The Snipe Hunt

Jonas officially has a favorite movie, and it is "Up". As far as childrens' movies go, this is about as far at the top of the barrel as you could hope for, so we're cool with this being his favorite movie. This movie gets watched in part or in whole every day for the past 2 weeks at least, and while Jonas does not acknowledge that it is called "Up", he asks to "see Devin" and "see Row-douu and Devin!" (russell and kevin... he's pretty far off on his "Russell" for the while.) Brandon and I have concluded that we can, in fact, watch this movie daily, as we have done so for 2 weeks and still laugh at Doug and various other scenes. Anyway...



Yesterday after dinner, we went over to see our long lost neighbors who had finally returned from their nearly 2 month trip to the Dominican Republic. Jonas was ecstatic. He had eaten his dinner fast and shot outside with us babbling the whole time "I want see Deenee, I want see Obi! I like Deenee, I like Obi! I like deenee a lot... I like..." and then he saw their shrubbery. They have several of those zebra-striped hosta looking plants in front of their house, and Jonas, without even a second thought to what he had been doing moments before, diverted from the path and walked straight over to the plants. He bent over, looked under them and said "Snipe, where aah' you??"
And so began the first of what I expect to be many Snipe hunts.

Jonas continued to putter around the plants, babbling the entire time:

"'nipe! 'nipe! **clap clap clap** where aaaaah' youuuuu? I have cho-co-late fuh you! Sniiiiii-iiipe! (yes sometimes he pronounces the "S") **commmmme ouuuuut! see Jonas.... I nice."

Of course, the entire time he is clapping, and crouching over, and looking back to us to explain things with the occasional head nod.... these really made the snipe hunt entertaining... such as when he would be talking about the chocolate, he would look over at us and say "Snipe like cho-co-late. Row-douu have cho-co-late he feed snipe! I feed snipe cho-co-late.", the whole time nodding as if to say "I've remembered correctly, right?"

Finally, Jonas decided he saw a snipe. He screamed "I SEE HIM!! I SEE DEVIN SNIPE! I DASE (chase) HIM!" at which point he took off running with his arms out to catch the snipe. He finally stopped running and turned to announce his capture "I HAVE DEVIN! I HAVE 'NIPE! I TID-LEL-NING HIM! TID-NULL TID-NULL TID-NULL" (making tickeling motions in the air, and bursting with pride at his capture).

Jonas decided to let the snipe go, and then hunted him again. At one point in his hunt, he stopped and looked off in the distance and said "uh-oh, oh no! the beh-dos duming!" we were confused, as i'm sure you are reading this. he said it again, this time more panicked, starting to grab his face and bounce with panic. Then we put it together.. he was saying the bad dogs were coming, which (naturally) happens in the movie. He turned and said "RUN DEVIN! RUN! THE BEH-DOS DUMING!!" So cute! He probably snipe hunted for about 30 min before we made him come inside. Note to self (or brandon): remember to tell his teachers about snipe hunting. He may try to do it at school...

Big Bad Wolf

The past week, this story has captivated Jonas. Brandon said he went to get Jonas at school, and he was hiding in the corner. when asked what was wrong, he said "the big bad wolf come get Jonas!" all of the other kids were playing into this and telling him the wolf was "over here, come see him!" and such. This did nothing to calm Jonas down, although he did step out tentatively when Brandon went over to scratch behind its ears and tell him he wasn't so bad after all, he just like bacon! Either way, Jonas spent the evening telling us he "no like big bad wolf!"

Fast forward a few days. We picked up jonas at lisa's last night, and apparently lisa had read him the 3 little pigs book as well. now he was interested in re-telling the story. if you say "big bad wolf" now, its like he's been brainwashed to say "heeee huuuuf annnd RRROOOOOOAAAAA!(hands go to mouth, then out... blowing). He is very into this demonstration. It's pretty cute.

He was very excited this morning to see the "Big Bad Wolf" at the natural science center. It may have been his favorite exhibit (except the train table, of course).

Jonas need Ty-na-nol

So Jonas is thinking up snarky answers to questions that are really clever, albeit smart-alecy all at once. The best example was from about a week ago. Here's what went down:

Jonas came home from Grandma's house last week all excited about "ty-na-nol" or... as he was sometimes prompted to call it "ah-da- ma- ma-finnn" (acetaminophen). I guess his teeth were hurting so Lisa gave him a tylenol chew tablet, which he LOVED. Now we aren't sure when he is really hurting or just wants tylenol. He spent several days saying "Owie owie, my mouf hurts. I need tynanol!" and when we would say "no, you just want tylenol. i don't think you're really hurting". Unabashed, he would continue:
J: "ooooow, my head hurts"
Parents: "No it doesn't"
J: Ooowieee, my throat hurts! ... my eyes hurt! my nose hurts!
Parents: "wow... that is a lot of stuff to be hurting you"
J: Yeah. (smiles)
P: you're still not getting any Tylenol. we can't just give it to you anytime, it's not candy.
J: (realizes his lie has been seen through, begins to pitch a fit, crying kicking his legs, etc)
P: sorry buddy, we know you like it. But we don't know when you're lying, so we're only going to give it to you if you have a fever. (pause... does he know what a fever is?? better ask!) Do you know what a fever is?
J: It's what I have when I get tynanol!

well, we can't argue with that! we then said that was true, and it's also when your head is really hot. He accpeted this and life went on.

Visiting Old Granny

Granny has been in the hospital for the past week, and we have gone to visit her several times. To keep "Granny" and "Grammy" separate, I have just started calling them "Old granny" and Young Granny". Jonas has accepted this. anyway... Jonas is a big fan of the hospital. He was very excited about the magic bed, using their water fountains, the elevators, the automatic hand sanitizers, their "hamburders and foo fise!", and most of all, their babies.

