Plus One

1) Over this past weekend, Jonah watched part of Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, in which the main character Jonah receives messages from God. Later that day, when we were getting ready to go outside to play, I opened the front door to discover a piece of paper wedged into the door handle of the storm door.

"Oh, there's something in the door," I said.

Jonah immediately says, "It's a message from the Lord!"

It turned out to be an advertisement/coupon for Domino's pizza. Not so divinely inspirational!

2) I need to preface this one by saying that neither of my parents have had great dental health and both wear partials to fill in the gaps of where their real teeth have been removed. Luckily, I have apparently not inherited the unhealthy teeth gene and have not had so much as a cavity since I was a kid, and even that was in a baby tooth so that I don't even have a filling now. I hope Jonah will be the same.

Anyway, while Jonah and I were spending a night at my parents house, we were in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Jonah looks up to see the container in which my dad soaks his partials and says, "I want to see grandpa's fossils, Mommy!" (I guess "partials" and the word for old bones sound pretty similar to a three-year-old!)

I knew the man was getting older, but he's not THAT old!

3) Jonah recently got a new toy shopping cart to play with, and he enjoys "grocery shopping". While staying at my parents' house, he "shopped" for about an hour, after which he laid down on the couch, pulled a sheet up over him, and said, "All this shopping makes me tired, Mommy."

Typical man!

Last week, Jonah was playing with his piggy bank. He had put some money in it andwas shaking it to hear the coins rattle around. Then he looked over at me and said, "I don't want to pay taxes, Mommy."

Needless to say, I cracked up.

When I told Josh about this, he also thought it was hysterical and said something to the effect that Jonah was already showing Republican leanings.

Hey, nothing wrong with that!

Our biggest problems with Jonah is getting him to listen to us when we tell to do or not do something. Another is trying to stop all the backtalk. It's a daily battle, and we never know from one day to the next if we're winning the war.

Anyway, yesterday at one point when Jonah said something he shouldn't have to me, I told him to go sit on the couch in time out. He went over to the couch and shouted back at me, "You're beastly!"

I don't know where he picked up this word (probably one of the books we've read to him, but I can't think which one), but obviously at the time this really ticked me off, and I promptly informed him that he can't talk to me like that and that he'd just earned himself another minute in time out.

In hindsight, though, it's pretty funny to think that he knows and picks up on these vocabulary words and can use them appropriately (well, maybe not "appropriately", but in their proper context - you know what I mean!).

It's just been rather busy around here, even though Jonah has been out of school for the past three weeks. I never knew we could do so much in such a short amount of time, or just how quickly the time can pass when you're constantly on the go.

While Jonah is out of school, I'm only working two full days a week. So on the three days of the working week when I'm home with him, we have an activity lined up for each day. On Monday, we have a Gymboree music class that Jonah really seems to be enjoying (you ought to hear him belting out songs when he's at home, or on the bus, or in the car, or just about anywhere - it's a riot!). On Wednesdays, we have his JW Tumbles gymnastics class, which he has loved ever since we started there last August. And on Thursdays, we have an art class through Color Me Mine called Paint Me a Story, which involves reading a story and then painting a ceramic that pertains to the story and is then glazed and fired during the week to be presented back to the kids at the following class. We've been going to the pool a couple of times a week, I've been trying to grow tomatoes and cucumbers in our back yard where we've also been battling a couple of bee/wasp nests, I'm trying to get into some sort of workout pattern by doing Tae Bo at home while Jonah naps, we've taken Jonah to an ear/nose/throat doctor who we think has finally put us on the right track of solving the mystery of Jonah's chronic morning cough (she thinks it might be reflux so she's put him on Zantac, and it seems to be helping), Josh got a crown on one of his teeth, and we took a trip to Pittsburgh for Josh's 35th birthday.

While up in the Pittsburgh area with Josh's family, we went to the Butler County Fair for the Fourth, which for those in the know know is Josh's birthday (I've always been jealous of that - he gets fireworks and a day off from work every year for his b-day - I don't know anybody else who has that luxury!) Above is a picture of Josh and Jonah going down the giant slide at the Fair. Jonah just loves those giant slides - he could go up and down those things over and over and over!

Jonah, mountain man :)

We weren't sure we were going to make the trip (we spent last Wednesday night in the emergency room because Jonah had woken up at 11:30 barely able to breathe because he was coughing so much - he got a steroid injection and a prescription for further steroid treatment, and he seemed to get better over the course of the next couple of days) but decided to risk it because we'd already had the plans set for a couple of months and really didn't want to cancel, and we figured a bit of fun with a friend might even perk Jonah up (and we REALLY didn't want to deal with the tantrum and tears that were bound to happen if we told Jonah that he wasn't going to be able to go to the beach with Morgan when we'd been telling him about the trip for the past week!). Turns out we were right because he significantly improved during the time we were there, thanks to his meds and all the fun he was having with Morgan, the daughter of friends Debbie and Dan who invited us to join them for the weekend at Dan's mother's house in Bethany Beach. We were able to make it to the beach every morning for some fun in the sun (the water was a little on the cold side for swimming, but we did get our feet wet), and the kids had a great time. Jonah absolutely loves playing with Morgan, and I think the feeling is mutual, as evidenced by the photos below. There were, of course, some three-year-old moments, but that was expected, and they never lasted long (I'll be up front and say that it was mostly Jonah who was having trouble keeping his hands to himself - not in a hitting way or in any way that was meant to be hurtful, but he has trouble remembering to keep personal space and will poke or tickle or will touch in some other way to show that he's just being playful - we're constantly reminding him to keep his hands to himself around other kids, and it's proving to be a hard lesson - it's just hard to reprimand too hard when we know he's just playing, but we're doing what we have to do, and I trust he'll eventually learn). We had a great time, and we really appreciate Debbie and Dan for inviting us along for one of the only weekends they'll have the beach house this year!

