Plus One

Springtime with Jonah

2009-04-18T19:47:00.005-05:00

Belated Easter Pictures

2009-04-18T19:36:00.006-05:00

We had an enjoyable Easter, including multiple egg hunts for Jonah. He just couldn't get enough of finding the eggs and then sharing his wealth of jelly beans and chocolate, ostensibly in the hopes that we'd allow him to partake of the sweets as well!

As much as he loved the egg hunts and the candy, he has had a lot of fun pointing out to us that Easter is not just about those things, but that it is also about hope. Thanks VeggieTales!

2009-04-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

One toddler + Easter egg dyes + glitter paint + stickers =

Jonah Gets a New Belt

2009-03-14T15:16:00.004-05:00

Jonah's First Attempt at Photography

2009-03-05T11:30:00.003-05:00

Not bad for an almost-four-year-old, huh? :)

Jonah - Tae Kwon Do Tough Guy!

2009-03-05T11:28:00.001-05:00

Valentine's Day Conversation

2009-02-15T20:15:00.002-05:00

Jonah: Mommy, you're the best mommy ever.
Me: Aw, thanks, sweetie, that's so nice!
Josh: What about me? Am I the best daddy ever, or am I just okay?
Jonah: Okay.
Josh: (feigning being hurt) Just okay?! Well, who do you think is the best daddy ever?
Jonah: Katherine's daddy. (Katherine is his"best friend" from preschool)
Josh: And why is Katherine's daddy the best?
Jonah: Because I love Katherine!

It's hard to argue with love!

Back to Normal

2009-02-15T20:01:00.006-05:00

It has been an emotional roller coaster here over the past few weeks. Almost three weeks ago, we were very excited to discover that I was pregnant, only to suffer a devastating miscarriage one week later. For reasons I'll probably never undersstand, God needed that baby with Him. Fortunately (if that word can even be used in a situation like this), it wasn't physically painful, just uncomfortable. We (me especially) were very sad for quite a while. However, things are pretty much back to normal now, and life goes on.

Here are some photos of Jonah from the happier moments of the past few weeks.

Making snow angels in the first real snow of this winter. I wish I had a picture of us sledding down the hill behind our house, but Josh wasn't able to come out and play, and it's hard to sled and snap a picture at the same time!

Waving his Terrible Towel for the Steelers during the Super Bowl. Go Steelers!

Jumping with his Valentine's balloon. A pretty good action shot, if I do say so myself!

Pretending to talk on the phone! Just a precursor to his teenage years, I'm sure, when he'll be constantly on the phone!

Me....Plus Four!

2009-01-26T11:56:00.002-05:00

Here is a picture from our fun MLK/inauguration weekend down in NC visiting our friends Lenise and Paul and their three kids. I had about 60 pounds of toddler on my lap while the boys watched some TV! Fun times were had by all!

Christmas Festivities

2009-01-06T09:08:00.011-05:00

The season kicked off with Jonah's school's Christmas program. It was really cute to see the kids doing their little performances. Above is Jonah's class singing Jump Into the Light (Jonah is off to the right in the white sweater).

His class also did an instrumental rendition of The Little Drummer Boy.

Around this time, Jonah also began Tae Kwon Do lessons. He had gone to a birthday party at the Tae Kwon Do school, which is located right next door to the little kids' gym that I've been taking him to for the past year and a half, and he really liked it, so we decided to sign him up for classes. Here he is in his adorable little uniform getting ready to do his punches and kicks. Once we got past some initial resistance around actually wearing the uniform and getting his belt on, he has really taken to the classes, and I think it will be good for him in the long run in terms of teaching discipline and respect.

Josh's mom (Nana) came down on the 23rd to stay with us through Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we went to church to celebrate what the holiday is really all about, then we came home and left out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Somehow or other (namely, all the adults) everything was eaten and drunk up, so that the plates and cup were empty the next morning! :)

On Christmas morning, Jonah woke up to discover that Santa had brought him the chart he'd been asking for. he can now keep track of his "chores" (helping the feed the cats, helping to make his bed, etc.) and get rewarded accordingly when he accumulates a certain number of stars on the chart. He loves it!

The Olsson side of the family gathered at Christmas! (I believe I spelled the name right this time, Nana!)

And the Merritt side!

The day after Christmas, we drove with Nana back up to Pittsburgh and spent a few enjoyable days with Josh's dad, Heather and Nicholas. While we were up there, the two daughters of Josh's dad's best friend, who have been like sisters or cousins to Josh and his brother Ben, came into town with their three collective kids. So we had four toddlers, all under the age of three years nine months, and one eight-month-old to keep tabs on. Talk about chaos!

Here I am holding the eight-month-old, Hannah. I had to get my baby fix, after all, and she was SOOOO adorable! I'm hoping that baby #2 will be something that Josh and I can plan on this year!

And here is the requisite picture of Jonah and Nicholas sitting at the island in the kitchen of Josh's dad's house. Someday, I'm going to put together an album of just the pictures of the two of them stting at the island so we can see how big they keep getting (and, of course, how cute they are!).

Reflections on Advent

2008-12-12T08:34:00.002-05:00

I'm a member of a Women's Group at my church that meets roughly every two weeks. I haven't been able to go for a couple of months due to various and sundry illnesses plaguing our house, but I was finally able to go last night for some reflections on this Advent season. I always find it rejuvenating being able to talk with this group about the wonders, the mysteries, the comfort, and, yes, even the ever-present questions (e.g., Why is this happening, Lord?) of the Holy Trinity in our lives. I feel more spiritually centered after each meeting, and that is such a blessing. I mean, I may go around for a couple of weeks, getting caught up in all the activity that goes on every day, getting stressed out about various things, and then I go to a Women's Group, and it really helps to put things in perspective; I get to slow down for a few hours and just really think about the realities of what is truly important. Going to church can do that for me, too, but church is usually such a rushed affair sometimes, and it's complicated even further when you're having to mind a very active and talkative three-and-a-half-year-old during the service, that the true purpose of being there sometimes gets lost.

Anyway, last night's discussion was wonderful. We talked about Advent and what an exciting time it is. It's a season of anticipation, of preparation, of knowing that something wonderful is coming. We talked about Mary and the anticipation she must have felt. Being a mother myself, I can imagine the joy and wonder she must have felt, and likely how much greater her joy and wonder must have been knowing that she was carrying the most precious of babies. I also wonder, however, how much greater her fear must have been at knowing that she was also responsible for caring for and rearing this most precious of babies? I know my own fear at knowing that I'm responsible for Jonah. It's a joy, to be sure, watching him grow and mature, but it's also a little frightening at times, especially at times when he gets sick or gets hurt or when I wonder if I'm doing some irreparable psychological damage when I have to exert discipline with him :) ! Imagine having to do all that for God's son! Talk about responsibility!

One of the things that really struck me last night was an excerpt from a reading that says that's it's okay, even desirable, to have questions regarding our faith. We spend so much of our lives looking for answers, and sometimes that searching drives us crazy. But what if we could take those questions and simply use them for reflection and a time to listen? The passage we read was this: "A novice master once responded when asked about a life lived in Christian authenticity, said that to be a Christian was not to know the answers but to begin to live in the part of the self where the question is born....He was speaking of an attitude of listening, of awareness of presence, of an openness to mystery."

What great food for thought! Happy Advent!

December Doings (So Far)

2008-12-10T10:04:00.005-05:00

Jonah's school (St. Clement Episcopal School) celebrated the Feast of St. Clement last week. St. Clement apparently lived during Roman times, so the kids dressed up in togas and ate a lunch of pita, hummus, clementines, grapes, and anachronistic chicken nuggets while sitting on the floor! It was very cute!

Jonah saw Santa this past Sunday at the Freeman House in Vienna. He'd seen Santa last year at school, but we'd never taken him to a mall or anything to see him. Having seen Santa as a kid myself at a busy, crowded, noisy mall, I really prefer the set-up they had at the Freeman House. Santa was seated in a room where only one family at a time was permitted to enter (the next family was allowed to peek in from the doorway so the children could watch the children ahead of them interact with the jolly old elf, and I thought that was nice - it allowed the kids to watch and so not be as scared as they might otherwise have been). Each child had some private time with Santa and could just chit-chat with him rather than having to rush through with a wish list. It was really nice, and by the end of our turn, Jonah was chatting happily with Santa!

