Mama's Musings

Jonah is quickly becoming a little boy.

When we get out of the car and head into our condo building he doubles over my arm as I carry him and scrambles down, his singular goal to climb the stairs up to our floor by himself. He giggles as he goes and periodically looks behind him to make sure I am there, but does not want me to pick him up. Arriving at the hallway of our floor he stands up and walks himself all the way up to our door. He is pleased as punch that he has made the trek unassisted. Andrew and I layed in bed last night and talked about how much he looks like a little boy when he is making that walk down the hall. He walks around our house all the time, hardly ever using the bear crawl anymore, but there is something different about that walk outside the confines of our home.

When he is in that hallway he is out in the real world. He loves it. He explores as he goes along, checking out each doormat along the way. There is freedom there. He has tasted it and he loves it. That taste of freedom however, is a bit more bittersweet for me. While it is nice to not have to lug a 25 pound boy up 3 flights of stairs along with my groceries, it is definitely a trade off. It is another moment that I am not 100% ready for. Another thing bringing me closer to the baby being gone and the boy coming in.

I have never professed to love babies. They are a very difficult breed and tend to be far more take than give for my liking. But...they do have their perks. For example, they cuddle. When they are small with largely no worthwhile use of their legs, you can cuddle on them with no ceasing. This is no longer the case when they grow and can literally just walk away from your cuddle advances. They fit in your lap (or on your chest, depending the size of the baby). Now Jonah is all arms and legs hanging off of me. He has become more of a blanket when he is draped across me.

In comparison, I would definitely choose the Jonah I have now over the Jonah that we struggled with in infancy. Cute as he was he was quite the handful. He has always had a definite personality...a big personality. But now he has a sense of humor and a laugh that just makes my heart swell. He is smart and willful and will be a challenge to us for the rest of our lives I am sure. But he is going to be someone great. He is gonna be a wonderful man, as soon as he is done being a wonderful boy. I just hope that goes by a lot slower than the baby part did.

Corny

Back when we went to California Jonah tried his first ear of corn. From there on out he was hooked (to put it mildly). When we got back to Iowa he became more like an addict. Whenever we bought corn for the 3 of us we bought 6 ears. One for Andrew and I each and four for Jonah to be doled out over the next few days.

We had to make sure that he ate other food before he even layed eyes on the corn because once he saw it all hell would break loose. Honestly. Fits of whining, crying and sometimes screaming would occur if he saw the corn on the counter (while prepping and husking it) and did not get to eat it immediately. Andrew and I got to the point where we would spell out c-o-r-n because we were sure that Jonah had connected the word to the item already. Andrew got to the point where he thought we should just stop having corn in the house for a while, but I continued to be an enabler. After all, we live in the state of corn for crying out loud!! Corn season is short anyway so I continued to buy the stuff for my sweet boy and was just more careful in not letting him see it until he could actually sink his teeth into it.

The joy on his face is priceless when he gets handed his corn cob. Ahhhh....giggles and giddiness abound. Jonah does an excellent job eating the corn too; usually getting it down to just a naked little cob. Then, of course, there is the issue of getting the newly naked cob AWAY from him. He prefers to hold on to it for a long time after he has stripped it bare. He walks around with it and drives it on the ground like a car. I am, again, a bit more lenient with this than Andrew is only because I know the desire and ability to act this way with his corn will inevitably be short without any intervention from us. My thinking: Corn is good. Go for it kid.

14 Months...(and 13 too!)

Man....after Jonah turned a year old we really started slacking off in the monthly, monkey photos! I mean, we took them (maybe a few days late), but never got around to posting them. He has been changing a whole lot more in behaviors than in size lately so I think that we have just been more fascinated with those growths. At any rate here are his 14 and 13 months photos, for posterity.

We'll start with the 13 month old photo. Sadly, this was the best one we got. Not our best photo shoot.

At the 14 month shoot, Addyson joined in. Quite frankly she was already comfortable on the couch and had no intention of moving (as you can clearly see by the look on her face). Jonah LOVED her being so close. Here he is doing his "I'm being gentle" face, and then moves on to being a little less gentle (his hand looks like a claw!). He wanted to make sure that Monks knew she was there and gave him a better look too.

Jonah's new friend

Jonah's gramma just sent a care package to the Iowa Smiths.  Aside from the tasty cookies for me, there was a little friend for Jonah.

 As you'll see in the video below, he was quite excited to meet his new friend.

The next morning, Jonah carried his friend everywhere with him. Apparently they bonded quickly.

"What do you want to do now?"

Jonah holding him up so he can see outside.

Jonah is loving on his friend.

As you might have gathered, we haven't yet named his friend.  We normally come up with names like "Green Monkey", "Sock Monkey", and "Bunny", but we'd like to be a little more creative this time.  If you have any suggestions, let us know.

Jonah and the taxi

Just for fun...

Walking update....

Jonah is still a bit wobbly, but he now prefers walking over crawling.  Next goal, teaching him to kick a soccer ball.

Slip and Slide

This past weekend, one of my girlfriends celebrated her birthday with a backyard BBQ. With all of the things she had set up you would have thought it was a party for kids!! Splash pad...kiddie pool...sand box...and a huge homemade slip and slide. Now, you may be thinking to your self, "Isn't Jonah a bit young for that"? Well...the proof is in the pictures. Sheer joy!