Catch up

It's been a while since I blogged anything of substance.  I guess we've been busy.  By way of catch-up, here are some bullet points about what we've been up to:

1. Birthday boy!  We didn't have a party for Jonah, but he did get a birthday "cupcake" so that he could blow out a candle - it was actually a paleo "pudding" made of avocado and cocoa powder...which he LOVED :)

 He was this close to successfully blowing out the candle, but it reignited - so Daddy had to help a little

 First taste...I think I like this!

2. Bibi and Babu came to visit!  During the first part of April, I had a two-day continuing education seminar to attend, so Bibi and Babu made the drive over to watch Jonah while I was away.  They had a great time, and the weather even warmed up enough to make a few trips to the park to feed the ducks.  There was also lots of book reading.

3. Lost and found.  Of all the animals in Jonah's farm animal puzzle, the duck is his favorite.  So it was pretty devastating when the duck went missing.  I searched everywhere for it, but it was no where to be found.  Around that time, Jonah had developed a habit of tossing small toys and random things into the recycling bin, so I started to fear that maybe duck had been recycled with the cardboard, never to be heard from again.  But then, after being MIA for several weeks, I discovered the duck hiding in the sleeve of Jonah's sweatshirt, tucked safely in his dresser drawer.  My best guess is that Jonah tossed the duck into the laundry basket when I was folding clothes (another fun past-time), and it got jostled down into the sleeve without my noticing.  Hooray for the duck!


4. Eating.  Jonah is still working on using a fork and spoon to feed himself.  He is pretty good with solid food, but he makes quite a mess with more "liquid" foods - like yogurt, applesauce, guacamole, etc.  The non-mess-loving part of me would probably continue to spoon-feed him these messier foods, but I know he needs to learn.  So we forge ahead.  If he is having difficulty, Jonah has a tenancy to resort to using his hand (while still holding the spoon in the other hand).  To avoid this, we sometimes have to arm him with a spoon in each hand.

In general, Jonah likes to eat.  A lot.  After he eats, his belly is so fully it almost looks uncomfortable.  One morning for breakfast he ate: 4 eggs with spinach, 4 strawberries, a banana, half an avocado and some chicken.  Probably the most he's ever eaten in one sitting...and definitely more than I had for breakfast that morning!

Post meal belly :)

Jonah can also tell the difference between a fork and spoon.  If you ask for one by name, he'll look at both, and then hold up the correct one.  If you point to a utensil in his hand and ask what it is, he can correctly identify spoon ('boo') or fork ('ba').  I am amazed by how much of what we say that he seems to understand.
And finally, it cracks me up to watch him hold an entire banana, like he's a little kid and not just a baby ;)

5. Mandy!  Earlier this month, my college friend, Mandy, came to visit for a weekend.  Unfortunately, Brandon had to work two thirteen-hour shifts that weekend, so he didn't get to see much of Mandy.  It was a pretty low-key weekend, but we had fun catching up a bit and being entertained by Jonah.  We also visited a newly-opened cupcake shop...which just so happened to be located in an existing ice cream shop.  We both sampled a little of each :)  Mandy, an elementary school teacher, was fresh off her spring break -- where she  got to visit five different babies!  It's a good thing she likes babies.  Jonah had a lot of fun playing with Mandy and insisting she read to him. It was a quick trip but fun to see my friend :)

6. Animals.  Jonah is becoming quite fond of animals.  (Must not get that from Mom...).  He loves to sit by the window and watch the birds or squirrels outside.  And his keen ears can pick up even the faintest dog bark.  He gets a serious look on his face and responds with an "oof, oof?" almost like it's a question.  He also quacks like a duck ("cack, cack") and moos like a cow  ("ooooo!").  We are definitely ready for warmer weather so we can spend some more time outside and hopefully see some animals up close and personal!

7. Command central.

For some reason, Jonah's favorite place to hang out these days is on the fireplace, tucked in behind the arm of the couch.  Brandon calls it his Command Post.  He will stand there forever and just survey the room.  I am pretty sure the first time he did it, he only stayed there for so long because he could not figure out how to get down.  We even tried to entice him with all of his favorite things.

Usually Jonah can't resist a tower of blocks begging to be knocked down, his very favorite book, "Bear Snores On," any kind of ball, the TV remote he's not allowed to touch, Dad's stop watch, his red car.  But not even any of that could get him to budge.  He has since figured out how to get down, but he still loves to climb up there and just stand.

8. Father/son.  The hardest part of Brandon's transition back to medical school and all the long hours has been how little Brandon gets to see Jonah most days.  He usually leaves before Jonah gets up and comes home shortly before Jonah goes to bed.  Brandon tries to make the most of their time together, and I am trying to be better about remember little moments throughout the day to share with Brandon when he gets home.

9. Entropy.  Brandon is certain Jonah is destined to be a physicist.  (Something to do with entropy and liking disorder...I'm not really sure, it's a little outside my area).  When Jonah wakes up in the morning, it takes approximately 7 seconds to go from picked up house, to this:

It's as if he needs the toys to be as equidistant as possible.  We're working on picking up after ourselves, but I think this might be a skill we work on for a long, long time.  

10. Skills.  Jonah's walking seems to improve each day.  I love this wobbly, zombie-arms toddler stage.  So fun!

Jonah is really into saying "Bye-bye!" these days.  He is usually a little slow, waiting to say it until the person has already left ;)  The other day, I went to go pick him up from the church nursery, and as I was walking down the hall, I could hear Jonah saying "bye-bye," over and over.  When I got to the room, he was walking around, waving to no one in particular and saying bye-bye as all the other kids were being picked up by their parents.  He is also working saying grandparents' names.  He's got Bah-boooo and Bebe (Bibi) down pretty well, and this weekend he started calling my parents Bop-pa (Grandpa) and 'Ma (Grandma).  He still gets Mama and Dada mixed up.  And he still calls himself Dada :)

11. April showers.  And finally, this past weekend, we had a shower for my future sister-in-law, Whitney.  It was fun because I have gotten to know Whitney a bit over the past year since she and Rob live in the area.  We had a fun time celebrating and playing a few games.  Can't wait for the wedding and the chance to celebrate again in June!!

(I am doubly excited for the wedding, because I will FINALLY get to snuggle new nieces Carly and Layla!!)

Okay, that's enough for now.