A Date with Jonas

RoooOOOOOWWWLLLLL! ROOOoooOooOOOWWWWWLL!

RUDY! SHUT UP!!

Is how my morning started. Our dog is small in stature, but terrifying in volume. I don't know what he saw, but he wanted us to know about it. It was about time for me to get up anyway, so I rolled out of bed and managed to dress myself in my dog-walking clothes while maintaining a state of half-asleepedness. The surprise came when I walked out to get Rudy's leash on him, and there stood Jonas, holding all of his blankets, and looking like he wasn't sure what was going on. We stared at one another for a moment before he said, "Hi Mommy, what YOU doing?" I explained that I was headed out to take the dog on a walk before it got too hot, and he asked if he could come. "Sure!", I said, and went to the car to get his stroller.

It was nice to have somebody to talk to on our walk. Jonas is well into the stage of talking out every single thing he does or sees, and this morning was no exception. He kept up a string of conversation that hardly paused for a breath...

"Oh, mommy, I see some birds flying up high in the air. Mommy, what is that? Where is the garbage man? Is he coming around the corner? Uh oh, Rudy is walking in the grass... mommy, he is pooping in the grass. You are cleaning it up. I want help! Can I help, mommy?? Eweewwwwew! That is stinky poop! hahahaha that is funny! Rudy is funny!"

...and so on. We stopped to inspect a small cicada, which Rudy licked, so it flew away. This thrilled Jonas to no end. I let Jonas hold Rudy's leash for most of the walk, during which it was clear Joe has paid attention to what Brandon and I say when we all go on walks together (mind you, it's been several months since we all went on a walk together, since it's been so hot). At one point Rudy lagged behind sniffing something, and Joe tugged the leash and said "Rudy! Hurry up, you is stuipd dog!" Ah... yes, Brandon and I do occasionally say this to Rudy when he is doing something like trying to eat dirt. Clearly Joe got the idea.

Anyway, we had a wonderful walk in the morning.

After I got off of work, I headed over to the disc golf course to pick Joe up and figure out what the rest of the evening was going to look like. I asked Joe where he wanted to go, and he replied "I want go home." "are you sure you don't want to go visit somebody? We could go see old granny, or grammy and pappa, or maybe even aunt nicole?" "No, I want go to Joe's house." So off we went towards home. I asked about Joe's school day, and as usual, he said he got a time out because he pushed Christina. I have no idea if he has ever gotten a time out for this or not, but it is the story that he tells us every day when he gets home from school. I asked him about the drawing he had brought home (labeled "fruit"). I said "what's this?" "A painting." "oh, I see. What's it a painting of?" "Ummm... colors!" Of course, colors! He is very good at coming up with correct answers that don't really answer your question. He likely would have answered the question "colors that make what" as "things that I drew." Crafty kid! Anyway, I told him I loved the painting, to which he replied "I love it too! You can't love it mommy, IIII Love it!" I told him we could both love the painting. "No! I love it. you no can love it." "ok" I conceded, "can I just really like it", "oday."(okay).

As chance would have it, this conversation caused me to forget where I was going, leading us to miss our turn onto 311. We decided to go down main st. to get home, as I had vague thoughts of getting some fast food and letting him play in a playplace somewhere on the way home. This is the point where Joe spotted the hospital and exclaimed, "MOMMY! It is la hospital!! I want go see la babies!" For some reason I was in a good enough mood that I thought that would be fun-- after all, it was only 6:15. I turned the car around, and we went to the hospital with the goal of seeing some babies. After making up to the 5th floor (Jonas jabbering about how the babies might be hiding behind the blinds the whole way), we were disappointed to see that the babies were hiding behind the blinds. Sad day.

Defeated, we were about to leave, when Joe said "I am hungry, I have some french fries please?" Well, as we were at the hospital, and we DO love us some hospital food (no lie, that stuff is delish!) We headed down to the cafeteria. Immediately I get concerned about how I am going to work out having an excited 2.5 year old in an open cafeteria, but Joe was a good as gold. He didn't grab any of the food off of the tables, and waited while I built my sandwich. He even carried the drink to the table and got us a seat while I paid!

Dinner was quite enjoyable. I got us a chicken sandwich with fries and a drink (and ketchup and mustard for dipping). Joe did not seem to understand the concept of sharing a meal, though. The first french fry I took, he said "hey mommy, you took my fry. don't take my fry, they is mine!" He wasn't really upset, just letting me know what's what. I tried to explain that we were sharing, but the next time I took a fry, he did the same thing, but this time he interjected that "mommy is mean! that is mean!" I asked him why I was mean, and he said "because you took my fry. you is mean. you stole it from me!" Again, I told him it's not mean to take a fry if we are sharing. He wasn't convinced. He decided the best way to get around me taking his fries was to just give me some, so he started taking a bite of his french fry, then dipping it and asking if I wanted a bite. I'd take a bite, and he would giggle and continue eating. Sometimes he would say "here mommy, you want a fry?" and just hand me a fry. He didn't want to exclude anybody, so Mr. Mano got to eat some fries too... and of course Mr. Mano fed Jonas a fry or two as well! We had a great time feeding each other french fries and laughing at Mr. Mano as he tried to talk with french fries in his mouth. It was a most excellent dinner, even if it was super unhealthy!

We decided to try the babies again before we left, and boy were we glad we did! There were two brand-spanking new little babies right in front of the window, and three more off to the side. Joe was beside himself with excitement. Again, he babbled furiously about the babies...

"Hey! That baby is a naked boy, he is sleeping, no, he is crying! what is that, mommy?"

"that's a stethescope so the doctor can listen to the baby's heart"

"yes... like at the doctor? I like that baby, I love him! Mommy, we taking that baby home? I want hold him!"

There was no shortage of excited grandparents and parents to tell Joe all about their new additions, either. Several other people were crowded around the window and were having a fabulous time answering all of Joe questions, "that is your baby?" "why baby is naked?" "baby is sad-- is baby sad?" One exuberant parent walked up in full scrubs and exclaimed "look, that one is my baby!" Joe didn't disappoint... he squealed and said "I like her! I want hold him!" (gender confusion...) We probably stayed and looked at the babies for an hour. One lady we were next to was a doula, and was explaining her job to me. The next minute, a nurse came over and gave one of the babies a bath and checked his temp. Joe said "what that doula doing?" Laughing, I told him she was a nurse, and the other lady was the doula. Naturally, Joe agreed with a "yeeeees..." like he totally understood =) too cute!

We finally left the hospital, and on the way home I interjected between Joe's babbling that I had a fun date with him. he said "what is that?" so I told him, "A date is when you and a girl that you like go and do something fun together, just the two of you." "Yes," he replied, "I have a date with mommy at la hospital!" And a very good date it was indeed! =)