Who is this Kid?

Elliott has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance of late, one which was clearly illustrated today.  He has always been a very serious and overly-cautious kid.  I chalked this up to being a chip off the old block.  But recently, he's become a very silly, energetic mover-and-shaker.

Today's examples: Elliott has thus far refused to go in the bathtub, so we've been using the infant/toddler tub, even at nearly 2-1/2!  Today, PopPop and Cailin brought him upstairs for bath, and he dove right in and had a fabulous time "swimming" like a pro!  In the evening, he even jumped right into the kiddy pool with Jonah to horse around and had a complete blast.  Sure, this is behavior one might expect from a 2.5 year-old - but I have never seen it from Elliott until today!

Who's the toddler?

I hate that I keep looking over and wondering who that kid is toddling through the house, playing by himself, and being so awfully good!  The squeaky wheel definitely gets the grease in this house (hmm... Jonah!)  Elliott is so self-sufficient.  He plays quietly, stacking blocks to knock down and rebuild, trying hard to fit puzzle pieces, and driving trains over bridges and through tunnels.  Some of these skills I hardly knew he had until I started taking a moment to watch him play.  And I can leave him in his crib, high chair, or stroller and he makes not a peep to let me know he's done or wants to come out.

His development seems to be passing right under my nose, as I keep looking for the "milestones" of walking and talking.  Well, he is finally walking with some confidence and will choose to walk instead of crawl in most cases.  And he is trying to talk, but most of the sounds are incomprehensible and frustrating for him when I don't understand.  It's hard to say he really has any words in his vocabulary, since I haven't even heard "Mama" in a while.  But he knows what he wants, and is happy to shake his head "NO" with great emphasis at almost every suggestion!

Kitty in the Tree!

Jonah's imaginative play has just flourished recently.  His favorite game is to play firefighter.  He dons the helmet and runs around the house with a long cardboard tube (his hose).  And what does he do with his fire-fighting super powers?  He saves kitties from trees!  On walks, he frequently points out all the kitties stuck in trees along the way.  It's quite amazing our neighborhood is always so full of them!

I want to spell Hepicopter!

Jonah's latest hobby has been spelling words.  For Christmas, Santa brought him a set of colorful alphabet magnets for the fridge.  So while I'm cooking he asks to spell his favorite words, which started with "Jonah", "Daddy" and "Mommy", but soon moved on to "Airplane" and "Helicopter".  Jonah will carefully pick out each letter and place it in a neat row as I help spell each word.  He can even do his own name by himself!  Left to his own devices, mine gets a more creative spelling: "Mmommyy".  We once spelled "Truck", but he was disappointed and wanted it bigger.  I think it wasn't long enough for him!  Maybe next time we'll try excavator.

Jonah is also getting pretty good at using the computer keyboard to spell words.  His favorites to type include "Elmo" and "Big Bird", though they rarely appear on the fridge.  Here's the latest email we sent to Daddy (with deletion help from Mommy when the letters repeated for several pages):
daddy,
helicopter
airplane
jonah

Bounce House Party!

Jonah has been super-exited for the party at the bounce house since I told him about it this morning.  We went to an open house at a new indoor playground.  Jonah wanted the bounce house.  We went to open gym to play soccer.  Jonah wanted to bounce.  We went to the library.  Jonah wanted to bounce.  We went to baby brother's doctor appointment.  And finally, finally, we went to the bounce house party!

Jonah was soooo stoked, he ran back and forth dragging Mommy behind him.  Eventually, he settled on shooting basketballs and then playing with the infant toys set out in a small enclosure.  In fact, the most impressive feat of Jonah athletics of the night was scaling the short infant barrier to reach the baby toys.  Second only to downing three pieces of pizza.  I did coax him into one of the less occupied blow-up structures to jump and run for a little while, but he had no interest in the giant slides, climbers, or getting pummeled by other kids.

Sledding!

We had a nice snowfall over Thanksgiving, so Jonah got to play in the snow with his cousins!  I stayed inside, but watched them build a huge snowman.  Jonah preferred to push others down the hill than sled himself.  He also enjoyed having PopPop pull him around.  I hope he doesn't get the idea that this is how they work!

Inventing Sports

Jonah loves playing sports.  We went to two birthday parties and he spent the entirety of both playing baseball, soccer and basketball!  I was quite impressed by his boldness to walk onto a basketball court to pick up a ball and start "dribbling"... in the middle of a bunch of adults shooting hoops!  Fortunately, the adults were extremely toddler-conscience and made a game of defending any little people who stepped onto the court.  Or they stopped to help Jonah dribble or shoot.  Jonah even got a few of them to throw the wiffle ball for him to bat - and made contact a few times!

Jonah doesn't stop at regulation - kid-sized versions of - sanctioned sports.  Anything involving a ball and stick will do.  He invents new games all the time at home with whatever he can find: a golf ball and stick, a paint stirrer and small plastic ball, a colander and basketball.  If he can hit with it, he will!

Snake

We once rolled Play-Doh into snakes, which so far is Jonah's favorite use of the modelling clay.  Now when he wants to play, he pulls over his craft tray and yells, "snake!" until I bring the tub of Play-Doh.

