Andrew and Vanessa Smith

Monterey Photo Shoot

2012-02-11T21:46:00.000-05:00

When we were in Monterey right after Christmas, cousin Noah showed us a great spot to take photos. Uncle Casey and I followed the boys around snapping photos like they were celebrities. It was fun and we got some great pictures.

[Note: The first 4 photos courtesy of Casey Jackson]

Beachy

2012-01-25T16:28:00.003-05:00

Are we still really doing recaps from our time in California? Yes. We are. Because we freaking did so much while we were there!! (For those of you who follow The Jacksons blog too, some of these may be repeats for you.) So...here we go.

During our trip to Cali we got to go to the coast with The Jacksons and Nana and Papa Smith. It was such a great getaway since this California girl hadn't seen the ocean in over a year!! (Mountains are pretty and all, but c'mon!) We spent 3 days and 2 nights in Monterey at the lovely home (really, really lovely home) of family friend Grandma Quinn. The first day there we stopped for sandwiches to take with us to the beach. I wish I could describe to you the comedy show that took place at the deli we went to, but it would be a blog within itself. The sandwiches were less than phenomenal, but the scenery more than made up for it.

Jonah had a blast exploring all of the rocks and picking up the "sand" (Northern California pebble sand) and chucking it as far as he could.

Jonah and Cuz Noah wore the rocks down with all of their climbing. They got in a little game of tug of war with a piece of kelp too. (*pics by KC)

Jonah and I both looked for shells in the sand, though the activity definitely held my attention longer than his.

Before we left we all took a few moments where we just stared at the crashing waves. Jonah was safe holding onto Nana's hands. It did my heart good seeing everyone together like that.

Christmas Jammies

2012-01-16T18:20:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of Nana, the cousins all have matching Christmas PJ's each year. Here's a little peek at the cuddly goodness of this year. (Noah hugs Jonah in the last shot and it's pretty darn precious.)

Outdoor Explorations

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Christmas afternoon the Cuz's went exploring in Nana and Papa's backyard. The edge of their property is lined with bushes that are just perfect for little-boy exploring.

First they had to discuss their plans:

Then they entered the labyrinth of foliage:

Hiding from the cameras (looks a lot like spotting Bigfoot doesn't it?):

Their watchdog was patrolling the area (Ferocious Sierra):

Examining their findings:

Copping a squat (exploring is hard work!):

Smith Family Christmas

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

December 25th meant that the Smith/Jacksons celebrated Christmas as a family. Cuz Noah made an entrance as quite the dapper little dude. Jonah decided to forgo the formality of a tie, but Noah really worked it.

At the Smith house the order of the day is stockings, breakfast, presents (whereas at the Reed house we sometimes forget about stocking til much later). Stockings always bring with them some traditional items (cereal and oranges *although no oranges this year??) and special treats.

Everyone gets boxes of cereal. Here I am showing Jonah what kind he got, and then he is proceeding to plead me for it.

Beyond that, each of the boys got toys specific to their interests (planes/cars vs animals) and some that were just the same (sea creature toys to foreshadow our trip to the aquarium after Christmas). Both of the boys have such enthusiasm for their passions. It is so fun to watch their zeal.

After breakfast (quiche...yummo) we moved on to opening presents. In the Smith family they open by age so Jonah had to wait through a full rotation of people before he could open his first present! He showed amazing patience though and I was really proud of him. Noah, was cool as a clam as well. (He would appreciate that reference.)

Among his gifts were a kickin personalized duffel bag from Auntie Becca (so so cute when Jonah says it) and Uncle KC, a Rosie train from me (I needed a girlie train for when I am ~~forced~~ asked to play choo-choos), and a Spinbrush for kids from (dentist) Uncle Adam and Auntie Melissa. He thought the toothbrush was a hoot and loves using it every night. Laughs every time!

The day didn't end after presents! The boys explored outside, we had a faulous crab dinner, and a mini Cousin Christmas Pajama Fashion Show. I gotta save something for the next blogs though!!! Merry Christmas.

Reed Family Christmas

2012-01-10T18:38:00.000-05:00

Wow. Halloween was our last entry huh. That holiday is in October right? And it's now January? I feel sheepish. Well, I guess I will just say that it is a new year...and let's let by gones be by gones... and so on and so forth...etc. Hopefully the blogs will be coming fast and furious now that we are home and we have almost 1,000 pictures to share with everyone! (*note: slight exaggeration--Only 934.)

We had a great time at both Christmases this year!! Per our usual routine, we spent Christmas Eve day with the Reed family and made it our Christmas with them, start to finish. GG came from Oakdale to spend the day with us and Great Gramps was able to come from his home and spend a few hours with us as well. We only get to see each of them once a year, if that, so it always means so much to have them there.

We started the morning with breakfast that had a healthier side this year. (Since mom knew I was trying to lose weight and be more mindful overall of the food I eat she has eggs with veggies and stuff as an option. Thanks Mom!) The cinnamon rolls were there too, but because they weren't homemade, they were less tempting. After breakfast we moved on to presents. We decided to do a "smaller" Christmas this year overall, and I must say that I really liked it. There was no gluttony of material things, just a few items for each of us. I think it should be our new thing.

The theme of the year for Jonah was Cars and trains. (Namely Lightening McQueen and Thomas, but he'll take anything in those categories!) Here he is opening a Thomas book with Mimi and looking through a few other new Leapfrog books with Uncle Josh. (I realize that I keep jumping back and forth between my references to mom as mom and references to her as Mimi. Same with the other family members. Hope you can figure it out and follow along.)

With a little suggesting from us, we convinced Jonah that he should ask Santa for a McQueen and Mater toy this year (requests went through our Elf on the Shelf). And look at that...Santa came through!!

Jonah gave Great Gramps a picture frame that he painted all by himself, with a brand new picture in it. Grandpa isn't able to communicate much these days, but was visibly emotional about the gift. It was a really sweet moment.

After presents, Jonah and Pop Pop went outside to play. I was able to catch a few moments of them together on film!!(Pop Pop is more natural without and audience so we just peeked out the window at them.) Pop Pop kept letting Jonah spray the hose one direction, but it was just too tempting for Jonah to spray it at him!!

Jonah took a nap after playtime and the adults watched Arrested Development DVDs. Everyone does that on Christmas right? (No picture for that, but it wasn't a real photo opp.)

We made sure to get a family pictures before GG had to head home.

New Year's Resolution

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year

New Year's resolution #1: blog more consistantly.

Halloween

2011-11-10T19:17:00.000-05:00

The High Country offers a lot of thinks for kiddos to do during Halloween. The Mall hosts trick-or-treaters as do the dorms and the downtown area of Blowing Rock. We decided to take part in the "Boone Boo" in downtown Boone.

The library started off the night with music and readings from Miss Lisa, who teaches children's music classes around here. Jonah didn't really know what to make of it. He loves music and eventually clapped along, but there was a lot to take in for his first time.

The kids left the library to "parade" across the street to a house that had been decorated for the kids to walk through. (Think hauted house, but for the 4 and under crew.) Jonah was a little afraid of the house (he is hyper aware of anything "gary"/scary these days) but was super happy that we ran into his friend Simon there!! (I cannot explain how cute they are together!!)

Jonah also got a balloon outside the haunted house....and then lost it.

Next we moved on to the actual trick-or-treating. Most of the vendors up and down King Street participate. Everyone just walks up and down mingling and letting their kiddos get candy. We stuck pretty close to Simon and his family as we went along so the boys got to check in with each other. (Luckily I really dig Simon's mom too, so it works out perfectly!)

We suffered a little anxiety about the night as we had to deal with so many things being scary to Jonah. We hadn't really taken into account all of the big kids who would be wearing masks all around us. Luckily, nothing had any lasting effect on Jonah. In the end the experience was worth the cold and all of the explanations about all the big kids "just being silly".

Making Faces

2011-11-01T15:26:00.002-04:00

Jonah got the chance to carve pumpkins for the first time this year. We thought it would be fun if he was involved with as much of it as possible. He was unsure about everything in the beginning, but remained curious about it none the less. (I love his facial expressions as he watches what I am doing.) I was sure he would like the slimy aspect of it, being a boy and all, but...not so much.

Next we scooped the guts out and got ready to carve. Jonah liked holding the tools and scooping, but only when the really gross stuff was already out.

Next came carving. Andrew likes to sketch the face on the pumpkin before he starts carving while I like to just dig right in and hope it turns out like I want it to. (Says a little about our personalities doesn't it!) Jonah had daddy help him with his pumpkin. Andrew even held Jonah's hand so he could carve it himself.

The finished product!! Baby Pumpkin! (Isn't Jonah strong? Look at that physique!! haha)

After a little clean up of excess goo on the pumpkins it was time to set them up as a family.

"Mama Pumpkin, Daddy Pumpkin, Baby Pumpkin", declares Jonah. Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-31T13:58:00.000-04:00

Last week Jonah and I went with our mom and tot group to Red Wolf Farms pumpkin patch. To refer to it as just a pumpkin patch is a bit of an understatement. It is a real working farm that also does tours for kids during this season. There was so much to see and Jonah is getting to an age where he really enjoyed it.

The first stop of the excursion was to see all of the animals. They had pigs, goats, chickens, bunnies, calfs, and "creek" creatures (turtles and stuff). Jonah got to touch them all and was excited to see each new animal. (He was really well behaved too. No pushing, waited his turn, and followed directions. I was really proud of him!)

Personally I loved watching him feed the chickens and the calf the most. He held a handful of chicken food with one hand and would dole out the pieces one by one with the other. The chicken waited patiently for him.

When we went over to the calfs, he had a great time with one in particular. He went up to the fence and stuck his finger through the slats. The calf would lick his finger and as he moved the calf would follow. Too cute! The leader then lined all of the kids up and let each one of them hold the bottle of milk for another hungry calf. Jonah wasn't afraid at all.

