacity to pretend now. Simply amazing.

He tried to hug and kiss water last night too. I tried to stop him, but he finally got a kiss in, and (naturally) choked a little. I think this will be his last attempt to hug and kiss the water... maybe.

Lawsom Reunion

Ok, I am going to try to recap this past weekend without being totally long-winded. Dare to dream, Jess... dare to dream...

We set out thurdsay at a respectable 1:00 (ish), and with a couple of pit stops and 7 chapters of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince behind us, we arrived at Grayson Lake Boathouse Marina to visit Grandma Nadine and eat dinner. While it was very cool being on a boat house, it was easily the most nerve-wrecking thing I have done as a parent. Talk about danger at every corner! Poor boy, he didn't understand why everyone kept grabbing and yelling 'STOP!" Anyway, we headed over to Lazy Boy Farm after dinner and set up for the evening in this super-nice camper. Only problem: sleeping situation. Brandon and I had a choice between an uncomfortable double bed, or a comfortable (basically) twin sized bed that was made for children to sleep on. Its the one that the table converts into if you are familar with campers. Choosing comfort, we piled into easily the tiniest bed we have ever, and probably will ever sleep in. Being must barely short enough to fit if I slept with my feet straight up, I got a decent night's sleep. Brandon, being about 6 inches too tall, did not. It was a very comical situation, all in all, though.

The next day started off freakishly early since Jonas thought it would be a good idea for this trip to push his wake up time back to between 5:45 and 6:30. Not. Awesome. Anyway, pretty early morning made it bearable, at least. The morning started off with a bang because the farm bull, Robot, had escaped his pen and had to be gotten back in. No amount of coaxing seemed to work, but luckily, the cows wanted him back, so he just went back over. Everyone started arriving around noon, so it was good to see all the family again and meet all the new faces. That evening a bunch of us went to a disc golf course and played (or in mine and Amanda's case heclked), and it was surprisingly pleasant weather... can't complain there!

All the kids enjoyed playing in the yards, petting the horses, and watching the chickens and cows. I think they even got to help collect eggs the chickens layed-- and these eggs were cool-- they had green shells! Apparently the chickens were a special breed that layed colored eggs. Very neat-o. Brandon even collected an egg, although, he collected his in the morning, and there was a viscous chicken guarding it. If he had waited for evening, it would have been much easier (as he was told between peals of laughter later!).

July 4th was spent visiting most of the morning (and of course filling up on delicious country cookin') In the afternoon, a group of us went spelunking. I had never been before, but half the group had been and were excellent guides through the caves. There was one crawl through a very long tunnel that was maybe 2 feet high (smaller? I'm no good at estimating), then went through some very, very yucky mud that really made me feel adventureous... later we were told it was a level 3 crawl, which is like intermediate I guess... anyway. After exiting that cave, we went back in at the same entrance to a different part of the cave that had some cool caverns and other cave formations that were just amazing to see. When we got back to the bathrooms to change, I peeled off a full over-suit-thing and jeans under that, and I still had mud in my underwear! It was amazingly muddy, but oh so fun! All in all, spelunking trip #1 was pretty neat and I can now say that I have done it.

Sadly, after the adventure in the caves, it was raining, so no fireworks this year =(. After eating, a bunch of us stayed up and played a couple games of farkle. This was the turning point in the evening for my sanity at least. Luckily, it was in a very funny way, as I managed to accidentally call myself and Erin's husband inbred, and somehow there was horehound (dog prostitute?) candy involved... idk... it was a weird night-- but I enjoyed myself!

After packing up at grandma nadine's house (did I mention? after night 1 we decided to lodge elsewhere the remaining days) we headed back to say goodbye to everyone at the farm. Then it was a cool 8ish hours back home and another hour to unpack, but it's ok, because we got through another 6 chapters of harry potter (even if read by a weird british dude).

What with the visiting, spelunking, 4 wheeling, disc golfing, country cooking, fishing, tadpole oogling (there were some dang big tadpoles!!), corn-holeing, and lots of other stuff that happened this weekend, I can say we all had a load of fun-- when's the next reunion??

Steppin' Up.. one shoed?

Yesterday was another small milestone for Jonas. We have been playing outside most every day for hours, and one of his (many) favorite things to do outside is step up and down and up and down over and over into the little risen garden-y area in the front of our house. Well, yesterday he went chasing after Brandon and stepped up onto the wood all by himself! He always has needed at least something to steady himself, but yesterday he did it alone... aww, my Boy is getting so big!!