And Now a Story from Jonah

2008-11-21T16:18:00.002-05:00

"When I was 23 yeaars old, I worked in a building on the 49th level, and the elevator went up, up, up all the way to the 49th level, and I could look out the window and see the cars were teeny-tiny (using finger gestures for small here), and then I got in the elevator and it went all the way back down, and I got in my car and went speed limit 55 all the way home, and then I took a nap, and it was a really long nap, and I didn't get up until the clock said 5:23."

Where did he come up with that one?!

Coming of Age....At Least By Hobbit Standards :)

2008-11-14T09:39:00.005-05:00

I thought this card from Josh was very cute and rather appropriate, although it does make me feel just a little bit old! :)

I'll let the readers figure out what the last sentiment in the card was! :)

October in Review

2008-11-01T14:21:00.016-05:00

Okay, this picture above was actually from the end of September, but it's just such a great picture of Jonah on his tricycle that I had to put it in here. He's able to pedal on his own now (with some assistance when going up hills), and he loves going for rides.

Here's Jonah watering my flowers. He loves being helpful!

Jonah's school brought in a petting zoo at the beginning of the month, and one of the animals they brought was a pony for the kids to ride. I think the cowboy hat is a cute touch!

Here are Jonah and his pal Ronaldo. he came over for a playdate one weekend, and the boys had a great time playing and having lunch.

Jonah and a goat at Cox Farms. As has been the tradition for the past few years, we met up with our friends Debbie, Dan, and Morgan at Cox Farms for a fun morning of big slides, a hay ride, petting little goats, going through a corn maze (called the "Cornumdrum"), and generally just running around and having a good time!

Jonah and Morgan posing for a cute picture.

Jonah the pumpkin!

One of the big giant slides that Jonah LOVES - with Josh and Jonah coming down.

It's Super Why, with the power to READ! This is Jonah right before heading off to a school friend's Halloween party on the weekend before Halloween. He loved being Super Why that day and couldn't wait for Halloween to come so he could wear the costume again!

At the party. The girl in the middle in the "scarecrow" costume is Katherine, the girl whom Jonah calls his "best friend" from school. Apparently, the feeling is mutual because it would seem that she talks as much about Jonah as he talks about her. It's very ctue! Notice the other Super Why at the party - that's another buddy from Jonah's class, Kylie. It seems that Super Why is more popular than I would have thought!

Our jack-o-lanterns all aglow. The larger one on the right was designed by Jonah himself - we let him draw the face and then I cut it out. It was pretty funny to look at from the first, with lopsided eyes and a thin wide mouth, but once the squirrels started nibbling at it, it began to take on a much more ghoulish aspect!

The costume parade at school!

Jonah's in the back in this picture of his class. Aren't they all so cute in their costumes?!

Jonah and Ronaldo right before going out trick-or-treating. Ronaldo went as Lightning McQueen, though it's hard to tell in the picture because the costume actually sticks out in front and behind him, so when he's facing front, as he is here, you' can't see it.

So, it was a busy month, complete with Jonah getting strep and me getting a sinus infection somewhere in between all of those fun activities! And now it's time to gear up for another fun-filled month, with my birthday, a trip to Shenandoah National Park, a just-me-and-Josh night in Annapolis, and Thanksgiving with a visit from Nana and Uncle Ben! I think I need a nap to prepare!

As If There Were Any Doubt That Jonah Is Josh's Son.....

2008-10-30T12:53:00.002-05:00

After making a particularaly loud toot last night, Jonah said, "Whoa, that was a shooting star flying high through the sky!"

Josh looked at me and said, "He just made his first fart joke!"

Yes, he did, and this coming from the son of the man who likes having his finger pulled and who says, after making rather loud toots himself, "Where'd that duck go?"

(Sigh)

Jonah's Account of His Birth

2008-09-28T13:44:00.002-05:00

So Josh and I were explaining to Jonah that I carried him in my belly for nine months, and this was his response:

"I was in your belly and the food dribbled down and I climbed up one of the pipes to get outside. And it was slippery."

McCain the Uniter!

2008-09-05T19:52:00.003-05:00

My cats don't usually get along. Most of the time they coexist by keeping their space and staying in different parts of the house. About the only time I'd see them peacably share the same bit of space is when I bring out the wet cat food, put it in two separate bowls, and place the bowls about two feet apart on the kitchen floor; that's when they both come running and will dain to eat side by side. Other than that, if they do happen to be in the same area, the younger cat Callie is usually jumping on Patches, which makes her hiss at the young whippersnapper, which only prompts Callie to continue down her road of tormenting the old gal. However, both cats are very loving when they're around me; in fact, it's sometimes hard to get do whatever I might be doing when I've got a furry body being persistently thrust at me for petting!

Anyway, I thought it completely hysterical when both cats curled up on the loveseat last night during McCain's acceptance speech. I had already decided that McCain is the candidate I'm voting for in November, but this was a sure sign! If he can bring my cats together, surely he can bring our nation together! :)

Fun in Hilton Head

2008-09-05T19:07:00.010-05:00

We spent a fun week in Hilton Head prior to Labor Day. Other than a single morning of rain (it was our first morning there) and a couple of night-time showers, we had perfect beach weather: hot and sunny. I've come to discover, however, that I am the sort of person who enjoys the beach for a few days, and then I hit a wall where the application of goopy sunscreen and the accumulation of sand over the entire body starts to become something of a nuisance. But it was fun, and we all got pretty nice tans!

We were staying with a fairly large group (Josh's dad, "step mom" Heather, Josh's little half-brother Nicholas, Josh's full brother Ben and his girlfriend, and Heather's parents). Yeah, the relationships got a little confusing the Jonah and Nicholas (Nicky's grandparents are Jonah's step-great-grandparents, his Daddy is Jonah's Granddad, etc.), but we managed to keep it all straight somehow. Also, given how large the group was, we managed to coexist extremely amicably for the entire week! You never know what to expect when you're vacationing with the in-laws (and I had never done so before this trip other than just a weekend trip to Iowa with Josh's mom and brother for a cousin's wedding) (and I'm sure they feel the same about me!), but this was a fantastic trip! :)

Jonah did a fantastic job on all of our flights to and from Hilton Head. He even managed to nap on a couple of the legs, and the rest of the time he was just having fun flying through the sky!

The house where we stayed was incredible! It was HUGE (it sort of had to be since there were ten of us staying there!), with five bedrooms, an enormous great room, and phenomenal kitchen (note: it was my dream kitchen), a pool, and a hot tub. It also had this great screened-in porch where we usually gathered in the mornings for breakfast and coffee, and from which Heather and her mom actually saw an alligator in the lagoon that borders two sides of the property! Above and Nicky and Jonah playing on the porch with a couple of flashlights.

On one of the afternoons after we'd all left the beach, we came back to the house for some pool time. Jonah decided he just wanted to lounge in a pool chair with a towel over him. Here's a shot of him with his Granddad.

Isn't he cute?! What was truly funny was that sometimes after Jonah was all done with the pool, he would simply take his swim trunks off right there poolside, then proceed to walk his little nudey butt up the steps to the house to get cleaned up! I took a cute picture of this and would post it if I weren't scared of child pornographers getting a hold of it. *Sigh*

Nicky is a great little swimmer. I wish Jonah was as brave as his little uncle when it came to swimming on his own in the pool! Maybe next year....

My one and only beach boy!

It was actually kind of hard to get a picture of the two boys together. They seemed to be on such different schedules during the entire trip, taking naps at different times, sometimes eating meals at different times, etc. However, I did manage to get this picture of them having dinner together on our last night of the trip. They are so cute together!

Recent Jonah Sayings

2008-08-12T11:16:00.004-05:00

1) Over this past weekend, Jonah watched part of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, in which the main character Jonah receives messages from God. Later that day, when we were getting ready to go outside to play, I opened the front door to discover a piece of paper wedged into the door handle of the storm door.

"Oh, there's something in the door," I said.

Jonah immediately says, "It's a message from the Lord!"

It turned out to be an advertisement/coupon for Domino's pizza. Not so divinely inspirational!