We also walked down to the creek that runs through the farm to see the "wild" animals like the crawdads and turtles. (The turtle was just a shell, and Jonah kept trying to get the crawdad to crawl into his hand cause he thought it looked like his "catter-pitter".)

After we saw all the animals we took a tractor ride over to the pumpkin patch and play area. Jonah is crusing along next to his little buddy Simon. (They are soooo cute together!!)

Jonah took off for the pumpkins as soon as the tractor stopped. (Literally...a worker had to run after him cause I was still on the tractor.) He thought he was a big enough stud to lift a pumpkin himself. Not quite kiddo.

We ended our time at the farm with a little running around, a little playing in the corn and wheat boxes (in lieu of sandboxes) and a little tractor racing. All in all, it was a great way to spend a morning.

Jonah's ABC's

2011-10-28T09:43:00.001-04:00

The other day, we went to the outlets to do some shopping. While waiting for Vanessa to finish checking out clothes at Gap, Jonah and I broke out in song. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I did get Jonah to sing his ABCs. He missed a few letters, but he did a pretty good job.

The video is very quiet, so you might have to turn up the volume to hear Jonah singing.

A Boy and His Bug

2011-10-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

Please do enjoy Jonah and his "catter-pitter".

Woolly Worm Festival

2011-10-19T15:20:00.001-04:00

New fun fact about the area we live in. A nearby town, Banner Elk, is the home to the annual Woolly Worm Festival. Being accustomed to cute, little town events in Iowa we thought we would take an hour on Saturday and check it out. Boy were we in over our heads!!

The 34th annual festival has grown over the years into an event which draws approximately 20,000 people over 2 days. (By the way, Banner Elk is normally a town of about 1,500) People even come from nearby states to race the infamous Woolly Worms. Folklore has it that Woolly Worms can predict the severity of the upcoming winter. The overall winner of the races is the one the prediction is made by. (You can look it up on Wikipedia) Over a thousand worms are raced and the winner gets 1,000 bucks!! Anyway...the traffic into town should have been an indication of what we were in for since a 17 mile drive took over an hour. (Let me also mention that I am going to TRY to give a more "cheerful" account of the days highlights. When we decided to go, Jonah and I were both getting over colds and were fit to be tied. Poor Andrew just went down with a sinking ship.)

Jonah was acting silly walking into the event and was having us essentially "drag" him there while holding our hands. Right inside the gate was the first attraction. Woolly Worm cutouts to pose in! Jonah actually wanted to do this so we got some cute pictures. (However he did have a fit when we didn't do it over and over. Another fit happened when we said he couldn't play with the dogs at the "doggie daycare" located right next to the cutouts since it was a daycare and not an attraction.)

After that we headed over to the kids play area. They had a giant inflatable wonderland set up, which happened to be too old for Jonah (and too expensive). We settled for a "wee" right next to it.

We attempted to get some food after that. Again, we were not prepared for the scope of this thing and had to leave to get money before we even started. Fair food prices were in place and a simple bite to eat turned into an undertaking with lackluster results. Jonah did get corn on the cob to eat though, which is always a pleaser. Amongst the tents of the several hundred craft vendors was set up of a couple of women with huge birds. I don't really know what their purpose was...but Jonah is a boy and got to see a big bird.

We figured we should actually see the main event before we left so we went next to the worm-race-area. Again...look at the size of the stage. There are 25-30 worms racing up vertical strings all day long. I don't know if there is any actual training involved or just luck. (Look really closely at the second photo and you can see the worms on the strings.) Jonah and I looked on with wonder.

Since the day was kind of a bust in the worm department, and we had really talked it up in the morning, we decided to buy Jonah one on the way out. (Mind you, you can find these guys everywhere, but vendors make a killing off of them!) In the end I was so glad that we did in fact get Jonah one because he became a little obsessed with it. He was oh so gentle with it and had a lot of playtime with his new friend when he got home. (Next blog!!)

Fall is Falling

2011-10-16T14:42:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we decided to take a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway to take a closer look at all of the changing colors. Man O Man was it beautiful!!! Growing up in Fresno my Nana and Papa used to take me to Woodward Park each year to look at the leaves. (woohoo!) I liked it but always thought it was funny that you had to go to a specific place to see them, like seasonal decorations. When Andrew and I moved to Iowa we were blown away by how much more color there was in the fall. Bright red's and golden yellows were everywhere. Then we moved to North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains are blowing everything else away!

The colors themselves are highlighted by the sheer size of these mountains. Our elevation here is slightly lower than Shaver Lake's, but the mountain ridges go on and on and on. Everything seems wider and grander. Here are the boys with the Thunderhill Overlook behind them. It seems so vast but manages to be so peaceful too.

Jonah is into climbing now, and being as how we were on a mountain, he was able to find some really great rocks to crawl on. I found some really cool trees. (Aren't they kind of artsy? I don't know. I just really liked them.)

The coolest part about our little jaunt that day was that it was only about 10 minutes from our house. No packing up the car. No day trip. Just a ten minute drive, for the heck of it. Crazy that this is our reality now.

Walks with dad...

2011-10-06T11:17:00.000-04:00

Recently, Jonah and I have been taking walks when I get home from work. This gives him time to get outside and burn off some energy. It gives me time to spend with Jonah. And it gives Vanessa a (sometimes) needed break. Here are a few pictures from a recent walk down the street.

This is the face he made when I asked him for a BIG smile.

He likes running on the "yeddow" line (as he calls it). Fortunately, our place is on a dead-end street so very few cars ever drive down.

Jonah is still obsessed with letters and points them out everywhere. He is starting to learn to spell and read a few words.

Jonah has become quite the jumper. He's always trying to jump off things. Fortunately, he's generally pretty good about knowing when he needs me to catch him and when he can jump on his own. Here's a series of shots from one of his leaps off the stone "wall". He didn't quite stick the landing.

Pearly Whites

2011-10-04T07:15:00.000-04:00

On Friday, Jonah had his first ever dentist appointment!! There is really only one pediatric dental practice in Boone, so our choice of where to go was really easily. This place was absolutely the place I would have chosen anyway though. The whole office was bright, airy, and friendly. They sent a get-to-know-your-child questionnaire before our visit so they could know him a bit better and were very intentional about making his first experience a good one so he wouldn't be afraid of the dentist in years to come. Our dental assistant was Marilyn and she was so sweet and fun with Jonah. She brought out each of her tools one by one and showed him what they did on his hands. Here she is smiling cause he was laughing at the way the water and vacuum tickled.

Then she demonstrated how the mirrors worked. She used a small one on Harley and Jonah used the big one on himself. (He also practiced brushing and flossing Harley.) Harley was a really fun mascot.

We moved on to the cleaning procedure. Marilyn gave Jonah cool shades to protect his eyes from the bright light. He hates bright lights, so this was a good move. (Also, he just looks so much cooler in his vulnerable state.)

Next the dentist herself came in and gave him a once over. Not surprisingly, she said that Jonah has a bit of an overbite and may have braces in his future. No shock there!! (I had them for 3 years, with all the "cool" accessories and Andrew had them for a bit too.) The whole time we were at the appointment Jonah was cool as a cucumber and followed directions well.

Jonah left the dentists office with quite the swag bag too. Besides the typical toothbrush and floss (a Diego toothbrush and Buzz Lightyear floss, thank you very much!) he got a token to use in the toy machines (he used it to buy a really great mini dinosaur that he lost within the hour) and a T-shirt in a lovely shade of orange (or "oden" as Jonah says).

Last but not least he got his picture taken showing off his pearly whites. It was made into a button that he could proudly wear out. I mean...what more could you ask for!

Boone

2011-10-02T17:30:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, we took a little jaunt down the hill to downtown Boone. We live in Blowing Rock, which is really more of the touristy area, and as a result we haven't gotten to downtown Boone much. So we rectified that by having lunch downtown and walking around King Street for a bit. There was a really weird mix of hippie/alternative stores and antiques shops.The colors are starting to change here so there are nice bursts of color everywhere too.

During our walk, we came across a little bluegrass band performing. Bluegrass and mountain inspired music is pretty common around here and so are little bands of performers.

We had lunch at Black Cat Burrito, which is their answer to Chipotle and Panchero's. It was a funky little "alternative" kind of place. Really popular and with great options like Tofu Satay burritos in addition to the more standard varieties. Yummo!

After 2 hours of walking, looking in stores, and eating, Jonah was over life! (Hence this little "talk" with Daddy.) Needless to say, we decided to tackle the other side of the street another time.

I'M TWO!!!!!

2011-09-21T13:41:00.000-04:00

I forget the day, or the reason for this. But does it really matter? He's two. You get the jist.

Quality Time with Mimi

2011-08-22T16:45:00.000-04:00

A week and a half after Nana and Papa left us here in NC, Mimi came for her first visit! (We are hoping that her visits will be a bit more frequent now that we are even farther away.) Her visit was a low key one overall. A little "sightseeing" and a whole lot of Jonah and Mimi time!

Jonah quickly got used to Mimi being around and harassed her to play with him every waking moment (he literally woke her up every morning to play). In his defense, Mimi didn't really need much coercing. The weather was really nice while she was here so we spent a lot of time outside playing with chalk, or "hawk" as Jonah calls it.

Andrew made a house for Jonah out of a big cardboard box. We thought it was a good idea for Jonah to spruce the place up, inside and out.

Blowing bubbles is a major pastime for us these days as well. Mimi was enlisted to blow bubbles and was also commanded to sit and watch as "baby" (how Jonah refers to himself) blew some.

In the end, the two of them didn't care if the weather was good or bad, as long as they were together! (Here they are watching a thunder storm out Mimi's window. Precious moment.)