Also yesterday, Jonas and I had a big adventure. It started early, like 6:30 early. Yeah, he got up at 6:30. Awesome. Actually, it was surprisingly ok considering it was 6:30... maybe because I left him to his own devices while I worked up to getting up for 45 min... but still. (PS Jonas is just fine in his crib in the mornings, he is quite happy to kick things and play with his stuffed animal for a long while... thank goodness. anyway...) So yeah. We get up, we eat some breakfast, and I thought it would be a good day to hit the childrens museum since we were already up early.

So I was about to get us ready to go when I got a call from our neighbor, Darlene, saying that she had seen this person driving slowly around our complex for the 3rd time, and she thinks I should get our house ready to be looked at just in case.... so I spent about an hour cleaning up while Jonas grabbed my hand and tried to drag me outside (he has figured out he can 'take' you somewhere now). Needless to say, he was not terribly pleasant. He did perk up when I got out the vacuum, but his excitement quickly turned to trepidation the second the vacuum actually came on. Apparently it was just a bit louder than he thought. That did not stop him from wanting to help though. He happily helped push the vacuum when it was off, and even attempted to turn it on with the foot pedal... lucky for him the vacuum was unplugged when he did though, or he would have been scared! Finally, satisfied that at least the toys were cleaned up, we headed outside.

Feeling like I really should get my cell phone transfer taken care of, I decided to go outside with the wireless landline phone and call Net 10 AGAIN. Amazingly, I got through without a wait. Miraculously, the girl on the other end (while having a slight accent) both spoke and understood English well. My luck had changed for the better! Jonas chose this moment to throw his ball down the hill.

Well, I couldn't hang up with Net 10. The combination of luck was surely not going to happen again, so I had no choice but to hover very close to the house, my howling 1 year old attempting to run after a ball while I spelled my address slowly over the phone to a lady in India. I was not leaving this connection. I finally decided that we would have to go inside, because I just couldn't keep catching Jonas as he tried to run and get his ball (adorbale, but dangeresque). So I scooped him up, and took him inside. Of course, now he is screaming at the top of his lungs (ish), because now he his not only ball-less, but also outside-less. Good move me. Thankfully lady in India was very patient. I decided then that we would just go in the "back yard", so that Joe would be outside, but enclosed. I generally avoid going in the back because we have a very nice fountain back there with rocks and a pretty gazing globe in it. Naturally, Jonas beelines for these, as was the case today. This was still better than him running, so I sucked it up as he played with slimy rocks and tried to break my glass gazing ball, not even thinking about all the birds that bathe in the fountain or what breeds in standing water.

At this juncture, I was really getting somewhere with India lady, but she needed some info that I had written on a paper somewhere inside. Great. Rather than start another meltdown, I left the door open and ran inside, Jonas playing happily in the water. Can't find the paper because I cleaned... sweet. Keep looking... keep looking.... aha! Got it! I ran back in, and Jonas was just where I left him, as was India lady. I gave her the info. She then needed more info, that I needed to call Ken to get. So I call Ken, phone in one hand, india lady in the other, baby now discovering rocks can be thrown.... awesome. He just threw a rock into our house and scratched our new(ish) hardwood floors. Well... long story short, craziness occured, but I did get my phone straightened out and nobody got hurt, unless you count our floors, a couple of rocks, and possibly the ball's feelings.

Sooo, after all of that, it was about 10:30. Not enough time to make the childrens museum worthwhile, but at least enough time to go shoe shopping at the mall, right? Right. Jonas loves the mall, so we packed up and went. Sure enough, Jonas was a happy little clam in the mall, I tried on shoes, walked around, pet some bunnies, whatever. It was about noon, so we headed back to the car. I strapped Jonas in and was about to pull out when I noticed he wasn't wearing his shoe. Remembering the near-loss incident with his shoe of a few days ago with Brandon (Joe threw his shoe off in the walmart parking lot, and we had to drive back and get it). I thought I should check the car. Nope, no shoe. Surely it was close, I know he had them at the last shoe store we went to, which was incidentally on the 3rd floor at the opposite corner from where we were. we would just retrace our steps... it was probably close. I grabbed Jonas, who was now quite tired and didn't care for the stroller, and headed back in carrying my sleepy boy. You guessed it. We walked the whole mall twice (well, I should say the whole length of the mall twice), asked all the store people for stores we stopped at, a security guard, and even the hairdresser I got a card from, but no shoe was to be found =(. very, very sad. Especially since I thought those were the only shoes he had. The sliver lining was that Joe was so sleepy, he was being very, very sweet and cuddly. He kept giving me higs and patting me on the back (he does that when he is sleepy since I pat him on the back before I lay him down). Very sweet!

