Morning Show

We might as well trade in our clock radio - we have our own radio morning show that broadcasts from the nursery at 6:30! Jonah is very talkative when he wakes up and will babble contentedly for a while before the wails of hunger begin. As Daddy like to point out, the content of his rambles is equivelent to that of an FM morning show. Lately, he's even added music to his repetoire. When his aquarium is switched on, he kicks the button (we've learned not to leave it in motion-activated mode, else when he rolls over we all end up awaking in the middle of the night to a noisy light show) and the talking ceases during the song!

Bridal Shower

Jonah was a honorary guest at Aunt Ashley's bridal shower this afternoon.  I wasn't going to bring him, but his friend Elena (1yr) would be there, so I thought it might be fun.  We sat the two babies in high chairs across from one another with a very happy Sharon sat at the end of the table, where she could play with them both. Of course, this was short lived and we all ended up sitting on the floor playing, while the rest of the guests enjoyed adult conversation and ate lunch with a knife and fork.

 Elena is extremely social for her age, and enjoyed playing with Jonah.  She shared her toys and came right up to gave him big hugs and wet, sloppy kisses on the face!

Who says "Neigh"?

The jury is still out... or at least Jonah's brain.  Let me explain.
We decided to go out for a walk in the afternoon to take a break and enjoy the spring weather.  I'm still trying out new routes, attempting to locate more intact sidewalks for the stroller.  I thought we were on the right track, until the sidewalk ended right at a fire hydrant.  Humph.  So we turned down a side street and passed a horse farm!
I couldn't resist taking Jonah out of the stroller to watch the horses, which were out grazing the in the field.  Jonah sat on the top rail of the fence and stared rather intently for a while.  Eventually, one of the horses looked up from his snack and, noticing us, came over to investigate.  Jonah grew a little worried as the horse drew near... but then so did Mommy!  A thin, plastic fence seems little protection from a 1,000lb animal lumbering straight at you.  I wasn't entirely sure what if any danger a horse posed us, but we backed off enough that the horse couldn't reach us.
I put out a hand, and the horse seemed disappointed that we weren't offering an apple or carrot.  Instead, she waved her head side to side, rubbing her chest against the fence.  The fence buckled quite a bit and I wasn't convinced that the rail wouldn't come right out of the post - except that the horses were still there, so it's probably worked to contain them for some time now.  Eventually she wandered back with the others.
Horse #2 then came over to investigate.  Jonah cried again (briefly), Mommy backed off, and this horse, too decided we were uninteresting and left.  Finally, horse #3 came over.  He decided that there appeared to be a nice salad bar on our side of the fence and stuck his head between the rails!  Well, I reasoned that a horse with his head stuck in a fence wasn't a threat, so we approached and pet his mane.  Jonah stared intently, but wasn't so interested in touching (or eating) the horse.  Maybe next time.
Oh, and about the title: the horses were busy eating, so they weren't saying much.  Mommy was making all the "neigh" sounds!  Does anyone think this is confusing for a baby?

Day of Spoiling!

What could spoil a baby more than an entire day with Grandmama?  Grandmama was on school vacation week, so she came down to spend the day with Jonah.  He is just getting over a cold (or maybe the runny nose is just a perpetual state I need to accept as normal?) and has lately needed more cuddling than usual, so it was so very helpful to have a second pair of arms!  They had such a lovely time, I can't even say what they did - it let me focus on my work and hit 3 stores in under an hour.  That never works happens with Jonah in tow!

Presentation of the Gifts

Jonah's favorite part of church is not the stained glass, or the music, or the people nearby who make silly faces at him.  His favorite is the processional during the presentation of gifts.  He will squirm and stretch to turn himself to watch the cross as the altar server carries it up the aisle, and then follows it back up to the altar.  It's quite amazing that he seems to know when this will occur and seek it out from such a distance (we usually sit on the side aisle)!

Baby Magic!

A friend of ours is a magician in his spare time, and is very excited to try out his tricks on his child (coming soon!).  I wonder if he will be disappointed to learn how easy it is to do magic for a baby!  Here are a couple tricks I have mastered:

1.  Vanishing Act - I can make almost anything disappear: a toy, a book, myself.  The problem is that Jonah is still working on object permanence, so it's unclear whether he knows it's gone...
2.  Making things Appear - Reverse of #1.
3.  Missing Finger - Jonah likes to nibble my fingers on occasion, so I show him my hand with only 4 fingers.  He falls for it (or at least, we both giggle) every time!
4.  Balls and Cups - Our version involves buckets of various color & size, each with a different activity ball underneath.  Surprise, there's always something inside!
5.  Levitation - Jonah doesn't have the reflexes required to catch a thrown ball, but if it "floats" towards him at a slowed rate, he will put his hands out to grab it!

And a few Jonah performs himself:
6.  Disappearing Cheerios - I'm not quite sure where the Cheerios go, but I'm quite sure he's never successfully eaten one!  High chairs make great props for this illusion.
7.  Shrinking Milk - There's no way all that milk fits inside his belly!
8.  Contortion - How did he ever fit inside Mommy???

Darwinism

Drew and I often joke about our Darwinian parenting style.  When Jonah does something silly that gets himself stuck or upset, we often laugh before going to the rescue!  What better way to learn not to jamb a spoon all the way down one's throat?  Perhaps the phrase could be re-coined: "survival of the fittest parents".  I just hope we qualify!

Jonah, Snake Charmer

Jonah and I took a work break to play in the backyard and enjoy the wonderful spring weather - and we found a new friend!  Jonah was hardly interested in the thing laying in the grass nearby, so Mommy decided to pick it up so Jonah could get a better view and pet the snake.  He wasn't the least bit afraid and reached out to touch it... and grabbed the snake in his fist!

