2009_01_10 Saturday

Happy 18 month birthday to Jonathan!!! Wow, did we celebrate wildly today! Dave found a guy to buy our beautiful, new refrigerator from us. It was just too deep for the space we have. So, he came up with a couple of guys to take it away. I was very sad to see it go. We also had a second plumber come check out the den, so we should have a good idea of options and $ to finish up that room. Then, Dave spent a good amount of time insulating the attic above Jonathan's room and the bathroom. We can feel a difference, so that's hugely encouraging for our gas bill. Then, once Jonathan went to bed, Dave and I had a movie marathon.

I took a bunch of photos. My favorite is of Jonathan blowing a kiss and winking. haha. You can see some others in our photo album. I also sent out a "Jonathan is 18 month" update to family. Here's the body of that note:

I thought it was high time to drop you a note to catch you up on what Jonathan is doing these days. He is 18 months old today! He has, without a doubt, turned into a little toddler boy, leaving babyhood behind for good.

He is pretty solid on his feet. He has started running, which is a milestone. He still does have the occasional fall, but it's mostly when he's not paying full attention to what he's doing. When I have extra time on my hands, I'll often let him walk (rather than use the stroller) when we go into town or to run errands. And, he's walked the whole way to pick up Dave from the train station a couple of times. He loves climbing up and down the stairs, sometimes the right way and sometimes not. He's great at kicking balls around; it's too bad it's so darn cold outside now! While playing in his room, we flip on the radio and he dances away to anything that's on. One of his jobs
is to help feed the cats, so he grabs a spoon and a can and runs into the cats'
area to help Dave.

He has mastered object permanence. He knows that objects don't disappear when they are out of sight, and he'll go searching for things immediately. Peek-a-boo is huge right now, and he'll play by covering his eyes. In fact, he'll often remember where things are long after we've played with them. This is pretty neat because he can put things away and still find them.

He is a chatterbox! While "no" is a favorite, I'm not convinced he knows what it actually means. It's just an easy word to yell out and it gets our attention. So, we typically counter with an emphatic "yes!" He yells out "Hi!!" and "Bye!" and waves and often blows kisses; that really gets the ladies. He knows the sounds of many animals. He can identify trucks (especially garbage trucks and "Steve's truck" (ie fire truck)), buses, cars, trains, and airplanes. He'll often point them out on
roadtrips, and if we're too slow in acknowledging him, he'll reply with "all
gone." A clever little guy. He knows his spoon, fork, cup, bowl, and plate. He
can say and point to slippers, shoes, socks, pants, and shirt and is eager to
put them all into his hamper before bedtime. I often find that he's unzipped his
pjs when he gets up in the morning. He's got a good number of his family by
name (EDITOR'S NOTE: Uncle Steve is just "uncle," even though fire trucks are "Steve's trucks." He continues to ask for Opa, Oma, and Raj (along with Tino, the contractor who finished work over a week ago!). But he also cycles through his cousins pretty well.), and he can point to himself when we ask where he is. The cats are Beegees (Biggles) and 'tafa (Mustafa). We're starting to work on numbers, and he's really good with 2 and 3 so far. He also loves "The Wheels on the Bus" and "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and will sing them tirelessly. If we don't understand him or he doesn't know the right word, he points to things. We've also taught him to sign for help, all done, more, milk, eat, and toilet. So far, no word pairs or basic sentences yet.

He loves puzzles, shape sorters, books, balls, and all things wheels. So, it's not hard to keep him busy. I'm setting up some regular playdates so that he gets socialized with kids his age or older, and we go to the library's weekly story time as often as we can.

He continues to be an amazing eater. He'll eat just about anything we give
him...with a vengence. He loves blueberries and popcorn (which Dave often brings
home from the train station). We try to serve his meal in a big-boy plate, but
he tends to dump it pretty quickly. He's getting much better with using his
spoon and fork, but his hands are much faster.

He's got his 18-month doctor's appointment on Monday morning, so I'll have his official stats then. We're also doing a vision screening. Will update my blog (address below) with all of that. I'll also get some photos up in our album (address below)
tonight as well. But, I hope this gives a bit of a peek into the fun we're
having watching Jonathan grow up.

And, last but not least: Happy Birthday to Cousin Ryan!!!