Defeated, I headed home. Oh crap, I haven't driven back from the mall in ages. Hope I took the right exit. well, I didn't think I did so I turned around. Turns out I did, though, so I turned back around... another 20 min. wasted. Sigh. Finally, we got home around 1 and I laid Joe down (he was pretty much asleep, no lunch =( ). Whew! What a crazy morning! You know, though, even though it was crazy, I kind of enjoyed it in a weird way. I guess I always assumed being a mom would be doing crazy things like that, and it does make for a good story. Well, I'll give it a fond memory at the very least =)

Muggle Quidditch!!

So, several months ago, I did a youtube search for 'quidditch' and found a news story on a bunch of college kids that had started an official Muggle Quidditch league. Well, I HAD to at the very least see this, better yet play it. Dispite Brandon's pessimism that I could ever find enough people willing to play, and that it would ever happen on top of that, we got a group of 9 people together (15 is the preferable number, bust still!) and played.

Being a very unatheletic person, as were most of us, the games were kind of short and probably not as crazy as if we were all in shape, but we still had SO much fun! There is even talk of starting a league in our area... so who knows? maybe we will! I hope so... that would be sweeeet =) Here were are teams (at leat the original ones):
Brandon, Max, Dave and I were on the brown team (lame name... whatever)
Sarah, Zan, Julie and Jec were on the blue team
And naturally, Ashleigh was the snitch, followed by Sarah and then Max last.

Jonas had at least marginal fun wiht Grandma watching us play. Sure, it was very hot, but whatever, he's a toddler, he lives for being dirty. I gotta say, he was probably the dirtiest I have seen him (well, at least sticky-wise) after playing, but nothing a long bath wouldn't fix.

Sigh... good times. I need a shower sooo bad =)

Busy, Busy week!

Well, this past week (so far) has been one of extreme 'business' for the Kennedy family. I 'officially' have a big new client as of the past weekend, and finding time to work on stuff for them has been the name of the game this past week.

As most of you know, Brandon and I both work at home, and since Brandon is in summer classes that occupy his time until 1:15 Monday - Thursday, then has to do the work for those classes and get products shipped, that leaves me just about zero time during the day to do programming. I basically have an hour or two at lunch to get some things done, but since it takes me a solid 30 min. just to figure out where I was when I was last there... It really cuts into my programming time.

Thankfully, I have been blessed with wonderful people willing to watch Jonas for a full day, yay! Monday Jonas stayed with me. We went to story time at the library, which is now a consolidated group of birth-almost 3 years old. Talk about a madhouse! There were SO many people there! I actually ran into a girl I went to high school with and her 10 month old there... pretty neat. Anyway, the range of kids was interesting because the older ones would sit and listen to the books, so the smaller kids (Jonas) would copy them... it was pretty adorable. Anyway, still craziness with over 20 families in the room at once.

Tuesday, Sarah Feild volunteered to watch Jonas most of the day, and from what I heard, he had a big time playing and going on errands with them. They went to the bank and he got a sticker (yay!) and he even got to visit the daycare across the street, where I am told he was a big hit. He must have been, because as we left, you could see all the kids with their noses pressed against the glass waving at him... aww!

Yesterday, Monica volunteered to watch Joe along with Chase, Brooklyn, and Ashlynn. Wow-- I don't know how she does it!! Jonas must have had a LOT of fun at their house if for no other reason than he was totally exhausted when he got home. He stayed asleep when I put him to bed (which he doesn't usually do), and he slept this morning until NINE! He never does that anymore! Monica said he was being sneaky about going up their stairs (he isn't supposed to do that). He would wait until he heard a noise he thought would distract her, then RUN up the stairs as fast as he could, but she was watching to tell him 'no no!" hahaha, funny boy! She said he also really enjoyed wearing the dog costume of Chase's (woof woof!). Ellen watched all the kids that night for cell, and she said Evan and Jonas were doing a lot of hugs and kisses to eachoter... and sure enough, as soon as she said it, they both went in for hugs and kisses... adorable! She even said Evan fell over once and Joe tried to help him up... I didn't even know he registered that stuff. I got home from cell to see Brandon home. He had skipped cell so that he could play with Jonas some. He had hardly seen him in days, and little boy was already asleep.. aww!

