The Taylor Family Blog

Our Blog Has Moved!

2011-08-06T06:19:00.003-04:00

Please find us at our new blog address:

outerislanders.blogspot.com

Day 3

2011-07-27T06:49:00.004-04:00

We are pleasantly surprised by life on Yap these first few days. Here is a log of today's activities to show some of the unexpected things that happen. The photo was taken of us a few days ago on Guam before coming to Yap.

5:00 Rachel wakes up

6:45 Everybody up for breakfast

7:30 Jon to hangar

7:45 Started unloading tools from shipping boxes

8:00 Family shipping container removed from airport ramp

8:30 Installed washing machine

9:00 Filled out insurance and flight paperwork

11:30 Took teammates to lunch

12:30 Went to hardware for propane fittings

1:00 Found a Nissan Vanette (right-side steering wheel) for our family vehicle

1:30 Purchased 10 gallon propane tank at shipyard for kitchen stove

2:00 Drilled hole through exterior wall of cinderblock house for propane tank installation

2:30 Installed kitchen stove

3:00 Drilled hole for de-humidifier drainage to outside

3:15 Established dry room

3:30 Rain begins; hundreds of frogs come onto our lawn

3:45 Take kids to back yard to watch waterfall at jungle's edge

4:00 Repaired bread maker

4:30 Installed fridge

5:15 Prayer meeting with outer islanders in their language

6:00 Learned first words in outer islander at prayer meeting

7:00 Went with teammates to roadside bush to get berries to combat pink eye

7:30 Radioed ship Sea Haven on shortwave concerning large circulation of weather

8:00 Ate first hot meal from our stove on Yap

8:15 Boys to bed

8:30 Blogged

9:30 Went to sleep with heavy rains expected to last for days

First Day in Yap!

2011-07-24T06:23:00.002-04:00

After a loooooong hiatus from blogging I'm hoping to get back into it. I really want to somehow record snippets of this journey of our ministry in Yap. It just seems so surreal to finally be here after so many years of preparing. Now we're here and it's time to get on with the "real" work!

As we prepared to leave last week I had a pit in my stomach - just dreading the immediate future that involved making sure we had all our stuff packed, making sure we did everything we needed to do before we left, traveling 23 hours with three very small children, getting over jetlag, arriving in Yap and unpacking. So here I stand almost at the end of it and I can't quite say, "It wasn't that bad." There were some dreadful moments of spilled coffee on the plane, wide awake kids at 1:30am that stayed awake until dawn, a crying baby at the beach, a drenched and crying two-year-old who fell into a restaurant fish pond, and a crying three-year-old who didn't want to leave his new friend's house. But we survived! And it really wasn't that bad. =) The kids were entertained with new toys and slept well on the plane, we enjoyed beach time in Guam, picked up a cooler-full of foods (namely meat, cheese and chocolate!) that aren't available on Yap to enjoy and ease our transition.

We arrived on one of Continental Airlines' bi-weekly flights to Yap last night at 11:59pm. Ben and Rachel slept for throughout the one-hour flight and Jonah went into what we call "talking crazy" which he often does when he's tired. He's normally very talkative, but he kicks it up a notch and adds an extra big dose of imagination when he's really tired. In the airport he walked into a group of ladies and started telling them all about how we were going to Yap to tell Outer Islanders more about Jesus and then flipped through his superhero book and named each character for them.

Getting off the plane the first thing we noticed was our shipping container sitting off to the side of the runway near the PMA hangar. We knew it was here, but it felt so weird to actually see it. There's our stuff! We packed everything in Illinois over a month ago and now here it is! We really are going to live here!

After going through customs we were greeted by a man and woman in traditional Yapese garb - flower headbands called "nu nus", loin cloth for the man, grass skirt for the woman, and shirtless for both. They draped a flower and palm leaf lei around each of our necks. Our teammates had gotten up in the middle of the night to greet us and helped us get our massive amount of luggage down the hill from the airport to our house. It feels so strange to just walk home from the airport after a long journey. Our house was empty aside from the few beds, fridge and table our teammates left for us. Tomorrow we'll quickly fill up the house with the contents of our container.

After a short night's sleep we were up and out the door by 8am to head to church. In somewhat of an effort to blend in with the culture and also being rushed for time I went to church with wet hair, no makeup, no lotion, in a sundress and crummy flip-flops. We were greeted warmly at church and the kids were especially fawned over as the islanders love babies. Jonah and Rachel were immediately being held in the laps of strangers and Ben would have been too if he hadn't refused so adamantly. I sat on the floor with the women and Jon sat in the chairs with the men. When Rachel started to fuss I got her back from her third lap holder and nursed her right there in the middle of it all. I figured no one would mind since half the ladies were topless anyways, but I still used a nursing cover. I think I got more stares because of that than I would have had I just let it all hang out.

We sang songs in both English and Outer Island language accompanied by a teenage girl on guitar. The islanders have a very nasaly uniform singing tone, but their spoken language doesn't sound particularly nasal. I'll have to try and record it sometime and post it - it really is amazing how uniform in tone and pitch everyone is. After singing and prayer the kids were dismissed to Sunday School and nursery. I went with Ben and Rachel to nursery at our teammate's house which is next door to the church. Jonah went to Sunday School across the street. Jon said the sermon was in Outer Island language with only the topic headings translated into English. Jonah of course had a great time in Sunday School and quickly made new friends. Afterward a little girl told me they had asked Jonah what his favorite song was during Sunday School. I asked him what he'd said and he said, "The Batman Song! Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah BATMAN!" I was relieved to learn later that he had actually said, "Amazing Grace." I also learned later that he had asked one of the islanders if there were any Indians here. She said, "No, do you like Indians?" He said, "Well, I just like Outer Islanders." "Why?" "Because they love Jesus Christ."

After church we came home and Jon and the boys did a little exploring outside around the house. They took a dip in two-foot-deep stream-fed swimming hole in the yard. I'm happy it's there because it will be a fun and cool place for the boys to play, plus it's completely in the shade. But I'm a little worried about Ben who has recently shown great aptitude for falling into ponds. I thought we would be able to run around here by themselves, but it looks like they'll need a lot of supervision when they're outside to make sure they don't get into too much trouble.

We had lunch with our teammates in the traditional thatch-roof hut next to our house called a "koyang". Ben and Rachel took nice long naps and my baby monitor could reach down to the hut so I could keep tabs on them. After naps we just hung around for the rest of the afternoon and Jonah was requesting to go to bed by 6:45.

So tomorrow is the big day we unload our stuff. I'm so excited at the prospect of being in one place for three years and hopefully longer. This is the tenth move in our six years of marriage and every place up to this point has been temporary with the purpose of getting us to the mission field. But now we're here! We are so eager to participate in furthering the Gospel in this place and to make all of this worth it in service to Christ and His purposes.

Learning to Walk

2010-07-12T22:29:00.003-04:00

Jon has been out of town for work for the last week and a half and he's been missing Benjamin's first steps. These videos were too big to email to him and I couldn't get them to post on Facebook so here they are.

Benjamin tends to get quite upset when things don't go his way. I saw him walk happily from the chair to the couch and I thought I would get a video of it. In my efforts to recreate what I had just seen I picked him up, set him by the chair and left him there. This did not sit well with him - he does not want to be set down and left. He cheered up a little when he got to show off his new walking skills, but then promptly remembered he was still mad and resumed crying.

Taylor Travels Part 4 - Orlando

2010-03-20T17:53:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday we left Atlanta and headed to Florida on our way to visit my childhood friend, Nancy. I didn't have anyone to visit at a good halfway point, so I ended up going all the way to Orlando in one day and went the rest of the way to Fort Pierce on Sunday.

Man, it was a gruelling trip. Google maps said it would take 7 and a half hours and it took me 10 and a half. We stopped for a relaxed lunch at McDonald's and I let Jonah run around in the playplace. I fed Benjamin his baby food and some yogurt from the fruit and yogurt parfait. Benjamin has decided that he will not nurse at all when we are travelling. This is annoying on a 5-hour trip, but it's a disaster on a 10.5-hour trip. He nursed at 7:30 that morning and wouldn't nurse again until we arrived in Orlando around 8:30. I tried to feed him multiple times throughout the day. Finally I had to pull over and pump because I was in so much pain. And of course since he isn't nursing during the day he wants to chow down all night long. It's started a terrible pattern of not eating much during the day and waking up two or three times a night to nurse. So frustrating.

Jonah did pretty well considering it was such a long trip. His main forms of entertainment are eating snacks, listening to his tape player, and watching videos on my ipod. By the end of this trip he'd just about eaten his weight in snacks, he had the tape player confiscated because he pulled all the tape out of one of the cassettes, he had the ipod confiscated because he was chewing on the headphone cord after I told him not to, and I had to pull over because he wriggled out of his car seat and I looked back to see him standing up in his seat. But at least he did take a nap - he fell asleep with his hand in the chicken nuggets box. I so wished I could have gotten a picture of that!

So we stayed the night with my uncle Ken (my dad's brother) and aunt Betzi. They just moved to Orlando recently for Betzi's job and this was my first visit to their beautiful new home. Sunday morning we had a nice visit with Ken, Betzi, and my cousin Amanda, and left around noon to get down to Nancy's place in Fort Pierce.

Taylor Travels Part 3 - Atlanta

2010-03-17T22:48:00.002-04:00

After a fabulous five days in Charlotte, we continued south to Atlanta. We stayed three days with my uncle Glenn (my mom's brother) and aunt Beth. Highlights for the boys included meeting Glenn's three dogs, playing with an exercise ball, and a train ride through the mall. Highlights for me included seeing Glenn's office (it looks like those sweet office buildings you see in movies), dinner with Jon's cousin, Margaret, and shopping at Trader Joe's. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have when we were there, but here are a few.

Glenn and Beth bought a few toys for Jonah to play with while we were there, but we had to get creative for Ben. You can't go wrong with Tupperware and a wooden spoon. You can also see the ear of the littlest dog, Ronan.

Here we are on the mall train. This was the first time I'd ever seen a little train in the mall that doesn't run on a track. It just goes on a loop through the mall. Jonah LOVED it! Thanks Aunt Beth!
Okay, well maybe this face doesn't show it, but he really did love it.

Taylor Travels Part 2 - Charlotte

2010-03-15T21:00:00.006-04:00

The first stop on our five-week road trip was Charlotte, NC. We went to visit my childhood friend, Rebecca, who also happens to be Jon's cousin. She has a three-year-old little girl and a one-year-old boy. Our kids made fast friends and we had such a fabulous time together.

Baby Daniel turned one the day we arrived. We got to have cake and celebrate with him.
These second cousins had a great time playing together. Such a sweet little pair.
It was nice to be in a place with carpeted floors for Ben to practice sitting up by himself. We only have hardwood at home and I can never leave him sitting because he'll really hurt himself if he falls over.
We spent a morning at a park and ate a picnic lunch. Ben enjoyed his first time in a playground swing.
Jonah went down the slides about 50 times, like usual. (He escaped to the slide before I could wipe the Oreo crumbs off his face.)
Jonah decided he wanted to play in the sand and marched up to a dad holding some sand toys and asked if he could use them!
Rebecca has a great camera and she did a little photo shoot at the park.

Taylor Travels Part 1 - Bye Bye Daddy

2010-03-15T15:49:00.005-04:00

Jon left almost two weeks ago on a five-week trip to Saudi Arabia for work. I decided to take a huge road trip with the boys to visit friends and family while Jon was gone. After our five weeks on the road I'll leave Jonah with Jon's parents and Ben and I will fly to meet Jon in Micronesia for our two-week visit with Pacific Missionary Aviation.

It's hard to be home alone with the boys when Jon's gone. We all tend to go a little crazy. When all else fails run in circles, right?

After Jon left we stayed home for a few days packing and pulling everything together for our seven weeks away from home. Packing for three people to be gone for seven weeks in different climates and getting it all into the car was a bit tricky. I got everything lined up in the hall and I had some serious doubts about whether or not it would all fit.

Good thing I played lots of Tetris as a kid. I somehow got all this (minus the basketball hoop) plus a stroller, folding cot, snacks, toys and two car seats into the car. It only occurred to me when we were halfway to Charlotte that there will be absolutely no room for Jon and all his stuff to ride back with us from Chicago at the end of our adventure. Oops. We might need to rend a Uhaul!
Here we are all loaded up and ready to head out. You can see Ben in the mirror and if you look closely you can see me too.

This is my new favorite picture of the boys. So cute!

Indoor Bobsledding

2010-01-31T21:20:00.004-05:00

**A warning to the safety-conscious parents out there: you might want to skip this post due to it's graphic depiction of a toddler having a lot of fun in a not totally safe way.**

This weekend we were snowed in. Again. Jonah is quickly catching on to the lack of expeditious snow removal down here in Virginia: He looked out the window yesterday morning at three inches of snow and said, "Oh, we're not going anywhere." So we had to make our own fun indoors.

Now, a mom's idea of making fun indoors might be baking cookies, finger painting, homemade puppets, or playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos". A dad's idea of indoor fun is... not at all what the mom had in mind. It usually involves tools, a huge mess, something broken, and probably someone getting hurt. That said, the dad's idea is always way more fun and creative than the mom's idea. This weekend Dad's idea was indoor bobsledding.

Well, it started out as just a cardboard slide down the first six steps of our staircase.

Benjamin monitored the proceedings from the floor to the side of the stairs.

The slide seemed fun enough to me, but of course Jon had bigger and better ideas: a cardboard bobsled.

Okay, but he'll just sled down the first six steps, right? Well, it turns out that stair bobsledding can be a slippery slope. Why not the middle of the staircase?

Now that we've accomplished that, how about a little higher?

What the heck. Why not do the entire flight of stairs?

Why not send Benjamin down the stairs in the bobsled?

Just Kidding! We're not totally crazy!

