Grr. The last TWO times I have tried to post funny stories and cute pictures, they have been eaten by the Internet. It's enough to put you off blogging for a few weeks. But in the interest of keeping the boys' friends and relations updated, not to mention my own log of all the funnies, I will soldier on.
Some noteworthy events in the past few weeks, free of any jokes and comments, in case all that effort is what causes it to disappear:
Jonah has settled on a single purpose in life: wandering around the house on two feet, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. No longer content to sit and play with toys, he is hell-bent on walking, just like all the other people, with no help from anyone or anything, thank you very much. Which means that he pulls up effortlessly, then turns around and attempts to move on hands-free. Of course, being not quite 8 months old, he's not actually able to do that, so he ends up just plopping down on his tushie. It's a testament to his tenacity, however, that this does not stop him from launching another fifty efforts or so in a row before he gives up and allows the wall to guide him around:
By the way, for those readers who haven't seen it, that big splotchy looking thing on his chubby little thigh is a birthmark. It's supposed to go away by the time he's about 7. Nate recently noticed it for the first time and announced that Jonah had some marker on his leg.
Jonah has also displayed quite the talent for climbing. He clambered right up onto our Thomas table, all by himself. It's the trundle kind, so it's very low to the floor, but still--who taught this kid how to climb? And why? Today he actually put his hands on Nate's bed and managed to get his foot all the way up onto the stepstool. From there, he smoothly pushed himself right up until he was standing on the stepstool, attempting to go from there right up on top of the big boy bed. We will not be finding out if he can do it or not, because for Pete's sake, that's just scary.
Finally, Jonah has really started figuring out how things work. We have a little bath toy that makes lots of bubbles when you submerge it, and one of the coolest things I've ever seen was when Jonah suddenly got it. He started very purposefully holding the toy underwater, watching it bubble and fill up, and then lifting it out to drain, only to submerge it again. You could practically see the lightbulb go on over his head. He's also starting to really communicate. He's become very fond of Gerber stars, and after finishing the bunch on his tray, he looks right at the container on the counter with a very clear "more?" face. He gets very excited when he hears the "Wheeeeere's" that is usually followed by "Mommy?" as well as the "The......" that always ends with "...grand old Duke of York..."
Nate is also doing lots of cool and new things, not that I'm going to remember them all, since all that posting disappeared on me. One of my favorite stories, however, happened just the other day. We stepped outside, and Nate said, "Oh, it's very hot out here." Since it was nowhere near as bad as it had been during the killer heat wave of last week, I said, "Well, it's a little hot." Nate thought about that and disagreed: "It's a BIG hot!"
He's also remembered how much the grownups love it when he tries on their shoes. Hence
and the somewhat more specific-audience-only
Nate is also, I'm so pleased to say, making great strides in his new speech therapy. Right now they're working on better ways of requesting what he wants. All of a sudden, it's "May I please have some more mango?" and "Can you please get me some Magna Doodle?" followed, upon receipt, by, "Thank you, Mommy! You're welcome, Nate!" (all said by him). At home, we have our own little project, where we are working on his "favorite." Every day, we've been asking him what his favorite part of his activities were. In a few weeks, we've gone from having to repeat it many times and give him ideas to choose from, to having him answer with only a few prompts, to today, when, upon leaving Adventure City, we could say, "Nate, what was your favorite thing at Adventure City?" and hear him immediately answer, "Riding on the airplanes!!"
He also got a kick out of driving Daddy around in the ambulance.
Jonah was pretty happy just to hang out,
but he also had a lot more fun on the train than this picture would suggest:
Last anecdote: the boys and I went to Costco yesterday and bought ourselves a big blue bouncy for the backyard. It took a lot more work than I was anticipating to inflate it: about an hour in all. About fifty minutes into it, sweating and exhausted, I grumbled for the 20th time or so about what a pain this thing was to blow up and how I must really love Nate and Jonah to go through all that just to get them a bouncy. Whereupon Nate looked at me and said, with great sincerity, "Thank you, Mommy." Who said there are no performance reviews with this job??
Those are two yummy little people!
Try saving as draft partway thru, or else -- my usual trick -- selecting and copying your whole post before sending it off into the ether. Then if the internet eats it, you can paste it into a new entry and try again.
Love and kisses, your help desk (typing with one finger b/c other hand is cuddling small boy.)
Posted by: Kim | August 03, 2006 at 11:23 AM