Knock, knock!

Jonah loves knocking on doors, always accompanied by saying, "knock, knock!" and occasionally including a forced entry, if he can open the door.  Tonight in the bath he was knocking on the tub, so we practiced knock-knock jokes:

Jonah: "Knock, knock!"
Mommy: "Who's there?"
Jonah: "Jonah"
Mommy: "Jonah who?"
Jonah: "Jonah!"

Jonah: "Knock, knock!"
Mommy: "Who's there?"
Jonah: "Jonah"
Mommy: "Jonah who?"
Jonah: "PopPop!"

It's funny in the way knock-knock jokes usually are[n't]: "orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

SNAKE!

We came home after our morning outing and while I was busy putting the stroller away, getting lunch set out, etc. I heard Jonah yelling "SNAKE!"  Sure enough, we was pointing to a snake curled up in our window well.  We watched during lunch as the snake slithered up the window and stretched out in the sun for an afternoon nap.

Fast forward a few days, Jonah and Daddy found an unfortunate snake on the road.  I wonder if Jonah understands what it means that the snake is dead?

Happy Mama Day!

Poor Daddy was feeling unwell today, so Jonah was on his own for giving Mommy a wonderful Mother's Day!

We started at Mass, where Jonah clapped enthusiastically along with "This Little Light of Mine".  Then he took me out to the botanical garden and gave me the grand tour.  We made stops at the turtle fountain, misting fountain, spraying hoses, drainage grate, and hose bibs.  Oh, and there were a few flowers along the way!  ;-)  We even found a porch swing hanging from a tree so we could swing together.

My favorite part was when Jonah took a shortcut and frolicked through a field of daffodils while I took the path to meet him.  The other visitors where slightly mystified by the lone toddler, but quite enraptured by his adorable romp across the waist-high field of flowers.  Jonah also enjoyed walking the forest path and finding sticks taller than him, or helping Mommy push the stroller when I grew tired.  (I should note here that his help is performed while being held up high enough to reach the handlebar!)

Creatures Small and Creepy

Jonah likes to help in the garden, so every time a dig up a new creepy-crawly, I put it in Jonah's shovel or bucket for him to inspect.  It seems the bug net and critter house were unnecessary.  He's not bothered at all, and often I find him holding a worm or letting a beetle crawl over his hand.  (Worms, by the way, are hilarious.)  Then he lets them go and waves, "bye-bye!"

Take this inside, and Jonah finds Mommy and Daddy's war on ants.  So he follows suit, smushing an ant with his finger and saying, "bye-bye!"  What a terrible thing to see my precious toddler doing!

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.

Mr. Clean

Jonah really like to make things right when he knows he messed up... particularly after making a mess.  He seems to really appreciate cleanliness, or being a big helper.  Here are a few examples:

1. This afternoon while I was making dinner, Jonah spilled his bag of popcorn all over the floor.  I gave him the Dustbuster and showed him how to use it.  He went around the kitchen and vacuumed up the entire mess!
2. A few weeks ago Jonah spilled his cup of water on the kitchen floor.  Without any intervention, he opened the cabinet, pulled out a dish towel, and wiped up the spill!
3. I wrote earlier about his attempt to help clean up a ferret mess...
4. Jonah will throw out a used tissue after wiping his nose.
5. When a few Goldfish fell out of his Easter egg, Jonah picked them up and threw them in the trash.
6. Jonah helps with his diapers by opening the toilet seat, flushing the toilet (after Mommy has cleaned the diaper), and opening the diaper pail for the soiled diaper.
7. After dinner, Jonah sometimes picks up any food that spilled and puts it back onto his plate - or hands it to Mommy - to clean his tray.
8. Jonah enjoys helping to load and unload the dishwasher.
9. Jonah helps wash the floors by riding on Mommy's hip and pressing the button on the Swiffer wet jet.
10. Jonah loves sweeping, and prefers the big broom to the dustpan brush!  This one is slightly less effective...
11. Jonah loves brushing his teeth with his Elmo toothbrush and Choo-choo toothpaste.  After "spitting" he flashes a big toothy smile to show off his clean pearly whites!

Back In Step

Jonah and I are back to our summer exercise regimen, which means we are out running instead of at the gym.  It's been nice to see how easily I've been able to pick it back up after the winter break.  After only 4 outings in 3 weeks, we're up to 6 miles!  I'm particularly proud that today we did 6 miles in 11min splits, which is a huge improvement over Tuesday's pace of 13min/mile.

It occurs to me that the music may have had something to do with it.  On our last run, I decided to try out the "Rock My Run" app, which allows you to buffer playlists for your run.  We tried three difference DJs, and all were terrible mixes.  And if I had to hear "you're rocking to DJ ____!" one more time, I was going to scream.  After that failure, I decided to invest $7.99 in an iTunes compilation called "110 Running Songs".  It is a great mix of oldies, 80s and current pop music that kept me going strong!   And it sure beats my random collection of Josh Groban and musicals... which don't always make for a very upbeat tempo.

Now that I've upgraded to a smartphone, I'm also enjoying the "Map My Run" app.  Compared with mapping my course out of curiosity of how far I ran, it is instant gratification!

'Twas the Night Before Easter

We have a pile of Easter books on the nightstand for bedtime reading: Corduroy's Easter, The Great Egg Scramble, Where are Baby's Easter Eggs?, etc.  Jonah prefers Christmas.  He inevitably walks across the room to the big bookcase and pulls down Little People: Christmastime or The Night Before Christmas!  What kid would choose the Easter Bunny over Santa Claus?  After all, Santa brings a much bigger load.

Jonah wasn't too disappointed to find Grandmama and PopPop at his house this morning and a dozen eggs hidden downstairs.  After his practice round at their house, he was a pro!  He immediately snatched up most of the eggs, holding one in each hand and hitting them together in victory before they went two-by-two into the basket.  We thought he'd be thrilled to find them filled with Goldfish, but when a couple fish fell out onto the floor, Jonah threw them in the trashcan!

We spent the afternoon with Jonah's cousins, where he had a big ham dinner and hunted more Easter Eggs in the backyard.  He went head-to-head with Nathan (1 month his senior) after the eggs.  The kids were smart enough after one encounter to go different directions, so it was easy going for each.  Once his bucket was full, Jonah handed out all of his eggs.  The final score was 3: Daddy and Lindsay, 2: Mommy, Uncle Kevin and PopPop.  Who would have thought Mommy would come in a distant third?

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!