Oh, what a morning

2010-01-15T14:39:00.003-05:00

My kids are sick. They both got the cold that I had last week. In retrospect I wasn't very proactive in doing anything last week to prevent them from getting it. Even while I was sick I continued my morning ritual of sharing a grapefruit with Jonah. We take turns having bites... from the same spoon of course.

It wasn't that bad of a cold - just a mildly runny nose, sore throat, and a bit of a cough. Not such a big deal when I had it, but now it's breaking my heart to watch my boys sniff and rub their eyes and listen to them cough and sneeze.

So this morning we added sickness to the regular craziness of our life. I don't know if it's because he's sick or just because he's a 2-year-old, but Jonah has been eating practically nothing lately. He won't even eat snacks. The only things he will eat without coercion are pears, oranges, peaches and candy - not really a balanced diet. This morning I made him eat a bite of cereal and then I gave him a second bite before he had quite finished the first. He gagged and threw up. Breakfast over.

I put Benjamin down for a nap thinking surely he would take a good nap since he's sick and he was so tired. Nope. That stupid 45-minute intruder. He hardly ever sleeps more than 45 minutes, but he really needs to. He's always still tired when he wakes up, but I can't get him to go back to sleep. So I nursed him, changed his diaper and put him in an undershirt. We went downstairs to get some clothes out of the dryer because he didn't have any clean outfits upstairs.

I sat Benjamin in the corner of the armchair as I often do and went to get an outfit. I sent Jonah to get his sippy cup from the fridge. As I was rifling through laundry I heard Benjamin start to fuss. I returned to discover that Jonah had gotten out a bottle of breast milk instead of his sippy. I was saving it to use with rice cereal so it didn't have a nipple on it, just a twist-off cap. Jonah had opened it and was trying to pour it into Benjamin's mouth. The end effect was a crying baby and spilled breast milk all over the chair and Benjamin's undershirt.

After a chat about how only Mommy and Daddy can feed Baby Benjamin, I wiped up the chair as best I could, removed the wet shirt, set Benjamin in the other corner of the chair and went back to the dryer to find another clean undershirt. This time I returned just in time to see Benjamin fall head-first out of the chair onto the hard wood floor. Commence screaming. The only good thing about a sick baby is that he's too hoarse to scream very loud.

We usually leave the house after Benjamin gets up from his nap and I decided to go out even though the kids were sick. It's either be stuck in the house and be miserable, or be out and be miserable, so I chose to be out. We couldn't do anything that involved being around other kids so we went to the discount grocery store. You never know what you're going to find there, but I can usually score some pretty good deals on drinks and snacks. Jonah behaved perfectly and Benjamin hung in there up until we were in the check-out line. He typically screams through the check-out line whether he's sick or well. Though it was a much quieter scream today thanks to his cold.

I fed Jonah candy in the car on the way home so he wouldn't fall asleep. Yesterday he fell asleep on the way home from our outing and then he wouldn't take a nap. Benjamin fell asleep immediately in the car, but of course he woke up shortly after we got home. I managed to get the groceries in the house while both kids cried (Jonah pinched his finger in the mail slot of the door). I set Jonah up in the kitchen with cheese, yogurt and a rice cake and went to nurse Benjamin. Benjamin ate a little then cried and barfed up some phlegm all over himself. Jonah didn't touch the yogurt, had two bites of cheese and two bites of a rice cake. We trouped upstairs to get Jonah to bed. Benjamin could barely hold it together while I read books. Once Jonah was down I went to put Benjamin down. On the way to his room he barfed up a lot more phlegm - this time mostly on me - but he then seemed much happier as a result. So we went downstairs again to get clean clothes for both of us out of the laundry. This time I put him in jammies in the hopes that maybe wearing pj's would help him sleep better. Thankfully he went down without much of a fuss.

So, here I am about an hour after everyone went down and they're still sleeping. Ah. I had a pop-tart for lunch because I just didn't feel like mustering the energy to make a sandwich. But now that I've sat here for a while I think I've rested enough to finish up with this laundry.

Hope your Friday was less crazy than mine!

Glop

2010-01-13T13:37:00.003-05:00

Jon and I recently celebrated our fifth anniversary. Over the past five years we have certainly gotten to know each other much better. We've become acquainted with each other's quirks, we've learned to push each other's buttons, and more importantly, how not to push each other's buttons.

A few months ago we sat down to dinner to enjoy a new recipe I had made in the crock pot. I often try new recipes and I'm still always looking for new dishes to add to my "repertoire" of meals that I make on a regular basis. The recipe for this "Easy Chicken Alfredo" was certainly easy and it looked like it would turn out pretty good.

My flash made a glare on the cook book page, but you get the general idea. The finished product was very tasty - it definitely made the cut into my regular rotation of meals. But the appearance... well, let's just say the appearance leaves a little to be desired. Okay, a LOT to be desired.

See what I mean? So when we first tried this tasty meal Jon and I both commented on how much we liked it.

Then Jon said, "You would be proud of me. I was just going to say something that would have offended you, but then I decided not to say it because I knew you would be offended."

Well, now I just have to know what he was going to say. By now he knows me well enough. If he thinks something would offend me I'm sure he's right, but I'm still curious. "What were you going to say?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yeah. What?"

"Well, I was going to call this food 'glop', but I knew you wouldn't like it, so I didn't say it."

Yes, he knows me very well. I would certainly have been offended if he had called my meal "glop". It doesn't matter to me that he would be justified in calling it that, but I would have felt that he was criticizing the product of my efforts. Even though it was "easy" to make, I still had to purchase the ingredients, do the preparation, and assemble the meal in the crock pot in the morning while taking care of the kids. And it tasted good, despite it's unappetizing appearance. Calling my food "glop" would have made me feel unappreciated.

But knowing that Jon thought about calling it glop, but stopped himself because he knows me and doesn't want to hurt my feelings, made me feel loved. Silly how such small things make such a difference. It even made me laugh because it really did look disgusting. So now it has become a joke between us and has strengthened our bond together.

Here's the recipe if you're looking for something yummy for the crock pot. This may not be worthy of serving to company for aesthetic reasons, but you might enjoy it with your family.

Easy Chicken Alfredo (aka "Glop")

1 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbs. dried chives (I didn't have these on hand and had to buy them for this recipe. They were expensive, but I think it was worth it and I'm sure I can use them in other things.)

1 Tbs. dried basil leaves

1 tsp. lemon pepper

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 lb. broccoli, coarsely chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 can (8 oz.) sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 cup baby carrots

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 jar (16 oz.) Alfredo sauce

1 package (8 oz.) wide egg noodles, cooked and drained

1. Combine chicken, onion, olive oil, chives, basil, lemon pepper and ginger in slow cooker; stir thoroughly. Add broccoli, bell pepper, water chestnuts, carrots and garlic. Mix well.

2. Cover; cook on LOW 8 hours or on HIGH 3 hours.

3. Add Alfredo sauce and cook an additional 30 minutes or until heated through.

4. Serve over hot egg noodles.

Makes 6 servings

Recap of 2009

2010-01-06T14:01:00.003-05:00

I found this at my friend Shelly's blog and thought it would be a fun way to look back over my past year.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Live in "The South"

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I usually resolve to keep a cleaner house... I don't think I really kept it last year, but I'm making it again this year and so far I'm doing pretty well! My other resolution for this year is to do all my Christmas shopping before Chistmas Eve. Way before.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Me! Plus about half of everyone I know. I guess I'm at that stage of life.

4. Did anyone close to you die? My grandpa died in February. He died of a stroke, but he had had dementia for several years so in a way it felt like we had already lost him a while back. Still it felt so strange to drive past his nursing home and not go visit him.

5. What countries did you visit? Jonah and I visited Jon while he was working in the Dominican Republic in April. It was a great trip and definitely worth it, but vacationing with a toddler, while pregnant, in a foreign country where you don't speak the language is... not really relaxing. But it was fun and warm and good to be able to be with Jon in the evenings.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? Knowledge of where we will be going on the mission field.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? June 22nd, Benjamin's birthday. September 6th, my dad's wedding. May 23rd, my best friend's wedding.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Surviving the months of August and September when Benjamin was a newborn, we had just moved to a new town and Jon was gone for six weeks on work trips.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not keeping my house clean (see number one).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No. Thankfully we've all been very healthy and injury-free.

11. What was the best thing you bought? My fabulous maternity jeans! They were actually a Christmas present from my in-laws. I was never able to find jeans that fit when I was pregnant with Jonah, but I really needed some this time around. They are the most expensive item of clothing I have ever owned, including my wedding dress, and they are wonderful! I will be looking forward to wearing them again next time around... hopefully not too soon, though!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Jonah's! It has been wonderful to watch him grow and learn. What a difference a year makes in the life of a little one! He is a joy to be around every day.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Jonah's again. Toddlers are naughty and discipline is hard.

14. Where did most of your money go? Health insurance and medical bills. Having babies is expensive! Seriously. A quarter of our income went to healthcare. It's absurd.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Meeting Benjamin for the first time and having an incredibly easy labor. I was also really excited about my best friend's wedding. I had been waiting for the right man to fall in love with her since we became friends in college and I was so thrilled to see him come along and sweep her off her feet!

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? A Willie Nelson song. Jon found this video on YouTube last Christmas and he got hooked on the song and wanted to learn to play it on the guitar. He must have listened to it hundreds of times trying to play it. Eventually he started using headphones if I was around, but I could still hear him plunking it out on the guitar.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer? a. Happier, of course. b. I gained 55 pounds and only lost 50. So I guess I'm fatter, but I'm certainly happy at the weight I'm at. c. Just as poor as last year.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I had invited people over more often. I love having people over and I always wonder why I don't do it more.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Middle of the night feedings.

20. How did you spend Christmas? We drove 15 hours overnight to Jon's parents' farm in Illinois and spent four days with his whole family. It was so great! Eight adults and 13 kids. We can't wait to see them all again this summer. Then we did the overnight drive back home and my family came to be with us for four days over New Year's. This time only six adults and three kids, but just as much fun!

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I fell in love with my precious Baby Benjamin.

22. What was your favorite TV program? I don't have a TV, but there are four shows I watch online. My favorite is “The Amazing Race” followed by "The Biggest Loser”, “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I really don't believe in hating people.

24. What was the best book you read? I enjoyed a Christian novel a friend loaned me to read when Benjamin was first born and I was spending a lot of time sitting nursing him. But now I don't remember what it was called.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? I've enjoyed bringing out music from my childhood and sharing it with Jonah.

26. What did you want and get? A healthy baby.

27. What did you want and not get? To live in the same place for an entire year.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? A movie I found on Netflix called “Outsourced”. I liked it because of the cross-cultural aspect, knowing that we will be living cross-culturally.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 28. Jon was out of town so I threw myself a little party and invited four moms and their associated toddlers over for brunch. It was fabulous! I'm thinking of making it a tradition, or at least doing it again this year.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I knew the future. =)

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? It's not about fashion when you gain and lose 50 pounds in the course of a year. It's about whatever fits.

32. What kept you sane? Jon. Always. Hands down.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Well, I don't have TV, I don't listen to the radio, I don't get a newspaper and I don't read news online so I'm completely out of the loop. I'm blissfully unaware of any celebrities or public figures.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? See number 33.

35. Who did you miss? I miss my mom every day. All the time. I especially miss her when I have a baby and everyone else has their mom come to help them when they have their babies. I need her. Why isn't she here?

36. Who was the best new person you met? Everyone in my life is someone I've met in the last year since we just moved here a year ago. So it's hard to pick out a best new person since everyone is new!

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. Don't have a baby, move to a new town, start attending a new church and have your husband leave for a business trip all in the span of two weeks. You will have a breakdown. Probably several breakdowns.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Pump it, louder come on
Don't stop and keep it goin'
Do it let's get it on
Move it
Come on baby do it

Who's who?

2009-12-30T14:42:00.003-05:00

Here are my boys at 5 months old. Can you tell who's who?

The Cousins Chorus

2009-12-24T12:44:00.002-05:00

After a 15-hour journey through the night we finally made it to Jon's parents' farm in Illinois. Jonah got straight down to business playing with his cousins. There are thirteen kids in all. Needless to say it's a little chaotic at times, but sooooo much fun. The three two-year-olds are really enjoying one another and loving doing two-year-old stuff together. They've been having long sessions of jumping up and down, yelling at the top of their lungs, and running in circles around the house. Here they are singing ABC's together.

Snowlapalooza

2009-12-20T10:45:00.003-05:00

Here's Jonah all bundled up ready to play in the snow. He reminds me of Ralphie's little brother from "A Christmas Story".

Last time it snowed here about two weeks ago I was just barely able to buy snow gear for Jonah, but I couldn't find a sled anywhere. I started calling around looking for a sled the day before this blizzard hit and struck out again. So we resorted to using an inflatable pool toy that we had and tying a rope to it. We can't do real sledding because the snow is just too powdery, but it works pretty well on the road with "Dad power".

Here's my car all beautifully shoveled out.

But we had to sacrifice Jon's car in the process. There was nowhere else to put the snow so he just piled it onto his Tempo. I guess he'll have to take my car if he tries to make it to work tomorrow.

"Snowpocolypse"

2009-12-19T21:10:00.004-05:00

An article on ABC.com called this weekend's snowstorm "Snowpocolypse". This type of snow is normal in Chicago, so I had no idea how debilitating it would be in this part of the country. I just figured it would be a matter of digging ourselves out and then we'd be able to go about our business. Not so. The streets are hardly plowed, if at all. None of the parking lots are plowed. It really is impossible to go anywhere. I'm sure we won't be making it to church tomorrow and who knows if Jon will even be able to get to work on Monday. We have over two feet at our house. Here's a car across the street. You can tell there's a car under there because of the side mirror.

Here's a picture of our cars during a pause in the downfall. There's more by now.

Benjamin's enjoying the view from his jumperoo in the kitchen.

