Jonah [2 years]

Jonah Timothy....you are TWO YEARS OLD!

You are certainly acting like a bigger boy every day. You're personality is different than either of your brothers, which is just fine that you have your own. You are rough and tumbly, on-the-go, yet have a very sweet and cuddly side as well (with those who you want to). You are very playful and have the MOST ornery look in your eye when you know you're being a stinker.

You are 25.6 pounds (22%) and 34" tall (47%). You wear 18-24 tops and 24 mo bottoms. We have a bunch of teeth that broke through over the past couple months, so your smile is complete with pearly whites :) Your eyes have turned to a light brownish-blue/grey color, and your hair is a very light brown. You haven't attempted to climb out of your crib as of yet, but will be transitioning to your big boy bed in Noah's room soon!

You are usually not one to sit and play with just one thing for too long. However, the things that grab your attention the most are the Duplo Legos, cars, balls, and FOR SURE books! You love to be read to...and you are very adamant about it, "Read a book. Read a book Mommy. Read a book, me? Read a book..on your 'yap'?" All said while scooting right on up to my legs and insisting I pick you up and sit you on my lap to read. Many times, you will want the same book to be read 'gain and 'gain. 

You can be very needy. And oh my goodness you are a jealous one if someone else is getting attention when you felt as though the attention was ALL yours. Little man, you better believe I love you dearly...but you are definitely not the only little boy in this house that I love :) I will give it to you, you can play it very wisely...with your sweet little eyes, and your loving little actions, nuzzling on my leg or arms. You are very well loved, and I have given in on the days that you just simply won't settle for anything else than to be held. (Don't get me wrong...I love to hold you, but I also find it increasingly difficult to hold you while getting some necessary household tasks done.)

You are sleeping better. You go to bed around 8:15, with some milk and your blue blanket (and a couple more!), and you sleep until 7:15-7:30ish. You will often wake up once because your diaper is very wet...but you'll go to sleep after you've been changed and get just a bit more milk. You'll be switching to water shortly :) And you take an afternoon nap, usually around 12:30...and it varies on length. But anywhere from 1 1/2 hrs- 3 hrs. The 3 hrs is definitely not a norm, but it has happened more than once!

You love your Daddy. You love to tackle, wrestle, and play rough with him. It is one of my favorite things to watch. You get in there with your older brothers, and you are not one to be afraid of joining the craziness! 

You climb and throw....and repeat, different locations wherever you may go. I "think" you are getting better at the throwing. At least you throw more 'throw appropriate objects'. You talk ALOT, and you will say what you are doing or planning on doing. "I crash it...I bang it....I throw it" are all used.

You have a love/hate relationship with animals. Cleo, Gpa and Gma's dog, is your "friend" some days, although you don't want her getting too close. You will tell me, "Cleo LIIIKES me!!" You have a pretty big dislike towards bugs, flies, and spiders. You will let us know, "A BUG!!! NO like it...get it Mommy, I no like it!!!!!"

You eat well overall, better than your brothers ever did. You let us know very clearly if you do not care for something. Depending on your mood, you will either throw it on the floor OR make a terrible face, spit it out and say "no like it".  Some of your favorite foods; yogurt, macaroni and cheese, pizza, meatballs, cuties, apples, chicken bites (especially dipped in ketchup!). You don't care for the "mashed" texture..ie. potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas. And although you don't really need almond milk as far as an allergy, you refuse to drink cow's milk plain...so we have continued with the almond milk at least for now.  Oh, and you think you have some kind of entitlement when it comes to getting juice to drink. I water it down pretttty heavily when you get it, and if you see that, you get quite upset. I'm telling you, you get down right feisty about it. And as the picture above shows, you may sweet talk me into sharing oatmeal cookies with you in the morning....and of course you HAVE to have them dunked in my coffee. "I yike co-feee Mommy. Co-feee hot.....no just warm."

You started talking more and more in the last few weeks. And I would say you talk in short sentences fairly well. I can understand 99% of what you say, I'm sure other people aren't quite sure always. You count, not always in the correct order, but at least a couple of times you have counted from 1-10. You enjoy to be sung to, but not quite as much as the other boys did. Your favorite two songs are "Twinkle Star" (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) and "Jesus" (Jesus Loves Me). You won't sing the whole song at one time, but you will randomly sing parts of either one of those. If I start singing one, you will sometimes stop me and say, "No Twinkle, you Jesus, ME Twinkle!" 