Today, Joe stayed with me, so I didn't get anything done. But that's ok. My head was so full of functions and singletons that I think the break was good for me. It also gave me (and Jonas) some time to prepare for the Muggle Quidditch game this saturday, for which I have not gotten anything done. Joe and I went to a bike shop and got a messed up bike wheel for a goal, then went to Aunt Jill's for 3 hula hoops. We also went to Lowes (home improvement) for the PVC pipes. That was a fun trip. They had a shopping cart that was a GIANT jimmy johnson race car with a seat at the top for a kid to sit and drive, so naturally, we had to have that. Jonas LOVED it. he drove and made car sounds all through the store... so cute!

Oh! we also went to the park this morning, where Jonas chased some 'big kids' and tried to get them to bump his fist. they didn't get it and just gave him a wide girth. He also threw a football around, and when he threw it out of the playground area, he couldn't figure out how to get it back, so he tried a few things, then decided he would just walk around... so he walked out of the playground area, around to the football, and back in with it. Nice. That is real problem solving... amazing how he grows!

I gave Joe a haircut this monday. He looks so big! I just cut the hairs on top down, but still... it makes a big difference. Sigh... big boy.

childrens museum

the past week has been a pretty dreary one, and so I took the advice of Jen and took Jonas to the children's museum yesterday. I had never been there before, but I know I am definitely going back!

They had so much fun, elaborate stuff for the kids to play with, and it really was perfect for Jonas's age. They had a miniature market, theatre, beach (sand, of course), train, house, construction site, and a few other things-- all complete with props and costumes for the kids to dress up in and use, and all unbreakable (mostly). They even had some full-sized stuff like a fire truck, police car, race car and jet cockpit for the kids to play in and use... so amazing! I would go in to more detail, but it would take forever.

I think Jonas's favorite thing of all was the "tots" area because they had a little tyles foot-powered car in there. He LOVED it. He would get in and push away saying "bye bye" and waving, delighted he was able to use the car. A close second was the market and train. He loved pushing the cart at the market and putting food in, and well, the train was just awesome.

On a different subject, Jonas is throwing things at people, and we are having trouble getting him to stop... don't really know how to do that. I guess we'll figure it out eventually, though...

Ok, I know this was a weak entry, I am just tired and wanted to write something before I forgot!

learning new things

As will probably be the norm for the next 20 years or so, Jonas is just learning, learning learning! He is able to understand and respond appropriately to boolean questions (yeah, that's right, I used programming terminology- HA!), which I guess he has been able to do for a couple weeks now. This makes everyone's life easier. He is also able to clearly and (usually) easily communicate what he wants, again, making everyone's life easier. I suppose his biggest leaps the past couple of days have been more in what he understands he needs to do to help us.

I suppose it was several days ago, I got out his changing pad, and he walked over, and sat down on it waiting for me to finish getting ready for changing him. I thought it was just a coincidence, but sure enough, he has done this every time since. Also starting a few days ago was him trying to put his tray on his hi-chair. Sure, he had zero success, but as soon as I sat him down he was grabbing for the thing trying to slide it in while I buckled him up (another thing he tries to do). This ended up being counterproductive, but his lil' baby heart was in the right place, so it was still just adorable =).

The next example requires setup. Brandon puts all of the things he uses regularly but doesn't want Jonas to get to (like his xbox controller) on top of the couch out of reach. Jonas has figured this out, and will slyly ask Brandon to read him a book or something, and about a page in will "get bored" and grab what he can off the top of the couch before Brandon can stop him... clever boy! Anyway, Brandon got tired of humoring this (eventually Jonas just asked to sit on the couch like we do), and told Jonas he could just "get on the couch yourself, then!". So he did.... like he had been doing it for months. Just climbed right up. As far as we know, he has NEVER done this before, although he has "threatened" to climb up by sticking his foot up... but never made any effort to actually do so. So that was a surprise. Now we are having a power struggle to keep him safe on the couch... but no surprise there! Hand in hand with this, Jonas learned just this morning how to get off of the couch on his own (safely... ish). He flings himself against the arm rest, grabs on and then flips off. The whole process is terrifying to watch, he looks like he is going to roll off and hurt himself the whole time, but he is in control!

