Bump Bump BUMP!

Jonah has been pretty clumsy in getting around.  Granted, he hasn't had as much practice as most of us.  Crawling, standing and cruising are all pretty new.  So it isn't surprising that he frequently falls... on his head.  He seems to have gotten a new bump every day this week.

Yesterday, while Jonah was home with Daddy with a sick tummy, Daddy called Mommy to deliver my "incident notice".  It wasn't until I got home that I realized why he went out of his way to warn me - Jonah had a huge, nasty mark on his forehead!  I guess Daddy was a little worried he would be in trouble.  I understand how heart-wrenching it is to be within an arm's reach and not be able to prevent the boo-boo.  Just Tuesday he dropped a toy into the tub and fell head-first climbing in after it.  Although, you couldn't even see that bump or the one Jonah got with Mommy today next to yesterday's giant gash!  All three in a row on his forehead.  It's a little embarrassing to go out in public with a child who looks neglected.

103.8

I wish that number was the channel of Jonah's radio show, but it was his temperature Wednesday night through Friday.  Infant acetaminophen brought it down to a mild 102 for about 3 1/2 hours at a time, but there was always a spike between doses.  Last Friday, school had emailed home a notice that they had a "confirmed case of hand, foot and mouth disease."  Great.  Daddy and I had talked about keeping Jonah home on Monday, but where does that end?  The next kid gets sick and the room is now a hazard area for another week, etc.  So instead, Jonah stayed home on Thursday with Mommy and a temperature of 103.8.

After two days (and before the weekend), I finally called the doctor's office to get a professional opinion.  I was probably the most calm first-time Mom to call: "my son has a fever... I'm not worried, but I wanted your opinion if we should come in..."  The nurse didn't seem any more concerned than I was, so we were told to wait another day and add ibuprofen to his medication to keep the fever down.  His fever seemed to break Friday night (or was it the ibuprofen?), then rose to the 102s on Saturday.  This brings us to the grey area of a.) not really worried since the fever is down but b.) well into day 3 of fever.  We stuck with our gut, to keep him home, cool, rested and hydrated.  The medical professionals couldn't do much for a virus anyway.

Jonah handled it pretty well.  I took it as a good sign that he was still able to fuss and eat, but mostly he just wanted to be held.  Mommy selfishly enjoyed almost 4 days of snuggling and cuddle naps.  As he recovered a little, he was still too lethargic to play but got a little bored of books.  Mommy downloaded the PBS Kids app and let him watch videos!  (To those moms who pledge off TV entirely, don't judge!)  I don't want this to become habit, but it was a good distraction for a sick kid.  He liked to touch the screen and would jump to the next episode, so we never saw more than 3 min. of any one thing.

I'm not really up on my toddler television programming, but was pleased to see an animated Mr. Roger's spin-off, "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood".  At first it seemed weird that Daniel, who lives in the world of make-believe, goes into his own dreamlike visions of make-believe... but admittedly, an animated kitten playing is less weird than a grown man with a model train running through his house.  For another show, someone came up with the idea to combine little boys' two most favorite things ever: "Dinosaur Train"!  I can imagine that was the extent of the sales pitch before it went on the air.

Jonah is back to normal temperature (though not completely himself) and I think he'll be back to school tomorrow.  No sign of sores on his hands, feet or mouth, so maybe we escaped that discomfort...

Playgroup at the Park

I like the photo sequence here:

Jonah is playing with a little girl his age:

They stop for the photo op:

Big brother comes along to play, even better photo op:

 Big brother throws sand at everyone while Moms are busy taking pictures:

Badah Badah!

Daddy recently learned that the step right before talking is babble that includes different syllables. Jonah's been trying to mix things up a bit and we've heard a few strings that fit this description!  "Da-da-ga" is his favorite.

Jonah's also gotten pretty good at parroting sounds and does a pretty good "up", "book" and "dada". It makes me wonder when parents decide that a sound is baby's first word along the continuum of practice noises?

Jonah's favorite song right now is "Ba Dah Ba Dah".  We heard it once on our Jonah Radio Pandora station, and now Mommy can't get it out of her head!  Jonah perks right up (even mid-fuss) and starts singing and dancing along!  Soooo cute!
Except that Mommy doesn't really know how it goes beyond the four notes of the title, so I make it up as I go.  It drives Daddy nuts!  He even played a YouTube video with the "correct" version of the song (apparently "Mahna Mahna" - WARNING: highly contagious!), which features a Muppet doing scat, with two background singer Muppets staring at him for deviating from the script.  I can relate.  :-)

Advanced Crawling

We thought that with Jonah's love of walking, he would be unmotivated to perfect his army crawl, which achieves his goal of motoring around the house. Well, today he surprised us with a full-fledged crawl up on hands and knees! Totally out of the blue. It was a little awkward (i.e. cute), and didn't last long, but he made a couple short attempts throughout the day. Go Jonah! Crawling like the big boys!

