I'm 'onna do it selfie.

This is what Jonah accomplished by himself while I was in the bathroom this morning. In true toddler fashion he is getting more and more interested in doing things by himself, saying, "I'm 'onna do it selfie." (I'm gonna do it by myself.) He tries to put his pants on by himself while I am trying to keep his pants off and change his diaper. Having him do things by himself would be fabulous if he could actually do them, but usually he can't actually do it and the effort causes frustration on both our parts. Just part of growing up, right?

A fun new addition to Jonah's vocabulary recently is "okay". He adds it at the end of sentences to inform you of what he's about to do - most often it's something he knows we'll probably tell him not to do. "I'm 'onna climb up, okay?" "I'm 'onna jump off, okay?" "I'm 'onna get a snack, okay?" "I'm 'onna drive, okay?" "I'm 'onna run, okay?" It's actually kind of convenient because it gives us a chance to say, "No, don't climb up your crib." "No, don't jump off the chair." "No, we're not having snacks right now."

Cousins!

Last week when Jon was away on a trip Jonah and I drove out to visit Paul's family in Dayton, OH. Google maps said the trip would take 7 hours. I figured on 10, but it actually took us 12 hours between stoping a lot and having to turn around and find an alternate route due to an accident and road closings. It was a really long day, but Jonah did remarkably well and I felt fine for the whole trip. I was very determined to cut our time on the trip back and we made it in eight and a half hours.

Of course we had to get the obligitory "cousins in the tub" shot. Hopefully this won't be too embarassing to them later in life. (I cropped out the bare bottom.) Jonah and Evelyn had such a great time together - as much as a 7-month-old and a 21-month-old can. She loved watching him and cooing at him and he was very excited about her, too. He always wanted to know, "Where's Baby Ev-wyn?" And he had to observe and comment on everything she was doing. Baby Ev-wyn sleeping. Baby Ev-wyn eating. Baby Ev-wyn crying. Shhh, shhhh, no cry Baby Ev-wyn. Baby Ev-wyn sneeze. Bless you Baby. I share (with) Baby Ev-wyn.

Here she is - a precious, beautiful, smiley, happy baby girl. Such a joy to be around.

Jonah was very gentle with Evelyn and always wanted to give her huggies and kissies. He shared toys with her and invited her to watch Elmo with him. There were lots of reasons to go visit Paul, but I especially wanted to get in some extended baby time for Jonah to have a little taste of what babies are like - even though a 7-month-old is quite different from a newborn. I think it may have helped in preparing him for big brotherhood. I also think he might be catching on a little more to the baby in the belly idea. This week at my doctor appointment I asked him where the baby was and he said, "Um, he's riding in Mommy's belly button."

Cousins chillin' in the chair.

"What do you have in that sippy, Jonah, and how do I get some?"

Solo ABC's

It's only been a month since I last took a video of Jonah doing the ABC's, but I couldn't resist posting another video because he can now do the entire song without my help. Okay, he may mush a letter here and there, the "LMNOP" is more like "ahbababa P!" and he doesn't make much effort at pitch, but still, I think it's pretty good for a one-and-a-half-year-old.

The stuff he says continues to amaze us. He's constantly observing life and putting things together in his mind. He'll say things that we don't remember teaching him or comment on something that's happening that we don't do very often. He'll watch me putting in muffins and say, "Mommy open the oven." Or he'll observe, "Daddy making juice." We get a kick out of how he greets us with, "This is a Mommy!" or "It's a Daddy!" or "Here comes a Mommy!" as if we're just these generic parents and not actaully his mommy and daddy. This week he started to pick up his books and say, "I'm 'onna read it you." and he'll turn to a page and correctly recite a phrase or two from that page. This week he also started to say, "It's mines." I'm actually surprised it took him this long because many of his friends run around saying little else but, "Mine!"

Mr. No

We have definitely entered into the "no" stage of toddlerhood. Whereas it was so fun and cute when Jonah answered "Yeah" to every question, it's not quite as cute when the answer turns to "No" for just about everything. He'll still answer in the affirmative if it's something he really wants, so it's not like he doesn't know the difference between yes and no. Still, a lot of the time I think he just says "no" for the heck of it and not because he really means no. I was heartbroken the other day when I asked if he wanted to sing and he said no. I couldn't believe it! But I really don't think he meant it, he just likes saying no. Tonight I asked him if he wanted some macaroni and he said, "No. I want macaroni." As if he was really didn't want what I was suggesting and had thought of macaroni all by himself.

When do toddlers learn to choose things? I often try to get him to pick one thing or another and he can't do it. "Do you want Cheerios or Kix?" "I want Cheerios. I want Kix." "Do you want to wear sandals or flip-flops?" "Sandals or flip-flops." But I guess I should enjoy the non-decision making while it lasts. I'm sure the time will come when he will have very distinct opinions on breakfast foods and footwear.