It took some coaxing to keep Jonah from tasting the snake (ew!) and to free the snake from his grasp, all while recording a video with the other hand!  Jonah doesn't quite get the concept of "gentle".  Fortunately, the snake didn't appear hurt and after slinking off a bit (with us in hot pursuit), they both laid in the grass next to each other without a care!

We sent the pictures to Daddy, who was at work, and he pretty much guessed exactly what happened "because that's what Jonah does with new things".  Surely, Mommy should have been able to predict the outcome, too???  (As if I would have avoided the priceless moment with my son!)

Walking

No, Jonah is not walking on his own two feet (yet!)  I was recently inspired by a friend, who ran a marathon while pregnant.  Coupled with the weather - which is now getting beautiful - and terrible spring fever, I decided that Jonah and I would go running together.  (By running, I mean long walks with short amounts of intermittent jogging.)  Before making heavy investments in jogging strollers, etc., I thought I should give it a "test run" and see if this is something we would both enjoy.
So far we've been out three times on different routes, but there have been a couple constants:

1. The town is a lot hillier than I ever gave it credit for.
2. Pushing a stroller is not an insignificant amount of work.  Especially with the hills.  And a stroller not intended for either rough terrain or jogging.
3. The sidewalks are poorly designed (they end randomly... and watch out for the occasional utility pole planted in the center!) and maintained (can you say "pothole rubble"?).
4. Strollers are not welcome.  The trail system is designed for foot and dog traffic only.  Even the public golf course kicked us off to spare a lawsuit should Jonah be hit with a ball (unless he was golfing, in which case it would be okay.)
5. I can still get lost within a half mile from home.  Just enough to keep it interesting.

New Blog Site!

We've relocated! I'm trying something new for a couple of reasons:
#1 - Apple and Google don't play nice, so I can't update the webpage from my iPad. :-( That means I only write when I'm at the desktop computer, which only occurs when I should be working instead of blogging. I finally realized that the phrase "there's an app for that" must certainly apply! An update to the operating system, reload of all my favorite apps (turns out there are only 2 I actually use regularly) and a couple trys later (can anyone tell me how Tumblr was so highly rated when it doesn't even let me date posts?) we're up and running!
#2 - Google posts don't allow me to cheat the post dates, which I find oh-so-helpful for journaling so that I can write about Easter a week later and still date the entry on Easter. This feat ure seems to be missing on the app, but I digress. I'm hoping the other search, tag, and organizational features will also be much improved.  Maybe eventually I'll figure out how to consolidate all my entries here.
Welcome!

Working from Home

Feeding Bertha

I've decided that feeding Jonah is something like a carnival game.  Have you ever played the Big Bertha game at Chuck E Cheese where you throw plastic balls into a giant puppet mouth?  Like that.  Here are the rules:

1. You only have 2 minutes until the game ends.
2. Try to get as much food into the little mouth as you can.
3. The mouth will open and close at random.  The intervals of openness decrease as time is running out.
4. A penalty will be assessed if the mouth was open to babble, fuss or was otherwise not expecting input.
5. For an added challenge, small hands will swipe at the spoon to divert the food away.
6. The game may break down and end at any moment, in which case you lose all the food.
7. When you finish, instead of dispensing prize tickets, the mouth spits some of the food back on you.

In the end, you realize you would have gotten the same result from throwing pies at a clown's face...

Maneuvering

Jonah has reached a certain mastery of his gross motor skills, which allow him to sit unassisted for several minutes (though still with a pillow or person ready to catch him when he topples over), roll over (and back!) at will without fussing for help, and pivoting 360deg on his tummy so he can face in any direction.  Put all these movements together and he's still pretty stationary, but I am sometimes surprised to see that he's somehow maneuvered a couple feet in one direction through some very complex combination of rolls and turns!

Baby Shower for "Bundle"

Jonah's future friend, currently of ambiguous gender and known as "Bundle", came to visit this weekend for his/her baby shower!  This meant that Mommy's friends Caitlin (Bundle's mommy) and Jacqueline were also visiting.  :-)  

Jonah had a wonderful time playing with Jacqueline, who is a natural with babies.  Mommy was thrilled to have an extra pair of hands to read stories, play games, give baths and otherwise entertain Jonah!

Jacqueline nicknamed Jonah Little Pollywog because of his affinity for water.  She is a linguistic anthropologist, and had an interesting perspective on our cultural interaction with babies and the English-sounding babble they produce.

During the afternoon we pulled out the Sandra Boynton CD "Philadelphia Chickens" to try it out.  While Mommy and Jacqueline were dancing and singing along, Daddy came and snuck Jonah upstairs to play in the peace and quiet.  LOL!

Bundle's shower was wonderful in that Mommy got the chance to be at the same time an adult, socializing with other grown-ups, and a kid, enjoying time with old friends (without the immediate responsibilities of Mommihood).  Jonah hung out with Daddy doing boy things, I am sure.

Handedness

They say that babies are born with predetermined dominant handedness, but may demonstrate both preferences many times before it is clear which will stick.  With that preface, we have noticed that Jonah has been favoring his left hand for most things lately.  The left hand is first to feel his feely bug book, help with the spoon or reach for a toy.  (The right hand still flips pages and rubs the wavy bug on the right side of the book, but there is some directional efficiency to that.)  Whether or not he becomes a lefty remains to be seen!

Mama!

Jonah reached a giant milestone this morning: saying "Mama" but not meaning it.  ;-)  At least, that's how it is described in the book Baby 411.  He made the right sounds, but had no intention of saying a word, even if it was appropriately used to beckon Mommy to feed him breakfast.

Easter Tuesday