Thankfully we have plenty of food in the house and we didn't have anywhere to be today. Our only problem was figuring out what to do all day. We basically just dinked around all morning. After Jonah got up from his nap we all bundled up and ventured out for a little bit. We even put Benjamin in his little snowsuit and put him in the baby backpack, but he didn't last for long. Jonah and Jon stayed out longer playing and Jon shoveled out the car so we'll be ready when the roads are passable.

Benjamin's first experience with Willie Nelson.

Yesterday when he was getting fussy this bought me a good 15 minutes of happiness.

Storytime

2009-12-16T15:37:00.001-05:00

In continuation of my last post, here is Benjamin being completely enamored of his big brother. It was so sweet to see them "reading" together. I just can't get over how much Benjamin loves Jonah already. It's so cute to see him light up whenever Jonah's around.

Big Brothers Are Hilarious... And Moms Aren't

2009-12-08T13:46:00.002-05:00

Benjamin is only four months old, but I think I've already been replaced as the most interesting person in his life. He thinks Jonah is hilarious. This is probably the hardest I've ever seen him laugh. These two videos are pretty similar, but I had to post them both because I thought it was funny how Benjamin gives me the same bored look at the end of each one. He cracks up at Jonah and as soon as he turns to me the grin is gone and he has this look like, "Yeah, whatever, Mom."

Grandpa and the boys

2009-12-03T21:57:00.004-05:00

Here are the boys wearing their matching outfits on Thanksgiving Day with Grandpa. We had a great Thanksgiving with family. We drove out to Paul's house again in Ohio. It was so nice to have Jon along this time! After a full day of travel on Wednesday we all packed into Paul's mini van on Thanksgiving Day and drove the extra 3 hours to my grandparents' house near Toledo. It was so good to see them and to introduce Benjamin. Unfortunately they are not in good health and they had to wear masks. Jonah was afraid of the masks and wouldn't go near Grandma and Grandpa. It was too bad. I really thought he would be brave enough by the end of the day to go in and see them, but he was just too scared. We had a fabulous Grandma-style meal prepared mostly by my aunt, Angie. I was so amazed and thankful that she stepped up and took over and made everything like Grandma would have made it. This Thanksgiving was hard in many ways and it was comforting that at least the food was the same as always. Thanks again, Angie!

The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated again at Paul's house with Dad and Elaine. Another huge delicious meal prepared by my sister-in-law, Vashti - her first time hosting a Thanksgiving meal. She did a great job! I contributed Jello and put together the green bean casserole. Lame, I know. Well, we're hosting everyone over New Year's, so I'll get my chance do more cooking then.

Every time we see Evelyn she's more fun to play with. Here she is being easily amused by Grandpa throwing a wiffle ball against an exercise ball. Who knew that this would be so utterly hilarious to a one-year-old!

A message for Oliver

2009-12-03T13:51:00.002-05:00

Mr. No Returns

2009-11-30T21:52:00.004-05:00

Six months ago I wrote a post about how Jonah had begun to say "No" to every question I asked him. I don't remember how long that phase lasted, but I don't think it was very long before he was generally answering in the affirmative again. Well, the negative responses have returned full force. Now it's not just the matter-of-fact "no" he used to say without much feeling. Now it's the adamant opposition to everything. He opposes everything I suggest, even if it's one of his favorite things. He opposes things I haven't even mentioned, just on the chance that I might be thinking about it.

Here's a typical morning interchange for us: I hear Jonah in his crib calling, "Mommy! Can I get out?" I go into his room and he's ready with a list of things he doesn't want to do. "I don't want to get out. I'm not going to take off my sack. I didn't have sweet dreams. I don't need a new diaper. I don't have tinkles. I don't want to go downstairs, I'm just gonna stay in my room. I'm not gonna have breakfast, I'll just have lunchie." Then we finally make it downstairs and he proceeds to say no to everything I offer him, even though I know he really does want it. He even extends his opposing attitude to Benjamin and lets me know everything his brother doesn't want to do, too. "Baby Benjamin doesn't want a new diaper. Baby Benjamin's not gonna go in his bouncy." Today he even said, "Baby Benjamin's saying no to you, Mommy."

I realize that this is a perfectly normal stage for a 2-year-old, but I've started to really crack down on what I'll allow him to say. I even gave him a little lesson on what it means to argue and how he's not allowed to argue with Mommy. Still, the consistency of his total opposition is almost humorous. Today we tried to go somewhere in the car but the battery was dead so I decided we would walk to the library instead. When I told Jonah that the car was broken and we were going to walk he started shaking his head and repeating as if he was arguing, "We're not going to go in the car. We're not. We're not gonna go." It's also gotten a little embarrassing, too. If anyone happens to ask him if he liked something he'll always say no.

While the "no-ness" of being two is a trying stage, there are also a lot of wonderful aspects of this stage of development. He's very affectionate and still loves to give me hugs and kisses. He even tells me I'm pretty and smart! His attention span is a lot longer now and he has no problem playing by himself in his room or in his highchair while I feed Benjamin. He loves to play pretend and we spend a lot of time as firefighters or ambulance drivers. He likes to be a helper whenever possible so I'm always trying to think of ways for him to do little tasks for me. Putting things in the garbage is one of his favorites.

Here they are playing trains with some boxes from Costco.

He has gotten really into Christmas and likes to listen to Christmas music, read Christmas books, and talk about baby Jesus being born... and about Santa. We don't make a big deal of Santa, but it's really hard to avoid. I just try to put the focus on Jesus more than Santa. I know he's paying attention because he always asks what the Christmas songs are about. I told him that "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was about the angels telling the shepherds that Jesus had been born and he said, "Not even a bed for baby Jesus." It so incredible to be teaching the Christmas story to him for the very first time. It's 100% fresh and new to him and that helps make it feel fresh to me, too. I'm paying a lot more attention to the words in Christmas carols, too, because I know there will be a quiz at the end! "What's that Christmas song is about, Mommy?"

2009-11-09T20:44:00.004-05:00

If you read this blog you may have noticed that I've taken a sort of blogging hiatus - particularly since Benjamin was born. If you are my friend on Facebook you know that I have been putting up plenty of pictures and updates on that site. So, it's not that I've dropped off the face of the Earth (or really off the face of the internet) it's just that Facebook is so much faster and easier than blogging. Uploading pictures and video to FB is waaaay faster (ahem Blogger, maybe you could make some improvements in that area) and writing quick one-sentance updates is obviously faster than writing a blog post. But, lately I have been considering returning to blogging as my main mode of internet communication. I really enjoy reading the blogs of my friends and getting the whole story of what's going on with them, rather than just little blurbs. Plus, I'm realizing that the blog is a much better way to keep a record of the "baby book"-type things that I often write about like milestones and funny things Jonah says. Up to this point the blog has basically been my baby book for Jonah and it probably will be for Benjamin too.

So, for those of you that don't know or can't make sense of all the Facebook blurbs, I'll try to give you a brief overview of the months since Benjamin was born. A week and a half after Benjamin was born we moved to a new house in a new town about 40 minutes south of where we had previously been living. Four days after the move Jon left on a trip for work for two and a half weeks. He came home for about 10 days and then left again for four weeks. So, Jon only saw the baby for two weeks of his first two months of life. To say it was crazy and difficult is an understatement. I flew to Chicago by myself with the boys to attend my dad's wedding while Jon was gone. It was wonderful when we could all be together again and really work on getting settled into our new place and into a new routine with a baby.

So now we're basically settled in. We're going to a new church and we really like it. I still get to see my old friends some, which is great, but the distance makes it a little difficult. Making new friends in our new town has been slower than I had hoped, but I'm still working at it. It seems like there are a lot more working moms around here so I don't see as many moms when I'm out and about. Getting out is of course a little trickier these days, although I really do make a point to get out almost every morning. It helps my sanity to get out and it really helps Jonah's mood - he does not do well staying in the house all day.
Here's my sweet smiler at three months. So far he seems pretty similar to Jonah. I think he might be a little smilier and a little wigglier, but it's hard to tell. He loves attention and does NOT like to be left alone for more than a few minutes. Even if we're all hanging out in the kitchen together he really wants you to look at him and talk to him.

Here's Ben enjoying Jonah's jumperoo. We didn't get this until Jonah was about a month older so it's hard to compare, but he seems to really like it.

This is certainly not the best picture of the three cousins, but it was the best I could get on the morning we were leaving my brother's.

It's very easy to make Benjamin smile and laugh. I was shaking my head to get him to laugh so I ended up shaking the camera too. It's a little wobbly, but too cute not to share!

Ben talks too

2009-10-18T15:46:00.003-04:00

Is this kid cute or what?

Yes, definitely cut from the same cloth.

So, I take back what I said about Ben not being as talkative as Jonah. You can see Jonah talking at the same age here. Jonah did more squealing and I think Ben talks in a more throaty "aaaaah". He keeps his mouth wide open - it's like he's saying "aah" for the doctor.

Deja Vu

2009-10-06T14:36:00.002-04:00

Here's Ben chillin' in the bouncy seat. See Jonah at the same age, in the same seat, in the same outfit here. It's still hard to see much difference in personality, but I would say Ben is not quite as talkative as Jonah was. (Big surprise - not many kids are as talkative as Jonah.) You can tell the difference in the videos. Ben's still a very happy guy, he just doesn't have quite as much to say about it as Jonah did!

Benjamin's Story

2009-07-23T20:13:00.004-04:00

“Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!” The Doxology was running through my head soon after giving birth to little Benjamin. It was as smooth of a birth experience that I could imagine and we had a healthy baby and I just wanted to thank the Lord for his great blessings! Here's the story of Benjamin's birth – if you are not one of those “Birth Story” people, I totally understand! Feel free to just scroll through the pictures and skip the story!

I'd had encouraging news from the midwife on Tuesday morning that I was 4cm dilated and 70% effaced. My midwife recommended trying castor oil to get labor started considering how far I'd come already. I decided I wouldn't try it until I was actually overdue on Saturday. As the afternoon wore on I saw further signs of impending labor (I'll spare you the details) and I started to get antsy. I asked Jon to come home a little early from work and we decided that maybe castor oil was worth a try. Yeah, not so much. Maybe technically it worked, but it was not worth it and I should have just sat back and relaxed because of all the other signs that labor was near.
I started the castor oil at 4:30, but didn't actually begin contractions until 2am. I waited awhile before waking Jon up – I wanted to let him get as much sleep as possible. At about 2:35 I gently nudged him and said, “I think we should get up and get all our stuff pulled together. No rush, but I don't want to suddenly be frantic.” He said okay and went back to sleep. Less then 10 minutes later I nudged again and said, “Okay, we really need to get up and go.” It ended up being maybe a little more frienzied than I had anticipated, complicated by the lingering effects of the stupid castor oil, but overall it went smoothly. Our neighbor came down from upstairs and camped out on the couch so we didn't have to wake Jonah. I left her with the phone number of a friend down the street who could pick him up around 8am. I think we made it to the hospital around 3:45 – having four contractions during the less than 10-minute trip.

I was quickly admitted and brought up to the maternity ward where I met my nurse and midwife. How refreshing it was to only have two people involved in the entire birth process compared to our experience with Jonah when countless people were coming and going all day (and all night) long. The only hitch in my idea of the perfect birth was that I wasn't able to receive an epidural as quickly as I hoped. The anesthesiologist was occupied in surgery and I didn't get my relief until about 7am. That said, Jon and I both felt that I dealt with the hard contractions fairly well. I used my breathing and “singing” techniques – deep inhale, then a long “ohhhh” sung louder and higher as the pain increased. Shortly after the epidural the midwife broke my water and labor continued to progress.

Here I am - completely numb and ready to push, but waiting to feel something before I start pushing.

Once I was comfortably settled with my epidural Jon headed to the cafeteria for breakfast, which made me quite jealous as I was hungry and hadn't had much for dinner (stupid castor oil again). I flipped on the TV for a few minutes while he was gone and was easily reminded of why we don't have a TV. It did feel ironic, though, to flip past “A Baby Story” and watch someone in labor as I was in labor. By 8:15 some contractions were still bothering me enough that I couldn't rest, so I got a booster to my epidural. Man, I must have hit the epidural mother load! I catnapped a little bit and by 10am I was fully dilated and ready to push, but I couldn't feel ANYTHING. I decided to just wait and let my contractions do the work of pushing Benjamin out without wasting my energy on pushing. By 11 I still didn't feel the urge to push at all, but I could kind of feel contractions on my right side and I decided it was time to get the party started. Wow, what a “night and day” difference from my experience of two hours of pushing with Jonah! I officially started pushing at 11:06. I pushed through four contractions feeling absolutely nothing and Benjamin arrived (face up!) within 17 minutes. I didn't even break a sweat! It was unbelievable! I had three small stitches (still feeling nothing) while I held and examined our new baby boy.

Just born!

In less than half an hour of his birth he was nursing and nursed well for 45 minutes before they took him to the nursery to perform more tests and give him a bath. He nursed again after that, but he was having some problems with low blood sugar. They ended up giving him a bottle of formula in the nursery while I rested.

The first nursing - 20 minutes after birth.

Jon left at 12:30 to pick up Jonah and take him home for his nap. It worked out perfectly. They came for a short visit in the evening and introductions went very well. Jonah was so excited to see Benjamin and wanted to hold him right away and give him hugs and kisses.
The Taylor boys.

Jonah and Benjamin's first moments together.

Welcome Benjamin Park Taylor!

2009-07-22T19:24:00.003-04:00

Benjamin Park Taylor

Born July 22, 2009

11:23 am

Weight: 8lbs. 13oz.

Length: 20 inches

Here he is very shortly after birth.
Here he is all cleaned up and very sleepy. Check out the hair!

Here he is getting checked out in his first few moments of life in the outside world.

I'm 'onna do it selfie.

2009-07-02T15:04:00.003-04:00

This is what Jonah accomplished by himself while I was in the bathroom this morning. In true toddler fashion he is getting more and more interested in doing things by himself, saying, "I'm 'onna do it selfie." (I'm gonna do it by myself.) He tries to put his pants on by himself while I am trying to keep his pants off and change his diaper. Having him do things by himself would be fabulous if he could actually do them, but usually he can't actually do it and the effort causes frustration on both our parts. Just part of growing up, right?