This morning Jonas helped me get his clothes on much more than his usual push his arms through the shirt holes. I asked him to bring me his shoes so we could put them on, and he ran off and came back with one shoe. He then took off for the other, only to become distracted by his dirty socks in the laundry hamper. You could almost see his head going "oh! I need socks too, I'll just go get those..." So sure enough, he brought me his socks unprompted. I did have to go get his other shoe, though, as he was sitting on the floor trying his hardest to get his sock on. He finally sort of gave up and I (slyly) switched out his dirty socks for clean ones. He held his foot up in defeat for me to sock, and when I finished that one, he held up the other foot to get socked. Then he stood up and balanced on one foot (with help, of course) so I could get his shoe on, then he did the other foot as well... very helpful!

Later that morning, he tried to get the bib around his neck, and he almost succeded... a surprising one since he is usually trying to tear his bib off. Also, and I think I am proudest of this one, when we brushed our teeth this morning (he LOVES brushing his 'deeeet') I always give him a couple of sips of water from the glass, but he was insistant that HE get to use the glass, not me. So I sat him down and very vigilantly gave him the glass of water. To my amazement, he carefully lifted it to his mouth, took a couple of sips, and handed it back... no spills or anything! He usually just dumps water everywhere and chokes when he does it, but not this time... he looked like an old pro... aww, I was so proud, and of course, that made him very proud, so he did a little dance, clapped his hands and took of for his bedroom squealing with delight.

In conclusion, it has been a very nice day for us... as is usually the case =)

*Snap!*

Today Brandon, Jonas and I went to get my car aligned. Our tires were completely worn through after less than 3,000 miles so clearly something was wrong, and sure enough, we were super duper out of alignment. The best the repair guy could figure is that somebody used a car jack and jacked the car up on one of the thingys that holds the wheel straight... so our whee was running crooked and dangerous. Boo! I'm pretty sure it was Discount Tire, and after our little run-in over them not telling us our car was so out of alignment in the first place, this could get kid of ugly... cuz there is no way I am gonna be paying for this without a fight. Anyway...

In the meantime while waiting for our car, the three of us went to Wal-Mart and K-Mart in search of a watch for me. Generally, I am a pretty fast decision maker, but for some reason, I just can't decide when it comes to watches... which is especially sad if you have seen my watch. it's definitely nothing special. All I want is a watch with a leather or REAL metal strap (so my wrist doesn't turn green, it doesn't stink, and it doesn't tear), the date, a light (I always wake up in the night and need the time), something I can get wet (i am bound to get a watch wet with a 1 year old), and preferably, but not required, digital. How hard is this to find? Well not very if you are ok with wearing a gigantic sports watch, which I am not unless its cute, but otherwise, it's kind of hard to find. Sigh.... that wasn't even the point of the story...

As I am looking for a watch, the George Michael song "Wake me up before you Go Go" comes on over the speakers... I effectively can think of only one thing when this song comes on, and of course that is Edd, Aaron (and Brian I guess) dancing around 4 seasons mall in "Choose Life" t-shirts... followed shortly thereafter by zoolander & company having a gasoline fight... anyway.... Brandon (holding Jonas) I guess was also thinking of this image, because he started snapping his fingers in rhythm. Jonas, completely enthralled, watched and decided he would give it a try. He started waving his arm in beat like daddy did, but instead of snapping, he was "clucking" his tongue on every downbeat of his hand. It. Was. SO. Adorable. OMG! And that, my friends, is the story of the day!

a funeral...

So last Friday afternoon, we got a call from Lisa saying Brandon's Papaw Kenny had finally passed away. From what I understand, he has been very sick for a very long time and had pretty much told everyone he was very ready to go... like, when they took him off of the ventilator he asked '...what's taking so long?' I suppose this made it easier for Tim & Dave & others close to Papaw Kenny... I would think it would help a lot.

