Our days are filled with play time, joyful shrieks, snuggles, and questions. More than anything, they are filled with happiness.
Growth: Both kids are growing well. Tessa's 9 month appointment was a few weeks early, at which point she weighted 19# 1 oz (71%ile), measured 27" (37%ile) and had a head circumference of 46 cm (97%ile). There's lot of room in there for her smart brain.
Sleep: There haven't been any major changes. Tessa still takes a morning nap around 10 and both kids take afternoon nap around 1:30 or 2. They both brush teeth, read books, and listen to songs. Tessa now stands at the edge of Jonah's little bed, holding the rail, while he gets tucked in. Jonah has been in the habit of waking up at 6:30 (6:45 on a good day!) and Tessa stirs and needs the pacifier put back in periodically during the 5:00 hour. If the day started more like 7:00, it would make a big difference, but there's not much we can do. When Jonah wakes up, he comes running down the hall and curls up sweetly in bed with us. He snuggles and whispers for a while, usually about something that makes us laugh out loud even in our state of fatigue. Then he asks nicely to watch Daniel Tiger and asks us to make the TV less bright. Alas, brightness is turned way down, but he squints and watches anyhow. That boy loves Daniel.
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| Jonah gave Tessa a pretend nap. He got her all tucked in and read her a story |
Eating: Both of our kids are excellent eaters and a real pleasure to sit at the table with for a meal. Tessa has liked every food we have given her and seems to have a first favorite food: yogurt. Jonah got over the whining about dining family style and will now eat a plated dinner or family style. The difficulty in dining with Jonah is that he takes forever. I have never seen a person eat so leisurely. If we have somewhere to be following a meal, it's a safe bet that we will be late. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are filled with the following conversation: "Jonah, are you hungry or feeling full?" (thoughtful face) "I'm still eating" (sigh) "Then take a bite!" After he does so, he will start reminiscing, singing, or talking about the plans for the day. Tessa can now eat anything smaller than a pinky nail and squishy or pureed. She has had little nibbles of things like pizza and waffles. At Aunt Lauren's birthday dinner she even got to indulge in chocolate cake! Jonah has been eating more twizzlers and jelly beans than usual, but more on that later.
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| Baking a challah before having our friends the Rubins over for Shabbat dinner |
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| Jonah painted the challah with egg wash |
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| Hungry baby! |
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| Studying the oven |
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| Milk mustache |
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| We would never pass health code. Sorry, friends. |
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| He like to taste all the ingredients. Smart chef! Sampling whole grain flour. |
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| Watching the bread machine to the hard work |
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| We recreated a Daniel Tiger recipe: banana swirl. Sporting the associated mustache. |
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| Chocolate cake at Lauren's birthday dinner |
Personality: Not a lot has changed; Jonah remains happy, inquisitive, and easily entertained. He asks so many questions, in fact, that one day we decided to count them. From waking up to going to sleep at night (and this is with a 2-hour nap) he asked 395! They are fairly intelligent questions too, not just "why?" On the drive to school one morning "Mommy, who made Daddy's car? Where do they live? What are their names? Why don't you know? What color is Mommy's car? Does Mommy like blue? Who made Mommy's car?" We take it as a challenge to answer them all. Sometimes it's just exhausting, but it is so satisfying to him if we at least try to answer as best we can. He loves to play with Tessa and does lots of singing and dancing around which makes her laugh. From the look in her eyes, we can tell she is studying his every move. He is studying hers too; he has started making some of Tessa's noises. This is not necessarily a good thing, because Tessa's trademark noise is the one that has earned her the nickname "teapot." Tessa, with a joyful expression, will let out the loudest and highest shriek ever. Dogs bark. Restaurants become temporarily silenced. Those who look for the crying baby smile once they see her and realize that she is just making a happy expression. Tessa really doesn't cry much. She fusses a bit right before going to sleep as she is getting wrapped up in her sleep sack or if she is in a circumstance where she really needs to nurse and it can't happen right away. Other than that, she's a happy lady. We have decided that Pharell song is her theme song.
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| Sharing a toy nicely |
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| Tessa getting ready to paint. This is her new expression. |
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| Feels good! |
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| Happy being held |
Milestones: Jonah has hit a big milestone this month. Are you ready for this? (Let people in the next room know everything is OK and you are gasping in amazement, not fear.) Jonah is potty trained!! We have been putting him in underwear a few mornings a week at home for him to get a feel for what happens when he pees so that he starts to connect with his body. He doesn't like getting all wet, but has been very resistant to using the potty. He will talk all about it and understands the process fully. Still, we would offer and he would fight it. Then, suddenly, 2 weeks ago today he decided he was ready. He was a bit reluctant that first time, but by the end of the day, he was feeling proud and happy to go. He wears diapers for nap and bedtime, but besides that he has been a dry guy. He is very good about asking for the potty when he needs it. In the beginning, he would get twizzlers and jelly beans as rewards, but thankfully he has gradually stopped asking for them.