2) I need to preface this one by saying that neither of my parents have had great dental health and both wear partials to fill in the gaps of where their real teeth have been removed. Luckily, I have apparently not inherited the unhealthy teeth gene and have not had so much as a cavity since I was a kid, and even that was in a baby tooth so that I don't even have a filling now. I hope Jonah will be the same.

Anyway, while Jonah and I were spending a night at my parents house, we were in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Jonah looks up to see the container in which my dad soaks his partials and says, "I want to see grandpa's fossils, Mommy!" (I guess "partials" and the word for old bones sound pretty similar to a three-year-old!)

I knew the man was getting older, but he's not THAT old!

3) Jonah recently got a new toy shopping cart to play with, and he enjoys "grocery shopping". While staying at my parents' house, he "shopped" for about an hour, after which he laid down on the couch, pulled a sheet up over him, and said, "All this shopping makes me tired, Mommy."

Typical man!

Emerging Republican?

2008-08-08T08:23:00.002-05:00

Last week, Jonah was playing with his piggy bank. He had put some money in it andwas shaking it to hear the coins rattle around. Then he looked over at me and said, "I don't want to pay taxes, Mommy."

Needless to say, I cracked up.

When I told Josh about this, he also thought it was hysterical and said something to the effect that Jonah was already showing Republican leanings.

Hey, nothing wrong with that!

Unaaceptable at the Time but Funny in Hindsight

2008-08-08T08:15:00.002-05:00

Our biggest problems with Jonah is getting him to listen to us when we tell to do or not do something. Another is trying to stop all the backtalk. It's a daily battle, and we never know from one day to the next if we're winning the war.

Anyway, yesterday at one point when Jonah said something he shouldn't have to me, I told him to go sit on the couch in time out. He went over to the couch and shouted back at me, "You're beastly!"

I don't know where he picked up this word (probably one of the books we've read to him, but I can't think which one), but obviously at the time this really ticked me off, and I promptly informed him that he can't talk to me like that and that he'd just earned himself another minute in time out.

In hindsight, though, it's pretty funny to think that he knows and picks up on these vocabulary words and can use them appropriately (well, maybe not "appropriately", but in their proper context - you know what I mean!).

The Boy Likes to Sing

2008-07-28T20:46:00.003-05:00

Nashville

2008-07-28T20:29:00.004-05:00

My trip to Nashville went very smoothly. I arrived early Saturday afternoon, killed a couple of hours by walking around Vanderbilt University's campus and the nearby Centenniel Park with its replica of the Parthnon (complete with a huge statue of Athena), hung out in my hotel room for a bit before getting cleaned up, saw my friend Leah get hitched, went back to the hotel to sleep (well, not really - I never sleep well on that first night away from home - so I ended up tossing and turning before finally getting up at 6:15 - UGH!), saw another friend Paul Saboe and his wife on Sunday morning, then headed back to the airport to await my flight home. This was where the only snag in the whole trip came in (other than the not even being able to sleep in on my first night away from Jonah!): my flight was delayed by two hours due to thunderstorms in DC. All in all, it was a nice trip.

And Josh admirably managed to take care of Jonah all by himself for the weekend!

We're All Still Here......

2008-07-21T20:00:00.005-05:00

It's just been rather busy around here, even though Jonah has been out of school for the past three weeks. I never knew we could do so much in such a short amount of time, or just how quickly the time can pass when you're constantly on the go.

While Jonah is out of school, I'm only working two full days a week. So on the three days of the working week when I'm home with him, we have an activity lined up for each day. On Monday, we have a Gymboree music class that Jonah really seems to be enjoying (you ought to hear him belting out songs when he's at home, or on the bus, or in the car, or just about anywhere - it's a riot!). On Wednesdays, we have his JW Tumbles gymnastics class, which he has loved ever since we started there last August. And on Thursdays, we have an art class through Color Me Mine called Paint Me a Story, which involves reading a story and then painting a ceramic that pertains to the story and is then glazed and fired during the week to be presented back to the kids at the following class. We've been going to the pool a couple of times a week, I've been trying to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in our back yard where we've also been battling a couple of bee/wasp nests, I'm trying to get into some sort of workout pattern by doing Tae Bo at home while Jonah naps, we've taken Jonah to an ear/nose/throat doctor who we think has finally put us on the right track of solving the mystery of Jonah's chronic morning cough (she thinks it might be reflux so she's put him on Zantac, and it seems to be helping), Josh got a crown on one of his teeth, and we took a trip to Pittsburgh for Josh's 35th birthday.

While up in the Pittsburgh area with Josh's family, we went to the Butler County Fair for the Fourth, which for those in the know know is Josh's birthday (I've always been jealous of that - he gets fireworks and a day off from work every year for his b-day - I don't know anybody else who has that luxury!) Above is a picture of Josh and Jonah going down the giant slide at the Fair. Jonah just loves those giant slides - he could go up and down those things over and over and over!

We stayed at the Fair to watch the fireworks, which was really nice for me. I happen to be a person who loves the big fireworks displays. Josh could care less if we see any fireworks, but I love them, and I think Jonah may take after me. It was obviously a late night for Jonah, and he was beginning to fall asleep right before the display began, but once things got started he perked right up and was riveted for the whole thing. He was so cute with his little "Ooooh"'s and "Wow!"'s and "It's a giant!". Finally, I have a fellow fireworks lover to go and enjoy the displays with! :)

The weekend after the Fourth, Josh and I took a date night to go and see a soccer game, DC United vs. Guadalajara, a game that was part of the SuperLiga tournament, which is a match-up of Mexican and American professional soccer teams. This was actually my Father's Day gift to Josh (I'd bought the tickets and presented them to him last month). DC lost, and that was rather disappointing, but it was a fun game. It was especially intriguing and a little disturbing to be in a stadium where there were more people rooting for the away team than the home team! I'm sure that at a normal MLS game these same folks would be rooting for DC, but not on that night!

This past weekend, we took Jonah to the National Air and Space Museum. Given his love of the solar system and the stars, we'd been wanting to take him to a planetarium and finally took the opportunity to do so. We saw a show about black holes, narrated by Liam Neeson. Jonah was absolutely enthralled! Above is a picture of him looking at a display of the planets and naming every single one.

This coming weekend will mark my first overnight trip without Jonah. A dear friend from college is getting married in Nashville, and it was going to be too expensive for all of us to fly out for just the weekend, so I'm going solo. I'll only be gone for a little over 24 hours, but it will still feel a little strange to not have a little guy to cuddle for a few minutes that night and then walk into the bedroom in the morning to wake me up. Oh my gosh, I'll actually be able to sleep in! What a concept! What sheer indulgence! Just wait, I bet my body will probably wake me up at 6:30 on the nose, and I won't be able to fall back to sleep. Any takers?!

Hiking and Horrendous Heat

2008-06-07T20:14:00.008-05:00

Jonah, mountain man :)

A very nice British couple that we met along the Stony Man Trail took this picutre of all of us at the top of Stony Man Mountain, the second highest peak in the Shenandoahs. This particular trail was probably our favorite.

This is a view of our resort from the Stony Man summit.

A raven flying over the Stony Man summit.

This is a rabbit we met along the Limberlost Trail.

Jonah with Ranger Nicki during Kids' Corner activity time at the Byrd Visitors' Center right before we went on the Story of the Forest Trail.

So we've been without AC for the past month. It really wasn't a problem until this past week because the weather had been absolutely gorgeous for the most part, so opening windows and using the ceiling fans made things prefectly comfortable. That isn't to say we weren't looking to get our AC problem taken care of; we'd had a repairman come out to look at our system, and he determined that we had a freon leak that was bad enough to warrant a complete switch in our system. We knew this would have to be done at some point what with the current AC/furnace being the original builders' grade model that had been installed when the house was built nearly 20 years ago; we were just hoping we could wait another year or two. Oh well. So we spent a couple of weeks entertaining a number of contractors to do the work, finally decide on one, get him to order the equipment, which took a week to get in, set an installment date of last Wednesday, and then he calls and says that he doesn't feel well from working in the heat and torrential rain on Tuesday. We say we understand, reset the installment for Thursday, then he gets so swamped with emergency calls because of the heat that we get bumped again. So once again, we reset the installment for Saturday. The thing that makes things even more complicated now is that we had made plans a couple of months ago to take Jonah to Skyline Drive for this weekend to do some leisurely hiking. We really didn't want to cancel our plans, so the contractor comes over Thursday evening, fills our AC with enough freon to last a few days in order to keep the cats comfortable, my parents agree to come and let him in on Saturday for the installation (very nice of them!), and we head out to the Shenandoahs Thursday evening.