One of your favorite phrases you say is, "I-don-n-know" (I don't know)...and its said so casual, southern, and its not even true half the time. 

You love your family...Daddy, me, "Ristian" and Noah. You also are a BIG fan of "Gwran-pa and Gwran-ma", Brent (you talk about him OFTEN!!), "Uncle Mitch", and "Ana" (Eliana). The other family members are also mentioned, but these ones are certainly talked about ALOT! Brent and Uncle Mitch get blamed from you for alot of funny things. I will ask, "who did ____??? or did you ____??" (possibly referring to a mess or a dirty diaper) and you will say without hesitation, "Brent did it." I will say..."Oh Brent did this??" And then you'll say, "Uncle Mitch did it." And I'll say, "Oh Uncle Mitch did it??" and you'll look me square in the eye, and say, "uh-huh!!" Other times, you will very playfully go back and forth between the two..and you know its a game!

Jonah, we love you. 

You let your voice be heard and if that doesn't work...you let your actions be known. 

But we love you dearly all the same.

I hope and pray you continue bring so much joy and laughter to our lives. You will soon no longer be "the baby" of the family...but don't worry, we will still hold you, love on you, and snuggle you!!!

Jonah [18.5 months]

Jonah, my boy...you are sweet, sassy, playful, and oh so BUSY.

We love you to pieces.

You are a climber. You climb, you push the limit to the edge. You have minimal fear regarding any of this. Therefore, you are really in need of CONSTANT supervision. Occasionally, if I know the area of the house you are in, I can rely on your very informative brothers to shout out what you are getting into...but really Daddy and I have to keep tabs on you! The names stinker and mess are often linked to describe you....of course meant in the most endearing way :)

You have your own personality. You can be SO sweet, and show love to your brothers, mama and daddy often. You give kisses (very occasionally), hugs, and most often you show it by laying your head on someone. You can also be very feisty. If you feel like someone is getting an attitude with you..you do not hold back. You mimic whatever behavior they are giving you...and if its Noah, you add in an attack mode on biting him. Its NOT okay that you do that, as you bite very hard and it hurts him. Thankfully, that doesn't happen often. You have been known to chase both brothers around, acting like you're going to tackle them...and they honestly are scared. Now, that is funny, because you are still much smaller than them.

In this picture of you sitting on Noah. You were just playing. Noah had just woke up, and then he said, "Ok Buddy, I'm going to roll. I'm going to roll buddy. You're not going to liiike it."

You have such pretty hair. I have cut it more than a handful of times already, once taking the curls off completely. I just have a hard time keeping those away with your baby soft hair. I'm okay with the baby curly hair. Your eyes are definitely more of a hazel color now then blue, I wonder if they will still turn brown?

Your skin has started acting up again recently...it has always been a little wonky. At four months old you developed the worst case of cradle cap/eczema on your head...even the doctor said it was "pretty bad" (said in the most thank-goodness-it-got-better-kind-of-way). So you have random bouts of eczema on your hand, elbows, face. I thought this latest bit of it was related to dairy...but after eliminating, trial/error type things..I don't really think it is. It seems to be helping to just use the ointment/cream on it a couple of times a day and keeping it really moisturized. Poor guy. At least it doesn't appear to be uncomfortable to you.

You know where all your body parts are. I love especially when I ask if you can blink or wink. Your long blinks are so funny with your eyes looking up. You know your animals noises very well, and how to say some of the animals by name; duck, puppy, ki-eee (kitty), cow, chi-keee (chick/chicken).
Our chickens tolerate you very well. You like to follow them around, pet them, and laugh at them.

You have a chatter box within you. More and more you are learning how to mimic sounds, words, and actions. This is funny and occasionally frustrating to your brothers (when its just loud sounds or ROARING). You especially get on a role repeating if Christian is saying the words (he is like your puppeteer).

This was the before and after of playing peek a boo, using his blanket on his head.

You weigh around 22 pounds, I have no idea how tall...but you are wearing mostly 18 month clothes. Some shirts are 12 mo if they are not onesies...but the overalls and that way are 18-24 month. Tricky huh. You have 10 teeth as of May 1 when one of the front bottom FINALLY came in (that little guy had been in the works for months!!). You sleep well at night (this is a new thing consistently since you've turned 18 months and I'm a fan!!), going to bed around 8-8:15 with your bottle (we still give you milk, but I don't always rock you anymore) and waking up around 7. You love your blue blankie (but can survive with the yellow one, if the blue one is in the wash).