How We Spend Our Days

2011-08-09T14:47:00.000-04:00

So it kind of goes without saying that Jonah is a big fan of having a bigger house. There is soooo much more room to play and so much more to explore!! Though he has his own playroom (That sounds so decadent sometimes. Like he should have his own stable with a pony too.) he truly utilizes all of the room that this house has to offer.

He colors a lot these days, both with crayons and with chalk. Not surprisingly he often "writes" letters when he is coloring (his obsession with letters continues). He will take his coloring pad with him anywhere in the house and asks to go outside to play with "hawk" (chalk) constantly.

We got Jonah a rug for his playroom that looks like the map of a town. He plays on that a lot with his trains and cars.

Stacking blocks and putting things in neat rows continues to be a fun pastime too. He REALLY loves his Legos. Having Daddy make them into 3D letters is the end-all-be-all. (I have a really cute photo of Jonah playing with his Legos "au-natural" but I will spare him the future embarrassment this one time.)

Our house has a great porch that wraps around from the front to the side. It is fenced in on the side (which provides more great area to play... pictures from around there to be posted later) but is open in the front of the house. Sometimes Jonah likes to just sit on the front porch and look around, point out bees on the flowers and swing his legs back and forth off the side. Taking a few letters outside to build words while you are there never hurts either.

Home Sweet Home-Blowing Rock

2011-07-27T15:12:00.000-04:00

I thought I would add "Blowing Rock" to the end of this posts title because Lord knows this is not gonna be the last "Home Sweet Home" post we ever do!! For now though, this is our home and in the week since we moved here we have tried to make it as cozy and personal as we could. There are still some gaps in decor here and there, but like Andrew has mentioned, that just gives us space to add things from our time here. Hopefully this will give ya'll (I said that BEFORE we moved here!) a little bit of a sense of where we spend our time here in the High Country. (Let me stop you here and say this is a little longer than other blogs recently, so keep time in mind...)

I will walk through the photos as if I were doing a walking tour of the house. This is a picture of our front door from the road coming in. We live on a dead end lane, rather than a cul de sac, so it is very narrow. Our house is actually right on a hill as you will see later...

Coming in the front door, you enter the living room and this would be the first view you see. Looking to the right of the door is the fireplace and built in's. If you crossed the room and sat on the couch, there would be a view out the window onto our street. There are lots of windows in the house, but it can still feel a bit dark cause there is an eave hanging off the roof over the whole house.

This is the dining room and kitchen area. We finally have a kitchen table, we haven't had one for 4 years, so we are now beginning the process of teaching Jonah proper "table manners". I really look forward to being able to sit down at the table together as a family for meals. What a luxury!!

There is a door to the left of the table that leads to our deck and yard area. Here is the view from the kitchen table. Not too shabby!

The kitchen has a wealth of cupboard space; unfortunately most of it is exposed! It took Betty and I quite a bit of tinkering to make all of the cubbies work together. I can guarantee that this area will be a continual work in progress.

Walking down the hallway of the house will lead you to the rest of the rooms. The guest bathroom...

Jonah's bedroom (with new "animal" theme)...

Jonah's playroom (complete with Thomas the Train table given to us for free from an Iowa faculty member, an Ikea road rug, art cubbies, and a bulletin board to display produced art)...

And our bedroom. There are a lot of unexplained quirks in this house, and the size of the master bedroom would be one of them. While Jonah sleeps in a shoebox, we sleep in what feels like another wing of the house. There is more than enough room and we have had to try to figure out how to fill it up! We aren't complaining mind you, this just isn't a problem that we ever thought we would have. I love it to pieces and it feels like a little sanctuary.

I will finish with a few views of the outside of the house. Here is a view of the house from our carport. Again, we are on a hill so there are steps from the carport to the house itself. Then there is a view of the "yard" area seen outside the dining area window. You can see there is a little clearing up at the top of the photo. That is because you can actually walk up the hill behind the flowers as it climbs behind our house. From that clearing you will see the final view.

day 3

2011-07-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Our last day of traveling was relatively short and easy. We left Knoxville in the morning and made it to Blowing Rock, NC by the afternoon. The last 40 miles were a bit slow because it was a narrow 2-lane road through the mountains. That being said, it was a very pretty drive.

We will be unpacking everything today and should have some pictures of the house soon. Having never actually seen the house in person, there were a few surprises. Nothing too problematic, just features that add to the "charm" of the house.

We are all very happy we made it to North Carolina safe and sound. Needless to say, Vanessa and I are a bit nervous about starting a new chapter of our lives here. However, we are also quite excited at the opportunities we've been given.

day 2

2011-07-17T11:00:00.000-04:00

Our second day of travels is over and we made it 371 miles. We went through Indiana, Kentucky, and ended up in Knoxville, Tennessee.

All in all, it was a smooth drive and all the kids (Jonah, Addyson, and Chloe) continued to do well. Assuming things continue to go smoothly, we should be in Blowing Rock, NC by tomorrow afternoon.

Day 1

2011-07-15T22:40:00.002-04:00

After a LONG day of packing and cleaning yesterday and then some last minute packing this morning, we are on our way to North Carolina.

Lots of cleaning to be done.

Lots of packing to be done (thanks Aaron).

We had to use every nook and cranny to get everything to fit.

Everything's packed up and we are on our way.

Today we went through the "I" states: Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. We drove 350-ish miles to a town outside of Indianapolis called Brownsburg.

Vanessa, my mom, Jonah, and Addyson were in the van, I drove the u-haul with Chloe, and my dad drove the subaru. All in all, the traveling went well. Jonah did great and we didn't have any major mishaps (there was one problem with the roof-rack on the Subaru, but that was easily fixed). Driving the u-haul was a bit slow, but not too bad. It will probably be a bit more difficult as we start getting into the mountains. If everything works out well, we'll be in Knoxville tomorrow night.

Playing with bubbles

2011-07-08T14:00:00.004-04:00

Wow, we sure are busy right now. Given that we are spending so much time preparing for our move, we haven't been able to blog about the big events that happened during our trip to Fresno (most importantly, Jonah's birthday). Well, that blog is forthcoming. In the meantime, here's a quick post with some pictures that our brother-in-law took while the kids were playing with a bubble machine.

Jonah checking out the bubbles.

Jonah and Noah hanging out.

Noah laughing at the bubbles.

The two cousins.

All four cousins.

All four cousins again. By the way, Jonah is signing "Noah" (an "N" over his eye).

You can see more photos here, here, and here. Thanks Casey for taking such great pictures.

A close call

2011-07-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

A member of the Smith family recently underwent major surgery after a pretty severe injury. No, it wasn't Jonah, Vanessa, or me who was injured. It was....my laptop. (In case you were wondering, dropping a laptop onto its screen is not a good idea.)

Here's my laptop pre-surgery. Notice the broken part of his screen (and how sad he is).

Mid-surgery. I opened him up and carefully extracted the old screen.

The new screen is installed, but he's not out of the woods yet. I still have to put him back together again.

Post-surgery. He was a trooper and came through with flying colors!

All in all, it was a nerve racking experience. Fortunately he's as good as new now. To help keep him working well, I have promised to try and not drop him again. In exchange, my laptop has promised to not randomly delete my important files. It's a win-win situation.

Final thought: Vanessa thinks I'm a huge dork. She might be right.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T14:42:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th of July!

In some parts of the country kids play with sparklers on July 4th. Here in Iowa, we play with corn on a stick.

Outside at the Smith's

2011-06-29T11:00:00.003-04:00

In addition to the pool, my parent's backyard had many things to do and places to explore. As you might imagine, this was great for our little man who loves to be outside. It sure is a change from "exploring" our small deck.

As usual, Jonah felt the urge to poke and touch everything.

Climbing over a stump. This actually is an important stump; Vanessa and I were married underneath the tree (it was a huge willow tree at the time).

Hanging out by the fence.

Picking up some "pokey balls."

Trying to tell me something. Not sure what he wanted, but he sure was expressive.

Jonah still loves the swing.

Swinging in the hammock with dad. Don't be fooled, this moment lasted just long enough for Vanessa to snap a picture. Jonah was quickly off again exploring the backyard.

He tried to ride the trike for a while, but that didn't work so well. He couldn't quite reach the pedals so his favored method was to walk the trike around.

When walking the trike didn't work so well, he used another method.

Playing in the sandbox with cousin Hunter.

We are so fortunate that we get to stay at a place that has so much to offer for Jonah. It is unfortunate that he doesn't get to be there more often, but we'll take what we can get.

Swimming at the Smith's

2011-06-26T00:30:00.002-04:00

One of the advantages of staying at my parent's house when we visit Fresno is that we get to use their pool. The first couple days of our trip were actually a little chilly, so we didn't get to go swimming as much as I would have liked. That being said, we still did make it in a few times before the trip was over.

I was a little surprised because Jonah was a bit timid in the beginning. Granted, he's never really been in the pool before, but he loves the water so much that I thought he might dive right in (it's probably best he didn't).

Jonah slowly worked his way into the pool. Just his toes to start.

Hunter, on the other hand, was not timid about going in the water. In fact, he has turned in to quite the swimmer. By the way, I wonder where Hunter learned to make faces like that when people take pictures?

Oh, I see now.

It was fun having three of the four cousins all playing in the pool. Hopefully Noah can join in next time.

Jonah is trying to perfect his "cool" look. I think he's doing a pretty good job.

Nana was helping Jonah while Melissa helped Brooklyn. I should point out that Brooklyn was fearless in the pool. It is only a matter of time before she becomes an accomplished swimmer like her big brother.

After Jonah got a bit more comfortable, he and I were swimming all around. For some reason, he liked it when I would go under water while holding him above water. Of course, this turned into a game and I'd splash Jonah as I came up. Being a dad sure is fun sometimes.

Jonah eventually liked the pool so much, he even had an impromptu swim one night after dinner.