Along comes Saturday. Josh, Jonah and I finish our morning's hike along the Story of the Forest Trail and get back to our room after enjoying a lunch at the Big Meadows Wayside. I try calling my parents and am unsuccessful. Josh tries a little later at about 1:30 and reaches my mom. My parents have just left our house after having been there since 7 AM; the conttractor never showed up. Josh and I are livid. We call the contractor; apparently he got called by a senior center that didn't have working AC, and he bumped us again. He said he tried calling my parents at home, but they had already left their house, and he didn't think to try calling our house to see if they were there. So Josh and I decide to come home a day early because we had no idea how long that freon would last, and we didn't want to come home to baked kitties. It's a good thing we did, too, because when we walked in the house it was 87 degrees in here; the AC had somehow shut off, but a little fiddling with the thermostat got it going again, and now it's moderately tolerable in here (we are going to have to sleep in the basement where it generally stays cool, though, because it is absolutely horrid upstairs). We now have another installation date set for tomorrow, Sunday, and the contractor had better show up or we're pulling out of this contract. I really don't care at this point what kind of emergency phone calls he gets tomorrow; it's now summertime weather with sweltering temps, and there's always going to be emergency phone calls. He has a CONTRACT with us, and he had just better not bump us again.

Anyway, on a happier note, we had a good time in the Shenandoahs as evidenced by the photos above. We stayed at the Skyland Resort, which is right on Skyline Drive. The name sounds fancier than the place really was; the accomodations were a bit rustic, but we were comfortable, and our room had a great view. Jonah really enjoyed the walks we took and seeing the deer, rabbits, and butterflies along the way. I would definitely take him back there again if he continues to show an interest in hiking along paths and trails.

Fun in Bethany Beach, DE

2008-06-02T20:20:00.006-05:00

We weren't sure we were going to make the trip (we spent last Wednesday night in the emergency room because Jonah had woken up at 11:30 barely able to breathe because he was coughing so much - he got a steroid injection and a prescription for further steroid treatment, and he seemed to get better over the course of the next couple of days) but decided to risk it because we'd already had the plans set for a couple of months and really didn't want to cancel, and we figured a bit of fun with a friend might even perk Jonah up (and we REALLY didn't want to deal with the tantrum and tears that were bound to happen if we told Jonah that he wasn't going to be able to go to the beach with Morgan when we'd been telling him about the trip for the past week!). Turns out we were right because he significantly improved during the time we were there, thanks to his meds and all the fun he was having with Morgan, the daughter of friends Debbie and Dan who invited us to join them for the weekend at Dan's mother's house in Bethany Beach. We were able to make it to the beach every morning for some fun in the sun (the water was a little on the cold side for swimming, but we did get our feet wet), and the kids had a great time. Jonah absolutely loves playing with Morgan, and I think the feeling is mutual, as evidenced by the photos below. There were, of course, some three-year-old moments, but that was expected, and they never lasted long (I'll be up front and say that it was mostly Jonah who was having trouble keeping his hands to himself - not in a hitting way or in any way that was meant to be hurtful, but he has trouble remembering to keep personal space and will poke or tickle or will touch in some other way to show that he's just being playful - we're constantly reminding him to keep his hands to himself around other kids, and it's proving to be a hard lesson - it's just hard to reprimand too hard when we know he's just playing, but we're doing what we have to do, and I trust he'll eventually learn). We had a great time, and we really appreciate Debbie and Dan for inviting us along for one of the only weekends they'll have the beach house this year!

Morgan and Jonah playing with Jonah's Thomas laptop.

Aaaah, what could be better than refreshments on the beach?!

That's some cold water, Mommy! Hold me up!

Wow, that's the ocean!

Let's make mud cake!

For That Deep Down Body Thirst

2008-06-02T20:15:00.002-05:00

Some comments from Jonah this evening regarding drinking:

"I'd like any kind of milk. Boy, I'd really like some milk!"

"The kitties are thirsty. They need to drink some water so they can grow up big and strong like I am."

Six Years and Counting

2008-05-10T21:50:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow marks the sixth anniversary of Josh and I being hitched. Above is a photo of a rather funny moment in our ceremony where we were trying to light the unity candle. We tried about three times before the candle would finally light, which is why we were laughing when this picture was taken! Well, I would say that this photo pretty much represents what our marriage has been so far; sometimes we don't always get things right the first time, or we don't agree on how something should be done, but we keep on trying, and we eventually make it work. Happy anniversary, Josh! I still love you!

Cows and Culture

2008-05-10T21:21:00.009-05:00

It's been a fun-filled weekend! Last evening, we went to the Guppy Gala at the National Zoo, an event that is jam-packed with activities for kids with lots of good food for everyone. We were a little concerned earlier in the day because it had been raining hard, but luckily the rain cleared out, and it was a pleasant, if cool, evening.

Here are Jonah and Josh posing in a giant birds' nest. With it being Mother's Day weekend, I am, of course, thinking that, on the one hand, I don't ever want Jonah to leave the "nest", but, on the other hand, I know he's going to eventually grow up, and it will be a good thing.

Here's Jonah spinning a plate - he's so talented, you know!

One of the highlights of the Guppy Gala for Jonah was seeing the farm animals at the zoo. He was particularly taken with the cows, and here's a picture of him peeking in at Tulip the cow.

Another fun thing we did this weekend was go to a concert this morning at the Kennedy Center. The National Symphony has this ongoing series called Teddy Bear Concerts, which are geared towards kids three to five years old and introduce music as a form of storytelling. I had asked Josh to get tickets for all of us as my Mother's Day gift, and he obliged. So we got Jonah in the car with his teddy bear (yes, he actually let Teddy leave his room! See an earlier post on how Teddy is usually confined to Jonah's room as a lovey slave!), and off we went! Before the performance, they give the kids an opportunity to "pet the instruments" at their Instrument Petting Zoo. Jonah got to bang on some percussion instruments, including a rain stick that he became particularly attached to, and he even got to play a violin (I wish I could have gotten a picture of that!). The performance itself was very good, and Jonah was enchanted; he paid attention the entire time, participated at the appropriate times, and applauded the musicians at appropriate times! I would definitely take him again!

Here are Jonah and Teddy in the Hall of States.

Here's Jonah running around in the main hall of the Kennedy Center - what a great space in which to run for a minute or two!

This one turned out a little dark, but it's of Josh and Jonah near the "big head" sculpture of JFK!

Poor Puss Gets the Boot

2008-05-04T22:09:00.003-05:00

Occasionally Patches, my 12-year-old cat, sneaks into Jonah's room at bedtime unbeknownst to me or Jonah. However, seeing how vocal Patches is, it doesn't take long for us to figure out she's there, at which point Jonah will insist that I shoo her out. It's not that Jonah doesn't like Patches; in fact, she's his favorite cat, but he seems to like it best when it's just him and me during our few minutes of cuddle time at night.

Tonight, though, was a first. Jonah and I had finished our cuddle time, and I'd left the room to let him continue falling asleep. True to form, about ten minutes after I left him, he got up, came out of his room, and called down to me, "I'm still thristy, Mommy!" Not ever wanting to deprive him of water should he ever really be thristy, I obliged him with a small cup of water and sent him back to bed. Apparently, Patches slipped unseen into his room while he was drinking his water because about five minutes after I'd sent him back in, I heard him over the monitor open the door and say, "No, kitty. Get out." He then closed the door again and went back to bed without calling down to me. I just had to laugh, it was so hysterical!

But on the other hand....poor little Patches! :)

More Birthday Pictures

2008-05-04T13:23:00.009-05:00

I think Jonah really enjoyed his party at JW Tumbles, a little kids' gym in the shopping center behind our house. We kept it relatively small, just his preschool pals, a couple of JW buddies, a couple of almost-like-family friends who have kids, Josh's mom (Jonah's Nana), and my parents.
Above are Jonah and his friend Morgan playing in the rocking boat. Jonah and Morgan are only six days apart and have known each other since day one. Debbie and Dan, Morgan's parents, are very good friends who we are going to the beach with in a few weeks, and I think the ids are going to have a blast (as willl their parents)!

