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 =)