Akinas

While in Fresno we were able to get together with not only family, but our dear friends that are as good as family! David Akina has been one of my friends since I was about 13. I became almost instantly attached to his wife Mary and she ended up being one of my bridesmaids. Then there is Lizzy, their 2 1/2 year old daughter who is one of the cutest kids that God ever made. One of the things that we miss most living out here in Iowa is just "doing life" with these dear friends. No plans. No agenda. Just hanging out. Well, we got to do just that. We went to dinner at PF Changs (yummo honey shrimp!) and hung out at the Smiths house. Lizzy is amazing with Jonah, and loves babies in general. Good thing she is gonna be a big sister in just under a month!! Here we are hanging out in the backyard, soaking up that beautiful Spring sun! Finding bugs, hanging out with Anna the baby doll (Lizzy seeks her out as soon as she crosses the threshold into the Smiths house), swinging and just being together!

Increased Mobility

Little by little Jonah is inching towards crawling. He has mastered the backwards shimmy. He is perfecting the tummy to bummy sit -up. Now he is slowly coming to understand the art of crawling. He has yet to do the same movement more than once at any given time so any cumulative forward movement is sparse, but at least he is starting to figure it out. In the next few days we hope to show the world how he can actually crawl! Here is a little video just to demonstrate where he is at today.

9 months...and a bit more

While we were in California Jonah turned 9 months old. Since packing space is always limited we opted to leave Green Monkey here at home and just take his picture with Jonah when we returned. Jonahs stats were updated at a doctors appointment just before we left on our vacation. Everything is all wonky and out of order this month! This is the basic jist though. Jonah weighs 22lbs (the 75th-ish percentile) and is 30 inches long (the 95th percentile). The doctor is pleased with all of his developmental markers. Jonah showed off his I'll-throw-this-down-you-get-it skills as well as his squealing volume and his contortionist abilities while in the doctors office. Jonah is still not sleeping through the night (getting up twice to feed) but Dr. Phillips is not concerned about that at all. He merely encouraged us that when we are ready to train him to sleep better it's just gonna suck. Well, maybe not in those words, but he is pretty darn honest! No shots this time (yeah!!) so we left with no crying of any sort. That's about all you can ask for I guess!

Andrew had to take Jonah's 9 month picture before he left for work in the morning so Jonah is still half asleep. He doesn't seem too thrilled about the timing, but what can you do!

Ps...the day before yesterday (the 24th) Jonah learned how to go from his stomach up to a sitting position by himself! Now he does it all the time, like it's old hat or something! Andrew even found him sitting up in bed this morning!

Susanville

While in Susanville visiting the the newest member of the Smith family, we got a chance to be outdoors without our parkas and soak up some good old California sunshine! Loved it!!! We smartly put a hat on Jonah, but I actually got a sunburn while we were there! It has been a loooong time since that has happened. Andrew, Papa, Uncle Adam, and Cuz Hunter got to take a walk with the dogs while Jonah napped and the girls hung out. After Jonah got up from his nap Papa took him for a ride around the yard in Hunters wagon. (Nana had taken him on a similar wagon ride earlier in the day.) Jonah loved taking in all of the new sights around him and also became enthralled with a couple of little balls that he found in the yard. He held onto them most of the day and they show up as props in most of his pictures.

Hello!

We are finally home after a very short, but very full trip back home to California. (When are our trips not full though? Hmm. I will have to talk to the activities coordinator about that next time.) There were so many great moments that I hardly know where to begin. We got to meet our newest member of the Smith family, hang out with our dear friends the Akinas, go on a double date with the Jacksons while Nana and Gramma watched the cousins, and co-host a wedding shower for my BFF. Phew!! Obviously all of that left little time for writing, so now I will play catch up. I'll start at the end of the trip and work my way backwards, since it was at the end of our trip that we got to meet little Brooklyn Lekili Smith!


On the Smith side of the family it has been a bit like the game duck, duck, goose in terms of grandkids. Except it has been more like boy, boy, boy...girl!!! Andrew's brother and sister-in-law beat everyone to the punch and had the first girl of the family. We knew that she was coming so we booked our flight back to Iowa from the Reno airport (they live in Susanville, Ca). We were supposed to drive up to Susanville on the 17th, her due date, but she is an early bird and decided to come on the 11th! (The trip to Susanville was about 9 hours in the car, but Jonah did AMAZINGLY well, thanks for wondering!) We still headed to their house on the day that we originally planned and got to spend the whole next day with the family before heading home on the 19th.


Brooklyn, or Kili, was so teeny bikini!! She was born at 7lbs 1oz so even after loosing weight and gaining it right back, she was still over a pound smaller than Jonah was when he was born!! It was so weird to hold a baby that small. She felt like she was made of Styrofoam she was so light! It was beautiful weather in Susanville and we spent most of the day outside soaking up the sun. Mel is recovering amazingly; she is such a champ! Big bro Hunter is gentle with "sissy" and Adam is such an attentive Papa. We had to wait 3 months before we got to see Hunter when he was born so it was a really special treat to get to meet Brooklyn so soon. We just ate up our time together.

We made sure to get tons of pics of us with Brooklyn while she was so small and even got a few with the cousins together. That was a feat to be sure!!

Sippy Cup

We have started to give Jonah a sippy cup, and boy does he like it. He is slowly learning how to drink from it (he has to chomp on the end for anything to come out) and that he needs to hold it up so the water drains out. As you might imagine, Vanessa and I love watching Jonah trying to figure things out.

This is what Jonah normally looks like when he's drinking from his sippy cup.

Sometimes the water doesn't come out as quickly as it should. That makes Jonah angry!

Who needs hands to hold a sippy cup?

If he swings his arms fast enough, maybe he'll be able to....well, I'm not really sure what he was trying to do, but he was working really hard at it.

By the way, notice the massive amount of water down the front of Jonah's shirt. Some day he'll actually be able to get more water in his mouth than on his shirt.

Jonah's pegboard- 100th post

When Jonah was in California Nana introduced him to his new favorite toy. Cousin Noah had a neato pegboard and colored pegs that his occupational therapist had introduced him to. Nana in turn showed them to Jonah. Instant fascination! Alas, when we returned to Iowa, no pegboard. It was a sad day. Weeks later, Jonah received his very own set of pegs in the mail!! Woohoo!! He plays with them EVERYDAY, no exceptions. Daddy takes a lot of photos during Jonah's daily pegboard time. Sometimes the pegs become drumsticks. Sometimes they are swords. (Daddy may or may not have sword fights with him.) Sometimes they are cigars. (That one may be my favorite. It is so funny looking! A baby with a big primary colored cigar? Come on!) Besides the pegs themselves, Jonah is also quite a fan of the blue foam pegboard. He always gives it a little special attention so that it doesn't feel left out! Below are pictures from just one day. Not all of the different peg manifestations are pictured, as Jonah likes to shake it up from day to day. But you can definitely get the gist of his fascination with them.