The next day, we were properly dressed. Hunter and Brooklyn weren't there, but Sierra kept Jonah company. And yes, he has his shoes on in the pool. He wanted to keep them on and I didn't really care—they are plastic Crocs after all—so they stayed on.

When Jonah lost interest in Sierra, he decided to bring in a toy. Tractor in the water...why not? We are on vacation!

Hiking at sugar bottom

2011-06-21T22:07:00.000-04:00

Vanessa, Jonah, and I just got back from our trip to Fresno and we have many, many photos to share. However, you'll have to wait a bit for those (I'm sure they'll be worth the wait).

Before we went to Fresno, Jonah and I hiked around Sugar Bottom campground. This is the first time I've taken Jonah on a hike because I wasn't sure how he'd do. Now that he's getting older and more capable, I thought it was time.

Never the tentative one, Jonah hit the trail running as soon as we got there.

Waiting for me to catch up.

And he's off!

Waiting for me...again.

Jonah was trying to tell me something, but I never did figure out what he wanted.

Jonah was so curious about everything and loved inspecting all the leaves, sticks, and logs.

It was really hot and muggy when we went hiking. As you can see, Jonah was getting a little sweaty (and thirsty).

When we got back to the car, Jonah was tired and hungry. Fortunately, I packed a granola bar.

Jonah did a great job during the hike and walked almost the entire time. This is certainly something we'll do again. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities when we get to North Carolina.

Rainy day...part 3

2011-05-24T10:00:00.003-04:00

I couldn't resist posting a few pictures of our recent trek outside to play in the rain. Once you see them, you'll probably agree. (Apparently there's been a theme going through some of our recent posts.)

It's a bit blurry, but you can see Jonah splashing in the puddle.

Being careful as we trudge through the field.

Playing on the train tracks again. Whoops!

Splashing in more puddles.

What's better than running in the rain?

Dancing in the rain!

Rainy day...part 2

2011-05-22T18:15:00.000-04:00

Recently, it has felt like it's been raining every day in Iowa. While the rain does disrupt a lot, Jonah doesn't seem to mind. Below are a few pictures from a recent rain storm. At least he has pants (unlike last time).

You can see the rain coming down in the background. Jonah was having fun feeling the rain on his face and catching raindrops in his mouth.

Trying on a new hat.

Patting the rain. Yup, it's water.

Mmmmm. Rain water from a shovel. Tasty!

Sometimes the rain comes and goes very quickly. After only a few minutes, the sun was starting to come out.

And finally, the obligatory close up photo.

Mother's Day

2011-05-13T16:30:00.001-04:00

Mother's Day this year was a casual, little family affair. A simple breakfast at the most adorable little cafe (no idea how we have never been to this place before), and a trip to the park. As it is with most days, we tried to plan everything around Jonah's schedule and keeping him happy. Cause if Jonah ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!

Jonah is getting so strong! He loves to hang onto bars and just dangle. It is amazing how long he just hang there by his own strength. He almost never lets go and just waits for us to ask him if he wants to get down. He answers with an emphatic "Yeah!" and then signs for "more".

Unfortunately the trip to the park did include one bloody lip for our little man. He has a real knack for landing on his face. Not something a mama ever wants to see, especially on Mother's Day, but Andrew keeps reminding me that that is just life with a boy. Dirt, endless energy, and injuries. Apparently dolls and make overs really are not in my future.

Playing with puzzles

2011-05-09T22:33:00.001-04:00

Recently we've been teaching Jonah his letters. He now knows almost the entire alphabet (as long as they are capital letters). He's still having a little trouble with some of the letters. Ws, for example, he turns upside down and calls them Ms. Pretty clever, really.

Now that Jonah knows a bunch of the letters, he likes to point them out whenever he can. In some ways, it has turned into a little game for us. While driving around, he'll call out a letter and Vanessa and I have to try and find out where he saw it. It could be a sign on a building, maybe a licence plate or bumper sticker--you just never know.

We don't have a video of Jonah saying the letters yet, but we do have a fun video of him putting the letters into his puzzle. The video is a bit long (about 3 and a half minutes), but it is cute watching him figure out where all the pieces go. A couple things to watch for. In the beginning he calls out the B. He also says one of his current favorite phrases. "Oh no!" We hear that one a lot these days. Enjoy.

Easter 2011

2011-04-29T10:42:00.002-04:00

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...

2011-04-22T12:00:00.007-04:00

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

2011-04-19T21:37:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-03T14:45:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-01T14:05:00.001-04:00

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.

Mr. and Mrs. Nichols

2011-03-29T15:30:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we went to St. Louis, Missouri to witness and take part in the marriage of two of our dear Iowa friends. (Technically Mel is from Missouri and they will both be living in California now, but Iowa is "our" home base as friends.)

Andrew and I were fortunate enough to watch their entire relationship as it unfolded. We found out, somewhat accidentally, that Greg was dating a girl in St. Louis long distance. When she came up for one of her monthly visits we went on a double date. It was instant attraction...Between me and Melanie that is! (Andrew says I had a girl crush and I am woman enough to agree.) I loved how friendly and open she was and at the end we hugged and discussed getting together the next time she came into town. Bingo!!! As time went on and the couple got more serious we double dated whenever time would allow. Eventually Melanie moved to North Liberty for a job and lived RIGHT DOWN THE STREET from us! Too cool. We loved Greg, we loved Melanie, and we loved the combo!

Now they are married and we got to be a part of that too. They married at a darling church just outside of St. Louis on a beautiful snowy day in March. (Gotta love the Midwest for snowing on March 26th, just days after 70 degree weather.) The bride and groom were giddy, if not a bit nervous. The ceremony was sweet and loving.

Another bonus of the day was that we got to see another set of Iowa friends, Jen and Erik, who recently moved to Wisconsin. It was a great little reunion all around.

After the wedding, we headed to the reception at the top of a beautiful building in downtown St. Louis.

In the beginning, the full snow clouds blocked any view out the windows and kept the skyline hidden. Luckily, a short while into the reception, the clouds parted and the beauty of the surrounding area came into view. It was gorgeous. There are few things I like better than a nighttime city scape. Ahhh... (This is a view with and without the glow of the reception behind.)

Where did the blog go?

2011-03-27T14:28:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed, we haven't blogged in a while. We've dropped the ball lately but now have a few posts planned. Stay tuned for updates on our adventures and for more pictures of Jonah (we know that's really what people want).

North Carolina; My Take on It

2011-03-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

So, since it was announced that we accepted Andrews job position in North Carolina people have been asking me how I feel about the forthcoming transition. Well...

It's an ongoing process for me.

The End.

Just kidding!

I mean, of course it's an ongoing process, but for me it is a path that I believe was set in motion more than a decade ago. For those of you who don't know that background, here is a synopsis.

When I attended First Presbyterian with my family growing up I had an amazing Youth Pastor named Eric Geil. Eric was originally from North Carolina and exuded a southern charm that I thought was really fascinating. When I graduated from the high school youth group I participated in a program called Networkers where college age young adults came and interned at the church during the summer months and ran the youth programs/camps at the church. Though it was my home church, the experiance that summer changed me and opened my eyes to parts of myself that I was yet unaware of. It was a really difficult summer in a lot of ways, but I found great comfort, guidance and comraderie with another of the interns that summer named Nathan Wright. Nathan had come to our church via a family member that worshipped there. Nathan was a transplant that summer from Montreat college in the mountains of North Carolina.

Nathan and I remained close friends and he was one of my greatest confidants. The year after we Networked together I went and visited him at Montreat and got to know some of his friends. Being in Montreat felt like I was in a different world. The friends that I met there became precious to me. Another year past and an opportunity arose for me to again spend some time in North Carolina. Eric Geil had left First Pres and had returned to a sister church in his home state (First Pres. Goldsboro). He had started a Networker program at that church the previous year and wanted it to continue. Having already had my interest sparked in NC, I was dying to go. Unfortunately there seemed to be a lot of hurdles in the way. Read that SEEMED to be. One by one the Lord began knocking them down and paved a way for me that was so clear it didn't even seem possible (including creating a position for me at the church that hadn't existed before!).

In 2001 I headed to the little town of Goldsboro to begin a 3 month internship. I was originally slated to work with the elementary school age bracket, but ended up spending a lot of time with the Jr high and Sr high groups instead. Until this point I had never worked with kids older than about 4th grade. I had no idea how much I would love it. (That summer is the reason why virtually all work I have done with kids since has been with Jr. High amd older) There is no way that one blog could encompass all that I learned that summer or how much I grew as a person. My host family showed me a whole new set of family dynamics. The southern culture was fascinating. The kids I worked with stretched my heart to bursting. All in all I don't think that it is too dramatic to say that when I was there I felt like I was my true self. I felt whole; I was being used for a purpose and in touch with my spiritual center like I had never been before. Alas, the summer had to end and I returned to California. But I returned with a passion for NC and for the kids there that hasn't ever really been duplicated.

Fast forward 10 years (wow. 10...). When Andrew started applying for jobs and so many postions were being posted for NC, we both raised our eyebrows and thought...hmmm. Interesting. Oh well...keep applying. Then the jobs in CA started getting knocked out one by one. Hmmm. Then a school in NC wanted to interview him, a school that was looking for someone with his exact specifications no less. Hmmm....

Before he even went to the interview we both felt in our hearts that this was the one. It was almost inexplicable how "sure" we were with so little to base our sureness on. So little, save for my long history and mild obsession with the state. So...here we are now.

Ok, so how am I feeling about it. Well, mixed. On the one hand I am kind of terrified to move to a new place (never been to Boone), that is smaller than we had planned (no Target or Starbucks closer than and hour away) , in the mountains (I'm not so much "mountainy"), where we will know no one, and is farther from CA than we are now. I grew up with my grandparents intricately entwined in my life and had just always assumed that that is how the life of my child would be. I am facing the fact that that will not be Jonahs reality and it is my least favorite part about the transition. On the other hand, because of my past with NC, I feel like I am going to be returning to my spiritual center. I feel like I am going somewhere where I have the ability to be as close to the "real" me as possible. I feel like I have been fragments of myself here in Iowa and the idea of being whole again is like a deep sigh of relief.