Anyway, we spent Saturday morning packing and cleaning (our house had to be spotless in case somebody wanted to come look at it), then, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in hand, set off for the buzzing metropolis of Richlands, VA. We got hungry along the way and stopped to eat, only to get back on the highway and realize we were only 30 min. from our destination! As soon as we got to Great-Aunt Wilma & Great-Uncle Jack's (hereafter just Wilma & Jack) house, we noticed Jack grilling a feast in the back yard. Lisa had used her birthday money to spoil Jonas a little more (he got a big blow up play thing and some other toys for her birthday =) ) so Jonas had a big time running around with his new toys till his cousin Kyndahl arrived... then they both had fun with their new toys.

Our late afternoon over-stuffing set the stage for the rest of the trip in the eating department. Say what you will about Richlands, but you will never, EVER go hungry there! Wilma and Jack were awesome hosts and kept us full to busting the whole trip... I swear I got used to eating a full meal every 2 hours. Brandon, Jonas and I stayed in the "master bedroom" of one of Wimla & Jack's houses (yes, one of... i think they had 4 on the hill...). This is where I learned one thing that Uncle Jack was famous for... his firearms. I had heard he had an "arsenal" on the way up, little did I know... There were 3 loaded guns in our bedroom alone, which is ok with me as long as Jojo couldn't get to them (and he couldn't). Not that 3 is an arsenal... no, no. I asked Uncle Jack for a tour of his arsenal, and he obliged, but only for the guns he had in ONE of their houses. I can't remember every detail of every gun, but I did learn a lot about different guns... the difference between a flint lock, muzzle loader, pump action, semi-automatic, lever action, etc. were some of the things I learned. Suffice to say he easily had hundreds of guns, no exageration necessary. Anyway... he also was a painter and made (yes made) violins. They said he was a "hobby man" =)

Anyway, on Sunday, we all went to visit Papaw Kenny's last living relatives, his brother and sister-in-law. They, also were very nice and insisted on stuffing us full of delicious food (though theirs was of the fudge variety, i can't complain! =) ). We learned a lot of family history Sunday as well... brandon's grandma (Nadine, sister of Wilma) was 1 of 22 children... yes, twenty-two. Wilma said their dad had 3 wives all of whom died and he remarried... that is crazzzzy, so many kids! And I thought we had a big family! We also got to hear stories of yester-year. Apparently Tim was born while Papaw Kenny was in vietnam, so Grandma Nadine wrote him a letter asking him what he wanted to name the baby. He wrote back and said some crazy super-old sounding name like "manfred horace"... he was therefore shocked when he got back to meet little Manfred (or whatever) that he was, in fact Timothy. haha =)

Anyway... Monday was the funeral... it was pretty standard as far a funerals go. Brandon and Max were pall bearers, and so they both looked very nice. In fact, we had to have an intervention with Max to get him to do his hair so it wasn't in his face. He finally decided he would wet his hair, and then I would blow dry it backwards so that it would fall naturally, but be not in his face. This worked out rather well, if I do say so myself. Actually, everybody looked very nice. We had a debate over whether it was against funeral ettiquite to take a picture of Papaw kenny since he was looking so nice... but decided that was creepy.

Anyway, after the funeral, Brandon, Jonas and I headed home. Jonas was so tired he slept the whole way back, and even all night... what a good little boy.

In conclusion, even though it was a sad thing we gathered for, it was a pretty good trip overall.

ouch!

What has happened this past week? Hmm... well, Jonas has officially got 3 (almost 4) more shiny new molars. yaaaaaay. Actually, he has been surprisingly pleasant. I didn't even know 2 of them were there, I just thought I would check one day, and there they were! Crazy... he's a chewing boy now!

In a related story, I think we would all be less happy people if I didn't touch upon Jonas giving his daddy a hug around the legs, and ever so kindly biting daddy's balls through his pants as he did so. Funniest. Moment. To Date. So yeah, Brandon is much more wary of those innocent baby hugs now, to say the least!

Jonas has also recently learned how to nod his head in response to questions. He can shake it as well, but he generally prefers to just nod 'yes' and do nothing for 'no' so far. This has been a handy trick, as Jonas understands most of what we say, so now he can tell us much better what he wants.

He has also learned a few more signs. He now uses 'more' (tapping his fingertips together), and is better at signing "i'm hungry" than he was. He seems to be putting together what he wants very well just in one week. For example, he will say "Muh muh!", while signing 'milk' followed by signing 'more' followed by a head nod... and occasionally he will point as well. Very clever boy!

