A Few Goodmans: March 2014

It has been so fun to see Tessa develop more of a personality of her own and see how the kids interact with each other and their toys. We're tired, but that's nothing new. We're having a ball!

They just love each other SO MUCH

Growth: The kids are growing. Jonah is really looking more like a little boy and less like a toddler. He now weights 28 pounds, just 9 more than Tessa, at 19 pounds. She just keeps chugging along.

Sleep: Jonah has had several overnight blips. He calls out for one of us, often requesting a tissue. It's nothing major, but it adds to the sleepiness. Naps have gotten easier and much less argumentative. It helps that Tessa is older now and actually enjoys readings books and singing songs before nap. Her favorite part of getting ready for naps is definitely brushing teeth. When she sees the toothbrush, her eyes open and her arms flap wildly. Jonah loves when I put her in his bed for a snuggle before he goes to sleep. Tessa is napping once in the morning around 9:30 or 10, then when Jonah naps around 1:30. The third nap is fading away. She is mostly making it through through the night, but often needs Julian to soothe her once or twice in the early morning to make it through to their real wake-up time. Both kids have been getting up somewhere in the 7:00 hour.

Eating: Jonah continues to eat a variety of healthy foods and likes to try new things. We have discovered, however, that he functions much better with a plated meal than family style. Giving him an empty plate and bowls full of options often results in a series of whiny "no"s. If it is on his plate when he gets to the table, he will just eat without much ado. On vacation, he requested calamari every single night. It was vacation, so why the heck not!

Baking some pancakes

Flipping heart-shaped bread for egg in the toast breakfast

Tessa has enjoyed every food we have fed her. She still gets most everything pureed, except baby puffs which dissolve and very small pieces of soft foods. We started yogurt and she has had nibbles of bread and fish. She started getting breakfast on vacation, so now she eats foods 3 times per day. She is waaaaaay excited about food. Once she is in the high chair, she gets what is going on. There are limbs flying, excited gasps and giggles, and a cute little mouth gaping open. When she nurses, she honestly needs to be in a quiet room. Anything else is just too exciting and distracting for her.

First taste of chocolate

He likes lunch standing at the counter sometimes

Personality: Jonah continues to keep himself busy playing when we are needed elsewhere (like putting Tessa down for a nap), but also loves his friends and family more than anything. He loves to share stories, show what he is doing with his toys, and talk with the people he loves. In fact, chats constantly. He is so inquisitive; we love when he asks us a question then listens, hanging onto every word, quietly responding "yeah" as we speak. We do a lot of playing and cooking together. He doesn't watch a ton of TV, but when he does, he wants The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. The snuggles that come along with it are tremendous. On Mondays, he continues to enjoy gymnastics class and a night of shopping, sampling, and dinner at Whole Foods with us and Aunt Lauren. Jonah really likes to tell stories and in doing so, he wants the focused attention of each person. He will call someone out, tell them what he has on his mind, then someone else (who probably just heard what he said), then another. He has some hilarious observations, like "trucks have pasta." Perhaps you never noticed the pasta that hang between a tractor and trailer. Now you will. You're welcome.

This cracks us up. I mean, who DOESN'T feel this way
about the stringy things on bananas

Much better!

Treats for Alton

Tessa got an invitation to the bench picture

Jonah's gymnastics class

Tessa just seems to be springing to life. We see her looking to the eyes of those she loves with a knowing smile, sometimes trying to talk to them. She is just so happy and sociable! She is getting a wider range of expressions too, and it feels like such a gift peering into her mind. She loves flapping her arms and laughing. She loves her brother and when he finds something that makes her laugh, like when he shakes a rattle, they do it again and again. She loves music, whether it is coming out of a stereo or one of us is singing. She has also picked up some dance moves, and bobs up and down, nodding her head to the music. She has become more ticklish and giggles when you kiss or tickle her neck, upper arms, and tummy.

Tessa likes bouncing

And she loves kisses on her cheek

Tessa really got into art for the first time

Milestones: Jonah is getting better and quicker at recognizing what letter he hears at the start of a word. One milestone he has not hit, is understanding how to describe time, which is particularly funny since he likes to reminisce and has an excellent memory. He had some tofu for lunch this week which he hadn't had since we would pack it for his lunch over last summer. He took one bite and said "I think I had this yesterday at camp." Today we took a different route to school, passing by a house that put up remarkable Halloween decorations. From the back seat: "Mommy, is there a Christmas decoration over here with the two red eyes?" Of course, he meant the giant spider with red eyes which had perched there in October.

Jonah teaching Tessa how to spell her name

Tessa is getting the hang of picking up puffs and bringing them to her mouth. Sometimes she sweeps up several into her hand, brings it to her mouth, then looks around for more with the puffs still stuck to her palm. She has figured out how to open her wipes container, and tirelessly pops it open after we shut it while she's on her changing table. She has 6 beautiful teeth, which she loves brushing. She has taken more of an interest in books and likes to touch the pages and tries to turn them. Her favorite sound to make is "bababababa." We trust her sitting ability enough that she has started taking a bath in the big tub, sitting with Jonah. They both enjoy playing with toys and splashing together.

Events:

Jonah loved celebrating Valentines Day. He talked all about the people he loves and made some valentienes. He was excited to make one for Ducky, his best little buddy. The week of Valentines, as we were walking past the bakery case at Whole Foods, he asked us to stop the cart. He pointed to a pink heart cake and announced that he wanted to give it to a girl from school, whom he is friends with, for Valentines's day. We melted! He was excited to give it to her and she was happy to eat it! We had a special dinner at Mimi and Poppy's house and Jonah loved the chocolate covered strawberry and special balloons he got. We also went to a party at a friend's house to celebrate the holiday.

Jonah picked out Tessa's outfit

Curling Tessa's hair with a toy curler at the party

We took the third and final installment of winter vacations with Lauren, Grandma, and Grandpa, to Captiva and Sanibel Islands on the gulf coast of Florida. We went together last winter and had such a good time we wanted to go back. We all stayed in one big house 5 minutes walk from the beach. The kids did just fine on the plane. We wish Jonah would nap outside of his bed, but he just won't and that's that. Our daily routine was more or less the same: breakfast, Tessa nap/get ready, beach time and lunch, back home for naps for the kids and pool time for the grownups, then out somewhere yummy to eat. That's the kind of lifestyle you could get used to! The biggest decision was where to eat. Tessa was scared when the water touched her toes, but she liked being carried around the beach and eating and playing in the little beach tent. Jonah pushed trucks around and ran in the sand.

Tiny frequent flier and her aunt

Can you find Jonah?

First bath together and they're thrilled. He wanted them to both get a spike.

Jonah has been watching videos of vacation last year and keeps asking to revisit the playground. He was so excited to see the familiar sights!

First swing ride!

Not totally convinced

We tried to make hamentashen without buying a bunch of ingredients.
Jonah had fun, but for the record, a roll of sugar cookie dough does not cut it.

Flat as can be hamentashen

We got one rainy day, so we assembled a few puzzles and Jonah helped

One of the highlights from last year's trip was the dolphin cruise. He has talked about it ever since. There weren't as many dolphins to be seen on this trip, but we saw some and that's all that really mattered. One jumped for Jonah and he was so excited about that.