A fun new addition to Jonah's vocabulary recently is "okay". He adds it at the end of sentences to inform you of what he's about to do - most often it's something he knows we'll probably tell him not to do. "I'm 'onna climb up, okay?" "I'm 'onna jump off, okay?" "I'm 'onna get a snack, okay?" "I'm 'onna drive, okay?" "I'm 'onna run, okay?" It's actually kind of convenient because it gives us a chance to say, "No, don't climb up your crib." "No, don't jump off the chair." "No, we're not having snacks right now."

Cousins!

2009-07-02T14:38:00.005-04:00

Last week when Jon was away on a trip Jonah and I drove out to visit Paul's family in Dayton, OH. Google maps said the trip would take 7 hours. I figured on 10, but it actually took us 12 hours between stoping a lot and having to turn around and find an alternate route due to an accident and road closings. It was a really long day, but Jonah did remarkably well and I felt fine for the whole trip. I was very determined to cut our time on the trip back and we made it in eight and a half hours.

Of course we had to get the obligitory "cousins in the tub" shot. Hopefully this won't be too embarassing to them later in life. (I cropped out the bare bottom.) Jonah and Evelyn had such a great time together - as much as a 7-month-old and a 21-month-old can. She loved watching him and cooing at him and he was very excited about her, too. He always wanted to know, "Where's Baby Ev-wyn?" And he had to observe and comment on everything she was doing. Baby Ev-wyn sleeping. Baby Ev-wyn eating. Baby Ev-wyn crying. Shhh, shhhh, no cry Baby Ev-wyn. Baby Ev-wyn sneeze. Bless you Baby. I share (with) Baby Ev-wyn.

Here she is - a precious, beautiful, smiley, happy baby girl. Such a joy to be around.

Jonah was very gentle with Evelyn and always wanted to give her huggies and kissies. He shared toys with her and invited her to watch Elmo with him. There were lots of reasons to go visit Paul, but I especially wanted to get in some extended baby time for Jonah to have a little taste of what babies are like - even though a 7-month-old is quite different from a newborn. I think it may have helped in preparing him for big brotherhood. I also think he might be catching on a little more to the baby in the belly idea. This week at my doctor appointment I asked him where the baby was and he said, "Um, he's riding in Mommy's belly button."

Cousins chillin' in the chair.

"What do you have in that sippy, Jonah, and how do I get some?"

Solo ABC's

2009-06-09T14:33:00.003-04:00

It's only been a month since I last took a video of Jonah doing the ABC's, but I couldn't resist posting another video because he can now do the entire song without my help. Okay, he may mush a letter here and there, the "LMNOP" is more like "ahbababa P!" and he doesn't make much effort at pitch, but still, I think it's pretty good for a one-and-a-half-year-old.

The stuff he says continues to amaze us. He's constantly observing life and putting things together in his mind. He'll say things that we don't remember teaching him or comment on something that's happening that we don't do very often. He'll watch me putting in muffins and say, "Mommy open the oven." Or he'll observe, "Daddy making juice." We get a kick out of how he greets us with, "This is a Mommy!" or "It's a Daddy!" or "Here comes a Mommy!" as if we're just these generic parents and not actaully his mommy and daddy. This week he started to pick up his books and say, "I'm 'onna read it you." and he'll turn to a page and correctly recite a phrase or two from that page. This week he also started to say, "It's mines." I'm actually surprised it took him this long because many of his friends run around saying little else but, "Mine!"

Mr. No

2009-06-01T20:51:00.002-04:00

We have definitely entered into the "no" stage of toddlerhood. Whereas it was so fun and cute when Jonah answered "Yeah" to every question, it's not quite as cute when the answer turns to "No" for just about everything. He'll still answer in the affirmative if it's something he really wants, so it's not like he doesn't know the difference between yes and no. Still, a lot of the time I think he just says "no" for the heck of it and not because he really means no. I was heartbroken the other day when I asked if he wanted to sing and he said no. I couldn't believe it! But I really don't think he meant it, he just likes saying no. Tonight I asked him if he wanted some macaroni and he said, "No. I want macaroni." As if he was really didn't want what I was suggesting and had thought of macaroni all by himself.

When do toddlers learn to choose things? I often try to get him to pick one thing or another and he can't do it. "Do you want Cheerios or Kix?" "I want Cheerios. I want Kix." "Do you want to wear sandals or flip-flops?" "Sandals or flip-flops." But I guess I should enjoy the non-decision making while it lasts. I'm sure the time will come when he will have very distinct opinions on breakfast foods and footwear.

I'm also eagerly anticipating the day Jonah gets to the point of really being able to feed himself with a fork or a spoon. It seems like many kids his age can eat quite well with a utensil, but Jonah really hasn't gotten the hang of it yet. He really enjoys trying, but most of the food ends up on his tray, down his chin, and all over his shirt. He invariably gives up, dumps the food onto the tray and digs in with his hands. I sometimes try to enforce the "no dumping" rule, but what's the point if he really can't effectively use the fork or spoon? To Jonah the most best part about having a spoon or fork is pretending it's a bat. You can guarantee that at some point during a meal he will pick something up and pronounce, "This is a bat. I hit it." A grape or a Kix functions quite nicely as a baseball or basketball. He'll even stick his finger in the middle of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and say, "This is a baseball glove!" That's not as messy as when the PB&J becomes a phone or a hat.

Plastic Thunder '09

2009-05-25T19:55:00.006-04:00

Today Jon participated in an annual Memorial Day event called "Plastic Thunder" in which adult men ride plastic-wheeled toys (mostly Big Wheels) down a huge winding hill. Everyone modifies their vehicles so they can hopefully bear the weight of a grown man. Jon brought home a bunch of tools from work and spent the weekend modifying his ride with steel axles, ball bearings, an extended seat made from a garbage-picked car seat base, and an extended steering wheel made from PVC pipe.

Here's Jon's ride pre-race. He put a straight axle through the front wheel so he could put his feet on it without the pedals going up and down.

Here's Jon comfortably seated on his toy. We didn't manage to get any pictures of the actual race, but someone did get video footage that we'll be able to link to later. Jon had the most spectacular crash in the event's history, so we're told. Without that borrowed motorcycle helmet he may have suffered some brain damage!

He started out the with the pack of guys and they got going pretty fast. A truck drove in front of the racers with the video camera and they clocked the race at 35 mph. As they came close to the major turn in the course Jon's wheel shifted on the axle and when he tried to correct it he spun backward. The road was slick with rain and he kept rotating. There was really no chance he could navigate the 90 degree turn and he ended up cartwheeling off the road down into a drainage ditch filled with soccer-ball-sized rocks. I really can't believe he came away from it with only a few scratches on his arm. The video shows him clearing the first 10 feet of rocks and then landing on his head.

In hind sight, he said he would have put his feet down at some point, rather than cruising ahead to try to take the lead without any sort of thought for his own safety. Really, it's the type of thing you would never just go out and do by yourself - because it's totally crazy! But in going along with a whole pack of other guys, it doesn't seem so dangerous.

Other than plastic wheels, the only other requirement for the race is that the racers wear a helmet and dress in some sort of silly costume. We decided to create family t-shirts modeled after the classic Big Wheel logo using a Photoshopped picture of Jon's actual ride. We were pretty proud of our shirts, but it turned out that several families showed up with special t-shirts for the event.

Here we are post-race in our shirts back at home.

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T08:28:00.007-04:00

Last night we had a good time comparing last year's Mother's Day picture with this year's. Last year showed a very skinny me and very fat Jonah. This year shows a much larger me and a bigger, but more stretched out version of Jonah.

My attempts to get a nice Mother's Day picture outside failed miserably. The wind was blowing my hair in my face, Jonah was squirmy in general and had a cracker that he was quite reluctant to relinquish, my heels were sinking into the ground, etc.

Wind blowing and cracker eating...

Checking out Mommy's necklace...

This one seemed to be the best, but Jonah has a confused, "Why can't I just eat my cracker?" look on his face.

So we settled for the inside picture later in the afternoon. We had a very nice Mother's Day. We thought about going out to lunch after church, but Jon wisely suggested that we just go home and do a quick lunch and put Jonah down for his nap as usual and go out to dinner instead. It worked out much better that way. After naps we flew a kite in our backyard and walked to the park to play for a while. It was a gorgeous day. Then we had a nice dinner at Outback, killed a little extra time looking at animals in the pet store, and went home to put Jonah to bed.

Here's a video of Jonah bringing me my Mother's Day card. It said, "Hey Mom, words can't always express how a son feels about his mom... That's what burps are for!" It was perfect! He even "signed" it in crayon for me. As for a gift, I wanted new sheets for our bed so I got them myself last week. Maybe not that exciting, but we really needed them and I was excited to have them.

In the past I've always thought of Mother's Day as a day for Moms to be pampered and appreciated. While I did feel appreciated this year, more than anything I just felt so thankful to be a mom to my precious son. He delights me every day and I am so thrilled to be blessed with another son in just a few months from now. Of course I wonder at how this new little boy could ever possibly be as wonderful as Jonah, but you always hear parents say that they have just as much love for each child. Mother's Day is also another one of those times when I especially miss my mom. I want to thank her for being such a good example of what a mother should be. I want to see her interact with Jonah and spoil him like I know she would. I want her to know what a great little boy he is and to see how much he is loved. I guess I just wish I could share these greatest moments in my life with her.

I couldn't resist

2009-05-07T18:04:00.002-04:00

Ever since I knew we were having another boy I've been excited about getting matching brother outfits, so here they are. Don't worry, I'm not going to be one of those moms who gives all her kids "J" names and dresses them in matching clothes wherever they go (no offense, Duggars). We don't have a name for this baby yet, but I can tell you it won't start with J. I promissed Jon I'd stop at these two outfits. There's an old picture of Jon and his brothers in matching lederhosen, so maybe he doesn't want our boys to have an embarassing picture to look back on when they grow up.

"Singing"

2009-05-06T19:51:00.003-04:00

Okay, so he's not exactly singing, but this is a start. Jonah loves to sing and I'm glad I know a lot of children's songs so I'm not just singing the same ones over and over. He makes song requests, especially in the car. He often asks to sing something that isn't really a song, in which case I know he wants to sing that word to the tune of "Jingle Bells" like they do on Elmo's World. That gets old after a while. "How 'bout... sing shoes and socks?" "How 'bout... sing juice. Sing milk. Sing applesauce."

Jonah is very into sports right now. (Well, I suppose this could very well be a lifelong interest and not just a passing phase.) He spends much of his play time each day swinging his baseball bat or swinging anything else and calling it a bat. A golf club, a little hammer, a fly swatter, an air pump and even a spoon all qualify as bats. Thankfully he seems to realize that bats are for hitting balls and we haven't had many incidents of inappropriate hitting. He has also learned that baseball players and motorcycle riders wear helmets so he goes around the house most of the time wearing his bike helmet or some other hat and calling it a helmet.

One thing Jonah has not really learned is the idea of a baby in Mommy's tummy. We have a little book called "I'm a Big Brother Now" which he really likes, but he doesn't seem to connect at all that he will be a big brother. Whenever I talk about the baby in Mommy's tummy he just gives me a completely blank look. So I just try to point out babies when we see them. He does seem to really notice when babies or other kids are crying, though. He'll often notice the sound of a baby crying in a store before I do. He'll say, "Baby cryin'. Wah. Shh, shh, shh." (He learned this from "The Wheels on the Bus" when the parents on the bus say "Shh, shh, shh.")

But speaking of the baby in Mommy's tummy... I am almost 29 weeks along and feeling very good other than feeling big and fat. I gained 37 pounds total with Jonah and I've already gained 40 pounds this pregnancy. But, I started this pregnancy 15 pounds less than last time, so I keep telling myself that the 40 lbs. is actually just 25 from my starting weight with Jonah. I've been having some crazy mood swings that I don't remember having last time, but I guess you never know what those pregnancy hormones will do to you. I would take mood swings over the poison ivy-like rash I had with Jonah any day - they attributed that to hormones, too. I had my regular check-up today and my blood test showed good glucose and iron levels. Yay! No gestational diabetes or iron deficiency. Either of those would have been a bummer.

We also found out today that Jon will be gone for four weeks in June on a trip to Greenland. No, I'm not planning to go along this time! But this will be by far our longest time apart. I'll probably plan some road trips to visit family for part of that time if I'm still feeling up to the driving. I probably won't fly anywhere, though. I have to sit Jonah sideways on my lap to put on his socks and shoes and I can't read books with him on my lap at all. I can't imagine trying to have him on my lap on a plane at this point, much less in a month from now! So, aside from road trips I won't be going anywhere, but I would welcome any houseguests!

Seriously Country

2009-05-06T19:31:00.003-04:00

You may have heard me say (or read about) how we live in a country town. But now you will see that we seriously live in the country. We have cows in our backyard. Literally. We hear them mooing outside when our windows are open and we get to watch the baby cows shock their noses on the electric fence. Jonah loves it. I think it will be a rude awakening for him when we leave Virginia and we don't see cows and tractors every time we drive anywhere.

Baseball! Yay!

2009-04-28T17:48:00.003-04:00

This is a great video of Jonah hitting a wiffle ball from his make-shift T (a camera tripod). I'm proud to say he is a lefty like his mommy. At the end when I ask if he likes baseball he shouts, "Baseball! Yay!"

The Fort

2009-04-21T21:39:00.002-04:00

There are many reasons why we enjoy having Jon at home, but one of the reasons Jonah is happy to have Daddy home is to build forts. Here's the fort Jon built for Jonah today. This video is also cute because it shows Jonah's new habit of saying "Yeah" to every question we ask him.