Trains are NOT for Riding

Yesterday, we enjoyed a town festival in which Jonah danced to live music, played mini-golf with friends, and threw water balloons until they burst.  All morning, he pointed to the Roaming Railroad and excitedly shouted "choo-choo!"  We asked him if he wanted to ride the train, and after a few enthusiastic nods, we loaded him up next to Mommy on the seat.  And Jonah screamed.  And screamed.  And screamed.  I thought maybe once we got moving he would calm down, but in retrospect, we should have aborted immediately.  He kept reaching out and yelling for Dada (who was taking pictures) to save him from the moving abomination.  So sorry to all our fellow passengers!

Today we drove up to a farm that has some animals to see and playground.  The caveat: they make you ride their train to get to the play area from the parking lot!  The screaming ensued - all the way there, and all the way back.   (It would seem that leaving Daddy behind wasn't a contributing factor, which I had considered yesterday.)  Poor kid is probably scarred for life.  We're going to lay off trains until Jonah is willing to climb aboard on his own.

Dr. Jonah

The ear thermometer was left out after Jonah's recent fever.  He picked it up today to play doctor.  He pressed all the buttons and then took his own temperature by reaching it behind his bum!  (He must remember the rectal thermometer.)  Then he did the same with the Tylenol syringe.  I'm not sure where he got that idea! ;-)

I was feeling sluggish today after a rough night up with Jonah.  We were watching Elmo in the morning while I woke up over a bowl of cereal.  Jonah took care of Mommy by feeding me Cheerios, one spoonful after another.

The War Blanket

Jonah wanted to play and handed me one of the throw blankets from the couch.  Oh boy, I thought!  I'll pretend to nap and Jonah can tuck me in.  Jonah disagreed.  His stare was like daggers, so that I would know I wasn't playing correctly.  He wanted to roughhouse, like he does with Daddy.  They use the blanket for all kinds of things: to build forts, stage attacks, or play bullfighter.  But it is most definitely NOT for playing house!

Jonah on Curious George

Mom has been throwing fuzzy little blankets with animal heads into my crib since I was only a few weeks old.  I don't know why she thought I would enjoy having one of these creepy things snuggled up against me while I sleep.  No thank you!

What a relief this Christmas when Uncle Kevin and Lindsay were kind enough to give me a Curious George.  A monkey with legs is a much better friend than body-less bunnies and bears.  I gave him a big hug right out of the box and he's been my sleeping companion ever since.  Before we settle down, I make sure Mommy puts a "didy" (diaper) on George to prevent night-time accidents.  I haven't trained George on the potty yet, but he does ride on the shopping cart and lawnmower!

Starbuck Raccoon

At the library story time, all the babies got to pick an animal to dance with.  Jonah pulled out a raccoon and started calling it Starbuck!

Playtime!

I love watching how Jonah plays with toys in ways we might consider "outside the box".  For example, he helps water the Christmas tree with the gas can from his lawnmower (shaped a little like my watering can) and stocks his pirate ship with food from the Playmobil farm (a bag of potatoes and barrel of some unidentified substance).

Recently, Jonah has begun building towers out of his stacking/nesting blocks.  He reaches to put blocks at the top of towers as tall as he is before knocking them down again!  He also had success with a couple of his chunky and peg puzzle pieces.

In athletic pursuits, Jonah has been enjoying his new basketball hoop.  It came just in time, as he and Daddy had taken to throwing things into the recycling bins.  He can slam dunk, but enjoys bringing the ball to watch Daddy score from downtown.  They both yell "score!" after a basket.  Jonah also tries to dribble, throwing the ball to the ground, picking it up and repeating.  He sometimes attempts for the forward pass, but the motion usually lands the ball behind him.  We practice with beanbags, but after a couple tries, he resorts to placing the beanbags in the bucket.  As in basketball, his accuracy is much better if the object never leaves his hand until it reaches the target.

Sledding

Jonah and his cousins went sledding and Grandmama and Pop-pop's house today!  They had a snowtube, three sleds, and five laps to pick from.  The snowtube was a huge hit until it met it's demise on an icy snowbank.  Jonah enjoyed going down in Mommy's lap, but cried the whole way back up the hill.  He wasn't fond of being pulled around the yard, either.  We spent most of the time sitting together and watching the bigger kids sled.  I asked if he wanted a turn or to stay.  He pointed to the sled.  I asked if he wanted to go with Mommy or Pop-pop.  He pointed to Pop-pop.  I put him in Pop-pop's arms.  He cried.  Too late - down they went!

When we returned inside, Grandmama made hot chocolate for everyone, including Jonah!  The milk in his sippy was barely warm and barely tinted with cocoa, but I thought it was sooo cute.

Undecorating the Christmas Tree

Jonah loves the ornaments and the lights on the Christmas tree.  He loves them so much he will pull an ornament off and bring it over to show you how pretty it is.  Starbuck likes the Christmas tree too, mostly for the pine-flavored water only ferrets can reach, but also for the ornaments.

