Jonah is 18 months today; seems like a good time for an update post. Jonah continues to be so much fun!
Yay! Jonah is in a "Yay!" phase. If you sing him a song (Itsy Bitsy, ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle), he will patiently wait until you finish, and then erupt into a boisterous round of applause and chorus of "Yay!"s...and then ask you to sing it again. He also says "Yay!" when he does something by himself - put clothes in the hamper or trash in the trashcan, stab a bite of food with his fork, or stack up some blocks. He says "Yay!" when he gives high-fives. Sometimes he says "Yay!" for no reason at all! What a delightful outlook on life :)
Physical Milestones - Jonah is getting more coordinated (although he still face-plants nearly every time he tries to run). I am often surprised when he completes some physical task I didn't think he could do - like climbing up onto a chair or stool I thought was too high for him, or climbing into a 5-gallon bucket and sitting down, with nothing but his head sticking out. When he jumps, his feet actually leave the floor now. He can (finally!) ride the little scooter/trike he got for his birthday. But the biggest accomplishment (from my perspective!) is stairs. We live on the third floor, and I am not going to be able to carry him up and down the stairs much longer, especially once I have a baby to tote around! I have been making a conscious effort to let Jonah go up and down the stairs himself. It is slow-going, but we are making progress. Hopefully by January, we'll have it down ;)
Words, words, words - We have entered the vocabulary-explosion phase. These days Jonah is constantly talking. Often he simply repeats the same word over and over, if he can't think of anything new to say, just to fill the silence. He can name and point to at least 25 body parts. He knows lots of opposites - open/close, up/down, hot/cold, off/on, in/out, hi/bye, big/small. In the mornings, when I get him from his crib, we spend several minutes pointing to and naming all the objects in his room. I think he stores up all those words each night, and they just have to come out! He is generally pretty easy to understand (in my totally biased opinion), but there are certain words that require a little context to decipher. For instance, 'watermelon' and 'email' are pronounced exactly the same: ah-meh. Same goes for 'banana' and 'avocado': buh-GAH. And all electronics (phone, computer, camera, iPad, etc.) are 'poo-ter. One word we hear literally hundreds of times per day: buh-da. What does it mean? Who knows. Anything and everything. When we ask him to name something and he doesn't know they answer, he says buh-da. He will point to things and say buh-da over and over. It seems to be a question and "I don't know," and "that thing over there," all rolled into one.
Quirks
- When we ask Jonah a question, his first answer is always, "No," even when he means yes. We are trying to teach him to say yes, showing him by nodding our heads. Now when we ask Jonah a question, he says, "Yes," and bows his head at us.
- Some people call it "pounding" or "fist bump" or "knuckles," but we taught Jonah to "blow it up." He always offered his fist, but never participated in the explosion part. The other day I was waiting in a long line at the grocery store and trying to keep Jonah entertained. We blew it up a few times, but then when he looked around and there was no one else to blow it up with, he smashed his two fists together - and miraculously opened his fists and made the explosion noise. Now he will blow it up with himself, but still only offers his fist to others, letting them take care of the explosion part.
- For some reason, the phrase, "You're buggin' me," sends him into fits of laughter, almost without fail.
- When we are near the car, I have gotten in the habit of asking him to touch the car. This guarantees he is close by and not running out in front of other vehicles when my hands are otherwise occupied. But when he faces the car and puts both hands on the side of the car it always makes me think we're in some cop show and he's the little hoodlum about to be arrested :)
Some favorites:
- Letter: "O" - Jonah loves to look for and point out letters, but the first one he always spots is the "O"
- Color: Blue, but if you ask him to name the color of something, he is most likely to answer "red" first :)
- Food: Watermelon. Or mashed potatoes. Or anything Dad is eating.
- Activities: Swinging, helping Mom wash the dishes, working out with Dad, ABC flashcards with Dad, story time at the library
And some notes for Mom, just so I remember this age:
Jonah - You are starting to try and sing along with familiar songs and "read" books. Your eating goes in stages - some days you eat anything (and in shockingly large quantities), some days every bite is a battle. You sleep well, going down easily for naps and bedtime, but still rising early. You want to imitate everything we do - wiping a table with a cloth, washing your face, putting things away. You have begun to throw fits - full-on, fling yourself on the ground, complete with big alligator tears - but you generally recover pretty quickly. When we were in McGregor a few weeks ago, you and Grandpa counted the boats on the river over and over. Now you count everything! But it usually goes like this: "One, two...one, two...one, two." When you are learning new words, sometimes you say the last sound first and the first sound last, in your own little dislexic way - for example, cup = puck. And you don't say "s" at the beginnning of words - You 'it in a chair; when you count, 'ick comes after five; and sometimes we eat 'a-mon (salmon) for breakfast. Jonah, you continue to be pretty easy-going and flexible and social with most everyone. You did, however, have your first meltdown when being left by Mom and Dad (it was the church nursery). You were pretty unstable/on the verge of tears for most of the service, but I chalk it up to being tired. Overall, you are still our mostly laid-back, sometimes intense, fun-loving, joyful little boy!
I realized I have not been good about taking pictures lately, so we did a little photo shoot. Jonah sure had fun running around and throwing rocks, but I had a hard time catching him looking at the camera. We got a few keepers, though. [Here is where I post a ridiculous number of pictures, mostly for the benefit of the grandparents.]