Morgan and Jonah playing with Jonah's Thomas laptop.

Some comments from Jonah this evening regarding drinking:

"I'd like any kind of milk. Boy, I'd really like some milk!"

"The kitties are thirsty. They need to drink some water so they can grow up big and strong like I am."

Tomorrow marks the sixth anniversary of Josh and I being hitched. Above is a photo of a rather funny moment in our ceremony where we were trying to light the unity candle. We tried about three times before the candle would finally light, which is why we were laughing when this picture was taken! Well, I would say that this photo pretty much represents what our marriage has been so far; sometimes we don't always get things right the first time, or we don't agree on how something should be done, but we keep on trying, and we eventually make it work. Happy anniversary, Josh! I still love you!

It's been a fun-filled weekend! Last evening, we went to the Guppy Gala at the National Zoo, an event that is jam-packed with activities for kids with lots of good food for everyone. We were a little concerned earlier in the day because it had been raining hard, but luckily the rain cleared out, and it was a pleasant, if cool, evening.

Here are Jonah and Josh posing in a giant birds' nest. With it being Mother's Day weekend, I am, of course, thinking that, on the one hand, I don't ever want Jonah to leave the "nest", but, on the other hand, I know he's going to eventually grow up, and it will be a good thing.

Occasionally Patches, my 12-year-old cat, sneaks into Jonah's room at bedtime unbeknownst to me or Jonah. However, seeing how vocal Patches is, it doesn't take long for us to figure out she's there, at which point Jonah will insist that I shoo her out. It's not that Jonah doesn't like Patches; in fact, she's his favorite cat, but he seems to like it best when it's just him and me during our few minutes of cuddle time at night.

Tonight, though, was a first. Jonah and I had finished our cuddle time, and I'd left the room to let him continue falling asleep. True to form, about ten minutes after I left him, he got up, came out of his room, and called down to me, "I'm still thristy, Mommy!" Not ever wanting to deprive him of water should he ever really be thristy, I obliged him with a small cup of water and sent him back to bed. Apparently, Patches slipped unseen into his room while he was drinking his water because about five minutes after I'd sent him back in, I heard him over the monitor open the door and say, "No, kitty. Get out." He then closed the door again and went back to bed without calling down to me. I just had to laugh, it was so hysterical!

But on the other hand....poor little Patches! :)

I think Jonah really enjoyed his party at JW Tumbles, a little kids' gym in the shopping center behind our house. We kept it relatively small, just his preschool pals, a couple of JW buddies, a couple of almost-like-family friends who have kids, Josh's mom (Jonah's Nana), and my parents.
Above are Jonah and his friend Morgan playing in the rocking boat. Jonah and Morgan are only six days apart and have known each other since day one. Debbie and Dan, Morgan's parents, are very good friends who we are going to the beach with in a few weeks, and I think the ids are going to have a blast (as willl their parents)!

Here's Jonah with one of his good friends from preschool, Kylie. Kylie had had a litttle tumble or something, and Jonah had gone over to make her feel better. We had the pleasure of taking Kylie in our car last fall to Cox Farms, the school's annual field trip to the pumpkin patch. She's a sweetheart!

Three years ago, Jonah came into the world at 11:28 PM. I was exhausted after having been in labor for more than 20 hours and then having to have a C-section, but I was so happy to have my little boy. Well, the excitement hasn't stopped since that day, and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep (I have a feeling that part of it will go on for several more years!), but Josh and I are still just as proud as can be of our little man! Who would have thought that at age three our munchkin would be reading, obsessed with the solar system (yes, you read that right - he can rattle off all of the planets without batting an eye), talking up a storm (including some unwelcome backtalking, which we're trying with all our might to subdue), chasing the cats (okay, I fully expected that one!), beginning to play soccer, enjoying a gymnastics class, going to school, and gracing us with his sweet smile every day! We love him so much (even when he drives us nuts!) and are so proud of everything he's accomplished this year, and we can't wait to see what he'll amaze us with in the year to come!

Here are some pics from his pizza party at school and opening his first present at home. More pics will follow, probably after the weekend when I'll have some pics of Jonah with his Nana who gets in this afternoon and after the official party on Sunday with his little preschool pals.

P.S. That's red icing on his face and teeth, not blood. Just thought I'd better clarify that!

A stomach bug will make many things belated, but I digress........

Here's Jonah looking for the eggs that the "Easter Bunny" left all over the house for him to find. The funky pants to the left belong to Josh - rather appropirate Easter colors, don't you think?!