I'm also eagerly anticipating the day Jonah gets to the point of really being able to feed himself with a fork or a spoon. It seems like many kids his age can eat quite well with a utensil, but Jonah really hasn't gotten the hang of it yet. He really enjoys trying, but most of the food ends up on his tray, down his chin, and all over his shirt. He invariably gives up, dumps the food onto the tray and digs in with his hands. I sometimes try to enforce the "no dumping" rule, but what's the point if he really can't effectively use the fork or spoon? To Jonah the most best part about having a spoon or fork is pretending it's a bat. You can guarantee that at some point during a meal he will pick something up and pronounce, "This is a bat. I hit it." A grape or a Kix functions quite nicely as a baseball or basketball. He'll even stick his finger in the middle of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and say, "This is a baseball glove!" That's not as messy as when the PB&J becomes a phone or a hat.

Plastic Thunder '09

Today Jon participated in an annual Memorial Day event called "Plastic Thunder" in which adult men ride plastic-wheeled toys (mostly Big Wheels) down a huge winding hill. Everyone modifies their vehicles so they can hopefully bear the weight of a grown man. Jon brought home a bunch of tools from work and spent the weekend modifying his ride with steel axles, ball bearings, an extended seat made from a garbage-picked car seat base, and an extended steering wheel made from PVC pipe.

Here's Jon's ride pre-race. He put a straight axle through the front wheel so he could put his feet on it without the pedals going up and down.

Here's Jon comfortably seated on his toy. We didn't manage to get any pictures of the actual race, but someone did get video footage that we'll be able to link to later. Jon had the most spectacular crash in the event's history, so we're told. Without that borrowed motorcycle helmet he may have suffered some brain damage!

He started out the with the pack of guys and they got going pretty fast. A truck drove in front of the racers with the video camera and they clocked the race at 35 mph. As they came close to the major turn in the course Jon's wheel shifted on the axle and when he tried to correct it he spun backward. The road was slick with rain and he kept rotating. There was really no chance he could navigate the 90 degree turn and he ended up cartwheeling off the road down into a drainage ditch filled with soccer-ball-sized rocks. I really can't believe he came away from it with only a few scratches on his arm. The video shows him clearing the first 10 feet of rocks and then landing on his head.

In hind sight, he said he would have put his feet down at some point, rather than cruising ahead to try to take the lead without any sort of thought for his own safety. Really, it's the type of thing you would never just go out and do by yourself - because it's totally crazy! But in going along with a whole pack of other guys, it doesn't seem so dangerous.

Other than plastic wheels, the only other requirement for the race is that the racers wear a helmet and dress in some sort of silly costume. We decided to create family t-shirts modeled after the classic Big Wheel logo using a Photoshopped picture of Jon's actual ride. We were pretty proud of our shirts, but it turned out that several families showed up with special t-shirts for the event.

Here we are post-race in our shirts back at home.

Mother's Day

Last night we had a good time comparing last year's Mother's Day picture with this year's. Last year showed a very skinny me and very fat Jonah. This year shows a much larger me and a bigger, but more stretched out version of Jonah.

My attempts to get a nice Mother's Day picture outside failed miserably. The wind was blowing my hair in my face, Jonah was squirmy in general and had a cracker that he was quite reluctant to relinquish, my heels were sinking into the ground, etc.

Wind blowing and cracker eating...

Checking out Mommy's necklace...

This one seemed to be the best, but Jonah has a confused, "Why can't I just eat my cracker?" look on his face.

So we settled for the inside picture later in the afternoon. We had a very nice Mother's Day. We thought about going out to lunch after church, but Jon wisely suggested that we just go home and do a quick lunch and put Jonah down for his nap as usual and go out to dinner instead. It worked out much better that way. After naps we flew a kite in our backyard and walked to the park to play for a while. It was a gorgeous day. Then we had a nice dinner at Outback, killed a little extra time looking at animals in the pet store, and went home to put Jonah to bed.

Here's a video of Jonah bringing me my Mother's Day card. It said, "Hey Mom, words can't always express how a son feels about his mom... That's what burps are for!" It was perfect! He even "signed" it in crayon for me. As for a gift, I wanted new sheets for our bed so I got them myself last week. Maybe not that exciting, but we really needed them and I was excited to have them.

In the past I've always thought of Mother's Day as a day for Moms to be pampered and appreciated. While I did feel appreciated this year, more than anything I just felt so thankful to be a mom to my precious son. He delights me every day and I am so thrilled to be blessed with another son in just a few months from now. Of course I wonder at how this new little boy could ever possibly be as wonderful as Jonah, but you always hear parents say that they have just as much love for each child. Mother's Day is also another one of those times when I especially miss my mom. I want to thank her for being such a good example of what a mother should be. I want to see her interact with Jonah and spoil him like I know she would. I want her to know what a great little boy he is and to see how much he is loved. I guess I just wish I could share these greatest moments in my life with her.

I couldn't resist

Ever since I knew we were having another boy I've been excited about getting matching brother outfits, so here they are.  Don't worry, I'm not going to be one of those moms who gives all her kids "J" names and dresses them in matching clothes wherever they go (no offense, Duggars).  We don't have a name for this baby yet, but I can tell you it won't start with J.  I promissed Jon I'd stop at these two outfits.  There's an old picture of Jon and his brothers in matching lederhosen, so maybe he doesn't want our boys to have an embarassing picture to look back on when they grow up.