Yay! Jonah is in a "Yay!" phase. If you sing him a song (Itsy Bitsy, ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle), he will patiently wait until you finish, and then erupt into a boisterous round of applause and chorus of "Yay!"s...and then ask you to sing it again. He also says "Yay!" when he does something by himself - put clothes in the hamper or trash in the trashcan, stab a bite of food with his fork, or stack up some blocks. He says "Yay!" when he gives high-fives. Sometimes he says "Yay!" for no reason at all! What a delightful outlook on life :)
Physical Milestones - Jonah is getting more coordinated (although he still face-plants nearly every time he tries to run). I am often surprised when he completes some physical task I didn't think he could do - like climbing up onto a chair or stool I thought was too high for him, or climbing into a 5-gallon bucket and sitting down, with nothing but his head sticking out. When he jumps, his feet actually leave the floor now. He can (finally!) ride the little scooter/trike he got for his birthday. But the biggest accomplishment (from my perspective!) is stairs. We live on the third floor, and I am not going to be able to carry him up and down the stairs much longer, especially once I have a baby to tote around! I have been making a conscious effort to let Jonah go up and down the stairs himself. It is slow-going, but we are making progress. Hopefully by January, we'll have it down ;)
Words, words, words - We have entered the vocabulary-explosion phase. These days Jonah is constantly talking. Often he simply repeats the same word over and over, if he can't think of anything new to say, just to fill the silence. He can name and point to at least 25 body parts. He knows lots of opposites - open/close, up/down, hot/cold, off/on, in/out, hi/bye, big/small. In the mornings, when I get him from his crib, we spend several minutes pointing to and naming all the objects in his room. I think he stores up all those words each night, and they just have to come out! He is generally pretty easy to understand (in my totally biased opinion), but there are certain words that require a little context to decipher. For instance, 'watermelon' and 'email' are pronounced exactly the same: ah-meh. Same goes for 'banana' and 'avocado': buh-GAH. And all electronics (phone, computer, camera, iPad, etc.) are 'poo-ter. One word we hear literally hundreds of times per day: buh-da. What does it mean? Who knows. Anything and everything. When we ask him to name something and he doesn't know they answer, he says buh-da. He will point to things and say buh-da over and over. It seems to be a question and "I don't know," and "that thing over there," all rolled into one.
Quirks- When we ask Jonah a question, his first answer is always, "No," even when he means yes. We are trying to teach him to say yes, showing him by nodding our heads. Now when we ask Jonah a question, he says, "Yes," and bows his head at us.
- Some people call it "pounding" or "fist bump" or "knuckles," but we taught Jonah to "blow it up." He always offered his fist, but never participated in the explosion part. The other day I was waiting in a long line at the grocery store and trying to keep Jonah entertained. We blew it up a few times, but then when he looked around and there was no one else to blow it up with, he smashed his two fists together - and miraculously opened his fists and made the explosion noise. Now he will blow it up with himself, but still only offers his fist to others, letting them take care of the explosion part.
- For some reason, the phrase, "You're buggin' me," sends him into fits of laughter, almost without fail.
- When we are near the car, I have gotten in the habit of asking him to touch the car. This guarantees he is close by and not running out in front of other vehicles when my hands are otherwise occupied. But when he faces the car and puts both hands on the side of the car it always makes me think we're in some cop show and he's the little hoodlum about to be arrested :)
Some favorites:- Letter: "O" - Jonah loves to look for and point out letters, but the first one he always spots is the "O"
- Color: Blue, but if you ask him to name the color of something, he is most likely to answer "red" first :)
- Food: Watermelon. Or mashed potatoes. Or anything Dad is eating.
- Activities: Swinging, helping Mom wash the dishes, working out with Dad, ABC flashcards with Dad, story time at the library
*******************
And some notes for Mom, just so I remember this age:
Jonah - You are starting to try and sing along with familiar songs and "read" books. Your eating goes in stages - some days you eat anything (and in shockingly large quantities), some days every bite is a battle. You sleep well, going down easily for naps and bedtime, but still rising early. You want to imitate everything we do - wiping a table with a cloth, washing your face, putting things away. You have begun to throw fits - full-on, fling yourself on the ground, complete with big alligator tears - but you generally recover pretty quickly. When we were in McGregor a few weeks ago, you and Grandpa counted the boats on the river over and over. Now you count everything! But it usually goes like this: "One, two...one, two...one, two." When you are learning new words, sometimes you say the last sound first and the first sound last, in your own little dislexic way - for example, cup = puck. And you don't say "s" at the beginnning of words - You 'it in a chair; when you count, 'ick comes after five; and sometimes we eat 'a-mon (salmon) for breakfast. Jonah, you continue to be pretty easy-going and flexible and social with most everyone. You did, however, have your first meltdown when being left by Mom and Dad (it was the church nursery). You were pretty unstable/on the verge of tears for most of the service, but I chalk it up to being tired. Overall, you are still our mostly laid-back, sometimes intense, fun-loving, joyful little boy!
I realized I have not been good about taking pictures lately, so we did a little photo shoot. Jonah sure had fun running around and throwing rocks, but I had a hard time catching him looking at the camera. We got a few keepers, though. [Here is where I post a ridiculous number of pictures, mostly for the benefit of the grandparents.]
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| How old is Jonah? ONE! |
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