Holding Hat for Ransom

2009-04-21T21:31:00.002-04:00

Dear Uncle Paul,
I have your hat. I am holding it for ransom until you come visit me and wrestle with me. Until then I will be wearing it as often as I want. Today I pretended it was my motorcycle helmet and then Mommy let me wear it to the grocery store.

Love,
Jonah

Swinging

2009-04-21T21:03:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Grandpa for the new swing!

Swinging in the shade with a cool beverage - It doesn't get better than this!

No, it's not a helmet

2009-04-15T20:17:00.003-04:00

Today Jonah took out his potty chair and his over-the-toilet potty seat. He sat down on the chair, put the seat on his head and said, "Helmet!"

Easter Tummy

2009-04-13T21:46:00.003-04:00

Here I am at 5 and a half months along in this pregnancy. If people ask I usually tell them I'm six months, though, so maybe there's a bit less of a chance they'll comment about how big I am already. Especially now that I know it's a boy, I anticipate having another big 'un. (Check out my pregnancy pics on Facebook to see what I looked like at the end of my pregnancy with Jonah - totally enormous.) But the fun thing about getting so big is that I feel like the baby is healthy and growing and that makes me happy. I actually don't mind when people comment about how big I am. It's all part of the fun of being pregnant.

I wish I had more Easter pictures to post, but this was the only one we took on my camera. We took pictures with Dad's camera, but I forgot to put them on my computer before he left. Jon is still in the DR, so my dad came down to celebrate Easter with Jonah and me. We had a very nice weekend together. We even managed to pull together a pretty nice simple Easter lunch for just the three of us: ham, jello, devilled eggs, and homemade rolls. Meal preparation on special occasions really makes us miss my mom - she seemed to be able to put those things together with such ease and they were always just right.

We didn't do an Easter basket for Jonah and we skipped the community Easter egg hunt because it was so chilly out, but he did get a toy golf club and a swing to hang from our porch as Easter presents from Grandpa. We haven't tried the swing yet, but he's already been swinging away with the golf club. The only problem is that he insists on holding the club end and whacking at the ball with the handle end. Oh well. I'm sure he'll figure it out at some point.

We're having another boy!

2009-04-10T21:34:00.003-04:00

So I finally had my ultrasound today. We had to wait longer than usual because we were in between insurance plans. But here's the first picture of our second little boy! We're so excited! Yes, of course I was dreaming about buying adorable little pink dresses, but I am thrilled to be having another boy. I'm so happy for Jonah to have a little brother to join him in wrestling and sports and running around being boys. Jon is really happy, too. So, only another 3 and a half months until we get to meet this little guy face to face! I'm sure it will go by quickly.

DR Adventure Days 5 and 6

2009-04-07T13:49:00.008-04:00

The last two days adventures have not been particularly exciting. I decided that it really would not be possible for me to make it to the beach by myself. There were just too many variables without my knowing any Spanish. So yesterday after our usual swimming, lunch and naps we went out to the nice mall in town. It was fairly similar to an American mall - the prices were the same or more than what you would find in an American mall, too. So it wasn't that exciting to shop because I wasn't going to bother with buying anything that I could get cheaper at home!

I got a kick out of this sign on the mall entrance. What? I can't bring in my gun or my machete?

There was a little arcade which was our main entertainment. For about $2 I got 6 tokens for Jonah to ride the little kiddie cars. He was thrilled! He alternated between cars for about 45 minutes and cried when it was time to leave.

This car went up and down and played annoying songs including "Oh My Darling, Clementine" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

This little kid was somewhat upset that Jonah was using "his" batmobile. He stood there and talked to Jonah for the etirety of his ride. Who knows what he was saying.

Sitting behind the wheel of an arcade game was just as much fun as the kiddie cars, if not more. Plus, it was free and I got to sit in the car next to him.

This morning I wanted to go to a cigar factory I read about in my tour book. The book said it closed at 4:30 so we needed to go before naps. But when I talked to the guy at the front desk he had never heard of it and when he called the place they said they only shipped cigars, they didn't make them and they didn't do tours. Good thing I asked. So he sent us off to a different place where we could see cigars made. When we got there it was just two guys rolling cigars and Jonah wasn't allowed in because of the smoke - I think they were giving free samples. So I parked him right outside the door with his juice and animal crackers while I watched for a few minutes.

I bought a small box of cigars for Jon to give to some of his friends back in Harrisonburg. Of course I know nothing about cigars, but the guide book said that this is a local brand that is as good or better than the Dominican brands you would find in the States. Hopefully that's true. I'd like to keep the box when they're done - I think it would be a cool souvenir.

This afternoon we're supposed to go to the grocery store with another American woman who is here working on the project Jon is flying for. I'm going to get Jon stocked up on drinks and snacks before I go. He works from about nine to six, seven days a week and I know he really doesn't want to try to head out to the store in the evening after he gets home. No one knows how much longer the project will last - the people who contracted Jon's company just want to work at it until their money runs out. It could be another week or two. The concensus amoung the Dominicans was that Good Friday was more important to have off than Easter, so Jon will have Friday off, but not Sunday. I will be back in Virginia on Thursday and I'm looking forward to my dad coming down to join Jonah and me for Easter.

So tomorrow is our last day for adventures and then we leave on Thursday morning. I've heard that there's a waterpark very nearby, so we might try that. I know I probably won't be riding waterslides in my "condition", but Jonah's probably to little to go down the big slides anyway. Maybe there will be some kiddie slides.

Swimming

2009-04-06T13:29:00.002-04:00

Here's a little video of Jonah swimming around by himself. He's watching the workers cut the grass with a weed whacker, or "Vacuum!" as he thought it was. That's the noise you hear in the background.

DR Adventure Days 3 and 4

2009-04-05T20:22:00.005-04:00

We seemed to have settled into a routine of having breakfast, poking around for a bit, going swimming, having lunch, taking naps, and then we go out on an afternoon "adventure". Our morning swims have been so much fun. It's a way for us to play together, without being to exhausting for me - he can't swim that fast to get away from me and when he's out of the pool there's nowhere for him to go. He is getting to be quite a good little swimmer for a 1-year-old. Today he dropped some toys in the pool while we were sitting on the side and they floated away. He said, "Get it, toys" and I thought he wanted me to go get them, but he got on his stomach, scooched himself off the edge into the pool, kicked his way over to the toys about 10 feet away, and swam them back to me saying "I got it, toys!" Then he said, "More stairs, up and down" and he swam over to the ladder about 12 feet away and climbed up and down.

For yesterday's adventure we decided to visit the monument in the center of town. It's on a big hill and you can get a view of the entire city. A lot of people were flying kites and it was fun to just walk around and watch. The monument is surrounded by statues of heroes of the restoration. Jonah climbed up the stairs to this one and said, "Grandpa! Hi, Grandpa!" Any man over 50 is "Grandpa" to him, but I didn't know that bronze statues of uniformed, mustached, Latino men with huge swords also qualified in his mind as "Grandpa." A group of school girls showed up and they completely mobbed Jonah. One Spanish phrase that we've picked up on rather quickly is, "Ay, que lindo!" which aparantly means something like, "Oh, how cute!" Everyone says this to Jonah. Everyone touches him, too, and if he's not strapped in his stoller he gets picked up or people will even take him out of my arms if I'm holding him! Good thing he's not shy and he's a very good sport. These girls picked him up, put him next to a statue and started taking pictures! It was hilarious. I also got a kick out of them because even these nine- or ten-year-old girls were wearing what seems to be the national dress code for women: skin-tight jeans and high heels. Everyone dresses as nicely as they can, and women in particular always look like they're about to go clubbing. NO ONE wears shorts, even though it's about 90 degrees at all times. I get around the rule by wearing skirts and dresses, even though technically no one really wears those either. I break the rule completely for Jonah. He's just a baby - I'm not going to subject him to wearing designer jeans like all the other babies around. Jon has to wear pants, of course, but he has made a compromise in just wearing his uniform polo shirt without an under shirt.

Here we are at the monument.

We took a short carriage ride around the monument.

Jonah loved the horse. Our carriage driver was an enthusiastic young guy in a Yankees hat. There seem to be a lot of Yankees fans down here.

After our carriage ride we walked around until we found a nice-looking restaurant to have dinner. Again, at 6:00 we were the only people in the whole place. It was too bad because it looked like it would have been a fun place - there were three levels, it was open-air, there was a big screen (probably for karaoke) and a dance floor. We got to sit in the front corner of the restaurant right at a major intersection where Jonah could watch all the cars, trucks and street vendors. I ordered something that I knew was chicken, but I didn't know anything else about it. It turned out to be a grilled chicken breast with a red sauce similar to marinara - not bad. There were even a few veggies and some mashed potatoes that Jonah particularly enjoyed.

I had decided to have dinner out by ourselves because Jon had gotten back so late the day before. It turned out that he had gotten back earlier and we could have had dinner with him. Today I got a pre-paid cell phone and Jon also has one, so now I can call and coordinate with him so we can eat together if possible.

For today's afternoon adventure we went to a local museum. It was mostly art and some cultural exhibits. Of course I couldn't understand any of the signs, and it wasn't too exciting for Jonah, but he was a very good boy and we went through quickly.

I had noticed an ice cream shop on the way to the museum that had a kids play area. I thought I knew the name of it and I asked a taxi drive to take me there. He had no idea what I was talking about. He stopped and asked some other taxi drivers, but they had no clue either. Finally I gave up and told him to just take me back to my hotel, but we passed the ice cream shop and I told him to stop there. It turns out that it was called something completely different than what I saw on the sign. He rolled his eyes and me and tried to tell me a bunch of stuff, to which I could just shrug and say, "Yo no se." (I don't know.) I ordered ice cream, which was a repeat performance of shrugging and saying "si" to whatever the ice cream guy asked me. I ended up with a waffle cone with raspberry sherbet, some whipped cream that tasted like marshmallow fluff, raspberry syrup and a chocolate-covered wafer cookie. Then I took Jonah outside to play.

What I hadn't noticed when we drove by was that the playground was totally packed. All the chairs were occupied, but I was a little surprised that no one offered to give the pregnant American lady a chair. There were two slides - a big twisty slide that had a constant flow of about a dozen kids, and a smaller one that had a platform at the top. I helped Jonah climb up to the platform, but all the kids just kept going in front of him and basically running him over. Every time he would get close to the slide, another kid would push past him. Finally I was able to help him go down, but then he just climbed back up and perched on the platform and watched the kids as they pushed around him.

When I finished my ice cream I helped Jonah down off the platform and he really wanted to go down the big slide. I had to go up with him because it would have been too slow for him to climb up by himself, plus it wouldn't be safe. So I helped him up to the top and sent him down, but I couldn't go back down the stairs because there were 10 antsy kids behind me waiting to go. One little girl even got impatient and told me, "Rapido!" which even I know means, "Hurry up!" Of course Jonah loved the twisty slide so much that he wanted to do it again and again. Now the other moms are laughing at me. What is this pregnant white lady in a skirt doing going down the slide? But what was I supposed to do? My kid wanted to go down the slide and no one was helping me.

I used my cell phone to call the front desk at the hotel to send a cab to pick us up - I didn't feel like dealing with a cab driver who didn't know where to take me. I also called Jon to let him know we were on our way and he ordered room service that actually came up with us on the elevator when we got back. I feel like my lack of language skills have dampened my adventursome spirit, somewhat. I really want to take a day-trip to the beach, but now I'm not feeling so up to it. Tomorrow I think we will try a local mall that's supposed to be fun and I'll consider the beach for Tuesday... we'll see.

DR Pics

2009-04-05T13:59:00.004-04:00

I will post more stories and pictures of yesterday's and today's adventures later tonight, but here are some pictures now that we have the laptop back.

Jonah's authentic Dominican Republic hat and maracas.

Getting in the trash can passes as entertainment for a 1-year-old in a hotel room.

The lovely hotel pool...

... and right outside the pool walls. "Cows swimming!"

What a little tourist!

Seriously ready for a swim. "Yay, floaties!"

DR Adventure Day 2

2009-04-03T21:20:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure that I'll give daily updates throughout this entire trip, but today was somewhat interesting, so I thought I'd share a few highlights. But before I give the 'blow by blow' as my dad says, I must share that I just checked the American Airlines web site and they found my bag! I think I'll have it back within the next day or two! I am so happy because I really thought that someone saw me open it up to take something out in the airport, saw the laptop and swiped it before it ever made it on the plane. Thank you for all your prayers!

Today Jonah and I took a taxi to the main drag of downtown Santiago. It was quite an adventure! I tried to get cash at the ATM at the hotel before we left, but it was out of service. I had just enough to pay for the cab driver and then I needed to find an ATM when we got there. It was total craziness. Santiago is not really a tourist destination and no one speaks English. I walked all the way down one street without finding an ATM and I was starting to get nervous thinking I wouldn't have money to buy food or anything or to get a taxi back to the hotel. Then I realized that I had gotten off the main street and once I got back to it I found an ATM within a few blocks.

The streets were utter chaos with traffic and vendors on practically every inch of sidewalk. The sidewalks were all brick so it was quite a bumpy ride for Jonah. He seemed a little overwhelmed by it all at first and didn't really say much of anything for the first half of the trip, but he loosened up after a while and became his usual chatty self.

I found a nice drug store and found some makeup to replace what I lost (I really didn't think I'd ever see that stuff again). It looked like it had been sitting on the shelf for a very long time, but I was able to find Cover Girl and Max Factor and I even found the exact shade of blush that I normally use.

I bought a big floppy sun hat for myself. Every store in the Dominican Republic seems to have about three or four times as many employees as necessary so there are always all sorts of people standing around with nothing to do. Four employees stood around playing with Jonah while I tried on hats. He has gotten quite charming in the way he says, 'Hola!' and 'Gracias!'

Then we found a souvenir shop and bought Jonah some maracas and a little straw hat with a Dominican flag on it. He loves the hat! It looks so adorable on him and he wants to wear it, take it on and off, and carry it around with him. I have pictures - I'll post them as soon as we get the laptop back.