You are a fairly good eater. You like most meats or casseroles, cheese, french fries with ketchup (or sometimes just the ketchup as a side!), cuties (those really small oranges), many of the pouches (the fruits/veggies that come in a pouch and you squeeze into your mouth), spaghetti, yogurt, baked oatmeal. As with your brothers, we often put applesauce on top of your meal and you use it as a condiment. It works well at cooling your food off..and holding it together better, so you can feed yourself with a spoon.

Some of the MANY words you say:

Mama
 No-ah (you say this ALOT! I think you sometimes think this is your name.)
bankie (blankie)
niiiice (nice, followed by petting someones hair or arm)
Daddy (drawn out really long in the morning especially, Daaaaaaad-eeeeee)
side (outside)
dink (drink)
 chi-kee (chickie aka the chickens)
uh-oh (when you drop something especially)
Papa (Grandpa is definitely among your favorite people)
yeah (the way you say it, it is so pleasant...like you are so excited you got asked a question you can say yes to)
ouch-ie (sometimes that ending ie part is a little delayed..but the ouch part is very clear.)
cheese (you LOVE cheese)
stuck (you get yourself in some predicaments)
noooo (no, but its almost in a question like way, drawn out)
tank-tu (thank you)
peeese (please)
shut

chalk (sidewalk chalk)
 I go (when you want to follow your big brothers outside usually)
poo-poo (you even started going into the bathroom after I asked if you went, knowing that's where the poop should go...maybe you can beat Noah at being fully potty trained!)
shoes (you go running to get those when you think there's a chance you get to go outside)
he--yo (hello, pretending to talk on the phone)
bye-bye
Brent, Mitch (you love your uncles)
Nama (or some version of this for Grandma...you're a fan of her..just not saying her name very often), Ch-chin (Christian)
 me, mine, Jo-Jo
down (also said in a question like way)

You bring us so much joy, Jonah Timothy!

ONE [Jonah]

My baby is ONE!!

These past 12 months have gone by very fast, and all of the sudden you are looking and acting like a little bitty boy..not a baby.

You and I get along real well..

as you do with Daddy and your brothers. 

I love watching your face light up when one of them walk in the room. You love when Christian and Noah show you affection, it melts my heart every time. Christian will say, "Hey Buddy, hey! You want to come here." Or he will pick you up if you fall, kiss your head, show you a toy. And Noah, he is as gentle as ever MOST of the time. He lets you (on purpose) pull his hair, his glasses, or just nuzzles up next to you..and you LOVE it. The 5% of the time he feels like he needs to prove he is a tough big brother..he will grab your leg while you're walking, or snatch a toy away from you...and then you look so confused and hurt. He is almost always quick to say, "Sorrr-reee, Jonah. Soorrr-ee for knocking you down." Ahh, brothers, what are you going to do? 

I love watching you reach for the person you want to hold you, or how you walk up to their legs and give a little tug to let them know you need to be held. You are needy from me some days, but otherwise you are not a fussy or whining little boy. 

One of the cutest things...is how you love babies. You look at the pictures of yourself in your room, and have started saying "ba-bee". You were giving Baby Jack love. It is so adorable.

Words you say: Mama, Dadda, Baby, Go, Ba (ball), Buh-bye

You wave bye/goodnight, you give kisses (to us anyway), you snuggle into our shoulder, you clap your hands with excitement or when we clap for you, and you pat my face and chest as a way of endearment.

Sleeping baby...

You sleep with your blue blanket...I can't say you sleep ALL through the night. We are just starting to give you a bottle with part whole milk mixed in at bedtime. So far, you are doing good with that!

You let us know you are ready for bed by laying on the floor, acting like you are sleeping...or you will make the "eh,eh,eh" sound if I'm around...as in "feed me, and put me to sleep please mama!"

