Fall is here, and we're having a ball! We think we've done pretty much every fall-oriented activity possible with the kiddos; more on that below.
Growth: Jonah tagged along on a trip to the pediatrician and was 37.5 inches tall, and according to our scale is 31.4 pounds; comparing to CDC growth charts these are both right around 25th percentile. Tessa is officially 25 pounds 4 ounces (92nd percentile), 30 inches (32nd percentile), and head circumference 47cm (84th percentile).
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| School picture day. Showing Tessa an acorn. |
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Speaking of growing, Jonah's hair was growing wild!
The kids enjoy playing after a haircut. |
Personality: Tessa is still our little wild child. She loves people and will still make eye contact across a crowed restaurant with a stranger and start smiling and waving until she gets a response. She still loves hats, sitting on things and bouncing (mostly on top of mommy when she's lying down), and feeding others. Her favorite toy right now is her baby doll, and once she even said "baby doll!" Jonah is actually coming out of his shell a little bit more. He will go up to others (kids mostly, and sometimes adults when prompted) and introduce himself ("Hi, I'm Jonah! What's your name?"). He gets better responses from those older than himself but any feedback for that is definitely nice. He still loves books, trucks, and most of all Tessa.
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| Jonah loves to serve food to others at the table |
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| At pickup from the babysitting room, Lindsay heard "hat" and then saw this |
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| She loves any toy she can sit on |
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| She reached for this and insisted. Honestly. |
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The kids have been enjoying going along on runs with us.
This particular evening the BHS marching band hit the streets and that made our run more fun. |
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| The girl LOVES being upside down. |
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| Bedtime books with Daddy! |
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| Such fun! |
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| The girl also loves to climb! |
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| Jonah gave Tessa a shoveling lesson |
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| Hat. Oatmeal hat. Ew. |
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| Pretzel smile! |
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| Jonah enjoyed celebrating Allie's 3rd birthday |
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| Birthday party selfie! |
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| Sharing a trampoline at Izzy's birthday party |
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| Tessa dragged this around the whole party |
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When it was time for cake, he ran into the room, (washed hands), sang,
smiled, and ate a whole cupcake. A year ago, the only one of those things he would
have done was the hand washing. We are so happy that he has learned to enjoy this! |
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| In true Jonah form, he was the last one left at the table eating. |
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| Jonah wanted to brush my hair |
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| Tessa heard a shutter and jumped in the shot |
Sleep: Tessa will still take a little siesta in the morning if there's not much going on and she's in a car or a stroller, but otherwise is down to one nap a day, usually around two hours. Jonah usually naps around the same. Both are still sleeping from around 9:00-7:00 overnight with some variance in either direction depending on the day's activities. Jonah stayed up until around 11 on Yom Kippur!
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| Toothbrushing |
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| Helping Tessa out of her sleepsack in the morning |
Eating: Tessa has been working on her utensil usage and is starting to get the hang of it. She's still much more efficient at eating manually, but we're working with her on the spoon. The major issues with this come when she really really wants to do it all herself but tries using the spoon upside down or backwards, and starts getting really mad at us when we try to correct the course! Her drinking continues to improve as well. Jonah is still an adventurous eater for the most part, but when we go out he still often opts for the kids' meal with mac and cheese (unless calamari is available, which trumps everything). He still spends more time at the table talking than eating, and once Julian has finished his dinner Jonah pretty much always asks to sit on his lap and winds up being spoon fed the remainder of the meal. At least it makes it go faster! We're still taking weekly trips to Whole Foods with Aunt Lauren and Jonah has started helping quite a bit with suggesting foods we should get, asking for items from the fish counter, and loading/unloading the cart. Jonah usually finishes each day with a dollop or two of coconut oil (which we generally use as hair product for him; see above for why we don't mind him eating this!).
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When we were making our grocery list, Jonah requested carrots with long stems.
He then proceeded to find them in the store and eat them for lunch. |
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| Studying the pizza chefs at Deweys throwing the dough |
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| Jonah has been watching a lot of Dumbo. This pancake is Casey Jr. |
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| Our little shopper in Whole Foods |
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| ...she has good taste |
Milestones: Tessa's walking is getting better and better; we really don't see her crawl anymore. She has an occasional stumble but for the most part stays up on her feet. Her language skills are improving as well, especially her comprehension; for example, it's not uncommon for us to ask Jonah to spit out his toothpaste after brushing and have her start doing raspberries! She still says mama, dada, baby, Axl/Asher, hi, bye, hat, shoe and now has recognizable sounds for yes and no. Jonah's reading keeps getting better and he has learned to recognize rhyming words. He actually read the word "snack" a couple of weeks ago. With some prompting he can figure out the spelling of short simple words or read a few short words that are spelled fairly phonetically. His counting has gotten up into the twenties a few times as well! He just picked up a baseball glove at a yard sale, and his arm is actually not bad (for now at least he's right-handed based on the glove; we'll have to see how this plays out).
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| Jonah learned how to put his own toothpaste on his toothbrush |
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Jonah's first homework assignment: decorate a fish however you'd like
Jonah chose paint and a train |
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| Jonah got a report card from soccer class and he's doin' alright! |
Events: It's been a jam-packed fall (OK, more like an apple-packed or pumpkin-packed fall, but a lot of fun nonetheless).
We went out to Legend Hills Orchard with Mimi, Poppy, and Aunt Alana for a morning of apple picking, topped off by a trip to the Velvet Ice Cream mill for lunch (and, of course, dessert!).
For Rosh Hashanah, we went up to Detroit to spend the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa. In addition to going to synagogue and seeing friends, we went to an orchard in their area and again picked apples as well as played on a hay maze, tractor tricycles, and more!
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| Car food, it's gotta be a filet o' fish |
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| You call that a nap? |
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| She spilled a couple of cheerios |
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| Face upon seeing Grandma and Grandpa |
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| Tessa nodded off on the hayride |
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| Lunch at Leo's Coney Island |
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| Dinner with the Richards' |
During our trip, we realized the distinct resemblance that Tessa has for her Aunt Lauren. Check these out!
After a nice few days with them we came home by way of Ann Arbor. We got to see college friends Ari and Nicole with their son Oberon and med school friends Tanner and Lindsay with their kids Peter, Caroline, and Conrad and Hallie and John with their daughter Nora. It was great to spend a little time with everyone and catch up!
We had a lovely Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Jonah came home from school with a succinct and effective description of both holidays, darling crafts, and lots of excitement. He had apples dipped in honey along with about a dozen meals and stayed up waaaay late breaking the fast he didn't take.
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| Matzo ball soup |
Gymnastics and soccer had both been going great. It's such fun to watch the kids both tumble about in their own ways. Jonah has gotten much better with his jumping and loves swinging into the pit of blocks. Tessa gets most excited about the trampoline and balance beam.
We got some landscaping done in the front yard and the kids enjoyed "helping"
All 4 of us got a chance to visit COSI for a day of fun.
We ate a TON of pizza and had lots of fun that went on past sunset at Slice of Columbus.
Jonah and Mommy collected various fall things found in nature over the course of several months with the plan of making some fall art. Finally, it was art day, and Jonah made some beautiful masterpieces.
Lindsay has joined the new Bexley chapter of MOMS club international. We took a fun trip to Circle S Farms where they had ever fall activity a kid could want. A week later, we checked out the selection at Demonye's Greenhouse. We just can't get enough!
