Moonboots 2

It snowed last week, so I took Jonah out in his snowsuit and snowboots. Upon re-entering the house, I was able to successfully hide the boots after removing all of our winter paraphernalia. He found them later, and gleefully wore them the entire envening. At bedtime he wouldn't let me take them off.

You're getting sleepy

Vroom

The only word that we can reliably get from Jonah is "Vrrr," in response to the question, "What does the car/truck/motorcycle say?" This is at a park in Pacific Grove.

Note: Whenever Jonah spots a motorcycle, he immediately starts slapping the top of his head. In order to get him to stop, we must say, "That's right, Jonah, you need a helmet when you ride a motorcycle." He responds with a decisive and satisfied affirmative "Uhn." Safety first, I guess. Then he wants to sit on said spotted motorcycle.

The Best Pastime Ever

Water and rocks. Water and rocks. Throw the rocks into the water. Obviously.

Angels II

Jonah at the beach in L.A. For more details on the trip, see the other post.

Just another morning at the beach

We arrived in Monterey/Pacific Grove in mid-August, and quickly discovered our digs put us within a ten-minute walk to the beach. So many mornings while James was in class, Jonah and I would wander down to explore and play.

On the morning of August 21, we found ourselves on the beach at Lover's Point where we discovered an area with lots of rocks and seashells--apparently the site of some seagull feasting. We did some more digging with half-shells, and Jonah did plenty of "Mmm! Mm!"-ing (his word of the day). He was scared of the water, partially because it was frigid but I think mostly because it moved and he didn't know what to think about that. Generally he loves frolicking in water, but this water didn't play by the rules that he was used to. So when I let him wander a small distance from me along the water, and a biggish wave knocked him off his feet, he wasn't very quiet about voicing his objection to such treatment. I took him back up to where we had left the stroller and found it necessary to relieve him of his now ten-pound diaper. Once the clothes came off, I couldn't see putting them back on, and we tromped home just so.

You can tell by the way I use my walk

Jonah loves to have his hands snuggled into tight spaces: the hollow in his carseat armrests, under his tummy when he sleeps, and in my armpits when he wants a cuddle (Ah, my special boy).

So yesterday we tried out the hands-in-pockets routine. He loved it. Wouldn't take them out. Luckily he didn't trip.

Stacked

Monday morning found me and Jonah in the kitchen accomplishing various duties--his was to empty our shelves of canned goods and scatter the cans around the linoleum floor. He then, for the first time ever, went the extra mile and started to neatly stack them into a miniature Tower of Babel. Ah my little heathen.

I guess it's time for building blocks.

He's a heartbreaker

We took 1-year photos a few months ago. Here is a small taste:

Man in the Moonboots

Monday Gma Core gave Jonah his winter boots (she got them on super-discount a little while ago). Tuesday, he brought them to me and grunted his desire to have them put on his feet. They didn't come off all day.

High and dry

Jonah's sleeptime ritual includes storytime followed by turning on the classical music and Mom putting up the gate in his doorway so he stays in his room. He may go right to sleep, or he may play for a few minutes with his toys before dragging one or two of them into his big-boy bed to fall asleep with. Sometimes he'll fuss a bit, but usually he knows it's time for sleep and he goes down pretty easily.

Today he was rubbing his eyes after lunch, and though it was earlier than his normal naptime, I decided to follow his cues and put him down. For several minutes after I put the gate up I'd hear bursts of cries followed by short periods of silence. I decided to let him work things out on his own and figured he'd get himself to sleep. After fifteen minutes of this, the crying became more insistant, so I decided to investigate.

I approached the doorway slowly and at an angle, peering carefully into the room so as not to bring attention to myself if he was really just sitting in the middle of the floor venting. As I got closer and my view of the room increased, I didn't see Jonah in his normal spots for vocalizing his frustration. I inched closer and craned my neck around to take in more of the room. As I did so, I realized why his crying was so sad: atop his nightstand sat my little boy--tearstreaked, red-faced, and hopelessly stranded. He had climbed up and couldn't get down.

I hopped over the gate, rescued the little dude, and had a bit of a cuddle before putting him in his bed once again. He promptly rolled over and dropped off into dreamland.


He didn't appreciate my efforts to re-create the scenario and record it for posterity.

Real Man...

It made it's debut a few weeks ago--just a little dark thing, like a chin hair that needs to be plucked.

Toy-lette paper

When we first arrived in Utah, Jonah was still at the phase where I could not take a shower un-interrupted, so I either had to wait until he went down for a nap or just deal with the constant fight over the shower curtain's position (open v. closed) and with the barrage of objects he deemed should be in the shower with me.