Cousin Playdate

Jonah's cousins came over to play this morning!  They had a very fun playdate, which involved checking out every one of Jonah's toys, upstairs and down.  The highlights (for me) were watching Jonah 1.) push Declan around on the bus, 2.) show his older cousins how to use the Ballapalooza, and 3.) race to knock over Cailin and Declan's block towers.

Shortly after Cailin and Declan arrived, Jonah dug into his book collection (which he does frequently) and pulled out his "facebook", a photo book of his relatives, (which is somewhat rare) and opened directly to the page with Cailin and Declan's picture!  Coincidence?  Possibly.  But there seemed to be a hint of toddler thoughtfulness: "I've seen you somewhere around here before... oh, yes, here you are in my book!"

I had to run some defense in the form of building super fast structures to keep Jonah occupied with demolition that didn't interfere with his cousins' towers.  Declan built his own piles of blocks and got so excited after knocking them down he would run in place while shrieking with joy.  Cailin was a very good sport about building things for Jonah to knock over, but after many, many crashes, she wanted to destroy a tall tower of her own!

Boook, boook, boook!

Jonah is on a huge book fetish.  He has been spending more time with books than all his other toys combined.  He is constantly bringing book after book over to Mommy or Daddy to read, though he seldom sits through the whole thing before running back to the bookshelf for a new book!  I finally moved his board books to a low bin where he can grab and flip through the books on his own... expect he still wants to be lifted to reach his favorites, which are safely on the high shelf.  He most loves the books that move, and we read these together to limit the damage to the flaps, tabs, and movable parts.  Most have undergone so much surgery already!

Here are random stories and favorite memories:

• Just the other day I nearly solved the incontinence problem of the dog that pees while gluing the binding on "Dogs".  Unfortunately, that is Jonah's favorite pull tab, so I had to restore the dog's leg movement.
• On Elmo's Favorite Places, Jonah likes the aquarium the best, not because he visited, but because he thinks the sea anemone looks like his puff ball!  When he sees the picture, he says and signs "ball".
• Noisy Peek-a-Boo has light sensors that play music when the tabs are opened.  We've been reading this in the morning after milk, when there is barely enough daylight to activate the noises unless the book is tilted just so.  Disappointing for Jonah when it doesn't work.
• Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed is a favorite.  Jonah loves the song and will touch his head (one fell off and bumped his head) or shake his finger and shout "no" (no more monkeys jumping on the bed) right on cue!
• Jonah loves the Cuddliest Cuddle in the World.  Great idea for a story, but terribly written.  I think it's the only "story" Jonah actually pays attention to without the gimmicks of movable parts.
• The pelican is Jonah's favorite "Munch" book tab.  It is pretty cool.  He tried to see the full extent of the fishes and ripped them right off.  (Fortunately, it could be repaired with a little tape!)
• I am pleased to report that Wheels on the Bus is still fully functional... for now.  It gets a lot of love.
• Jonah's pediatrician gave him a book "to encourage reading" on his 12mo. visit.  It was a yellow and black high-contrast pattern picture book.  Is that considered reading?
• We made a few visits to our library's book sale this fall and stocked up on new books.  25c for gently used board books, some with flaps and everything!  Great find.  Best grabs were Elmo's Favorite Places and my Boynton collection (much to Daddy's chagrin).
• Daddy refuses to read anything by Sandra Boynton.
• Daddy asked Jonah to find the ball or the fire truck and Jonah was able to point them out on the page.
• Jonah enjoys having some reading material while Mommy takes care of his business on the changing table.

How to recycle

1.  Push the wire basket around the house for a while.
2.  Take everything out along the way.
3.  Find an OJ bottle, try to drink the leftover juice.
4.  Locate the cap, try to re-assemble.
5.  Fill basket with toys.
6.  Find a yogurt cup among refuse in the living room.
7.  Open and close the foil lid for a while.
8.  When the lid tears off, scrunch the foil in your hands to make different shapes.
9.  When that gets boring, bang the cup on the floor to make music.
10.  Then remove the plastic wrapper and make crinkle sounds.
11.  Return to the cup and use it for splashing at bathtime.

Approx. time: 1 hour

iPad IT

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently reaffirmed their stance that no screen time is healthy for a child under 2.  Fine.  But a couple minutes allow Mommy to shower and dress in peace!  That is healthy for the whole family.  We have the PBS Kids app on the old iPad and I let Jonah browse videos on occasion for sanity's sake.  He's gotten much better at watching rather than touching the screen constantly.

Today the app was on the fritz and had trouble connecting.  Poor Jonah sat and patiently watched the bee buzz in circles for almost 5 minutes, waiting for his show to start.  When he finally gave up, his manner of troubleshooting was remarkably similar to what I would have done.  I watched as he first tried a different show, then closed the app and opened it again.  When none of this worked, I finally helped him turn off the iPad and restart it.  Presto!  Still, I'm sure that once he can hold the power button for 10 sec., he should qualify for a job in IT.

After all this mess, it occurred to me to download a few other apps for him to try.  I filled a screen with what are advertised as fun toddler apps.  He seems to enjoy the music the best, so we even have a baby jukebox,  Wheels on the Bus, and other songs.  And, even though it had moved, Jonah still went straight to PBS Kids!