Easter 2011

It was a low key Easter around our house. With our friends and family and their celebrations 2,000 miles away (boo hoo) it was just the three of us. We started the day visiting a new church in town. It was really great and Jonah seemed to have a really good time in the children's room. Veritas is a really small church that currently meets in a hotel conference room. It has a very early Well feel, which was very comforting to us. We are definitely going back. We only have a few more months here, but a church home has been sadly lacking in our lives and it was great to have a glimpse of what it feels like again.

Church ended just in time for Jonah's nap. (Much like the Well, it is a young church and waking up early is just not in the cards for these people!) Because of this fact, the Easter bunny didn't show up until it was time for Jonah to wake up. Walking out of his room, he was greeted by a bounty that only the Easter bunny, and wonderful grandparents, could provide! He had a lot of fun exploring the baskets and taking out each and every item one by one. (These might not LOOK like the face of fun, but looking at each item intently is fun for our little man.)

He of course had to line up all of his new bath toys from Mimi and made sure that we knew what each one was ("vroom" or "kiss kiss", for the fish).

After he played a bit, I tortured him by putting on some bunny ears. I know, he's a boy, but look at the cute picture!! Totally worth it!

We ended our day by romping around outside for a bit. It may look like we were doing an Easter egg hunt, but we weren't. No eggs this year. Just Jonah playing with the colorful balls and basket that he just couldn't leave behind in the house!

Rain, rain...

It was raining the other day and, because we couldn't go outside, Jonah was getting cabin fever.  Eventually, he "asked" to go onto the deck so we waited until the rain calmed down a little and then headed outside.  I didn't bother to put pants or shoes on him because I figured he wouldn't want to stay outside very long (it was cold and raining after all).  Well, as often happens, I was wrong.  At least I did put his raincoat on him.  Vanessa was quite proud of this purchase, by the way.  It is very cute and she got a great deal on it.

Someone get some pants on this kid!

After a while, it was clear that Jonah wanted to stay outside so we headed in and grabbed pants and shoes.  Much better.

You might think Jonah is pointing at something here.  In actuality, this is his sign for "help".  The sign is supposed to be one hand lifting the other (see an example here), but it morphed into him simply raising his hand.  Maybe he's just preparing for school.

Jonah still feels it necessary to inspect every inch of the deck.

Apparently Jonah wanted to pose for the camera.  Here he's trying to act cool while staring off into the distance.

On the tracks

About a month ago (yes, that's how slow we are to post things these days) Jonah and I were "exploring" outside.  It was still pretty cold here so we had to dress warmly.  Fortunately, Jonah is used to the cold and doesn't mind wearing a hat.

Near our condo are some train tracks that provided us with plenty of things to do.  What kid doesn't like chucking rocks?

While the rocks were fun to throw, they were hard to climb.  Jonah needed a little help getting up the little hill to the tracks.

Once he was up on the top, there was no stopping him.  Look at Jonah go!

Jonah tried to balance on top of the tracks, but that didn't work so well.  Straddling them is much easier.

He went down onto the other side and saw something that he wanted to check out (I forget what it was).  He looks so determined in this photo.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that playing on train tracks is probably not a good idea.  Fortunately we'll be moving soon so this shouldn't be an issue in North Carolina.  Don't worry Nana and Mimi, I'll also be sure to teach him not to play on train tracks in the future.

St. Louis Science Center

During our free time in St. Louis we wanted to see some of the attracions that the city had to offer. Truthfully, there wasn't a ton to do that worked with Jonah's age and schedule (we were NOT willing to give up naps if we could help it!). The weather sadly did not permit us going to the zoo, which was our original plan, but we got the recommendation from some locals to go to the St. Louis Science Center. Not only was it a great place for Jonah to run wild and touch things, but it was also free! Score!!!

The museum was split up into a number of different areas. Some of them were way over Jonah's head (what the heck is this ball that I can't throw?) and some were weird but intriguing (a tornado smoke machine). He was drawn to the things that we knew he would be, including a wheel that he could pretend to drive and lego type building things.

He of course settled down with the books at the reading station and showed Mimi all the "vrooms" in the books. (You can actually see his little mouth shaped into the sound he's making.)

The lobby of the museum had a HUGE track all along the ceiling with balls following it all over the place. Jonah loved watching all of the balls and had both Mimi and Andrew hold him up to look at them over and over.

Photo opp with Mimi in the volcano room!!

Man...all this exploring makes a guy thirsty! No time for a photo Dad. I'm drinking!

Fun Times with Mimi

A special treat that was included in our trip to St. Louis was the fact that Mimi got to come and be with us during the weekend! What started as a joke ("Hey Mimi...wanna come do childcare for us in St. Louis while we go to our friends wedding?") turned into a reality and it was awesome. Because Andrew and I were in the wedding we had to/got to attend the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding day festivities. I have no idea how we would have managed to be at everything with out Mimi being there. Besides the convenience factor for us, Jonah got some major one on one time with his Mimi. Needless to say, they both ate it up!!

They were both ecstatic from the minute we picked her up at the airport.

By necessity, a lot of their time together was spent in the hotel suite that we got for the weekend. Surprisingly, Jonah never really got cabin fever though. He explored every inch of the room. He really enjoyed hanging out in the closet, sometimes playing and sometimes just taking a book in there and reading alone. There was a big picture window that looked out onto the river, the bridge, the street, and a train track so he and Mimi spent A LOT of time looking out at all the cool different "vrooms" going by.

They read and played with blocks.

There wasn't quite as much cuddle time as Mimi probably would have liked, Jonah is almost 2 after all, but she got to see what he was like on an "average" day and got to see his big personality in person. Since the trip he has missed his Mimi a ton and has taken to calling her on his "phone" (and old dead iPod) and kissing her picture daily. It is so sweet to see their bond.