I am excited for Andrew and his new job, since I think that it was basically created for him, but am excited for my self as well as I imagine opportunities to work with youth again in some capacity. I have already scouted out a church there that I am excited to try (something that has been sorely lacking for the last several years) and am praying that I will be able to serve somehow there. During the day, the move seems like it is full of possibilities. During the night however, anxiety tends to be the prevalent emotion coursing through our home. As we move closer to the move, I am hoping that the anxiety with lessen and that the Lord will make his plans more clear and we can get more excited about them with Him.

furniture fort

2011-03-06T00:00:00.001-05:00

When Vanessa is at work, the furniture doesn't always say put. And sometimes, it doesn't even stay upright.

Jonah wasn't the only one who enjoyed the fort.

Playing with his truck.

I asked Jonah to smile and this is the face he made. Awesome!

Jonah was quiet for a while and I found him doing some light reading in his fort.

North Carolina bound

2011-02-21T13:59:00.001-05:00

It is official...Vanessa, Jonah, and I are going to be in North Carolina next year. I recently accepted an offer from Appalachian State University for an assistant professor position in the psychology department. Vanessa and I are, of course, a bit nervous about this new chapter in our lives. We have a lot to do before we move (e.g., sell our condo, finish my dissertation, find a place to live) so the next few months will probably be crazy. That being said, we are very excited about the offer and are looking forward to putting down roots in North Carolina. We'll be sure to keep everyone up to date as to our plans and the move.

Picture time

2011-02-09T20:15:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since we posted pictures for no particular reason. So, here goes:

Reading a magazine.

Trying on some gloves.

Flashlights are awesome!

We've been seeing this face more and more lately. So funny when he furrows his brow.

Fun with boxes.

More fun with boxes.

Outside in the snow.

I came in one morning to find Jonah lining up his two green monkeys and Buddyroe.

Hanging out at the counter.

The parking lot

2011-02-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

Jonah has always loved playing with cars and trucks. The other day, he came up with a new game; he set up a parking lot on our ottoman. Jonah spent quite a bit of time getting all the cars to balance up there (the top isn't perfectly flat). After the cars and trucks were nicely balanced, he knocked them all down. Fun times!

Severe weather

2011-02-01T22:06:00.003-05:00

Iowa Childrens Museum

2011-01-27T14:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Jonah and I headed to the Iowa Childrens Museum with my Moms group. It is a huge interactive, playful museum with tons of things for the kids to get into (in a good way!). We went months ago with the group, but Jonah was still a bit too young to appreciate it. That is certainly not the case anymore! He ran through the place like a mad man and actually played with things they way they were meant to be used (versus just putting everything in his mouth...which he still occasionally did).

The first area you come to after checking in is the grocery store. Everything about thins place is so detailed, it's amazing. Complete with tiny carts, different sections of the grocery store to shop, a weekly ad on the wall (that the kids can rewrite over and over), questions about what foods they are buying and cash registers to check out. At this point Jonah is still just racing his cart around, but it was neat to see the kids of different ages drawn to different parts of the experience.

Across from the market is an ambulance and the mock childrens hospital. The ambulance has a video screen that shows the kids where they are "driving" and is full of real EMT equipment.

The hospital is broken into a nursery with babies (complete with clothes. blankets, tubs and a rocker) , an exam room, an x-ray room with realistic sounds and a large skeleton, and a dentists office. My favorite part of the dentists office was the big artsy dummy with huge teeth that the kids practice brushing with a huge tooth brush. Jonah tried to brush his teeth a few times before he began to brush the dolls.

There is a track room with tons of tracks to send golf balls and cars zooming around. In one area you can build your own little wooden boxcars and race them against other kids. Jonah is a bit to young for the building, but he was certainly drawn to the cars themselves!

The airplane room is a huge room with big model airplanes and full size old airplanes for the kids to play in. The room is all about flight and besides the planes there are lessons about air and wind in there too. Jonah took a ride in a mini plane and tested out the mini wind machines that juggled balls in the air. We had a minor meltdown in this room when a rocket balloon that was released came whistling and howling towards Jonah. It ran into him and sent him flailing and crying through the room (in the opposite direction of me I might add). You had to laugh out loud at his dramatic flight response, but after a few moments cuddling and consoling, he was out of my arms and back to himself...fearless as ever.

Outdoor adventures

2011-01-17T18:00:00.005-05:00

Yesterday, while Vanessa was at work, Jonah and I decided to brave the 15 degree weather and head outside for a while. Amazingly, this was one of the first times that Jonah actually played in the snow. Last year he couldn't walk, so letting him crawl around in the snow didn't sound like a good idea. This year, the weather hasn't been particularly conducive to playing outside in the snow. Iowa in January is always going to be cold, but 10-15 degrees and windy isn't fun for anyone! Well, yesterday wasn't much warmer than the previous days, but at least it wasn't windy.

As we've mentioned before, Jonah is quite the fan of the outdoors. Here he is surveying his surroundings.

It was fun watching him "experiment" with the snow. He'd pick up a clump, break it, and then examine the broken bits in his hand.

Jonah trudging through the snow. He loved watching he feet make tracks.

As you can tell from his rosy cheeks, it was pretty cold outside. That being said, the cold weather doesn't seem to bother him. After half an hour or so, I had to be a responsible parent and cut our playtime short. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have plenty more outdoor adventures in the upcoming weeks.

Walking in the snow is difficult, especially for a 19 month old. Here are a few of Jonah's "outtakes".

Christmas Wrap-up

2011-01-14T20:03:00.001-05:00

This is quite late, but here are a few pictures from Christmas that we thought we really great.

Jonah and Pop Pop facing off.

Mimi getting a kick out of her sweet boy.

Dapper Jonah playing in Mimi's kitchen.

Cuz Noah looking through his stocking. (I love that the gifts are reflecting off of his glasses.)

Cutie Patootie Cuz.

One of the MANY time Jonah was sliding various objects down the slide.

Here comes pantsless Cuz!

Sandbox at Nana and Papa's.

Jonah is a sucker for a swing!

Peek a boo! Nana and Papa's indoor tunnel tent.

Laughing during the Christmas Tree Lane ride.

Out to breakfast with Mimi, Pop Pop, and Great Gramps. (I ADORE this picture.)

Christmas Cousins

2011-01-06T16:31:00.001-05:00

While in Fresno, Jonah got lots and lots of awesome play time with his Cuz Noah. Since Nana and Papa's house is a veritable playground, there was no shortage of things for the boys to do together. (Slides, trampolines, new toys...oh my!) Sometimes they played independently, but near one another. Sometimes they tenatively let each other play with the toy they may have had first. By the end of the trip they were beginning to "fight" over toys the way good cousins should! (They also both spent a fair amount of time with no pants on for one reason or another. Not sure why that became a trend.) It was such a joy to watch them forming a bond with one another. It felt like a little glimpse into our future as family.

Stacking blocks

2011-01-02T12:00:00.002-05:00

For Christmas, the Akinas gave Jonah a set of nesting and stacking blocks. He had so many new things to play with in Fresno so we didn't open the blocks until we got back to Iowa. When we did open them, Jonah was immediately interested in them and very quickly started to play with the blocks. After a while, he learned how to stack them pretty high. I was only half paying attention to Jonah while he was playing so it took me a while to realize how well he was doing. As you'll see in the video below, he was able to stack all the blocks to make a tower that was taller than he is. I didn't have the camcorder handy, but I was able to take a bunch of photos and put them together into a short video. In the video, you'll see Jonah putting the last two blocks on the tower and then "inspecting" his handy work.

After he was finished playing with the blocks, the pushed them all up against the laundry door. Apparently this was his attempt at putting them away.

Christmas...Take Two

2010-12-31T14:00:00.004-05:00

Christmas Day (the actual December 25th one) was spent with the Smith/Jacksons. At Nana and Papa's the schedule usually goes: stockings, breakfast, gifts. This year it followed that schedule, with the minor change to: kids gifts, nap for Jonah, adults gifts.

In the stockings there are always a number of little goodies. This year there were art supplies (markers and watercolors), a light up whistle that had a flashlight too, books, and the yearly orange. The boys had a great time going through the stockings. Jonah was thankful that Nana puts a box of sugar cereal with each stocking (a treat when the Smith kids were growing up) because he worked up quite a hunger opening his stocking. He thought that Sierra may be hungry too, so he graciously shared with her.

Just like at Mimi and Pop Pop's, there was no shortage of cool presents at Nana and Papa's. He got puzzles galore (flat and easy to pack you know!), a darling personalized frog towel (cause the hoody ones are waaaayyy cute!), and a dinosaur from Cuz Hunter and Cuz Brooklyn (though he is still a little wary of it). The trend of the day was that he seemed to be much more interested in Cuz Noah's presents than in his own. Each time he would hear the "rip" of paper, he rushed over to see what Cuz got. The grass is always greener I guess!

The day ended with the usual Crab dinner. It was delectable and a great time of eating and drinking together. All in all it was a (relatively) calm and cozy day together; the way I like Christmas best.

Christmas...Take One

2010-12-30T19:50:00.000-05:00

Christmas Number One, as it is being referred to this year, took place at the Reed household. After a very early wake up call of 5 a.m. by Jonah, we headed to the Reed house at the more respectable time of 9. (Well, 8:30 and a trip to Starbucks, which has become a tradition of ours.) Uncle Josh arrived shortly before we did and G.G. arrived shortly after. We started the day with Mimi's (Gramma's?) homemade cinnamon rolls, and then moved on to the good stuff....presents! (Not to say that Mimi's cinnamon rolls weren't good. THAT goes without saying.)