Tessa has a very strong desire to go somewhere. It isn't enough to make her upset and she doesn't seem frustrated, but she does twist and reach when sitting and clearly wants to go for things out of reach. She can get onto her tummy and roll, but doesn't go far (and that's just fine for now!) She pulled up to stand on the edge of Jonah's bed once, but has not done so using inanimate objects again. She will pull up using Mommy's hands, and once up, she will hold onto anything steady and stay there for quite a while. She can't walk anywhere yet, but she seems quite content just to stand there watching the world go by. She grabs at and tries to eat everything. Sometimes, walking around with her on a hip, you'll get stopped and look over to see that one her hands has latched onto something. She is up to 8 teeth and hasn't been teething for several weeks now, thank goodness. She gave Daddy her first kiss. She looked him in the eye and smacked her lips with a little "p" and puff of air while leaning in. We asked if it was a kiss and she smiled. Now she initiates the kisses and it's so sweet. She also likes to play a game where she clicks her tongue and one where she tilts her head and tries to get you to copy her. She gets such joy when you do! She also got to ride in a wagon for the first time. She kept trying to dive out, so its only something we would do with a spotter.
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| Kissing the pretty baby |
Events: This month we celebrated Purim. When asked what he wanted to dress up as, Jonah replied "ducky!" He was a ducky his second Halloween, but that costume is now too small and fits Tessa. Mommy scouted for a 2T duck costume and scored a loaner from a neighbor. Come time for the Purim Masquerade, we showed up to find that Jonah had developed a fear of costumes. It wasn't just Goofy from the cruise, but anyone in a costume, including himself. He was OK with Tessa being a ducky, but wouldn't put on his costume and stayed at the edge of the room. By the time they did their class Purim parade, he agreed to wear his costume, and in the safety of Tessa's room, he put it back on to play. He learned about the holiday at school and had some understanding of the story.
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| Baking hamentashen with Aunt Alana |
We celebrated St. Patrick's Day Mimi-style. She picked up green bagels and had a green lunch prepared for us and a Pooh book about the holiday.
We took a few trips to the Franklin Park Conservatory to see the butterfly exhibit. We didn't get pictures when we visited with Amy, Hazel, and Vivian, but we did get a few the next trip with Lauren, Jared, Eliana, and Asher. He loves watching the train display (duh!), koi pond, waterfalls, and of course the butterflies.
One afternoon, we had a family outing to COSI followed by dinner at Old Spaghetti Warehouse. Not only did they have tons of fun playing at the science museum, he ate calamari next to a trolly (just like on Daniel!) and saw a train up close after dinner. He was in heaven.
It is finally nice enough to go outside a bit. Jonah has taken a few bike rides and is a very good listener. He stops at all the intersections and looks for cars. He talks about the signs and lights. Tessa finds it all amusing. His biggest fault is looking all around and steering off the sidewalk as a result. We are working on that.
We visited somewhere new for us: Kingdom of Bounce. Or, as Jonah calls it, The Bouncing Kingdom. It's full of huuuuuge inflatable obstacle courses. He mastered them all straight away and was fearless and full of laughter. Sadly for us, they couldn't afford the rent, and are temporarily closed while they look for a new location. We hope they succeed soon because he had a ball! (Plus we have a partially used Groupon).
Gymnastics continues to be one of Jonah's favorite activities. He loves swinging on this swing and during open gym, he stacks blocks.
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| Trapeze into block pit |
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| "Rolling on the avenue" as Jonah calls it, as Little Blue Truck does in his books |
Lindsay's friend, Brooke, and her baby, Henry, came home to visit. We got together with Laura and the Fischer family. So many babies and so many smiles! We have the best friends!
This is the season for birthdays! In Jonah's family there are many spring birthdays, and most of his class has a birthday around now too. Here he is, looking dapper, and carrying the kite he picked out for a friend from school. He liked jumping around at the party, but was very fearful when it was time to gather around the table and sing happy birthday. He eventually came in, but then was of course still eating his cupcake long after the kids went back to playing. That's Jonah!
Jonah and Mommy are taking on some gardening projects this spring. To start off, they took a trip to the greenhouse and brought home seeds, dirt pods, and crossed fingers. Jonah selected all of the types of plants and enjoyed pushing the seeds down into the dirt. We check on them everyday and good things are happening! We just hope that they survive outside since we don't have much sunshine on our property anywhere. We'll keep you posted.