One morning, I decided to try to get cleaned up secretly and quickly before I could be detected. A few minutes in, I heard Jonah wander into the bathroom. He batted at the curtain and emitted a squeal of delight at the prospect of his favorite game. My vocalizations, however, were not ones of delight. With shampoo suds dripping in my eyes, I lunged to firmly maintain the integrity of the vinyl barrier. Surprisingly, he did not put up much of a fight, and I was left in peace to finish my soapy ritual.

Something was nagging at me, though--the silence was suspicious. But I figured I could be sudsy and dealing with a Situation, or done and dealing with one. I opted for the latter. I rinsed off, turned off the water, and took a deep breath. Maybe I was wrong, maybe he was quietly looking at a book in his room. I opened the shower curtain to find my boy in a fluffy nest of white toilette paper studiously finishing his task of unrolling a second roll.

made for walkin'

Mr. Yuck!

After breakfast as I was indulging in a little internetting, Jonah crawled over from his own entertainments and pulled himself to standing at my side. I leaned over to pick him up for a cuddle and noticed that he was working something in his mouth. This usually doesn't bother me too much in the kitchen because there is always a Cheerio to be found on the floor (no matter how much I sweep...).

Whatever was in his mouth this time, however, seemed a little tougher than a Cheerio, so in went my finger for the swipe. Out came something black-ish. At first I thought it was the black rubbery stuff you find in--I can't think of what you find it in, but anyway, it wasn't that. As I turned the object around between my fingers, I noticed pencil-thin legs curled around a broad thorax. I screamed and flicked the thing from my fingers. A few seconds and many shudders later I noticed that the boy had more to give. Out came the head. Then a leg. Another leg. And a final leg. Each discovery met with the same appropriate response from me and a wide-eyed curious look from Jonah.

When I was sure his mouth was clear, I realized that now we had bug bits all over the floor, because in my desperation to get them off of my fingers I had flicked and flung and flailed wildly. So out came the vacuum cleaner, and onto the upstairs landing went the boy (he doesn't know how to go down stairs yet, so that kept him contained). I hoovered as thoroughly as I possibly could and set to putting the machine away. Then I noticed the crumpled thorax on on one of Jonah's toys. I picked up the toy, carried it to the trash and flicked the little ex-critter where it could rest in peace.

After all of this, I went to retrieve the boy. He sat grinning at me as I encouraged him to, "Turn around! Come on, turn around and come down!" One little leg extended around and led his little rump to precede him dutifully down the stairs. Hooray! We have a breakthrough here. Perhaps bug bits are brainfood.


By the way: Yes, we are finally in a home!

Swimming...

One of the benefits of living in a hotel, besides the waffles, is access to a swimming pool. Unfortunately, ours was only open a few days a week. But when we were finally allowed in, Jonah had himself a great time. Here's a peek:

It's so hard to say goodbye

Since our departure from Utah we have been notified independently by both grandmas that they have found little Jonah diapers, of the...err...used variety, and felt bad about throwing them away.  Ah the love of a grandma--they even love your crap.

We found one in our car yesterday and it was frozen solid.  Could have broken a window with it.

Splish splash!

Jonah loves himself some bath time--and it doesn't matter whose bath time it is.  Be it his own, mine, JT's, or just an empty bathtub, the little monkey is there at the ready for splish splashing fun.  If it's not his own turn, he'll stand next to the tub squealing and throwing shampoo bottles, lids, bath toys, small animals, etc.. into the bath.  And if a shower curtain happens to be obstructing his view of his play arena, he impatiently bats it aside.  Needless to say, when Mom gets out of the shower not only does she need to towel herself, but the little dude and the newly-formed lake on the bathroom floor.

Also in watery fun, last night we took Jonah down to the hotel pool for his first chlorinated water escapade.  Judging from the giggles and shrieks that bounced off the tiled walls, he had a great time.

General Hospital

Their eyes locked as they noticed the closeness of their faces. She leaned forward expectantly, lips parted in anticipation. He reached out and gently touched her face. Her body jerked in reaction to his touch and all qualms flew out the window--she was twice his age, but it didn't matter now. She leaned forward quickly and all he felt was the whisper of a kiss before she was gone...

The above passage could be a smouldering excerpt from the latest Danielle Steel or Stephanie Meyers novel--or it could be Jonah's first kiss incurred last night at the Howard County General Hospital-sponsored play area of the Columbian Mall, Columbia, MD.

Later in the evening, the little Casanova denied a different girl smoochiness. Whether he's remaining true to his first love or he just doesn't like kissing is unclear at this time.

Documenting

Yesterday I played documentarian and videoed Jonah's day. I really really want to work on my little film, but our computer is broken :-(. I can't even share some of the still photos that I took. It was a gorgeous sunny day. Today is slushy snowy snoshiness and Jonah is finally down for his nap.

Pokerface

Last night Jonah chewed through the cardboard box containing our playing cards. We discovered him sitting in a puddle of blue bicycle cards thoughtfully pawing at them and gnawing on the five of clubs.