You are full of life and wonder, you like to explore wherever your little hands and feet can get into. You are fast crawler, but you also learned how to WALK this month! You are good at it too! These first steps are SO very cute, how you doddle around. You got your first pair of walking shoes/boots, and you have already done a good job of breaking them in! You like to take things you find, and place them on a shelf (at the very highest point you can reach) and then scoot it as far back as you can. At this rate, you will be "misplacing" plenty of items for us. You are experience in opening cabinets/drawers in the kitchen, hightailing it into the bathroom if the door is open, opening the trash can drawer, and making a dash to the laundry room if that door is open. You have gotten pretty good at stairs on your own. I definitely don't leave doors open on purpose, but your older brothers don't always remember..and you have done well so far when given the opportunity to deal with stairs. On the 2-3 steps, you do a forward/side step down...and on the longer ones you usually make an "ahhh, ahhhh" sound at the top to tell on yourself that you are at the top of the stairs!

You love balls. You are good at throwing them...and you certainly love chasing them as they roll. If they have lights in them, its just an added bonus that you laugh at. Speaking of laugh, your smile is just so sweet. You show your four teeth off as you smile...two more are trying to break through, that I can see anyway. And you have a mock laugh that is hilarious. If you hear one of us laughing, you copy us..and then we REALLY keep laughing.

 You love to be outside. If anyone is outside, and you are left indoors..you bang on the back glass door and talk to whoever is out. You like to go on walks, bike rides in the bike carrier, and SWING! 

You have an uncertainty regarding animals. If you can see them, and know they are unable to touch you, you laugh and love to look at them. When they lick your feet, or touch you...you are very uneasy about them, or even cry about it.

You got a new swing for your birthday from Grandpa and Grandma...and you LOVE it!

You eat well...much better than either of your brothers. You like meat still...any meat that you have been offered, you have liked. You like the vegetable pouches of food...and can down them in about 10 seconds. You eat mostly what we do..and the list of what you don't like isn't crazy long. If there is something you don't want, it's pretty funny how you don't make a sound but you sure do shake your head "no".

My big boy, you are so handsome.

Your hair is light brown, your eyes are a bluish-grey (still unsure what color they will be).

You wear 12 month clothes, even some 12-18 mo things if they are overalls..you are growing!!

You are just over 20 lbs (34%) and 30 1/4 in long (72%). You checked out very well at your one year check up. You have allergies like the rest of us, but otherwise very healthy!

We also had your eyes screened, and they checked out just fine. Our eye doctor's office offers a free screening before 12 months...so that was nice.

These were taken a week after you turned one..but I finally was able to catch you in action walking!

Jonah Timothy..you are such a sweet boy.

You get many kisses and hugs throughout the day, and bring many smiles to our faces.

You are a complete joy to have in our family.

I pray that you continue to be healthy and grow to be a strong, kind-hearted Christian man.

Happy ONE YEAR Jonah!

Jonah [11 months]

Jonah..goodness, these eleven months have flown by.

My baby, you are growing up so fast.

....................................

You are a chill little guy. 

Christian likes to give you a ride in the trailer of the tuffy trike at Grandpa and Grandma's house...and you are happy to oblige.

You are into EVERYTHING. 

Anything left on the floor that is small enough to enter your mouth does...food (obviously), paper, leaves, bug trap..anything! I feel like I am vacuuming and/or sweeping the floor OFTEN.

You can certainly but pretty cute while you discover new things...those little hands, legs, and reeee-aching toes! So cute.

 You have gotten VERY good at climbing, with little to no fear! 

Goodness, you are so proud of yourself.

Sometimes, you don't choose the easiest route, but if it involves climbing...you take it!

You like to be quite the "helper"...if I try to get a project started, you are very eager to find out a way to be apart of it. Here, you were helping make something for your newest soon to be baby girl cousin!

 You have very grabby hands!

You love to be held, especially while you are teething. A couple of days, I've just used the baby carrier around the house, so I can get a few other things done at the same time. You have four teeth, but it seems as though several others are on the brink of poking through.

You are quite good at playing "catch" with a ball. Your smile when you throw it is so cute..you get so proud! I find it especially ironic that you can turn very serious if I try and get a picture of this!

You are so proud to get to play with your big brothers. You are in the beginning stages of 'needing' to keep up with them!

My dear Jonah, here are a few things that are significant for this past month: 

You love to eat meat; chicken, beef, salmon, summer sausage.

You love to sleep with your blue blanket, you bury your head against it when you are tired and snuggle in.

You say mama (mostly when you are tired and/or sad), dada-dada-dada (its up for debate whether its truly because he is talking about Daddy or not), and various mocking sounds...a growl sound that you are very good at copying. You are especially loud in the morning, just jabbering away in your crib...own very own wake up call. 

