A Few Goodmans: April 2013

We are so thankful for a sweet, smart, growing, healthy Jonah guy, who makes us grin ear to ear and laugh out loud many times a day. Just thinking about him in the evening after we put him down in his crib we smile and chuckle, repeating the silly things he has said and done. What an amazing experience this is!

Got himself into the basket unprompted this month

23 Months of Jonah!

Cheese!

Growth: Jonah is finally looking "ready for the flood" in his 12-18 month pants, and fits well into the 18-24 monthers. He is looking like he is ready to turn 2, and tells us he is "very very tall!"

Very very tall!

Sleep: We try to start potty/bath/bed time around 8:15, but some nights he is just so full of energy and silliness we stay up playing later than that. He gets excited to sit on the potty and read books. All that we ask is that he tries to go poop after each book, which he proudly attempts. Rarely does he succeed, but he gets an A for effort. In the bath, he got his first bubble bath when some soap accidentally spilled in. The experience scared him a bit, but he now loves having us blow him bubbles from a wand while he bathes. It's a different kind of bubble bath, but it's what he likes. After bath, he gets so excited for Mommy hug and looking at our reflection in the mirror with a hooded towel pulled over his head. Once he's all cozy in his pajamas and has bid Scout goodnight, he now likes to snuggle in the rocker with Mommy with ducky only, and meets up with doggie in the crib. The other animals got the boot this month. The boy has an opinion or two! ;)

Jonah set Daddy up for a nap

Eating: He has many of the same habits, and enjoys most meals. Some favorite foods of the moment are vegetarian corn dogs, lox, "apupas" (applesauce), goldfish crackers, tofu, bell peppers, mushrooms, and at the end of each meal he grins and pleads for "raisin! appupots!" (raisins and apricots -- please don't confuse the latter with applesauce!). He gets sad if he spills and begs for a towel, and likes to clean up his hands with a napkin. He likes to use utensils and enjoys drinking water and milk out of an open cup. On Friday nights he knows that he gets juice and is very excited. He seems to really remember the Shabbat traditions. He puts a "kippat" on his head, tells us when it's time for juice, candles, and challah, and says "amen" at the end of prayers. It's such a lovely end to the week, holding him close, and appreciating what we share together as a family.

Shabbat

Sushi

Breaking Passover at Piada

Personality: We have a comedian on our hands. Jonah has started telling jokes. Over the winter, he started talking about the snow: "hot? Nooooo... cold!" Now, he has started a new one: "Jondah? Noooo...Jonah!" He also thinks it's hilarious to hide something and guess where it is. This week it was the slinky under the crib. "Where's it? On the crib? Noooo. Mommy bed? Noooo. Under crib?" ...and a big smile.

Snow hot? no. Cold!

Loves feeding Alton treats

Kiss parrot, bok bok

He still appreciates many of the things we mentioned last month, Daniel Tiger, Wheels on the Bus, musical instruments, Daddy circle, Jonah aaaa-boom, vacuuming, and doing as much for himself as he can. His latest favorite thing to do independently is getting in the car seat. If you open the car door, he can climb all the way up and into the car seat. If you try to help, you will get a loud whine "No Mommy/Daddy! Jonah do it! Jonah do it!" And so, whenever possible, we let Jonah do it. He also enjoys pressing buttons, like the garage door, and walks into and out of school holding one of our hands with his backpack in the other, rather than being carried. He loves getting himself into the high chair, and can climb up and down with one of us standing by to guard him. Even the hairbrush at bedtime gets a "Jonah do it," resulting in one funky 'do.

Jonah play Mommy gacuum!

Jonah, Daddy, on guitata

Jonah upside down

Jonah do it, broom

We wouldn't exactly call Jonah "bossy" since he's just a little dude still, but he sure does have an opinion who should be doing what, how, where, and when. On the way up the stairs, he likes to instruct you where to hold the rail and make sure you're doing it right. He will tell us "Mommy sit here" or the latest "Hey Daddy...go get it raisins." We try not to take offense when he consistently requests "No Mommy/Daddy singin'" or wants someone's lap and not someone else's. We have to laugh a little in the morning when he comes into the bathroom with his mind made up to play with Mommy's phone and protests "No Mommy kiss! Game! Daniel Tiger! No kiss!" Most of the time, we smile, tell him that we don't get to tell other people what to do, but that it's OK to ask nicely. He is usually pretty understanding of this and says "please."

Some funny things he says/does: Sometimes Olive jumps up on the vanity and drinks from the faucet, about which he says, "Ovil doin' wash hands!" When he peels an orange or breaks matzo, he tries to piece it back together, imploring, "Back on! Back on!" He does spend a little time at "Daddy compueh" every day, but he definitely picks things up from it -- one day we caught him after nap in his crib singing "Five Little Monkeys," which he learned entirely from YouTube, while bouncing and gesturing wildly. Basically every night after bath he starts pointing out, "Mommy girl! Daddy boy! Jonah little boy!" He loves making a tower out of blocks, then picking up Ducky, and having "Ducky knock oveh!"

A few key phrases: "Bye bye, ____, see ya lata!" "Mommy pick you up! Mommy hold you!" "This baksetball! See Buckeyes!" "So close! Try again!" "Yay job Jonah!" "Jonah bite ____" (in reference to eating [or drinking] anything; he seems especially interested in coffee and beer). "Poppy play screwdriveh!"

Milestones: He just keeps grasping more and more concepts, and his memory is excellent. The other day he started talking about "See dolphin on the boat!" in reference to our vacation last month with Grandma and Grandpa and Lauren to Florida! He's still running around everywhere and is working on jumping. His new favorite at the playground is the monkey bars. The first time he saw them he zipped right across (with help from Mommy) going hand-to-hand bar-to-bar! He has started to sing this month; he sings "Five Little Monkeys" and "Twinkle Twinkle" and does a spoken-word version of most of the ABCs. He likes Old Mcdonald and will fill in animals and noises and the last "E-I-E-I-O" as well. He is expanding his grasp of concepts like big and small, up and down, loud and quiet, fast and slow, under and on, colors, numbers/counting, letters, etc.

Events: We've had a lot of outings this month to museums. Jonah just loves the art museum and the Little Kidspace at COSI! He also got to see the butterflies at the conservatory with Mommy and Mimi and loves talking about them. Hallie, John, and Nora came into town for a weekend and Jonah just loved meeting Nora. He really loves babies, which we are very happy about! For St. Patrick's Day, Jonah got his first green bagel from Blocks, and still asks for one for breakfast every few days. Geema and Hoppa came into town for a weekend and they had a great time playing at home and at the art museum some more! Of course we had Passover this month -- and Jonah started learning the four questions right after it ended (he can sing much of the first question when prompted). We had a great time at seders at Mary and Greg's and Cheryl and Larry's, playing with cousins and eating crunchy matzo! Fortunately Jonah loves sweeping and vacuuming, which made cleaning up the crumbs much easier! He knows that the hidden matzo is called the afikomen and the book is the Hagaddah. And oddly enough his favorite thing to eat at both seders was slices of fresh horseradish, which he called "cheese" and kept going back for more (or should we say maror?)! Mid-Passover, we celebrated Easter with Mimi and Poppy. We weren't sure what he would appreciate, but he delighted in coloring eggs, placing them in bowls of dye, removing them, putting them back in the correct bowl, and repeating. He found a dozen eggs and put them in his Easter basket over and over.