It's been pretty hot for April the last few days, up in the high 80's, even up to 90 one day. As a result, we have not been outside as long. Jonas is not a fan of not being outside. He is using his new found communication to tell us repeatedly that he wants outside, and getting very angry when we won't let him every time. Not good!

This past weekend, we went yard saleing and got Jonas some pajamas, as well as several cardboard books (we were getting tired of 'Peek-a-Boo Kitty'). Jonas has been about halfway interested in books for the past few months. He tends to not be patient enough to sit through even the fastest and simplest books, preferring instead to just flip all the pages and move on. However, he started about a month and a half ago to really sit and listen to a couple of books. He seemed to only like the pages that dealt with "moon"... for some reason... weird, but he got so excited and would point at the moons and exclaim "Muh! Muh!" like he just couldn't quite say 'moon'. Anyway, this has progressed to him being able to almost sit through a book now, and when he does, he is very intent on it. He usually will sit through goodnight moon, and will often bring us books for us to read to him, indicating that he would like to sit in our laps and read the book.

This is where Brandon really shines, he is such a more animated reader than me I guess. he can keep jonas entertained with a book for twice the time I can. Not that i'm complaining.

That leads me to another thing Jonas and daddy do... the "chill". Brandon has managed to teach Jonas that "chilling" means you lean back on the couch with daddy and put your feet up. It's so funny to watch because if you can get his to do it at the right time, its like flipping a switch... he'll be running around, and you say "chill out buddy!" and he'll just flop back and lay for a few seconds.... then he realizes he could be doing other things and continues, but still!

Well, I can't think of anything else... but I'm sure there is more.... goodnight all!

a week gone by...

Oops! I got slacker-y in posting... luckily, I am back now! What's been going on...

Well, Easter was last sunday, and as always it was a fairly exciting time. Jonas got his easter basket, and was immediately captivated by the balls in it and didn't care about anything else. He got his first tastes of several new treats, like malt balls (yummy, but made him choke a lot), sweet tea (mmmmmMMM!), watered down mountain dew (grandmaaaa! =) ) and rabbit foot (chocolate, of course). The rabbit foot was an accident, he was playing with the chocolate rabbit, unaware of its true purpose, and put it in his mouth. He then stopped, looked at me like "what was that?!" and then licked it a few more times to make sure it really was better than the rocks he usually eats. I guess it was! Anyway, he only got a little of that before I took it away.

Otherwise, Jonas is still developing mentally at (what I think is) a blinding speed. He has leared a few more signs. He can now ask for "more" and nod or shake his head... although I don't think he's put together what nodding and shaking indicate... but still. He also 'sings' "Grand ole' flag" whenever he sees a flag and moves his hand like a flag.... and 'sings' twinkle twinkle little star making star signs. Ah, so big!

Today Brandon, Jonas, Alex Dellapinta, a couple of his friends and I went geocaching at the Environmental center or something. We had about 10 on the GPS, but due to having to carry the baby, and a horrible sense of direction, we only got ONE before we decided to call it a day. Oh well, we got a park & grab on the way out just to make ourselves feel better. At least Alex & company got to geocache =)

So my neighbor Darlene, her granddaughter was pregnant and due last Wednesday. Darlene said her husband was out of town, and so her granddaughter called her mom and asked her to come over Thursday morning because her back hurt, she thought she was in labor, and she needed her. So, the girls mom drives over, but the door is locked and nobody is answering. Mom, now panicked somehow gets in through like a trap door or something and starts looking for her daughter. She found her daughter in the upstairs bathroom, holding her newborn child. What?! That's so crazy! It was her first too! Dang... now that's tough. And for those of you who don't know, back labor means the baby isn't coming out the right way so its extra-painful and difficult. yaaaay. Ok, so I just thought that was so crazy I had to share.

PS the baby and mom are both fine, amazingly.

the fish vs the tiger

I took Jonas to the Natural Science Center yesterday for the first time. I hadn't been in about a year and a half, so I was excited to see their new zoo exhibit. We struck out as soon as we could, so about 9, and even though it was raining hard when we left, I had a good feeling about the day. Sure enough, on the way over it cleared up and the faintest hint of a rainbow appeared.

We started out milling around the kids playground area, but after 30 min. or so when I realized that Jonas was not in any way getting tired of pushing around a child sized shopping cart, I decided we should go ahead and do the zoo since I thought he was most likely to get bored there, so I would get it out of the way.