Long ago, I was the Christmas Elf that passed out all of the presents on Christmas morning. Then the torch got passed to Josh. Now, because of his maturity (laziness?) he passed the torch to Jonah. Though Jonah was a bit young, he made a good effort, and carried the presents to each person before chucking it at them. Jonah also did a great job of helping others open their gifts once he had handed them out. Just about everyone had a helping hand at some point. Here he is helping Pop Pop and Uncle Josh open a few.

Jonah did enjoy opening presents of his own too. (Though Christmas morning was broken up by an interlude of Jonah and Pop Pop playing with a set of salt and pepper shakers for at least a half an hour.) When he returned to the gifts, he opened them with his usual curious speculation. After all of the wrapping was off he found that he had some pretty cool things to play with.

I decided to help with Christmas dinner this year, being 30 now and all, and was able to muck it up quite a bit. None of the new menu items were keepers. Better luck next year I guess. After dinner we headed out to Christmas Tree Lane. Before we left for Fresno, Jonah had started noticing the lights around town and we knew that he would get a huge kick out the all the lights at the Lane. His reaction to Christmas Tree Lane did not disappoint. He oooh'd and aaah'd and pointed at them all. Thought the Lane dragged on a bit (we heard a factoid that it is the longest of it's kind in the world) we were glad we went.

With friends

2010-12-22T21:14:00.001-05:00

After an uneventful plane ride, Vanessa, Jonah, and I arrived in Fresno late on the 18th. The next day, a bunch of friends came by so we could catch up and have our kids play together. In the morning/early afternoon, the Jacksons and Akinas stopped by. The Hulstroms (and Neil) were able to drop by later in the afternoon. Like a true parent, I only took pictures of the kids.

We haven't seen little Kate in a while and wow is she getting big.

David gave Kate a nice hat.

Lizzy was very focused when she was "baking" cakes for all the parents.

Noah is a tad bit excited. Can you tell?

Kaden was playing with a toy fire engine for quite some time. He pushed it around the entire house and "rescued" everyone. A little later, Kaden thought the rescuing needed a bit more realism and decided to try out my parent's fire extinguisher.

Like his big brother, Isaiah pushed trucks all around the house.

At times, Jonah was a bit overwhelmed by all the excitement around him. However, all in all, he did really well and had a great time.

Thanks everyone for coming over--we only wish we could do it more often.

Let there be light

2010-12-12T11:09:00.000-05:00

A while ago Jonah figured out how to climb onto our bed. It wasn't long before he realized he could reach our light switch by kneeling on my nightstand. Needless to say, flipping the lights on and off occupied his time for quite a while.

First Haircut

2010-12-07T22:09:00.001-05:00

Well...I held out as long as I could. Unfortunately, the time came for Jonah to have his first haircut. Unlike his Cuz Noah, Jonah's hair did not turn into a mop of mingling curls over time. No. His hair is thin and stick straight and just seemed to get more unruly with each centimeter. After 17 months, I could no longer turn a blind eye to the old man hair hanging over his ears, or the bad toupee look that was starting to happen in the front. I'm not even mentioning the rat tail that he was starting to rock in the back! But the disheveled hair was his "baby" hair and I was not quick to get rid of it. Logically I knew it was time for the haircut to happen though, so I bit the bullet.

To make the experience a little more sentimental we decided that I should cut Jonah's hair for the first time. We came to this decision for a couple of reasons. One, so we would just do it already and two, so it could be a family event. Decision having been made, we set up shop in our kitchen on Thanksgiving Day. (Thanksgiving isn't really a full day event when there are only 3 people in attendance!) Here is how it all went down....

The "before" shot. We actually have pictures where his hair is more ridiculous, but we'll post this one for continuity.

Here I am taking a couple of cuts. Jonah didn't love sitting in his chair for an extended period of time, but with goldfish crackers and something to drink he was able to hang out long enough.

This is a picture of the midway point. You can really see how much more "streamlined" the one side is compared to the other!

The final product. My isn't he dapper!! His hair isn't always worn swept to the side, but it looks a little more polished for his "after" shot.

A few days ago I took him to Sports Clips to get his haircut cleaned up a bit. (My work was passable, but not great!) He was a trooper there too. He just sat and looked at books like he went to the salon all the time. Another milestone checked off the list.

Bathing Beauty

2010-11-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

What is cuter than a baby in the bath? Not a whole heck of a lot!! With Jonahs long hair on its way out (we will be cutting it in the next few days) Andrew decided to take this opportunity to style Jonahs hair in the bath, ala Ferris Bueller. Someday these may be a bit embarrassing to our little man. Eh....I will cross that bridge when we get to it!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T15:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Shameless copycats of the Jacksons)

17 Months (give or take 2 weeks)

2010-11-24T20:22:00.001-05:00

There are no new stats on Jonahs weight or height since he doesn't have another doctors appointment until he is 18 months. He is doing well with his new ear tubes and everything seems to be "so far, so good". He is teething again (how many freakin teeth do they get!!) and these teeth seem to be taking their sweet time to come in. Jonahs temper tantrums are also in full swing. "Terrible two's" are even more terrifying now that we are living through the "unruly 17 months". As usual there are always cute photos of our little man to be shared! We were lucky enough to catch him in a really good mood when we took this months photos. Addyson took his loving abuse and he was all smiles. Good times!

Dancing machine

2010-11-15T22:03:00.002-05:00

There are some songs that when you hear them, you can't help but dance. For Vanessa, that song is currently Dynamite by Taio Cruz. For Jonah, apparently it is a song on the cartoon show Phineas and Ferb. Which, by the way, is actually a really funny cartoon—totally ridiculous, but fun and goofy with lots of music.

The silver lining

2010-11-13T23:27:00.002-05:00

A few days ago, Jonah and Vanessa got a pretty bad stomach flu. Because we share everything, they were nice enough to give it to me. I've been out of commission all day today and wasn't able to get to anything on my to do list. This, of course, stresses me out as I feel like I've got too much to do even without losing a day. Fortunately, there is a silver lining. Because I was basically a bump on a log all day, Vanessa was solely in charge of Jonah. This gave me a rare opportunity to watch Jonah and Vanessa interact with each other (without me butting in as I normally do when I'm around). It was awesome. They are really funny together and it is quite apparent that Jonah loves his mama. He follows her around when she goes from room to room and he'll "ask" for her when she leaves. Vanessa certainly isn't afraid to be silly with Jonah, and he just loves that. Jonah can often take quite a bit to be entertained and Vanessa fits that role very well.

Vanessa's 30th birthday is tomorrow! While I'm sure her life isn't exactly how she thought it would be (Iowa?), she has certainly made the most of it and is doing a great job of being a mom and wife. In short, I'm so proud of her with how she cares for Jonah and looks after me. Thanks babe, and Happy Birthday.

Jonah loves to "read"

2010-11-11T10:30:00.000-05:00

As we've mentioned before, Jonah is quite the book worm. We read to him every night before bed, but that isn't nearly enough for him. Jonah will often grab a book off his shelf and bring it in for Vanessa or me to read to him. When he's feeling a bit more independent, Jonah will go into his room and read by himself. The video below is a recent example of one of these times. As you'll see, he's quite content to flip through the book all by himself. When he is finished with one book, he'll grab another.

On a related note, it is amazing how quickly Jonah is learning new things. Vanessa recently taught him how to roar like a lion. Because he's so small, his "Roar!" comes out more like "roar." It is really cute.

At the office

2010-11-05T17:24:00.002-04:00

A couple days before Halloween Vanessa and I took Jonah into my work so we could show him off. Jonah is the "token" baby of the group, so everyone enjoys getting to see him.

Needless to say, all eyes were on Jonah in his dalmatian costume.

Jonah doesn't look too thrilled here, but this picture shows off his costume.

Jonah loved looking around and exploring his new surroundings. He certainly is a curious little bugger.

Jonah's visit wasn't just a social call--I also put him to work. Here he's reading up on how to use SPSS so he can help me analyze the data from my experiments.

Jonah had a few important business call to make while he was there.

In all, Jonah did very well and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to show Jonah off to all my coworkers.

Wilsons Apple Orchard

2010-10-27T17:39:00.000-04:00

This time of year, Wilsons Apple Orchard is the place to be! It is an apple orchard/pumpkin patch about 15 min away from us and is quite the attraction. Last year we visited the orchard when Nana and Papa were out for their visit, but this year we didn't make it to the orchard until after they left. There are still a lot of things that Jonah isn't quite old enough to appreciate about it (like the actual apple picking that you can do there) but it was still a fun little family outing anyway!

Here is Jonah and me in front of the same tree that we took a picture in front of last year. Wow have things changed!!! (Look at the clothes too! Last year was coats and scarves, this year was short sleeves and sandals! Gotta love Iowa weather.)

With so many apple trees and so many people picking from them, there were a lot of sad little apples that got left behind on the ground. A few of them had already been sampled by people. Jonah found one, examined it (saying "ba...ba.." for ball), and then tried to eat it. (Don't worry, my hand is just outside the frame of the picture reaching to grab the icky apple from his mouth!!)

There was a lot of area to cover so Jonah walked around a ton. He didn't seem to mind at all! I tried to help him a bit...when he would let me.

In the store at the orchard they sell fresh baked apple turnovers, pies, and apple cider. Let me tell you. It does not get any better than an apple turnover fresh from the oven, made with homemade crust and apples picked from one of the trees you sit next to as you eat it! Mmmm.

It was an afternoon of good old fashioned family fun!!

At the park

2010-10-26T01:04:00.004-04:00

Often when Vanessa works, Jonah and I will head out to a park so he can run around and expend some of his energy—although he never seems to run out. The other day I brought my camera with us as we headed out.

As Vanessa said in the last post, Jonah's Gramma taught him how to pick flowers and then smell them. He sometimes blows on them instead of sniffs, but that's probably close enough.