Here's Jonah with one of his good friends from preschool, Kylie. Kylie had had a litttle tumble or something, and Jonah had gone over to make her feel better. We had the pleasure of taking Kylie in our car last fall to Cox Farms, the school's annual field trip to the pumpkin patch. She's a sweetheart!

Toddlers in the banana forest! What fun!

I always knew Jonah was part monkey!

Here's Jonah with Ashely, the daughter of Jonah's godfather and his wife. These two are about a month apart and have also known each other since day one.

This was a study in how many toddlers can fit inside one box. There were four in the tiny space when I took this picture!

Cake time!

An Olssen (Nana's maiden name) generational picture!

Birthday Boy

2008-04-25T13:31:00.008-05:00

Three years ago, Jonah came into the world at 11:28 PM. I was exhausted after having been in labor for more than 20 hours and then having to have a C-section, but I was so happy to have my little boy. Well, the excitement hasn't stopped since that day, and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep (I have a feeling that part of it will go on for several more years!), but Josh and I are still just as proud as can be of our little man! Who would have thought that at age three our munchkin would be reading, obsessed with the solar system (yes, you read that right - he can rattle off all of the planets without batting an eye), talking up a storm (including some unwelcome backtalking, which we're trying with all our might to subdue), chasing the cats (okay, I fully expected that one!), beginning to play soccer, enjoying a gymnastics class, going to school, and gracing us with his sweet smile every day! We love him so much (even when he drives us nuts!) and are so proud of everything he's accomplished this year, and we can't wait to see what he'll amaze us with in the year to come!

Here are some pics from his pizza party at school and opening his first present at home. More pics will follow, probably after the weekend when I'll have some pics of Jonah with his Nana who gets in this afternoon and after the official party on Sunday with his little preschool pals.

P.S. That's red icing on his face and teeth, not blood. Just thought I'd better clarify that!

Belated Easter Photos

2008-03-25T08:09:00.004-05:00

A stomach bug will make many things belated, but I digress........

Here's Jonah looking for the eggs that the "Easter Bunny" left all over the house for him to find. The funky pants to the left belong to Josh - rather appropirate Easter colors, don't you think?!

A full body picture of Jonah in his Easter finery. Doesn't he look like a little gentleman?

A rare Mommy and Jonah picture. I need to have some photographic evidence that I'm his mother, after all! I shouldn't always be the one behind the camera!

And finally, here's a picture of the little egg-hunter during one of the two egg hunts we did outslide for him. He really got into finding eggs and insisted on another hunt, so we indulged him.

It Must Be a Growth Spurt

2008-03-25T08:02:00.003-05:00

Otherwise, I have no other explanation for the fact that Jonah has been eating us out of house and home the past three days. Seriously, most days it's a struggle to get him to eat food, but these last few days it's like we can't get enough food to fill him up. For example, on Easter Sunday, he ate two whole Eggo waffles (he normally eats less than one), a bag of Teddy Grahams at church, then he wanted some grapes when we got home, he then ate a decent lunch, then after his nap he ate a whole banana (he usually will only eat half of one), then he ate a whole slice of ham with some green beans and bread for dinner before having his dessert of Easter cake. For the first time ever, Jonah has actually eaten more than me during the course of a day (of course, this was exacerbated by the fact that I have a stomach bug, which prevents me from having any appetite). I wonder how long this feeding frenzy will last?

A Difficult Choice

2008-03-16T20:19:00.002-05:00

Tonight I was reading a book to Jonah called "Taking Care of the Class Pet," a book in a series called The Best Me I Can Be. It's a cute little book about a boy who gets to take home the class hamster for the weekend, gets invited to go camping with a friend, and then has to decide whether to step up to the responsibility of taking care of the hamster or go with his friend. Of course, he ultimately decides to stay home with the hamster. The last page in each book of the series concludes with a question related to the moral of the story, and in this particular one the question is "What difficult choices have you had to make?" So Josh and I ask Jonah if he's ever had to make any tough decisions, not really expecting him to come up with anything, just thinking that we could get him to just think about the tough decision in the story, but he almost immediately replies, "Not to eat stuff on the floor." Josh and I just started laughing. I guess we just assumed this was a no-brainer - we don't eat stuff off of the floor, but I guess it's not so clear to a toddler!

Wouldn't You Wonder What Was Going On......

2008-03-14T12:48:00.002-05:00

.....if your child came home in underwear that was not his own?

We now have Jonah pretty much fully potty trained, just little accidents here and there. So he's been going to school this whole past week in underwear, not a Pull-Up. And yesterday, after he came home and had his lunch, I was taking to the potty before his nap when I noticed upon helping him pull his pants down that he was not wearing his own underwear! How in the world could this happen, I wondered? Surely the teachers at the school know to take the underwear from HIS bag and not someone else's? What is going on?

Turns out, as Josh found out this morning when he asked Jonah's teacher about this (and returned the mysterious underwear (properly laundered first, of course)), Jonah had had just a small accident while playing on the playground, causing onl y his underwear and not his pants to get wet. So instead of taking him all the way upstairs to change him, they took him to a classroom/bathroom on the ground floor where the teacher just happens to keep some "spares" handy. Okay, perfectly reasonable explanation.

It's still a little disconcerting to unexpectedly find your child in someone else's drawers! I mean, what would you think?

My More Liberal Friends Will Enjoy This.....

2008-02-21T09:32:00.002-05:00

Much to my chagrin, some time ago Josh taught Jonah to say "Obama '08", and the phrase has stuck in his mind and will occasionally punctuate our conversations. Well, yesterday evening I had turned on the news (my only real link with the events of the world these days, there not being much time for reading washingtonpost.com or anything like that), and they usually start the newscast with updates on the campaign for the White House. It was time for dinner, though, and I wanted to get Jonah to come with me to wash his hands, but he says to me, "I am just watching for Obama right now!"

Darn you, Josh!

One Way to Say No

2008-02-21T09:24:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday we went over to my parents' house to drop Jonah off for the night (this turned out to be our first SUCCESSFUL attempt to leave him overnight so we could have an evening to ourselves - the previous attempt did not go so well because Jonah came down with a 102 degree fever, and we had to call the night short). On the drive over we allowed Jonah to have one of the lollipops he'd gotten from one of his classmates for Valentine's Day, and he was still blissfully nursing the candy when we arrived at my folks' house. When we got in, my mom playfully asked Jonah if she could have some of his lollipop, and this was his response:

"Maybe next time I'lll buy you some lollipops."

That's my son - so polite and yet so greedy!

Gold Digger

2008-02-13T14:40:00.002-05:00

Jonah, true to toddler form (or so I am led to believe), has a habit of sticking his finger up his nose in search of boogers (I know, lovely topic, isn't it?). We'll tell him to stop picking and then we jokingly ask him if he's looking for gold or something up there, just to lighten the lesson. Well, last week, at one point when the little picker was once again searching for the elusive boogers, we asked him to stop picking. His response was, "I am just looking for gold, Mommy and Daddy!" and he went right on happily picking until Josh and I could control our laughter and insist a little more forcibly that he remove his probing digit from his nose.

Life So Far in February

2008-02-13T14:21:00.004-05:00

Happy Mardi Gras! Jonah's school had a little party for the kids on Fat Tuesday, which included having masks and beads. Sounded like it was a lot of fun to me! The fasting and abstaining from meat that I did the next day, Ash Wednesday, was NOT as much fun! :)

Last Thursday, Feb. 7, was the Asian New Year. We had celebrated with my parents the weekend before (for those who might not know or remember, my mom is Vietnamese, so this is a holiday we celebrate), and Jonah's school also had a party to mark the occasion. Jonah wore a traditional Vietnamese outfit for the event. Isn't he cute?!

Jonah loves his Bible Time songs, and here's a picture of him studying the lyrics! He looks so serious, doesn't he?!