Running Injury

It's pretty early in my career, but I have already sustained a running injury, which a quick Google search refers to as "dreaded ToFP" (top of foot pain).  It's quite possibly the stupidest running injury possible.  I'd expect a sore hammie or bum knee, but why is the top of my foot complaining?  I guess 6 miles twice in the week was more than it was willing to take.  Strange that it doesn't hurt at all while we're out, but 12 hours or so later, it is quite acute and even demanded icing.
Not wanting this to turn this repetitive injury into a permanent injury, we're going to lay off for a while.  Sad.  I'm really hoping a new pair of running shoes (to replace my old cross-trainers) will be sufficient to solve the problem!

Beach Day!

Jonah and Mommy spent the morning at a lake right in town.  I was so happy to find a spot under the shady trees!  Jonah didn't care too much for the sand (and didn't put it in his mouth, which was fine by me!)  He did love the water.

We walked down to the water's edge, where he stopped to gaze out into the largest body of water he's encountered close up.  I thought he might be scared, but after only a minute of consideration, he plowed right in... and kept going all the way up to his waist!  There, the water was high enough to splash with his hands.

We also went out swimming where the water was deeper.  There, Jonah flew up out of the water and splashed down over and over, until Mommy's arms hurt.  We would take a break and float, but Jonah doesn't like being on his back like he did at 3mo. old.  So we swam on his tummy and splashed from my hip.  He would push away from me to indicate that he wanted to go up and splash again.  :-)

There are many little fishies in the lake, which must be very used to swimmers.  They swam right near us!  Mommy followed some of the fish to point them out, but Jonah wasn't very interested.  One fish got aggressive on me and gave me a kiss (felt more like being struck by a pebble)!  They were far less cute after that.

Independence Day!

We enjoyed a pretty low-key 4th of July cookout in our cousins' yard, where everyone sat outside in the oppressive heat (instead of the indoor AC) because that's what you do on the 4th!  Jonah got to keep cool and splash in the pool with his cousins.  Kham had gotten the grand-kahuna of kiddie pools, complete with a spray and waterslide!  Jonah was extremely timid at first, and I spent half an hour baking in the sun while holding him so he could stand and lean over to splash.  I think he found the water was too cold (freshly filled from the hose) and deep (probably 6"), so he refused to sit.  Cleverly, he climbed on the pool edge enough times to drain out half the water.  By that time it had also warmed enough that he could sit and splash in warm, shallow comfort.

Ferberizing

After the pediatrician and Daddy teamed up against me and Jonah, we decided to try to stop the midnight snack habit.  So instead of me getting up to quietly feed Jonah for 20 minutes and go back to sleep, we've both been kept awake for over 2 hours for a couple nights with a screaming, hungry baby.  We held, rubbed, sang to, and walked him around to try and calm him.  It's exhausting.  It took him an hour or so to get desperate enough to accept water instead of milk, and then another hour to give up entirely.  It's heartbreaking!
Finally, after consulting another mother at work, I found that the best thing for Jonah is to NOT go visit him when he fusses.  He went back to sleep within 30 minutes that night.  And now, the midnight cries have completely ceased.

10k

A few weeks ago, while I was envying the Bob users, but unwilling to pay what would likely amount to $30/run with my infrequent use, I scored an old jogger for a whopping $9. At least I could try and see if it would improve our jogging experience. It's a InStep 10k, probably 10 years old. So far, it has been a huge improvement on my end!

1. It has large, 16" pneumatic rubber tires, so we can take cracks and bumps in the sidewalk without fearing a sudden stop (but no suspension for Jonah)
2. More stable for running and we can even ride a rough terrain or one side up on a soft curb without tipping over
3. Far less friction to push

The downsides:

1. Fixed front wheel (it pops a wheelie pretty easily, but turning is still a pain)
2. Huge size (not very easy to fold/pack)
3. The seatbelt is designed for a 7-year old rider
4. The canopy is useless in the low morning sun

I see why people end up with so many strollers! Our B-Agile is good at a lot of things (and we use it for everything else), and it seems inevitable that we will eventually get an umbrella stroller for easy trips. :-)

Jonah and I have been enjoying our run/naps in the morning on our days home from work/school. We had a cool morning this week and made a record 6-miler! It's been slow progress since April, but we have gone from 3mi of mostly walking to 6mi mostly jogging. Considering my lack of commitment (we're fair-weather runners), I'm pretty proud. I've been staring at the 10k on the stroller canopy, and feel like we've finally met the design intent!