We ended up having lunch at McDonald's. I know that is so lame, but I felt like I had been adventurous enough and I was really feeling my lack of language skills. I wasn't sure I could successfully navigate one of the little cafes by myself - McDonald's was challenging enough. Do you realize how many questions they ask you when you order from McDonald's? Little bits and pieces of my one year of Spanish in high school are coming back to me, but that was ten years ago and it was only first year Spanish. I remember how to ask how much something costs, but I don't remember my numbers well enough to understand quickly when people answer me.

After McDonald's we went out and found a taxi to take us back to the hotel for our naps. I showed the driver my key card and he seemed to understand where to go. I knew our hotel was part of a chain, but I thought the other hotels were in other parts of the country. It turns out that there are four hotels with the same name in Santiago. After the first wrong hotel I gave him the card again and pointed to which one was ours on the list. I tried to tell him it was near the airport, but he didn't get it. After the second wrong hotel I reemphasized 'airport' and he got it. 'Oh, aeropuerte?' 'Si! Si!' We finally made it. I paid him a very large tip.

After naps we went swimming, but by four in the afternoon the entire pool area was in the shade. We still had fun, but it was quite chilly without any sun, even though the water was warm. There were a bunch of other kids in the pool and they were very sweet in playing with Jonah. By 6:00 we were ready for dinner, but Jon wasn't back yet, so we had dinner by ourselves. I guess people in the DR eat dinner much later than Americans - the front desk lady looked at us like we were crazy and we were the only people in the restaurant for the entirety of our meal. Jon didn't get back until Jonah was already in bed. He had a long day of work and just ordered room service for dinner. Sounds like all of his days here are going to be like that, unless the weather turns bad. So, Jonah and I will continue our adventures on our own. I think tomorrow we'll do our swimming in the morning and go out in the afternoon to avoid the chilly pool experience.

First Day in DR

2009-04-02T20:21:00.002-04:00

After a very long day of travel Jonah and I made it safely to The Dominican Republic last night. The first leg of the trip was pretty bad in terms of Jonah being antsy and not satisfied by my attempts to entertain him. I even had an episode of Sesame Street loaded on my iPod, but he just wanted to keep taking the headphones out of his ears and put them in his mouth for which he got spanked... He had meltdowns because I wouldn't let him play with my lotion or lipstick. By the end I wanted to take him to the back of the plane and shut him in a bathroom. At least when we landed he jumped up and down on my lap and shouted, 'Yay! We did it!' It was very cute.

We made a quick connection in Miami with just enough time to go to the bathroom/ change a diaper, but not enough time to get anything to eat. I had some snacks in my bag so we survived. Jonah did better on the second leg - maybe he was a little more subdued because he was tired. There was a very sweet lady next to us who held him in her lap for a while and read to him and played with him. That really helped.

We made it through customs quickly and found our suitcases at the baggage claim... We had checked our carry-on bag at the gate in DC because it was a full flight and they were asking people to check things. That bag did not make it to our destination. It is still missing. It contained my makeup, miscellaneous toys and things for Jonah and.... our laptop. I am sad because it had Jonah's entire life in pictures and I'm worried because it had our tax returns on it, which means all of our personal information. So, please pray that it will be returned to us, or at the very least that whoever finds it doesn't decide to use our personal information.

We're staying at a very nice hotel near the airport, but the surrounding area isn't quite as nice. When we looked out our window this morning we could see down to the swimming pool, but on the other side of the pool walls is a field with all sorts of random trash, a train box car, and grazing cows. I lifted Jonah up to look out and he said, 'Cows swimming!' We had a nice breakfast in the hotel and then Jonah and I went swimming. We had a wonderful time! The floatie suit worked, but he would tip over if I wasn't holding him. Then we tried the floatie suit in combination with the arm floaties - perfect! He looked hilarious, but he could float and swim around all by himself (of course I was always right by him, you nervous Nellies!). He was so happy - he kept saying, 'Yay, floaties!' Then we dried off, had lunch, took a nice long nap, and then ventured out in a taxi to the grocery store. The traffic was totally crazy - I'm glad I wasn't trying to do it myself in a rental car. We got some snacks and drinks and baby wipes - another thing that was lost in the missing carry-on. By the time we got back it was time for dinner and Jon was back from the airport so we ate together at the hotel restaurant and put Jonah to bed.

I wish I had pictures to share, but the hotel computer doesn't have a slot for our memory card so until we get the laptop back we probably won't be able to post pictures. But stay tuned for more updates in the days to come!

Floatie Suit

2009-03-21T22:11:00.003-04:00

I got Jonah this floatie swimsuit for when we're at the pool in the Dominican Republic next week. I've heard that it's better for teaching kids to swim than the armband-style floaties. He loves the suit! I took it off him and he just wanted me to put it on again! I think it looks hilarious on him.

Hair Cut

2009-03-21T21:55:00.003-04:00

Jonah is very patient while Jon cuts his hair. He was very intrigued by seeing his hair on the floor and having it stuck to his feet.

Tricky Tractor

2009-03-20T21:22:00.002-04:00

Jon was on the computer last week with Jonah looking up videos on YouTube. Since Jonah is really into trucks and tractors right now, they watched this video called "Tricky Tractor". It's basically a slide show of pictures of tractors accompanied by techno music and some guy saying some stuff in Dutch. I don't know exactly what they're saying, but toward the end they say, "Ja!" and have it printed all big across the screen. This has become Jonah's favorite YouTube video and if I ask if he wants to watch "Tricky Tractor" he'll reply with an enthusiastic, "JA!" The music is also very catchy. Watch it once or twice and see if it doesn't get stuck in your head, too.

If we're not watching Tricky Tractor, Jonah always wants to watch basketball. He calls it "BACK-sih-go" or "BACK-a-go". The three-sylable words are still a little challenging these days. I've got him watching the Bulls 1996 championship game in short installments.

Bubbles!

2009-03-20T07:19:00.002-04:00

The Crowded Car

2009-03-15T20:28:00.002-04:00

Here are the pictures I promised a few weeks ago. We were playing with a friend and Jonah was very excited to ride in his little car. Apparently this other little boy always likes to load up his car with stuff. It didn't really matter to him that Jonah happened to be in the car. He took all the books from his book shelf and loaded up as usual with Jonah inside. As you can see from his facial expression, Jonah didn't quite know what to think about this. We were in the kitchen while this was going on and so we didn't see much of the proccess, but just the final result of Jonah burried in a sea of books. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants!

"Why is this kid doing this to me? I just wanted to ride in the little car!"

Skyline Drive

2009-03-14T23:05:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we had absolutely gorgeous weather (not so much this weekend) and we took a family excursion to Charlottesville, VA. We visited James Monroe's home, which is right next to Jefferson's Monticello, walked around the downtown area, and took the scenic route home on Skyline Drive.

We thought it would be funny to take a pregnant version of the classic "car model" shot.

And of course we had to get Jonah in a picture, too.

Jonah was losing patience toward the end of the trip and we were trying everything to keep him entertained. We gave him an umbrella to look at and you can guess the outcome.

Two more days...

2009-02-25T21:17:00.002-05:00

Jon's new job requires him to travel quite a bit and this week he is gone on his first trip. He left last Tuesday and will be back Friday. Being apart for 10 days is a long time. We expect that a lot of the trips will be even longer. Jonah and I have been doing fine on our own, but we certainly miss Daddy. He's been putting in 12- and 16-hour days and we've had a hard time catching each other to talk on the phone. When we do talk either he's tired, or I'm tired, there are jets and helicopters taking off in the background on his side, or Jonah is being totally distracting on my side. I'll be so happy when he is back and we can just share life together again.

Yesterday was my birthday, so rather than sit around feeling sad that Jon wasn't here to make me feel special, I decided to make my own special day by throwing a birthday brunch. I invited four moms and associated toddlers and we had a wonderful time! I made an egg/sausage/cheese/potato casserole, my mom's homemade cinnamon rolls, heart-shaped brownies and fruit salad. All the food turned out fantastic (if I do say so myself) even though I had never made any of the recipes before. I served sparkling grape juice and raspberries and cream-flavored coffee. I used my nice table cloth and matching cloth napkins. I think the ladies appreciated the grown-up time together in spite of toddlers spilling cups of pretzels in the living room and fighting over my birthday balloon. I had an Elmo DVD from the library that seemed to help keep the kids from "bothering" us too much. It turned out to be a fabulous birthday.

Jonah is of course learning more every day and keeping me totally entertained. I've felt bad for him since Jon's been gone so we've been doing more wrestling and chasing around the house than usual. It's actually been very fun to bond that way. We have our little games we play and Jonah just revels in the anticipation of knowing that I'm going to tackle him or throw him on the couch. I love seeing him laugh and have so much fun. One of our favorite games is for him to pretend to walk away and I say, "Bye bye, Jonah. See you later." Then I grab him and pull him back before he can get anywhere. This is great because he loves it and thinks it's so funny and I can sit in the same place and I don't have to stand up or run around.

Today I discovered a new way to make him laugh. We have a GPS in our car and it talks when it's giving directions. We got annoyed with the lady's voice and Jon discovered that you can set it to different accents. So now we have an Australian gentleman directing us around town. Today I imitated the Aussie voice and Jonah thought it was hilarious! It added new joy to our car ride!

Jonah loves playing with friends and if I tell him we're going to see friends he gets very excited about "friendies". He seems to pick up on things and know we're going to see friendies even when I haven't told him. Tonight we were invited to dinner a the home of a young couple from church who don't have kids yet. Jonah thought we were going to see friendies so I told him that yes, we were seeing friendies. Just a few minutes after entering their apartment Jonah got this confused look on his face. He started walking around asking, "Friendies? Friendies?" Apparently grown-ups do not qualify as friendies in his mind. I got the feeling he felt betrayed. "Mom! You said there would be friendies and they aren't here!" It took me a while to convince him that big people are friendies too.

I used to always know what Jonah was saying because there was definite context. He was either talking about something right in front of him or copying something he just heard. As his verbal abilities increase he's starting to talk about whatever pops into his head. This requires a little more effort on my part to discern what he's saying. It's particularly frustrating in the car because he just jabbers on totally randomly. I finally realized that for the most part he's just exercising his vocabulary and doesn't require much of a response from me. At lunch today I gave him a few tortilla chips. He held out his chip to me and said, "Sosa! Sosa!" I couldn't figure out what he was saying, but he wouldn't quit. He picked up another chip, "Sosa!" Finally I realized he wanted salsa on his chips. Quite the working little mind!

Sorry the last few posts have been long and without pictures, but Jon took the camera with him on his trip. My friend got some hilarious pictures of Jonah and her little boy at a play-date on Monday. I asked her to email them to me so I'll put them up when I get them. Stay tuned!

Items of note

2009-02-19T23:41:00.002-05:00

It is way past my bedtime so I will try to be brief, but all of a sudden I felt the need to get down on "paper" Jonah's latest habits, tricks, and other cute things. I'm so afraid I might forget what he was like at seventeen months.

A few weeks ago we visited some local caverns and went on the guided tour. Jon had to carry Jonah the whole way because it wasn't stroller accessible and there was a strict "no touch" policy. There was also a no food or drink policy. So Jonah provided the group with running commentary throughout the entire tour - seriously he never stopped talking. His main observation during his time in the cavern was, "Rocks!" Over and over again. What can I say, he calls it like he sees it. This was interspersed with requests for just about every food and drink he could think of and picking out words he knew from the tour guide's talk and parroting them back. "No touch." "Change."

He loves lotion and diaper cream, especially Desitin. I'll go to get him up from a nap and he'll say, "Diaper. Cream. Desitin. All better." He loves lotion so much that last night when he dripped milk on his hand he decided to pretend the white drops were lotion. "Otion. Handies." While rubbing his hands together.

He's just starting to get into pretend play with his teddy bears. He likes to wrap them in blankets and put them "ni-night" and feed them and give them drinks from his sippy cup. The other day I let him have a teddy in the high chair and he was feeding it grapes and told it, "Chew chew chew!" just like I say when he has a mouthful of food.

He'll pretend anything is a phone. A sock can be a phone, a mitten, a hairbrush, a baby monitor, a remote, anything.

There are things I didn't realize I said until Jonah started saying them. I didn't know I said "nope" instead of "no", but now Jonah says "nope" all the time and when I started paying attention I realized how much I say it. Like when he's full and doesn't want another bite of food he'll say, "Nope! Nope!" I also didn't notice that I much tell Jon, "Bye! Have a good day!" I still don't think I really say "have a good day" very much, but now when saying goodbye to someone, Jonah often includes, "Have a good day!" (The "have a good" is kinda mushed together so it sounds more like "ofagoo DAY")

On our recent flight to Chicago Jonah was down on the floor exploring. Next thing I knew he was saying, "Feet! Toes!" Uh oh. I turned around to the guy sitting behind me, "Is he touching your feet?" "Yeah." At least he was smiling.

He counts backward and forward between two and five, but NEVER says one. I can only get him to say "one" when I ask how old he is. He loves the alphabet song and his favorite letter is "W". He also likes "C", but W is the only letter he chimes in on when I sing the song.

He loves to pray at meals and wants to pray not only at the beginning, but at random intervals throughout the meal. He'll be talking about something else and then just reach his hand out to me, "Pray?" So we pray!

The need to discuss passing gas has been inherrited down from my mom's side of the family and Jonah always has to inform me when he has made "toots".

But to balance out the "potty talk", he is very good about saying "please", which makes me very happy.

Battle Wounds

2009-02-13T14:09:00.003-05:00

This is what you get when you cross an energetic and adventurous toddler with concrete and gravel driveways. The scrape on the top of his forehead near the hairline is from trying to pick up a basketball and doing a somersault over it into the concrete. The other scrapes from the forehead, down the cheek, on the nose and on the chin are from a trip on the brick entryway of our house, which sent him flying head first into the loose gravel driveway. We brought him in the house and had to pick all the rocks out of his face. I suspect this is only one of many wounds to expect over the coming years of raising a little boy.