Jonah came out with me and Josh to vote yesterday in the VA primary. Josh voted for Obama in the Democratic race, and I voted for McCain in the Republican. I have a feeling our votes in the general election will once again cancel each other out. Oh, well - who ever said love was rational or had to fall within party lines. :) When told by Daddy that he was not quite old enough to vote, Jonah vehemently insisted, "I AM old enough!" Gotta love those contrary toddlers! Anyway, the lady working at the polling station was kind enough to give Jonah an "I Voted" sticker, and he wore it proudly home and even insisted on wearing it to school today!

This Morning's Conversations

2008-02-01T08:42:00.000-05:00

This one occurred on the stairs heading down to breakfast (note: it's rainy and miserable today):

Jonah: What is the weather today?
Me: It's rainy and yucky today.
J: Three things, Mommy!
M: OK, it's rainy, wet, and yucky today.
J: Yes, and it's cold, too!
M: Yes, it is cold. That makes four things!

I'm being outwitted by my toddler!

This one happened as I was getting Jonah dressed. He had picked out his builder shirt, so I just thought I'd ask:

M: Do you want to be a builder?
J: No.
M: What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor?
J: No.
M: A consultant like Daddy?
J: No.
M: An accountant like Mommy?
J: No.
M: Do you want to be an astronaut and go to the moon?
J: Yes, that'll be good!

A kid with a plan!

New Links

2008-01-31T21:05:00.000-05:00

There are new links in my blogroll. After knowing these women and their families for nearly a year, I have just recently discovered the blogs of some of the moms I hang out with in my neighborhood. Where, oh where have I been?!

Just Too Stinkin' Cute!

2008-01-31T21:00:00.000-05:00

Recent Jonah Sayings

2008-01-31T20:51:00.000-05:00

1) While standing on his Thomas the Tank Engine storage box, which is next to a floor lamp: "I am tall as the light! I am tall as the KITCHEN!"

2) At any point when I'm asking him to do something that he doesn't want to do right away: "I am very busy busy busy busy, Mommy!"

3) Sometimes in the morning while hopping up and down on his bed (a mattress on the floor) as I am attempting to get him dressed for the day with varying degrees of frustration and amusement: "I have energy!"

4) And just tonight as Josh and I were getting Jonah down for bed: "Daddy is NOT my daddy!" And when asked, "If Daddy is not your daddy, then what is Daddy?": "A consultant!"

Note to Lenise: It looks as though you will need to let Jay know about Jonah's recent proclamation. For those who don't know, Jay recently informed Josh that he was Jonah's daddy and not a boy (see Lenise's blog for details). Turns out Josh is neither a daddy or a boy, just a consultant! :)

"I Put Aside Childish Things"......Then I Take Them Up Again!

2008-01-31T14:49:00.000-05:00

I reported some time ago that Jonah had started sleeping with his teddy bear, a soft and fuzzy blue bear that we affectionately call Teddy (go figure). After a week or so of sleeping with Teddy, Jonah decided to kick Teddy out of his bed, and he went several months without a lovey. Maybe Teddy did something to offend Jonah, sort of like how I tell Josh to sleep on the couch if I'm really annoyed with him (yeah, that whole thing about not going to bed angry hasn't always worked around here!). Who knows? We're talking about the mind of not-quite-three-year-old, after all.

Well, over the last week or so, Jonah has apparently made amends with Teddy and warmly welcomed him back to bed - not into any other aspect of his life, mind, just the bed. Teddy never comes downstairs or even leaves Jonah's bedroom. "Teddy is only for bedtime (and naptime, too, as he always cuddles him then as well as at night)," Jonah has informed us. It's probably completely un-PC to say that he has a little lovey slave, but that is certainly what it seems like! :)

Jonah on the Defensive

2008-01-09T14:05:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty funny incident take place while we were up in Pittsburgh for the holidays. We were at a friend's house for brunch where Jonah accidentally spilled a cup of coffee by pulling up on the table cloth on which the said cup was sitting. Josh was extremely apologetic to our friend and her mother, even after they'd told him not to worry about it. He was so profusive in his apologies that, in an effort to get him to stop, our friend told Josh to put out his hand, and she jokingly gave it a little smack and said, "Bad Josh."

Well, Jonah being a little 2.5 year-old and not understanding that this was a joke, took the smack and the comment to be for real, and he became extremely upset and started loudly protesting that Daddy was not bad and that Daddy was good. He was so upset that he was crying and needed quite a bit of comforting to settle him down.

It was at once very touching and quite funny. At least we know for sure that Jonah does, indeed, love his Daddy. See, Josh, he's not quite the Mommy's boy we thought he was! :)

Much-Delayed Christmas Photos

2008-01-09T13:40:00.000-05:00

Jonah's big gift from Santa this year was a Thomas train table. Lucky kid, huh? He seems to really like it (he'd better because, let me just say, even though we used eBay and Craigslist to get everything, it still wasn't what youd call cheap!) :)

Ripping into another of Santa's presents.

Santa brought Jonah a play doctor set, too. It came with a little stethoscope, a pager, a cell phone, a blood pressure cuff, and a few other things including a little plastic scalpel. Dr. Jonah has already performed numerous surgeries on Mommy and Daddy! :)

Jonah got some pretty cool stuff from Nana, too, including some really nice books and a huge container of wooden blocks. Thanks, Nana!

These clothes came from Nana, too. I've never seen a kid get so excited about receiving clothes before - he was waving them all around and shrieking with joy! Pretty funny! :)

Jonah with Daddy and Uncle Nicholas. Jonah made out prety well at Granddad's as well. He got a little remote control car, a wooden airplane, and a puzzle. Lots of fun in store!

Here's Jonah opening up the tricycle he got from Grandma and Grandpa. We can't wait to put that together and go for a ride!

We stayed pretty low-key for New Year's Eve. We had some neighborhood friends over for dinner and that was about it. Here are Jonah and his buddy Noah vegging out for a VeggieTales video.

Words to Make a Mother Cry

2007-12-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

As I was getting ready to make dinner yesterday evening, Jonah walked up to me and said, "It's beautiful, Mommy!"

"What's beautiful, sweetie?" I ask him.

"Mommy."

"Mommy's beautiful?" I ask in astonishment.

"Yes."

I nearly broke down in tears, but instead I just gave him a big hug and told him how sweet it was of him to say such a thing.

I just love that boy!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (or At Least Winter)!

2007-12-07T11:25:00.000-05:00

October in Pictures

2007-11-02T10:07:00.000-05:00

We went up to Pennsylvania for Josh's family reunion during the first weekend in October. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Here's a picture of Jonah at his Granddad's house. I like to imagine him saying, "I love coming up here! Granddad's house has all these great snacks like cheeseballs, the remnants of which are here on my sleeve!"

Here's Jonah with his Granddad.

I think Jonah had a fun time hanging out with Nicholas. There were a few two-year-old moments with tantrums and screaming, but what can you expect when you've got two toddlers running around vying for the same toys and whatnot. Anyway, there were some very cute moments of chasing each other and even some preliminay wrestling!

Here's Jonah getting ready to enter Cox Farms. We took a ride out there to enjoy the giant slides and the hayride and to get pumpkins.

There was a wooden train at Cox Farms that Jonah really enjoyed climbing around.

This is one of the slides, and that's Josh and Jonah coming down it.

On the third weekend in October, Jonah and I took a trip with my parents down to South Carolina for the extended Merritt family reunion. Here's Jonah with my dad's cousin Janice, with my Aunt Katie (dad's half-sister) and another of Dad's cousins (I think her name is Emily) in the background. Would that make Janice and Emily Jonah's third cousins? I don't know how those cousin relationships work; I need someone to explain it to me.

When we came back from South Carolina, Jonah's school took a field trip to Cox Farms (Jonah's second trip out there). This is him with a school friend having fun with some big feet.

Hooray for hay bales!

"Yay! I'm at the top! That climb was nuthin for this climbin' master!"

A pretty fall afternoon in our neighborhood.

Jonah got to take part in a neighborhood Halloween parade during the last weekend of the month. Here's our Yoda with a neighborhod friend and race car driver!

Yoda on the move!

"Strong with me the force is!"

Five pumpkins and one punkin!

A close-up of Josh's handiwork!

Jonah's school did a cute little parade and trick-or-treat event. Here he is with some classmates.