Jonah is getting more and more adventuresome. He loves climbing up the steps and onto the play structures.

I taught Jonah how to slide down the slide on his stomach. Once he learned, there was no stopping him.

He's so funny some times just hanging out and "talking."

Seriously, how cute is this little kid?

Grandparents Galore

2010-10-21T18:38:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we were blessed to have not one, not two, but THREE grandparents out to visit. It was such a fun opportunity to see my mom and Andrews parents. We have not gotten to see them since our visit to Fresno in June and won't see them again until Christmas. We welcomed their visits, short as they were, to break up that long span between visits home. We didn't get nearly as many photos as we would have liked, but they weren't really "photo opp" kinds of visits. More like doing-everyday-things kinds of visits. (We actually got NO photos with Nana and Papa....they will have to share the photos they got with us!)

When my mom came, we were there to greet her at the airport. Since it was a game day, we were of course decked out in Hawkeye gear. (We are good Iowans, ya know!) Mom had grand visions of Jonah running to greet her at the airport but he was a little more reserved than that. It didn't take long to warm up to her though and by the end of the car ride home he was giggling up a storm with her.

Trying to make Gramma laugh became Jonah's number one goal during her visit. Anything that elicited a response from her was repeated over and over again. He would do whatever it was that had made her laugh before (throwing something down, for example) and them immediately look at her and laugh at the action himself. You simply could not help but join in. Here he is trying to make her laugh while eating breakfast out at Hamburg Inn.

On her last day here we took a walk in the neighborhood by our house. It was on this walk that she taught him to smell the flowers. He would pick them, inspect them, and then "sniff" them. It was one of the simple, sweet, everyday moments that we don't get to spend together very often but in the end we miss the most.

15 Months...and 16 too!

2010-10-20T21:51:00.000-04:00

It is so hard to stay up on Jonah's monthly stats anymore! I swear time is actually going by faster. Truly. Anyway here he is in both his 15 month photo (top) and his 16 month photo (bottom). We are finding it harder and harder to get him to sit still long enough to get any still shots, so these are really just the best we have! At his 15 month check up he was 31 inches long and 25 pounds 11 ounces.

Besides his physical changes, his personality changes and emerging interests and abilities are what really amaze me most about my growing Jonah. His vocabulary encompasses the following as of late: Mama (sometimes "baba"), Dada, Nana (don't tell Gramma), baby (all children, photos of children, reflections of himself and his own shadow), Aigon/Addiga (Addyson and all cats), ba (ball and book), a "vrooming", zerbert noise for car (or anything with wheels like bikes, rolling luggage, etc.), mmmaaaaa (cows) and "huh huh", a throaty barking noise for all dogs. He has been blowing on his food to "cool it down", even on unnecessary items like Cheerios. He is also regularly using the signs for "more, please, all done, outside, and shoe".

While Gramma was here she taught him how to say "tickle tickle" while tickling feet; which he will now do to yours and his own. He also learned how to sniff flowers with her and will still do it unprompted while out on walks. Jonah loves to "drive" just about anything around the house, whether it has wheels or not, and will do so for lengthy spans of time. Daddy and Dudey take walks and play outside daily with Jonah leading the way. He loves to explore, point out noises, and climb. He is even learning the concept of kicking his soccer ball. And just the other day he discovered the moon for the first time. So fun!

Iowa Homecoming - 2010

2010-10-03T14:09:00.000-04:00

This past week was homecoming for the university. There were all sorts of events going on during the entire week, culminating in the big Iowa vs. Penn State game on Saturday (which we won!). One of the highlights of homecoming week is a parade that goes through downtown Iowa City. We went to the parade last year, so I thought it would be fun to take Jonah down there again. Because Vanessa had to work, I got to enjoy a little "father-son" time with Jonah.

Jonah is becoming more and more independent, so he didn't want to stay in his stroller for long. He really likes walking around and inspecting everything.

A minor-meltdown occurred after I took this photo because Jonah really wanted the balloon tied to someone's stroller, and—being the mean dad that I am—I wouldn't let him take it. Fortunately for me, there was so much going on that he was quickly distracted by something else.

Jonah is obsessed with dogs right now, so he was really excited when he saw the dog truck. He even tried to walk out into the street to pet the puppies walking by.

Aside from the brief "balloon incident", Jonah did really well. He loves getting out of the house, and the parade gave us a great opportunity to do just that.

The great outdoors (sort of)

2010-09-26T14:00:00.000-04:00

Jonah recently discovered the joy of our deck. He's always liked being outside, but it wasn't until he could walk around that he had a desire to go onto the deck. He now spends a fair amount of time out there everyday.

Here he is inspecting the bird feeder. Addyson is jealous because she's not allowed on the deck.

I put Jonah to work.

He has inspected every nook and cranny.

And here he is being silly. (I might have encouraged him to put his face on the screen door for this photo.)

Who needs toys...

2010-09-14T21:00:00.005-04:00

Who needs toys when you have an empty Coke box lying around.

Playing in the bath

2010-09-13T21:00:00.002-04:00

Jonah loves his bath time. He likes splashing around, when we pour water on his head, and playing with his both toys. Some of his toys can squirt water and he has now learned how to fill them up and make them squirt. For some reason, he actually likes to have the water splash on himself, rather than into the bath. It is a little hard to see in the video, but he's squeezing his toy so it sprays him in the face. When the water is out, he fills it up and repeats. He's such a funny little kid!

She's crafty

2010-09-13T00:30:00.003-04:00

She did it! This past weekend, Vanessa participated in her first craft fair. The craft fair was in Washington, IA, a quaint little town about 45 minutes south of us.

The crafters set up their tables in the town square--aka "Central Park." Despite the town's small size, the craft fair was actually fairly large.

Vanessa left early in the morning to get everything set up, so Jonah and I made the trip down a bit later. Here's Vanessa's table with her products laid out for all to see.

Vanessa chatted it up with the many people who stopped by. (Side note: notice Jonah playing in the background.)

Jonah and I stayed as long as we could, but our little man could only put off his nap for so long. Fortunately, he was able to sleep during the drive home.

All in all, I am very proud of Vanessa. She put A LOT of work into preparing for the craft fair (you can see some of her stuff here: happyeverythingonline.com). Vanessa went out on a limb, tried something new, and did virtually everything by herself! To top it off, she's already making plans to participate in another craft fair in November. Great job, babe!

Mama's Musings

2010-08-28T20:42:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-27T08:35:00.000-04:00

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!)

2010-08-25T15:52:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-22T12:50:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-07T12:13:00.003-04:00

Just for fun...

Walking update....

2010-08-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-02T14:47:00.004-04:00

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!

New Bike

2010-07-29T15:07:00.002-04:00

Biking is really big with people out here in Iowa. There are tons of trails and a bike "race" called RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bike Race Across Iowa) which is a pretty big deal in the biking community. The combination of those things added to the stark contrast in weather from winter to summer each year, equals a lot of people biking around. Being as athletic as he is, biking appealed to Andrew so he asked for a bike for his last birthday. We laughed that it was the birthday list of an 8 year old boy! Andrew didn't want to ride alone all the time, and we know that Jonah enjoys talking walks, so we decided a bike trailer (a pedal bike version of a sidecar) was needed. A couple of weekends ago Andrew assembled the trailer and Jonah got his first peek at his new toy. Good times certainly lie ahead for Daddy and Dudey.(Notice how he again looks like he's "helping". Then he has to try it out, make a weird face when he gets frustrated, and get strapped in for a test run!)

Mama's Helper

2010-07-27T15:15:00.000-04:00

I am so lucky that I have a little man who like to help around the house! Every time I turn around, Jonah is busily working on something to "help" me out. What a good man.

Cleaning out the pantry. (Or was he gathering ingredients for that nights dinner?)

Stirring the laundry with a wooden spoon. (How else can you tell if it's dry?)

Getting out a Ziploc baggy. (In case we needed to pack a lunch quickly?)

Going through a Kleenex box. (He is a stickler for quality control. Is there REALLY 100 sheets in here?)

Pudding Painting

2010-07-22T12:25:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday one of the moms in our playgroup volunteered to have all of the kids over to her house to do pudding painting. We thought she was CRAZY to volunteer for such a thing, but it ended up being a lot more manageable than first anticipated and tons of fun. All of the moms brought pudding for the kids to use as "paint" on paper, themselves and each other. The family dog even got a little splattered! The benefit of using pudding is of course that the kids can eat it as they go and that the parents don't have to be on "No, No, NO!" patrol the whole time. After the messes were made we hosed off the kids, literally, and then let them play in the kiddie pools and sprinklers. Since Jonah LOVES the water, the pools were obviously his favorite part of the whole day!

Here is Jonah getting used to the "paint" with his friends. First touching it and then tasting it. Mmmm. Finally... the end product. Well, what ended up on Jonah at least.

Jonah's friend Trevin took the brunt of the pudding painting that day. He was such a good sport as all of the older kids made him their very own craft project. He just stood there happily eating pudding while they painted!

Time to get hosed off! Jonah gasped at the cold water from the hose, but didn't really complain at all. Next it was off to plop him in the pool. Ahhh. Happiness. First the baby pool for some alone time and then playing with Jacey in the "big kid" pool. (Jacey is so sweet. She always run over to "Baby Jonah" and gives him a big hug when we go to play groups. Her little brother is just a month or two older than Jonah so she is all about being the big sis.)

Jonah loved getting in-and-out and in-and-out of the pools. He looks so big to me here! How does he look pudgy and have his ribs showing all at the same time?

A little hanging out and a little lunch (kidney beans and string cheese with a few swigs of milk) and we were ready to head home. I am so thankful for this group of ladies. Not just for the fun activities and friends it provides for Jonah, but for me too. Amazing.

Any day now...

2010-07-16T19:25:00.000-04:00

Any day now we'll have a walker on our hands.