Quick trip to Grandpa's

2009-01-26T20:04:00.002-05:00

Last weekend Jon and I made a trip out to Phoenix to meet with members of a mission agency we are looking into as a possible sending agency. Jon went out Friday and I followed Saturday. Since our flights conveniently had layovers in Chicago going both ways I asked my dad to babysit Jonah so we could make the most of our short time.

The trip with Jonah from D.C. to Chicago was a bit of a challenge for me. I had to park in the extended parking lot, catch a shuttle to the terminal, print my boarding pass (thankfully I wasn't checking any luggage), get through security with Baby, stroller, backpack, and small rolling suitcase, take a shuttle to the gate, realize that by printing my boarding pass at the self-service kiosk I didn't have a boarding pass for Jonah, get the boarding pass... By the time I accomplished all this we were about last to board on the full flight. I had to get down the aisle to the back with the rolling suitcase, backpack, and wriggling toddler and hoping not to hit too many passengers along the way. I thought we were going to have to sit in a middle seat (totally miserable) but a kind man offered to move to the middle so we could have the aisle. After sitting there for about 20 or 30 minutes the woman in front of us turned around and asked if we could switch seats because she didn't think she could handle Jonah kicking her in the back for the entire flight. So we switched and thankfully had another sympathetic seat-mate next to us who didn't mind Jonah handing her his cup and toys and examining her extremely long fingernails.

While we waited to meet Grandpa at Midway we found a Kids Corner with a big screen playing cartoons AND a payphone. What could be better?

He's only one year old, but he has plenty of important calls to make.

We found Dad waiting outside security and Jonah was very quick to shout, "Grandpa!" and then looking at me, "Bye Bye!" No separation anxiety from this kid! I was just so glad not to have to struggle through a similar flight ordeal on the four-hour trip to Phoenix (and four hours back on Sunday). So Jonah got to have some nice Grandpa bonding time and was a very good boy, judging from the report I got. He even pooped on the potty for Grandpa (the first repeat performance of this accomplishment since he did it for me the first time two weeks ago!)

After a quick visit in Phoenix Jon and I turned around and came back on Sunday afternoon. Dad and Jonah were waiting outside security and I knelt down for Jonah to come give me a hug. He came running toward me and I thought it was going to be a wonderfully precious Kodak moment... and he kept running right past me shouting, "Daddy! Daddy!" Oh well. Maybe next time he'll be happy to see me too.

Our Nightly View

2009-01-26T19:45:00.002-05:00

We get to see a spectacular sunset over the mountains every night.

A Prodigy?

2009-01-21T19:32:00.002-05:00

Trying on my vest

It seems like I've been blogging a lot lately, but I feel like interesting things have been happening that I wanted to share with you all. The sad thing about blogging is that you never know who reads your blog and if the people you're thinking of when you write are actually reading, or if it's just your parents and a certain friend from Colorado. Anyway...

This morning while Jonah was in his high chair I randomly started singing the theme song to a cartoon show we've watched a few times on Netflix. It's one of those annoying songs that gets in your head and I didn't really know the words so I was just singing "dee dee dee". Jonah perked up and happily announced, "Caillou!" I couldn't believe he could correctly name a song I sang without the words! When Jon got home we repeated the trick and then I tried with "Three Blind Mice" which he identified as "Me Mah Mahce!" and "Old McDonald" - "Eeeeeee-I-E-I-O!" I was totally amazed. Is this normal for a 16-month-old toddler? Maybe lots of other toddlers could do the same thing but don't have the verbal ability to say the name of the song. Maybe all toddlers do this and I'm just dumb to think it's special. But whether it's unique or not, I was very proud to see his little mind working and to know he was learning new skills.

One of those SuperMom Days

2009-01-19T19:48:00.003-05:00

Today was one of those days where I just totally kicked butt and felt like Supermom. Maybe something magically happens when you cross that 13 week mark into the second tri-mester and energy suddenly reappears and you can conquer the world. Or maybe it was just an anomaly and it will never happen again. Either way, I'm very proud of my accomplishments today:

Made dinner in the crock pot
Made dinner rolls from scratch for the first time (they were awesome!)
Paid bills
Cleaned both toilets, which were totally nasty
Vacuumed the whole apartment
Did five loads of laundry
Cleared out Jonah's room which was still full of boxes and miscellaneous junk
Unpacked and organized three lingering boxes in our bedroom that I've been dreading
Loaded, ran, and unloaded the dish washer
Cleaned a stain Jonah made on the carpet this morning
Served dinner by 6:00
And of course the normal duties of feeding, bathing, diapering, nose wiping and entertaining a very active toddler! Whew!

On the verge of manhood (or at least boyhood)

2009-01-14T19:20:00.002-05:00

Today marked a very special event in Jonah's life: He pooped on the potty. He was in his high chair at lunch and I noticed that he was working on something in his diaper. I asked him if he was making some poops and he said, "Potty!" I ignored it for a few minutes figuring he didn't really know what he was talking about and that he had probably already done what he had to do in his diaper. But after a few more requests for the potty I took him out of the high chair and we headed to the bathroom. I found that he had not done much in the diaper and after a minute of sitting on the potty he performed his task! I was so happy and proud of him!

Somehow I thought this would be a turning point and he would poop on the potty from here on out, but we found a very messy diaper when putting him to bed tonight. (Veteran moms are probably laughing their heads off right now. One poop on the potty? Ha! You've got a long way to go, sister!) Oh well. It was ground breaking. Let the potty training begin!

One for the books...

2009-01-09T21:12:00.002-05:00

I keep trying to get Jonah to say, "Love you!" and he kind of tries, but he isn't really enthusiastic about it and it doesn't really sound close. But yesterday he made up for it in the most precious way...

He has one of those little baby photo albums with pictures of us and various family members. He often picks out Daddy and Grandpa and always himself ("Baby!"), but rarely Mommy. Yesterday while on his changing table he not only recognized me, but he said, "Mommy! Pretty!" I just about melted! I promise I have never prompted him to say this. I only taught him pretty when he's looking at my rings or earrings. It's possible that he saw my ring in the picture, but it's still precious.

He's starting to put two or three words together - I think sentences are not far off. He says "read it", "car keys", "mail box", "this is how", "no no touch", "choo-choo train", "all better", "all done", etc.

He names things off in the grocery store as we pass. "Nanas" (bananas), "beans", "chips", "juice", "an-ich" (sandwich when he sees bread), "nuts", "cheese", "milk", and of course "oh-dirt" (yogurt). Not only does he go ballistic when he sees yogurt, but he's convinced that everything with a plastic lid is also oh-dirt. No amount of convincing will make him realize that it's margarine, sour cream, or coffee.

We're also getting a kick out of how he enunciates his "t" on words like "out" and "hot". It comes out more like "ou T!" He occasionally wakes up in the middle of the night for no good reason, especially in a new place or times of transition. Now that we're settled in our own place and don't need to worry about waking other people up we've been letting him cry it out. If we get up with him the episode usually lasts about 2 hours and we usually end up letting him cry anyways. If we don't go in at all and just let him cry it only lasts 15 minutes. It's heart-wrenching to hear him cry, but we know there's nothing wrong with him and we'll all get more sleep if we don't get him up. The other night he had us laughing out loud in our room when we started hearing, "WAHHHHHHH!" Pause, and then in a normal voice, "Ou T!" Then back to, "WAHHHHHHHH!" Apparently he hasn't learned how to scream words, yet. Let's hope he never does.

Keep working on it

2009-01-08T11:09:00.003-05:00

Jonah is really into trying to dress himself lately. The pictures are a little blurry because it's very hard to get him to stand still and because the flash was off, but you get the idea.

He pulled this shirt out of his hamper and managed to get it around his head. This was complete success as far as he was concerned and he didn't bother to try to get his arms in.

This, on the other hand, has me a little concerned. While I was getting dressed he pulled these out of our hamper. I guess since underwear has large holes it's easier to get over the head than a shirt. No matter how many times I tell him that it's undies and not a shirt and that it's icky... once I turn my back this is what I find.

The Grapefruit Part 2

2009-01-06T19:01:00.004-05:00

I couldn't decide which video was funnier, so I decided to post them both. This one also has the priceless sour face with an added, "Yummy!" and request to drink the juice of the grapefruit.

The Grapefruit Part 1

2009-01-05T21:12:00.002-05:00

It's a blessing that my child will eat anything. It's also hilarious sometimes. I love the sour face and then the huge smile and request for "moooooooore".

My new favorite video

2009-01-03T12:10:00.003-05:00

Jon's dad drove across town with Jonah in the back seat (I know he wasn't in his car seat. Please don't report us. It was an emergency. Besides, none of us had car seats when we were kids and we survived, right?) Jonah was being very quiet in the back and Jon's dad didn't know that silence is a very bad sign when it comes to toddlers. This is what he discovered when they arrived home.

Christmas Part 2

2008-12-25T16:29:00.003-05:00

Jonah was very excited about his new toys: 5 little trucks, Clippo blocks, an airplane with Little People, an alphabet caterpillar, and a "Me and My Potty" book.

In Jonah's snack cup is his Christmas treat: dried banana chips.

Paul's family

Jonah with Uncle "Poe" and Aunt "Tahti".

Jonah wanted to read the potty book as many times as he could get someone to read it to him.

Paul with Evelyn in Jonah's Christmas outfit from last year that he never wore because he was way too big for it.

Christmas Part 1

2008-12-25T14:26:00.003-05:00

Jonah got a basketball hoop from Grandpa for Christmas. I didn't think he would be really into it or know what to do, but once we showed him how to do it he loved making baskets. (It helped that we went totally crazy every time he did it.)

Snow Day

2008-12-19T23:12:00.003-05:00

I'm still having problems with my flash being too bright, but I had to post this picture of Jonah on his way outside for his first real play in the snow. I stayed in while Jon took him out. I think he liked it, but he had a hard time going anywhere without falling down. He reminded me of Ralphie's little brother on "A Christmas Story".

Christmas Babies

2008-12-19T22:36:00.004-05:00

So Vashti and I decided to do a cutsie photo shoot with the babies. Jon and Paul were very against the idea - especially the bow on Jonah. After a couple of shots I took off his bow, but I don't think it made them much happier. But I think the pictures are cute. I know they aren't very manly, but he's still just a baby, right?

Visit to Dayton

2008-12-19T22:13:00.002-05:00

Last week we stopped in Dayton, OH for a few days to visit my brother and his wife and to meet their new baby, Evelyn.

Meyer kids and Meyer grandkids.

It was fun to have a little reunion with our friends from Albuquerque. We met the Martins at our church in Albuquerque last year and then they moved to Dayton at the end of the summer for Chris to earn his PhD. Now the Martins attend Paul and Vashti's church in Dayton!

I thought this was a cute picture even though it's a little washed out. I've been having problems with my flash being too bright and making people look like ghosts.

Baby Babbles

2008-12-19T21:33:00.003-05:00

I have been trying for a really long time to catch Jonah's "babbling" on video. I finally got some. First he counts to three, then he goes on to tell us whatever else is on his mind. This babbling is constant in our house. I imagine that once he can really speak full sentences it'll be all over. I think he'll be one of those kids who just never stops talking.

Thanksgiving (belated)

2008-12-19T21:14:00.004-05:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to post a few Thanksgiving pictures... I got a fantastic video of Jonah naming off all his cousins and I wanted to post it right away, but it was a little long and I couldn't get it to load. This had me so depressed that I didn't want to mess with the blog at all. But I really do need to get caught up before Christmas and people have been bugging me about it, so here it is, minus the awesome video.

The little kids were getting into too much mischief as we were trying to make dinner so we stuck them all in the playpen. A wonderful invention!

We had a great visit with Jon's family at his parents' farm. Jon's brother Chris and his family came out from Colorado so we were all there: nine adults (Jon's grandma came out as well) and twelve kids. Thankfully the weather was fairly mild and the kids got to spend a lot of time outside. It was a little crazy when everyone was in the house. Even Grandma commented that the place was, "swarming with children."

I was able to wrangle Jonah and Oliver for a quick picture.

Abby wrangled them, too. I don't think they were too excited about her having them in a headlock.

My Baby Book List of Things Jonah Says

2008-11-10T22:59:00.004-05:00

I know you're supposed to record your baby's first words in your baby book, but I haven't really been keeping a baby book. Who needs one when you have a blog? But I do feel like I need to record some "snapshots" of this precious time when he's saying more and more words.

He says "Jesus" and "Bible" and will chime in with me whenever I sing Jesus Loves Me.

He says "E-I-E-I-O" and repeats all the animal sounds of Old MacDonald. Cow, moo, nay, doggie, ruff, kitty, meow (pronounced "Bee-owwwwww"), ba. He also says turtle.

"Duck" is by far his favorite animal and favorite word. When in doubt he says "Duck!" All animals are duck until you can convince him otherwise and he'll often look out the window and pronounce "DUCK!" even though there is no duck or any animal of any sort to be seen.

He loves shoes "sehs" and socks "ocks". He enjoys taking them off, putting them on, and carrying them around. He always takes off his socks during naps and greets me when I go to get him by holding out a sock and saying "ock". He says shirt, pants, hat, and jackie (jacket).

When I bend down and ask for a huggy he comes running into my arms shouting "Huggy!"

He says "diaper" and has even occasionally told me when he had "poo poos".

He can say a whole slew of food-related words including breakfast (okay, it's a stretch, but I know he's saying it), lunchie, snack, cracker, cheese, nut, peach, peas, bean, juice, milk, tato (for potato) nana (for banana), cado (for avocado), more, all done, hungy (for hungry) and yummy. The last few mornings when I told him we were going downstairs for breakfast and he said "breakfast" and proceeded to tell me what he was going to have: "oh-dirt" (yogurt) and "chee-uhs" (Cheerios) and milk.