He had a big time playing with Old Granny or whoever else happened to be at the hospital, but be would always end up asking to go see "la bebies". We would oblige, and of the 3 nights we went, we only saw babies on one night. This baby was not the one that stuck with Jonas. There was one night we went down there, and they had the blinds drawn, but there was a very unhappy baby in the back you could hear crying.
Joe: uh oh, oh no! the baby is sad!
Me: yes, he does sound sad, he probably wants his mommy.
Joe: yeeees... mommy, where is la (the) baby? I can' (can't.. yes, it is confusing.) see him.
M: he is hiding behind the blinds.
J: haha, the baby is hiding and he is sad. (nodding) he wants to see his mommy!
(at this juncture, the door opens, and the baby is trundled out down the hall to (presumably) his mommy)
J: ***huge gasp** mommy! It's la baby! He's coming out! He's not hiding anymore! (as the cart trundles away, joe's excitement turns to concern, as the baby is not getting closer) Where is la baby going? oh no! Mommy, follow him! Follow him!!
M: (shocked that Jonas knew the phrase "follow him" just stands for a minute. Then we started to follow, but we were too far behind to really follow.) I think we lost him buddy, i think he went to go see his mommy. see? we don't hear him crying anymore.
J: yeees. He not crying anymore. Baby is happy! Baby is with his mommy! He is happy!

This story was recounted for days to everyone that would listen. It went like this:
"see baby at hah-bi-doh (hospital). Baby is crying, baby is sad. Baby hiding behind blinds. oh no! baby is hiding behind la blinds! Baby want see mommy. baby see mommy. baby is happy! we follow him. uh-oh, oh no-- where is baby? hahahaha!"

It was pretty adorable. Jonas cried half the way home that night because he wanted to take a baby home. I told him that wasn't happening unless it was our baby. He replied that he wants to have a baby so he can take it home with him. Too cute!

Now every time we mention the hospital, he perks up and says "Joe want to go hah-bi-doh! Want see le babies, uh of babies is hiding. no want babies is hiding!" I believe this roughly translates to "I want to go to the hospital and see the babies, but I don't want them to be hiding behind the blinds this time."

Meeting Mr Mano

A couple weeks ago, we were driving home from Brandon's parents, and Jonas was in a whiny mood. Understandably, as it was late, but that only made it a little less frustrating to deal with. If only we had a toy or something to keep him entertained. But wait! Suddenly, in a flash of inspiration from Ellen Feild, I remembered "the toy that is always with us"... Mr. Mano! It was easily the fastest turnaround he's done ever. Well... maybe not ever. but it was a fast turnaround. He was crying and whining, and the next second, he was screaming and laughing at his new friend, Mr. Mano. (for those of you who don't know, Mr. Mano would be a hand puppet. and no, i don't mean a cloth puppet. I mean that I formed my hand into the standard "snake shadow puppet" and made him talk.) The speed with which Mr. Mano became a part of his existence was maybe 10 seconds... just long enough for him to take in that a hand was talking to him and accept this reality. The rest of the ride, he addressed "mi-der mado!" and requested that Mider Mado do things for Jodis. For example "Mider Mado, where are you?" (hand held up in confusion). Mister Mano would pop out from somewhere around my seat and say "boo!" "you dared me mider mado! hehehehe!" "Mider Mado, What Yoooou doin'?" Mister mano would usually reply in a snarky and inexplicably spanish (spain spanish) accent "I am hiding! What YoooOOOou doin??" and so on.

Now, Mr. Mano was a pretty great idea, however, he did have his down sides. For one thing, Jonas wanted to "please hold mider mado?" Which he did get to do, but a week later when Jonas went on a 2 hr. car trip with the in-laws, he held mr. mano for 1/2 of those hours. Lisa is very patient. However, this, and Jonas always wanting "Mider Mado, come play with Jonnnnis!" seem to be the only downsides. We showed Joe that he had his own mister mano, to which he was boundlessly thrilled, and I won't say that Brandon's mider Mado and my mider mado have not had a couple of hand-to-hand verbal arguments... followed by much hand to hand makeup-makeouts.

My favorite thing about Mister Mano is that Joe listens to him. For example, I asked Joe to go use the potty before we left. "No! I don't need go potty!" "well, we need to try anyway before we go in the car." (whining). "that's a 1" "Noo!" (enter Mr Mano) "Hullo Jonas!" "HI MIDER MADO!!" (now Joe is giggling and bouncing with delight) MM: "You shoudl probably use the potty before we leave, huh?" (Jonas stops,,, thinks) "Yeeeess... I go use potty now!" (notice, he says "yes" not "ses" now. progress!). In conclusion, Mr Mano has helped us out a lot. Of course, it is a 2 way street...

I drive Jonas to work every Thursday morning, one morning of which, Jonas pulled his shoe off. The following conversation occurred:
Jonas: uh-oh! Oh no! My shoe is off! Mommy, mommy I need 'elp!
Me: Sorry, buddy, I can't help you while I'm driving. You'll have to make do on your own.
J: please mommy help Jodis put my shoe on (notice, the 1/2 use of 1st person. sweet!)
M: Jonas, I can't help you when I'm driving, please don't ask me again until we are stopped.
J: (silence for about 20 sec). "Mider Mado, I need 'elp, my shoe is coming off. 'elp, 'elp mider mado!"
M: (stifling laughter for his seeing this loophole) Sorry buddy, mister mano is helping me drive right now. He caon't help you either.
J: plllllease mider mado?
Mister Mano: "Hey! I have to help your mom drive! you'll have to wait!"
J: **squeals** siddy mider mado! (silly mister mano!)