Your eyes are beginning to change color (I remember Christian's turning around this time too.)..they are now a brownish grey on the inner part, and a hazy blue grey on the outside. I'm guessing they will turn brown like Christian and Daddy.

You are wearing 9-12 month clothing, you just seem to be filling things out...you are getting taller!

..................................

I love to smooch your cheeks. 

I love listening to you try to sing when you are sung to. 

I love when you wave goodnight to Daddy and your brothers (you wave much more often when saying 'hi' and 'bye'). 

We ALL love you so much.

Happy Eleven Months, Jonah!

Jonah [9 & 10 months]

Jonah..

we have had quite the summer.

Last month when you turned 9 months old, we were in Colorado for a family vacation.

So we'll recap the last two months.

You take the bottle while I'm at work better, but you're not the best eater/drinker when I'm gone (this has improved this last month).

Regardless, you seem to think you are "SOOO BIG!"

Some of the foods you do like are Cheerios, yogurt melts, most baby food fruits, and an assortment of table food.

You didn't spend too much of your time outside in July, just because unless you were in the pool, there isn't a whole lot to do. However, you do enjoy the pool! And you worked on those top two teeth for quite some time...they finally poked through the end of July/early August.

You are on the move. I can have all kinds of baby toys for you to play with..but you would much rather find little pieces of paper, or toys that are not for you, or something to climb against. You my dear, are not to be trusted..even in a "baby-proof" environment. The day after you turned 8 months..you climbed out of your crib, that was an obvious first clue that you are good at what you do! And now, you enjoy standing with help, and walking with our fingers. I'm not ready for you to WALK?!? You're still my baby!

 Any chance that you see given...you make a dash for these stairs. We have been moving the entire couch to block off the bottom part of the stairs, and have since used a soft chair side ways. I'm sure its a matter of time before you figure out how to climb over that. You will turn around frequently to check if I'm there, and flash a big smile showing you are so proud at what you can do!

This too has been put away, since you like to climb on it..and then make a nose dive off the sides. Silly boy. Not too worry, Noah waited for the "all clear" to be given before riding down the rollercoaster. He is especially funny telling you what to do or stay away from. "Joooo-nah, no no!!!"

Speaking of Noah, you and he are kind of pals. He likes it when you climb all over him, pull on his glasses, and in general play with him. And you can smile and laugh at both of your brothers quite a bit. You like to watch and chase after whatever it is they are doing.

You are in general, a very happy baby. The main thing has been your teeth, and I think that's pretty typical. You hang in there if you don't get a morning nap. At bedtime, when you've officially had enough, the final straw is when you see me after your bath. Then, you let everybody know you mean business about getting your milk and heading to bed!

In Colorado, a couple days after turning 9 months. You did very well on the trip, both traveling and while we were out there. Lots of family to love on you!

Handsome fella, you now have 4 teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom). Your hair is light brown, your eyes are light blue/grey, you wear size 9-12 months. At your 9 month appt you weighed 18 lb 8 oz, which is just a couple ounces more than what you weighed a couple months ago, so we will recheck that this month. You are a healthy boy, with lots and lots of smiles.

You know your family. You show your love by reaching to be held, and sometimes eagerly open mouth kissing my face. You've recently started waving 'bye-bye' and 'good-night'. And you love it when we try to blow kisses to you. You are ticklish, and love "round and round the garden".

Lately, you have been finding me wherever I may be...and you climb up my legs and stand against me. You are irresistible :) I just wish I had a couple more arms! I'm glad you are a fan of me...I'm a fan of yours as well :)

You a like a race car getting to the dishwasher when it opens now. Although, I appreciate the effort, your help makes my work a little harder to do!

You take a nap every afternoon. Sometimes its an hour, every now and then you sleep up to 2 hours or a bit more. Your morning nap is hit or miss. It depends how cooperative Noah is at leaving you alone to lay down (that stinker is LOUD and comes in your room to check on your sleeping status prior to you falling asleep). You are a beautiful little baby. 

And sometimes, you decide that sleeping isn't in your best interest...so you stay up past your normal bedtime to play by yourself. You are getting very good at throwing balls. You like to play catch when I roll the ball to you, and you throw it back at me.

 This picture just makes me laugh...

 it didn't take but a couple seconds for you to come charging at me in your true crawl like fashion.

Jonah Timothy, we love you like crazy.

You are a go-getter, climbing, crawling, happy little guy.