He says please when prompted and says thank-you, sometimes even without prompting.

He says "boogers" and "gross" (sounds like goss) when I have to wipe his nose.

He says "nose" and "ears" (sounds more like "is") and occasionally "mouth" and can correctly point to them.

One of the cutest things he does is play peek-a-boo. He puts his hands to his temples (he hasn't figured out that he should cover his eyes) and then pulls his hands away saying "Pee-boww". He says pee-bo whenever I pull a shirt over his head or pull his hands through his sleeves. Once Jon put him under the covers in our bed and he started repeating pee-bo over and over apparantly thinking that if he couldn't see Mommy all he had to do was say pee-bo and she would magically appear.

He will stand in front of the dish washer or the cat food dish and say, "No no touch".

He will hand me the TV remote and say "Mommy's". (He is not allowed to have the remote and when he's not allowed to have things I often say, "That's Mommy's")

When he sees a picture of himself or any baby he says, "Baby!"

He loves Thomas the train. He says "books" and will bring me a Thomas book announcing "Babus!" He'll identify a train in any other book as "Babus".

He gives high fives and says something that generally resembles high five. He will usually explode with an expressive "AHHH" whenever you give the high five.

He has to say "hi" and "bye bye" to just about everyone he sees. Sometimes I feel bad for him when we're in a store and people don't realize he's saying hi and don't respond to him. Whenever I say we're going to go he says "go go go". He usually says "up" when we ask if he wants to get out of his high chair, but he sometimes says "out" too.

He says "ni ni" when it's time for bed.

He says Daddy, Mommy, Grandpa (it sounds more like Bahpa), Maggie (the cat), Elsa (his friend) and Alina (the cleaning lady).

But even with all the words he says, it's just as much fun to participate with him in animated conversations with no real words at all. He uses all these very serious, adult-looking facial expressions to accompany his baby babble and I can tell he is expressing his deepest thoughts - none of this baby-stuff of single words.

The Sleep Sack

2008-11-10T17:18:00.004-05:00

Jonah's room is a bit on the chilly side and he has been waking up occasionally during the night because he's cold. I always make sure he has a blanket on before I go to bed, but he doesn't usually stay under the blanket for long. I decided I wanted to get him one of those sleep sacks to wear over his pj's, but they cost $25 or more and I figured it would be simple to make. I found great instructions on the internet for how to do it http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/sleepsack.html

My sewing was very sloppy, but it works. I was happy to see that he didn't mind being in it and had no problem sitting up and even standing and walking around in it.

It's extra long so he can wear it all winter and still kick around in it.

I only wish my mom were around to see this... Not only to help me make it, but to see me doing what she used to do for us. Especially to see me doing the exact thing I used to hate. If I saw something I liked in the store she would often say, "Oh, that's so simple. We could make that." It used to drive me crazy. Now I'm saying, "That looks really easy, I could make that." She used to say, "You just wait until you have kids. You're going to say the exact same things I'm saying." If only she could be here to say, "I told you so."

Old MacDonald

2008-11-06T09:46:00.002-05:00

Halloween

2008-11-02T22:06:00.005-05:00

The biggest dilema: which candy corn to eat first.
Jonah's friend Elsa joined us for trick-or-treating around the cul de sac.

Elsa: "Mom, why is this kid waving in my face?"

Our neighbor, Brian, absolutely loves Jonah and is so sweet with him. Brian gave Jonah a lolipop which he quickly and happily devoured.

A rare moment with the lolipop out of Jonah's mouth.

Fall

2008-11-02T21:42:00.001-05:00

Jonah says a few words

2008-10-09T20:53:00.003-04:00

No more of this babytalk gibberish, folks. We're on to real words now! We were at the library yesterday and a little girl was standing by Jonah listening to him and studying him very carefully. Then she ran off yelling, "Mommy! Babies can talk!" Last week at the library a different little girl asked me if I was the baby's mommy or his babysitter. I guess I don't look mom-ish enough to a six-year-old.

Birthday Boy!

2008-09-13T23:19:00.009-04:00

Yesterday Jonah turned one! I can't believe it. It has been a fantastic year. We celebrated with Jon's family at his parents' farm. Here's an overview of the day:

Jonah got to read his favorite book with Aunt Heather and cousin Nancy.

Jonah's lamb cake - a Meyer family tradition.
Cake Face.

Cousins Jake and Joe help Jonah open his presents. He received books, an outfit, and a really fun train toy.

I finally got a good video of Jonah walking. I just couldn't catch him on video by myself. By the time I got him ready to go and walked away to video him he had run off in another direction. So Kelly held onto him until I was ready and he sprinted toward me as soon as she let go!

The classic cake-covered baby.

Jonah and Oliver play with the new train toy and dance to the music.

Jonah's favorites

2008-09-06T23:49:00.004-04:00

I love watching Jonah's personality develop more and more every day. He absolutely loves books and certain ones seem to be his favorites.

Blueberries are by far his favorite food. He pops them into his mouth as soon as they hit the tray. I have to put the carton out of sight or he will keep wanting more no matter how many he's already had.

This video shows a very happy eater. The only thing that could possibly distract him from his food is the appearance of the kitty.

Kitty!

2008-09-06T23:30:00.003-04:00

After months of working on getting Jonah to say "Mama" and "Dada" his first word was "Kitty!" My dad has a cat and ever since we have been at his house it has been Jonah's main goal in life to get the kitty. He chases after it (at first crawling and now walking) shouting "Kitty! Kitty!" He woke us up in the middle of the night at our family reunion in Michigan, "Kitty!"

Since the kitty often hangs out in Dad's room, so does Jonah. He stands at her Kitty Kondo with eyes full of longing just willing her to come down in hopes of touching her.
Looking dejected because she escaped under the bed.
Lifting the bedskirt to continue his pursuit.
"Kitty!"

Family Fun

2008-09-06T22:47:00.007-04:00

I know it's been a really long time since I posted to the blog, so here's my effort at getting caught up from the last month and a half.

We enjoyed the rest of our visit with Paul and Vashti and took them to the Albuquerque Balloon Museum.

We left Albuquerque on July 23rd for our family vacation in Illinois and Michigan. Jon ended up finding a job near Wheaton and we decided to move back. So we lived out of our vacation suitcases for over a month until Jon was able to go back and move our stuff last weekend.

Jonah and his cousin, Oliver. Not quite ready for the big leagues.

Another chew toy!
Aunt Beth watches with concern as Jonah investigates her Blackberry.
Jonah and Grandpa - best buddies.

The Meyers

We're Moving!

2008-08-25T18:11:00.003-04:00

We're moving this Friday and Saturday. For those in the Albuquerqe area that can help, we'll be packing at 1 o'clock on Friday and loading at 3 o'clock on Saturday.

We're Moving

2008-08-25T17:38:00.001-04:00

Cuteness

2008-07-09T17:00:00.002-04:00

Jonah plays the ukulele.
Something about being in a box is just so exciting.
If you look closely you can see his two teeth on the bottom.

Uncle Paul's in town!

2008-07-09T16:52:00.002-04:00

My brother, Paul, is in Albuquerque for the next three weeks doing training at Kirtland Air Force Base. How crazy that we should both end up here of all places, even if only for a short time. He arrived on Saturday night and went to church with us on Sunday. We drove up to the Sandia Peak Sunday afternoon to show Paul the sights. His wife, Vashti, will join him next week along with their baby girl in utero. I can't wait!

The Hike

2008-07-01T18:58:00.003-04:00

We took advantage of cooler temperatures on Sunday afternoon (85 degrees as opposed to the usual 95!) and took a short hike in the foothills by our apartment.

It was a little overcast and we started to hear rumbles of thunder.
It started to sprinkle as we neared the car and I got excited about using the Buffin's rain cover for his backpack.

Within minutes of being back in the car we were in a major downpour. Hail started pelting the car and we couldn't see more than 25 feet. I was so thankful we had made it back in time. I can't imagine trying to get down the hill with the Buffin in those conditions. The Lord really had mercy on us! Lesson learned: When you're in the hills and you hear thunder, take it seriously.

Tiny Guitar Hero

2008-07-01T18:57:00.002-04:00

Buffin's Boo Boo

2008-07-01T18:39:00.005-04:00

We're not quite sure how it happened, but Jonah got a cut on his finger and it was bleeding quite a bit. So we put a Band-aid on it. Of course all he wanted to do was bite the Band-aid and pull it off. Jon had the brilliant idea to cover his hand with a sock so he couldn't mess with the Band-aid. Then all he wanted to do was pull the sock off so we put a sock on the other hand, too. Problem solved! (With the added benefit of one hilarious-looking Buffin!)

Occupational Hazzard

2008-07-01T18:34:00.002-04:00

This is what met Jon on the runway after he landed the other day.

Trip to L.A.

2008-06-24T23:37:00.008-04:00

This past weekend we decided to make use of our free airline tickets through Jon's work and take a family trip to L.A.! We flew out Friday afternoon and stayed in a motel that night. In the morning we loaded up our rental car and let Jonah do the driving...

But since he couldn't reach the pedals we thought he might enjoy the trip more from the backseat (notice the palm trees in the background).
We drove up Pacific Coast Highway 1 to Malibu Beach. On the way we stopped to watch some surfers. I couldn't believe how close they were to each other - collisions must happen all the time.
We found a fantastic campground up on a hill overlooking the beach.
Yes, that's right. We camped! This was very minimalist camping as we only had room in our luggage for a tent, sleeping bags and a lantern. No other camp gear whatsoever. I was a little jealous as we passed our fellow campers who were fully prepared with camp stoves, coolers, chairs, etc. But we had a great time despite our lack of camping "stuff". Good missionary training, right?
This is the view out our tent door. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the ocean is in the background.
Jonah enjoyed crawling around the tent.
The one thing we did have was the Pack n' Play for Jonah. He spent a lot of time chewing on the side of the crib and now in retrospect I realize why: Monday morning as we were packing up to leave I discovered (while trying to fish a piece of grass out of his mouth) that he had cut his first tooth!
It was an extremely hot weekend (in the 100's) and we had many sweaty moments. We found a state park and thought we might take a little hike so we loaded Jonah into the backpack and headed out. After about 50 yards we realized this was a bad idea and hastily made our way back to the air conditioned car. (Note the completely miserable look on Jonah's face.)

I was concerned that he was getting dehydrated with all the heat and sweating so I wanted to give him something to drink when we got back in the car. All I had was some sugary orange drink left in my cup from McDonald's. This video hardly does justice to how excited he was to have that juice!

Jonah's first trip to the Pacific.
He got a little too close to the water and had to lose his shorts as a result.

Of course we had to check out Hollywood and get our picture taken with Rambo.
As we were packing up to leave we saw the biggest, most disgusting bug we've ever seen. We were just glad we hadn't seen it earlier or we would have been totally paranoid about it getting in the tent. Any ideas what this might be?

Jonah did really great on the plane both ways. We were able to have an empty seat between us so he had a little extra room to play. (Southwest has a first-come first-served seating policy... apparently no one wanted to pick a seat next to an active 9-month-old.)

Crawling!

2008-06-24T22:50:00.005-04:00

Jonah started to crawl the day before his 9-month birthday. This video shows his first tentative movements forward.

Within a few days he was a pro and could crawl at the speed of light! (Well, maybe not quite that fast.)

Swimming

2008-06-24T22:34:00.002-04:00

A scream of delight!

This is an old video that I meant to put up a long time ago of Jonah swimming. He loves it!

A New Milestone!

2008-06-10T22:13:00.003-04:00

Today Jonah pulled himself up to standing in his playpen! I was sitting there and suddenly noticed that he had gotten up on his knees and a few moments later he was standing! I couln't believe it! Later in the afternoon he pulled himself up on the coffee table. Jon went in right away and lowered his crib mattress (we still had it raised in the infant position). Now I'm sure that real crawling is not far behind. He can scooch forward a few inches at a time when he's really motivated to get something, but he still doesn't get the concept of moving arms and legs together to accomplish forward movement.

His other fun tricks as of late are copying tongue clicks, sniffing, and blowing raspberries. Jon and I are in a mad race to see if he will say "Mama" or "Dada" first. We both drill him on it constantly, but of course I have the advantage because I'm with him more. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good videos of these tricks before he moves on to bigger and better things!

Luau Party

2008-06-10T22:00:00.002-04:00

Our apartment complex had a Luau party at the pool on Saturday. I found Jonah the perfect Hawaiian outfit in our box of hand-me-downs (thanks again, Susie!) and he won second place for best dressed! We also won a gift certificate to a local pizza place in the raffle, so we'll have to plan a date night soon.

Friends

2008-06-10T21:38:00.003-04:00

I got to watch Jonah's little friend, Heidi, one afternoon last week. She is only one month older than Jonah, but she's much more advanced in her mobility. He was very jelous watching her crawl all over the place, pull herself up and cruise around the furniture... In fact since the day I watched her she has become a full-fledged walker. She also has a full mouth of teeth compared to Jonah's bare gums. It just goes to show that all babies are different, right? I make excuses for Jonah because he has a lot more weight to haul around - 10 pounds to be exact. Anyways, I tried to get a lot of cute pictures of them together because Heidi's parents also went to Wheaton College and we like to dream that Jonah and Heidi will be classmates at Wheaton someday and they'll fall in love and get married and we'll have the perfect pictures for their rehearsal dinner slide show!

Distracting

2008-06-10T21:24:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it can be very fun to watch a movie with Jonah and he is content and interested in what is happening on the screen. Here Jon and Jonah are having some male bonding time watching the documentary of the White Sox World Series Championship in 2005.

Other times he can be really distracting during a movie.

Memorial Day Pig Roast

2008-05-28T19:49:00.003-04:00

Jonah, Heidi and Una play "Spin the Bottle".
Jonah: "One step closer, Una, and I'll shoot!"

Heidi: "I wish I could get that squirt gun and soak my dad."

Una: "I just hope I get to lick someone's face."