Yoda and his loot!

Covered in chocolate Yoda is!

A Day Out With Thomas!

2007-10-01T08:57:00.001-05:00

We took Jonah to A Day Out With Thomas down in Spencer, NC, this past weekend. He got to see Thomas the Tank Engine (obviously), Sir Topham Hatt, and Percy. And, in terms of real people, he also got to see Uncle Tim, "Grammy" Esmonde, and Uncle Thomas (Wicker, not Tank Engine!) We all had a good time visiting with friends and seeing Jonah enjoying himself (with a couple of little meltdowns along the way, but you have to expect that with two-year-olds).

Here's Jonah on the morning of the festival, sporting some very cute bed head! :)

Here we are with Percy!

Bob the Builder put on a live show, and Uncle Tim was the only one tall enough to hold Jonah up high enough to see what was going on onstage!

A photo op with Thomas' friends!

Jonah was very impressed with Sir Topham Hatt!

Wow! Thomas is BIG! The highlight of the day was riding a train pulled by, who else? Thomas!

Jedi Master vs. Rav4 Roadster

2007-09-19T09:41:00.000-05:00

Jonah really likes this book we checked out from the library called Apples and Pumpkins. It's a cute little story about a girl who tells how she and her parents go to pick apples and pumpkins in the fall. The story ends with the girl going trick-or-treating "up and down the street." Jonah kept repeating "up and down the street" yesterday, and so this is the conversation we had:

Mom-Mom: You want to go trick-or-treating up and down the street?
Jonah: Yes!
M: Well, you will next month on Halloween. We have a costume for you already. You're going to be Yoda this year!
J: Yoda! Toyota! (pronounced "Toyoda")

He's seen and recognizes the word Toyota on the back of our Rav4, and I guess "Yoda" and "Toyota" can sound pretty similar to a two-year-old. I thought it was pretty funny and cute!

First Day of Preschol - September 4, 2007

2007-09-05T09:23:00.001-05:00

Jonah apparently did just fine on his first day of preschool. The teachers and director said he had his little moments of looking for Mommy and Daddy and getting upset, but they did a pretty good job of keeping him distracted and busy for the most part. What a big boy!

Long Overdue Pictures of the Little Man

2007-09-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

Hanging out with buddies Jay and Isaac on Labor Day!

Just hangin' on the potty!

Morning fun time while still in the jammies!

A cute close-up while visiting family in Pittsburgh in July.

Snuggling up to the giant panda one morning at the National Zoo in June.

Walking with Grandma and Grandpa on Father's Day.

A Question

2007-08-18T20:14:00.000-05:00

Up until this evening, Jonah has usually communicated his culinary cravings by saying "Want some" or "Try some" while pointing to whatever food or drink has caught his fancy. This evening after dinner, however, as I was pouring myself a cup of iced tea, he walked up to me and asked, "Could I have some tea?" A real question. Just like that.

My jaw dropped for a second or two, and then I said, "That's very good asking, sweetie! I'm very proud of you!"

Now ordinarily, I wouldn't give Jonah tea. One of the last things a two-year-old needs is a combination of caffeine and sugar. However, since he had asked so nicely and properly, I decided to let him have a small sip if he really wanted it. I offered him the cup and asked, "Do you want to try some tea?"

He looked at the contents of the cup, looked up at me, and exclaimed, "NOOO!"

Oh, well. You can lead the horse to water, or he may even ask to be led to said water, but you can't make him drink.

Counting and Courting

2007-08-16T08:50:00.000-05:00

Well, Jonah can count to ten in four (English, Vietnamese, German, and Spanish), maybe five (we're still working on French) languages. Also, in a nod to Mommy's profession (in accounting, there is a phrase for a particular type of inventory tracking called "first in first out"), Jonah, quite out of nowhere, said to me, "Poop in poop out."

And then yesterday, on our way home from the grocery store where he'd been a very good boy, I asked Jonah whose good boy he is, thinking that he would respond with the usual "Mom-mom", but nope. He responded with "Kate." Kate is the two-year-old daughter of a couple in our neighborhood and whose mother I have become friends with over the last several months. So I called up my friend and told her that Kate may have a possible suitor on her hands, which she thought was hilarious. He's quite the charmer, my little Jonah!

Becoming a Big Boy

2007-07-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

Jonah is definitely becoming a big boy and putting aside his babyish ways, at least to some extent. Here's what he said to me this morning, a time when he usually likes to cuddle with Mom-Mom:

Jonah (clutching the teddy bear he slept with for the first time the night before): Cuddle teddy. Mom-Mom open door (the door was closed up to this point, so I opened the door). Mom-Mom go!

At this point, I burst into laughter and just said, "OK, I'm going. I'll see you later." So I left him alone with his teddy for a few minutes then went back in to take him down for breakfast. It was pretty funny.

Jonah can also imitate Josh's snoring, which is hysterical.

And you know for certain that your baby is growing up when he spontaneouly says to a rock that he's holding (Jonah will pick up rocks anytime he's outside - I think we have a future geologist on our hands) "I love you, rock" (actually, in Jonah speak, it comes out as "I ub you, gock"). It takes some effort at times to get him to tell me or Daddy that he loves us, but the love he had for this rock was given without any prompting. It was sad and funny all at the same time.

Other Pictures from Hershey Gardens

2007-06-17T13:45:00.000-05:00

Jonah takes a little rest in the herb garden.

Josh and Jonah emerge from the Japanese garden.

Jonah practices his letters on the Alphabet Border n the Children's Garden.

Jonah explores the wigwam in the Native American garden.

Jonah really liked the numbers on the human sundial.

"I love this giant piggy!"

A steam fountain in the shapes of Kisses!

A beautiiful rose garden.

A lovely fountain.

T The Italian garden.

We saw a pretty kitty at the gardens, and Jonah was very gentle wth it.

The Butterfly House at Hershey Gardens

2007-06-17T13:42:00.000-05:00

Dutch Wonderland

2007-06-17T13:38:00.001-05:00

Josh and I would highly recommend this park in Lancaster, PA to anyone wth kids. It is an amusement park that caters specifically to kids, and it was probably the best and most fun day we had on our vacation. Jonah absolutely loved the giant slide, which we took him down about ten times.

A Morning with Trains

2007-06-17T13:24:00.000-05:00

On one of the mornings of our vacation, we went to Strasburg and visited the Choo Choo Barn (which houses an enormous model of all of Lancaster County, complete with lots of model trains, including Thomas and his friends), the Thomas Trackside Store, and we took a rde on the Strasburg Railroad's dinng car and had a very nice lunch. Jonah has become such a big Thomas fan, so you can well imagine how enraptured he was while we were in the Thomas Store. Being such a big fan, Josh and I thought we'd get him some Thomas underwear in anticipation of using them as an incentive for potty trainng. We'll see how that goes!

Hershey Park

2007-06-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

We all had a great time during our vacatiion. We spent one and a half days at Hershey Park, takng Jonah on as many kiddie rides as we could. Aside from a few terrible-twos-meltdowns, he seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly, especially when we took hm on the truck ride(pictured above with Daddy), which he insisted on riding several times over.

Update Re: Sleeping

2007-06-10T06:38:00.000-05:00

I spoke too soon.

But there was a good reason for Jonah wakng up durng the night other than he was just looking for me. The poor thing had a 101 degree fever during the night. I think I got the fever under control with some Motrin, but I need to wait and see if the fever has really gone. It may have just been a fluke fever, but he might also be comng down wth somethng. I really hope not. We are supposed to leave for our vacation to Hershey today, and now I don't know if that will happen - we may need to postpone the trip by a day just so we can monitor him for a day. We'll see.

Sleep Success and A New Career Opportunity (Hopefully Not)

2007-06-09T13:22:00.000-05:00

It's exciting times here in the Cook household!