Let me tell you, if you ever want to go to the zoo, go in the morning-- all the animals were active and CLOSE! Of course, Jonas had no idea how lucky he was to see a tiger playing with a toy in the water like a huge house cat, leaping and roaring and batting with delight right in front of us. He was about as interested in the rocks at his feet. He was vaguely interested in the tiger when it walked right up to the glass in front of us and started pacing... so cool! Jonas did enjoy looking at the monkeys and the peacocks that were roaming around, though. The zoo had this exhibit of meerkats with a "walk in" tunnel that was about 4 ft high. You could walk in the tunnel out into the middle of the meerkat habitat, and at the end of the tunnel was a big fisheye glass to look at the meerkats. Jonas loved this. not so much the meerkats, but definitely the tunnel and fisheye glass. I would like to point out that "meerkat" is not in the dictionary according to the spellchecker here. Weird. Anyway...

We made short work of the rest of the museum. Jonas really, really liked the big fish tank where the fish would swim right up to him. He liked that way better than the lame tigers, silly boy! So after we finished the museum and ate, it was about 1:00, and I am not one to waste any money, so of course I took Jonas back to the play areas to let him play until he fell over (his nap time was at 12, and he missed it). Jonas was ok with this plan. He had a marvelous time sitting and playing with the cash register, playing in the toy house, playing with the puppets and the puppet theatre, playing with the blocks and the dinosaurs, and of course playing on the water table with the boats! He even enjoyed the teeter-totter, which I wasn't sure he would understand... looks like he did, though!

I realized it was time to go when I got a phone call and Jonas had a meltdown because I didn't give him the phone immediately. He calmed down after we walked through the maze (which I am proud to say I got through while being 100% distracted and just walking without paying attention), but I still packed it up and we left around 3:30. I handed Jonas a cup of cheerios to eat since it had been a while since he ate last, and I don't know if he got into them good or not, because before I even pulled out of the parking space, that boy was asleep! We had a good day at the Science Center. Tiring, but very fun indeed!

A dirty day for Jonas

Today Jonas did a lot of dirty (but cute) things, which I laughed and attempted to capture on film. We recently got brandon's old cell phone out of hibernation and started plugging it in so that Jonas has a "real working phone" to play with. He much prefers the light-up version to the red plastic version. Anyway, he was walking around the house with his phone making happy baby sounds and he went into the bathroom, so I followed. I turned my head for one second, and BAM! phone in the toilet! The toilet lid is so rarely open that I didn't even think about it. Of course, he leaned all the way in to grab it out, making the whole thing that much more awesome. In conclusion, Jonas had his first experience with a thorough-soap-and-warm-water hand watching shortly thereafter.

So I made some no-bake cookies for cell that went amiss and never hardened, they are just these sticky masses sitting on our table. Still yummy though... anyway, needed to preface that... After Jonas's nap, I was doing something in the kitchen, and Jonas noticed me grab a crumb of no-bake cookie off the table and eat it. Unbeknownst to me he decided to investigate. I forget how much taller he is... by the time I figured out what he was about, he already had sticky cookie goodness in his mouth and was going "MmmMMMMMM!!!" Very enthusiastically. Well, it was too late at that point, so I grabbed the video camera and still camera and took some pictures while he attempted to eat another couple of bites of cookie. Sigh... poor boy, he was so upset when I cleaned him off, but at that point his clothes were totally messed up, sooo....

Since it has been rainy and crappy weather the past week or so, Jonas has been mostly stuck inside, but since it at least wasn't raining for about 3 hours today, and was not terribly cold, I took Jonas out for a minute or 10 since I had given up on him being clean. He went immediately to the muddiest puddle he could find and proceeded to see all the ways he could splash in it. Oh well, he had a big time splashing in the muddy puddle. Brandon came out and watched him so I could do some work, and he said he took Jonas to the biggest puddle in our complex to play in, but since it wasn't muddy he didn't care so much. He stood in it with water up to his ankles (and just fyi he was wearing lo-top knockoff chucks, not water shoes!) and then sat down and looked sad... so they went and found a muddy puddle and he was happy.

Jonas got 2 baths today, and he got to run around in just a diaper the last part of the day... I would say this day went well, to very well for him, and we enjoyed it too, even though it was very messy!