Funky Faux-hawk

2010-07-12T18:55:00.000-04:00

On the 4th of July Andrew decided to have a little fun and actually "do" Jonah's hair. That's right...Andrew, not I, gave Jonah his first faux-hawk complete with big boy hair product. It didn't last long since the day was humid and rainy. Plus Jonah is blessed with our combination Reed/Smith hair which is notoriously fine. Luckily Daddy snapped a few photos before Jonah's hair-do fell flat. Andrew says the last picture is of Jonah's rock-and-roll face.

4th of July

2010-07-07T12:50:00.001-04:00

Every year during the weekend of the 4th of July, Iowa City hosts their annual Jazz Festival. Each year we have gone out to the festival to get out of the house, eat food from the local vendors (mmm...Indian appetizers and funnel cakes!), and listen to the live jazz music. The city blocks off a few of the streets downtown, which is the norm for these sorts of events, and sets up several stages for local jazz talent to play. There is usually one for high school bands and then another for more established local performers. In front of the Capital building there is a larger stage set up for the more notable names in jazz music that the jazz aficionados actually recognize! Tons of people come to set up lawn chairs, picnic, read, and do whatever while they listen to live music. It's pretty groovy. Here we are in front of the Capital with the main stage and the crowd behind us. It actually rained on and off all day so people just popped open their umbrellas when they needed to and then put them back down again! Not as many people as past years, but the faithful were still there.

Jonah will hate me one day for doing this to him. After reindeer antlers for Christmas and bunny ears for Easter, I felt like I had to do it though.

Jonah's buddy Trevin (and my buddy Shonelle) came out to the festivities with us. These two boys were all over the place...and rarely in the same direction.

We spent a little time practicing our walking since we had so much wide open space. Jonah is still far more comfortable with his bear crawl though, so don't be looking for solo walking pictures any time soon! (Jonah's face is awesome in this one.)

The city puts on a fireworks show over the Capital building after the last concert. We saw it a few years ago and it was pretty neat. Unfortunately, we knew that Jonah would never make it to the 945 p.m. start time without a melt down so we decided to skip it. Maybe next year??

13 Monkeys

2010-07-04T11:30:00.000-04:00

As first-time parents, Vanessa and I are amazed at how Jonah has changed over the past year. He has reached many milestones (e.g., rolling over, crawling, laughing), but simply growing from a tiny blob to a fairly independent little boy is quite incredible. While I'm sure his next year will be an adventure, I think there will always be something special about his first year.

1 week

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

12 Month Stats

2010-07-01T11:54:00.001-04:00

We took Green Monkey with us to California so we could take our monthly photo with him and Jonah on Jonah's actual birthday. (That's right, with limited space we took him ALL the way there and ALL the way back...for a photo.) Unfortunately, we had to wait til yesterday to see the pediatrician back here in Iowa to get his newest stats. Currently Jonah is 25ish pounds and 31 1/2 inches long. Everything is running along smoothly with his development, etc. and the doctor has no worries. Yeah! We always love getting "boring" reports from the doctor. Jonah did have to get several shots at the appointment as well, which sucked, but I guess they have to happen sometimes. Luckily Andrew was there so he could hold Jonah while they poke him and I could face the wall in the corner! Anyway... here is Jonah with G.M. in California on Nana and Papa's couch. As has happened in the past, Jonah didn't feel much like taking "serious" pictures so I threw in some of the out takes as well.

The sitting still, dying to move though, shot.

Raising their hands to ask a question. What question, and to whom, we're not sure.

Green Monkey's face getting bitten...as is the norm.

Jonah tackling Green Monkey when he least expected it. (You would think Monks would be a little better prepared by this point!)

California Corn

2010-06-30T18:53:00.000-04:00

A travesty has occured.

During our stay in California Jonah had his very first taste of corn on the cob. And as you could probably guess...it was NOT Iowa corn!! Now, I am not sure what will happen to Jonah's status as an Iowa native when this gets out. I am pretty sure they could revoke our residency for something like this. That being said, I am willing to post pictures of his first real corn experience anyway because they are so cute. Here he is showing off how he can hold his corn correctly and chomps on it like a pro. (Phew...at least he won't get made fun of by his Iowan friends for his technique!) He gets a little lazy at the end...but who doesn't when they are full of sweet corn?

Father's Day

2010-06-28T12:34:00.000-04:00

One the many family events that we got to participate in while back home was Father's Day. It fell on the last day of our trip, which was perfect because the Reeds and Smiths usually get together for dinner on our last night in town anyway! Before dinner Jonah presented Daddy and Pop Pop with handmade originals to wear. For Papa Roy's shirt, Jonah was able to get a little help from the other Cuz's who were in and out of the house all trip long! As you will notice, Papa Roys shirt is a bit cleaner and more organized looking than Daddy and Pop Pop's shirts are. I guess that's the difference between a couple of kids being well directed on a project and one running wild with it! All the shirts turned out darling though and are gonna be keepsakes for sure!

Here are the Smith boys modeling their pieces.

Pop Pop getting to pose with the artist.

Caught ya! Silly time with Pop Pop.

How sweet of my daddy and my boy! Love it.

A rare chance to capture my brother in a family photo too. Awesome.

Zoo Time

2010-06-26T13:24:00.001-04:00

Since there is no zoo in Iowa City, we decided that it would be fun to take Jonah to the zoo with a couple of family and friends while we were in Fresno. It has been years (obviously) since Andrew and I had gone to "Chaffee Zoological Gardens" in Fresno and remembered it as being a pretty bleak place for the animals to live. We were reassured by Andrew's sister and mom that it has been overhauled tremendously and is a cool place to visit. So off we went with the Macs and the Jacksons (sans the other daddies) to take a trip to the zoo.

Jack and Cuz Noah are both zoo members so they were pros at knowing what to see and what to leave out as we made our way through the zoo. Jonah pointed out every new thing that he saw along the way. The boys decided that sea lions were a must, not only because they splash in the water, but also because their pool is surrounded by a super cool cable "fence" that is worth a little attention of its own.

We went to see the elephants of course. They are so huge! Jonah was pretty into watching them in all their glory.

Cuz Noah had to grab a picture with the alligator since he wore a shirt in honor of him!

Jonah practiced "walking" with Dad in the shade by the monkey house. Then he decided to just hitch a ride.

There was a field trip there that day so they had an alpaca out for the kids to pet. They let our boys pet him as well as long as they didn't pet by his face. Of course Jonah pushed the limits there, but Andrew made sure he came away with all his fingers.

The funniest/saddest part of the day was in the rain forest exhibit. One of the workers offered to get a parrot down from a tree for the boys to look at up close. Cool, right? Except that the parrot squawked unbelievably loud in Jonah's face and made him cry! He settled down as he watched the parrot play nice with the other two boys but when the parrot came back to him it squawked again! No more parrots.

We ended the day with a few snacks, a group shot,and some sleepy boys to drive home.

Birthday Build a Bear

2010-06-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

Before Jonah's birthday party, Andrew and I took him to Fashion Fair mall for Build a Bear. I have wanted him to make one for a while but wanted to wait until we had a significant reason and until he would be at an age where he might actually enjoy some of the process. We tried to let him take part in as much of it as he could so it was really his bear.

First he picked out the one that he wanted from the line up. (We might have narrowed down the options a bit.) Then we took the bear to be filled with fluff til he was just the right amount of squishy. Jonah picked which heart he wanted inside his bear (a plaid one), thoroughly "kissed" the heart and then pushed it inside. When the bear was all sewn up we took it to have it's first air bath.

Jonah held on to his new buddy for the rest of the trip through the store. After naming the bear Buddyroe on its birth certificate (Buddy now shares Jonahs birthday) we headed home.

In the car ride home it was apparent that Jonah had made just the right choice for a new friend.

Party Time

2010-06-22T14:42:00.001-04:00

On June 14th, my baby turned 1 year old. This will not be a sentimental post, as I am still reeling from the trip overall, but a recap of how Jonah spent his special day.

We started the day with a photo shoot of Jonah and his cousins (post to come) since all four were together for his birthday. After that we headed to the mall to Build a Bear to makes Jonah's birthday present from Andrew and I (post to come!). With his new friend in tow we went back to the house for a quick nap before his party.

I decorated for the party as Jonah slept. The theme of the party was "Little Monsters" since we have sort of adopted the monster theme for Jonah ever since he was born. Just like the monsters in his bedroom at home, none of the monsters for his birthday were scary, just playful. A table was set with the theme colors (aqua blue and lime green, highlighted with multi color polka dots) and accessorized with Little Monster party hats for the guests. The monster cake was made by GG and was delicious as well as perfectly suited for the day. Each guest left with a personalized bucket of goodies including crayons, monster dolls, stickers, and pages to color.

At first Jonah was hesitant about eating his birthday cake. He is more of a "poke the food" kind of guy rather than just digging right in. After a little coaxing from Nana he finally got a taste of what he was missing and dug right in. Blue frosting...cute, but not practical. Blue fingernails, blue tongues, yummy!

After the cake we took a quick picture of Jonah with his Mama, Gramma, and GG. I just love it when all 4 generations are together! Post photo opp we headed outside for a little splash pad action! (Having a November birthday myself, I was always jealous of the kids who had summer birthdays and got to have swim parties. Now my son is one of those kids! Yippee!)

Jonah loves the water and took to the splash pad like a fish (pun intended)! His other party guests didn't love it as much. While I am sure that Cuz Hunter would have gotten right in (he had to head back home before the waterworks began), Cuz Noah and Jack Mac were more apprehensive. Luckily Jonah seemed to be oblivious to the anxieties around him and just splashed away! Noah warmed up to the experiance eventually and Jack dabbled a bit, but neither embraced it like Jonah. He stayed in the water till he was shivering, splashing about and trying to bite and catch the spouting water.