For three nights straight Jonah has managed to sleep through the whole night by himself. For those of you who know us and our situation, you will know that is a HUGE thing for us because up until now Jonah had been wakng up during the night around midnight to 2AM looking for me, and I would usually go in and snuggle with him for the remainder of the night. I just figured that if it makes him happy, and he's sleeping peacefully the rest of the night and so am I, then everyone's happy. We'd tried just letting him cry and other approaches, but I think patience has finally proven successful. And he's waking up happy, which is also a plus! I love to see hs bright, beautiful smile first thing in the morning! Of course, I'd better find some wood to knock on now that I've said anything about it, otherwise I might jinx our good fortune! :)

On a much funnier note, Jonah really surprised me and Josh today. We'd gone to Tysons mall in order for both Josh and Jonah to get haircuts, get some sandals for Jonah from Stride Rite, take Jonah to the play area that's there, and then get some lunch. While headng through the mall on our way back to the parking garage, we passed a clothing store that had some hip-hop music emanating out into the mall. Jonah wrangled his way out of Josh's arms and headed for the store. Josh and I thought he was going to go in, but he simply stopped right out front and proceeded to dance for the next several minutes! It was one of the funniest things Josh and I had ever seen! And to make it even funnier (and I have no idea where he picked up on this because neither Josh nor I do this when we dance or attempt to do so), at one point in his dancing, Jonah crossed his arms over his chest, rapper-style! It was hilarious! I so wish I'd had the camera with us so I could have taken some video footage of this, but I suppose blogging about it for posterity will have to do!

Do these positions look comfortable to you?

2007-06-09T13:20:00.001-05:00

2007-06-09T13:18:00.001-05:00

Having fun at the playground.

2007-06-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

I'm cute in this helmet and all ready for a bike ride!

2007-06-09T13:14:00.000-05:00

A rare moment of domestic tranquilty.

2007-06-09T13:10:00.000-05:00

Jonah tries to walk a mile in Mommy's shoes (ok, so maybe it was only a few steps).

2007-04-25T17:32:00.000-05:00

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!

2007-04-25T17:31:00.000-05:00

Jonah with all of his birthday loot behind him!

2007-04-25T17:29:00.000-05:00

That birthday cake was finger-licking good! Jonah had a blue finger to prove it!

2007-04-25T17:27:00.000-05:00

One of our homemade crafts projects last week was making a crown for the soon-to-be birthday boy - I figured he could be king for a day! :)

Then and Now: A Second Birthday Comparison

2007-04-25T17:23:00.000-05:00

2007-04-03T14:43:00.000-05:00

I'm ready for my close-up, Mommy!

2007-04-03T14:40:00.000-05:00

For some unknown reason, Jonah likes Josh's shoehorns. I guess they just look really interesting! *Shrug*

2007-04-03T14:38:00.000-05:00

Bath time for Jonah and his uncle Nicholas.

2007-04-03T14:36:00.000-05:00

WHEEEEE!!!!

2007-02-20T09:50:00.000-05:00

All smiles!

2007-02-20T09:47:00.000-05:00

Note the shorter hair! OK, so there wasn't much there to begin with, but what was there was getting long and tangly, so we took him to Cartoon Cuts, and he screamed his little head off the whole time!

2007-02-20T09:44:00.000-05:00

I think Jonah likes his new toy! It's been so cold and icy that I haven't been able to take him to the park in a long time, so we decided to get him an indoor climbing structure and slide.

A Gentleman In the Making?

2007-02-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

I just had to break the lull in my writing in order to post this becase it is jst too cute and funny to keep to myself.

Over the past week, Jonah has taken to feeding me. Yes, my little 21-month-old likes to feed Mommy at mealtimes if given the opportunity to do so. It started out last Sunday when we took him to McDonald's for a treat. Instead of eating the French fries himself, he thought it was great fun to dip them in ketchup and put them in my mouth. This behavior continued over the week, including feeding me chicken nuggets dipped in barbeque sauce and helping my drink by tipping up my glass (with me holding on as well, of course). And then last night, he spooned chili into my mouth (he also managed to get some on my face, but what can you expect?). I don't know if he just thinks this is great fun, or if he thinks it's just typical behavior to feed the ones we love (or if he thinks Mommy isn't capable of feeding herself - hopefully that isn't the case and will never be the case, even if I manage to live to be 100). In any case, I think it's really cute. If he keeps up this behavior towards the women in his life, he'll have no trouble wooing the ladies! :)

2007-01-24T10:36:00.000-05:00

Now I'm the cook of the Cooks!

2007-01-24T10:32:00.000-05:00

I may not be able to move very well in this get-up, but, boy, am I having fun!

2007-01-24T10:31:00.000-05:00

Hey, this snow is crunchy!

2007-01-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

Playing nicely (for the moment)

2007-01-24T10:29:00.000-05:00

Pajama buddies!

2007-01-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

Letting sleeping babies lie.

2007-01-05T10:22:00.000-05:00

Here I am sporting my new red wagon! What fun!

2007-01-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

And a Baby Einstein video! What could be better?! Well, I guess with this bow on my head, I make for the best present of all!

2007-01-05T10:15:00.000-05:00

Oh, boy! A Tigger plane!

2007-01-05T10:10:00.000-05:00

Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Look at all the presents!

Final Post

2006-12-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

Due to lack of time and what seems to be lack of traffic, I am calling it quits on continuing this blog, at least for now. I may occasionally upload pictures of Jonah, mostly around milestones or holidays, so come back and check things out then. God bless!

2006-11-29T23:28:00.000-05:00

Sitting in the office chair getting ready to make some bold and important decisions (or just being cute! :)

2006-11-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

Hug and make up - so cute! :)

2006-11-29T23:25:00.000-05:00

Tug of war: Jonah is still a little young to fully grasp the concept of "be nice to girls"

2006-11-29T23:23:00.000-05:00

Up close and personal: Jonah and his pal Morgan on the verge of a smooch

To Be [Boxed] or Not to Be [Boxed]

2006-10-31T22:22:00.000-05:00

That was the question on Jonah's mind last Friday.

We officially moved into our new home this past Saturday. The move went relatively smoothly, all the furniture got here safely, things got arranged, and we are now about 95% settled. There are just a few minor things that need to be taken care of, like getting some shelving units for Jonah's toys and books, unpacking the last of the boxes and bags, and completely baby-proofing things, particularly the tops of the stairs.

We actually moved the cats in before we officially made our move. We decided to bring the cats over on Friday so they could begin getting adjusted to the new place. As any cat owner knows, packing up a cat is not always the easiest job in the world.

Josh and I decided to pack up Patches first, and this proved to be relatively easy. I did have to chase her down and shoo her out from under the bed with a broom, wrap a towel around her as I picked her up, and directly deposit her into the kitty carrier, but the whole process only took about five minutes.

That left Callie. Our normally quite docile littlest cat is surprisingly the most ferocious when it comes to being put into a carrier. Actually, since we didn't think we'd be able to get both cats into our one carrier, we decided to use one of our computer-paper-type packing boxes and wrap some tape around it to keep her in. Smartly, we got the strips of tape ready before actually chasing her down. The chasing part turned into quite an adventure. She had seen what happened to Patches, so she was already on her guard. After finally getting her to come out from under the sofa, she ran upstairs to hide under the bed. Once again, using the broom to get her out from under the bed, she decided to try squeezing herself into the small space between one of the dressers and the wall. Now mind, she was hissing and growling and ready to scratch our eyes out this entire time. We then managed to get her away from the dresser, and Josh dropped a towel on her, scooped her up, and dropped her into the awaiting box. I then held the lid of the box down while he taped it shut. This whole process took about twenty minutes.

The funny (and somewhat tragic) incident that occurred actually happened in the interval between the capture of each of the cats. Josh and I were preparing ourselves to go after Callie by picking up the intended box-carrier. When we did so, however, Jonah started to howl. Any time we touched a box, he would start to scream like he was hurt or terrified. We tried to tell him it was just a box but to no avail. I tried to pick him up to comfort him, but he refused to allow me to do so. We were getting to the point where we couldn't figure out what was going on, figuring that he was just having a random tantrum, and were about to proceed with the capture of Callie by removing the lid from the box despite his loud protests and which sent him into even greater screams, when it hit us: he had seen us put Patches in a box, and he thought we were going to put him in a box, too! We calmly and lovingly explained to him that he was not a kitty, that he was our little boy, and that we were not going to put him in a box, and he immediately stopped crying and went back to playing.

Oh, the things that little mind will conjure up!

2006-10-31T22:16:00.000-05:00

Using the Force (of his cuteness!).