Oh my GOSH! Wook at ALL deze TOYS!!!

What an AWESOME Christmas!  This was Jonah's first year to REALLY get into it, so it was truly so much fun!  "Santa" found my old hobby horse from when I was a kid, and refurbished it by ripping out the old rotted yarn mane and tail and replacing it a couple of days before Christmas.  It truly warmed my heart to do this for Jonah!  (Before and After pictures to come soon!).  Jeremy left the Christmas tree lights on in the living room Christmas Eve night, so Jonah came into our room, as always, Christmas morning, then he "followed the lights" into the living room.  Soon, he ran back into our room, "There's a horsie IN THERE!  Daddy, Mama, there's a HORSIE in there!  I'm wanna WIDE that horsie!!!"  Then, while opening all of his Christmas presents, he soon proclaimed, "Oh my GOSH!!!  Wook at ALLLL deze TOYS!  Oh my GOSH!!!!"  I was pleased that the day after Christmas, I finally was able to get Jonah to tell me WHO brought him that horsie.  [RAISES EYEBROWS]: "Santa Cwaus bring me dat horsie!!!"

Lexi's first Christmas was packed with MILESTONES galore!  On December 24, at 7-mos-old (+ 2 days), she finally learned to sit herself up from a crawling position!  We had to lower her mattres because she has also been trying desperately to pull-up.  On Sunday night (Dec 26), I took Jonah to the potty, and soon I heard Lexi whining her way all the way down the hall to see us....stopping periodically to beat on the floor to warn us she's coming!!  LOL!  Too cute!  Then, that night, she actually pulled-up, unassisted, on Jonah's Little People Farm.  (I just had to hold the farm still so it wouldn't tip over).  She is WELL on her way to being Miss Mobility!!!

What a BIG weekend for my two little angels!!  A Merry Christmas INDEED!!!

Jonahisms

Jonah’s new favorite response to a spanking: "Heyyyy! Don't pank my bootyyyyy! Be noiiiiice."
One of toddler parenting's BIGGEST challenges: Not laughing when it's time to discipline. I never dreamed sass could be so darn cute.


[quoting the movie “Animal House”]
Daddy: "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? HELL NO!"
Jonah: "ELMO!!!! ELMOOOOOO!!!"
[thank goodness for that misunderstanding! Lol!]

[watching rolling credits after a show]
Jonah: "Aww! Wook at all doze letters up there! Wook at ALL doze letters!!"

[to me, in response to Lexi taking one of his toys]
Jonah: "I hab is first." ("I had this first").
....and so it begins :)

[after a Christmas lights parade]
Mama: "Did u see lights?"
Jonah: "I see lights!"
Mama: "Did u see horses?"
Jonah: "I see horsies!"
Mama: "Did u see Oogly Doodiddles?"
Jonah: "I see Oodwy Doodiddles."
Mama: "Did u see....ummm.... the Pillsbury Doughboy?"
Jonah: "I see the Puddle Doublebee DOUBLEBEE!!"
What exactly was IN this parade, anyway?!?

[6am wake-up call one morning recently]
Jonah: (runs in our room, giggling) "I'm a TOOTER!!"
Jeremy: (agitated) "Jonah, you do NOT get out of bed to tell Mommy & Daddy you TOOTED!"
Nice.

[early potty training, after Jonah pooped in undies]
Daddy: “Jonah, you do NOT poop in your undies!” [shows Jonah as he dumps contents into the toilet] “You see this? You put these rocks in the POTTY!”

CONSEQUENTLY: If Jonah needs to go poop, he says, “I need to put wocks in potty!!”

When Jonah goes potty, he insists on taking his pants and undies completely off. One day, he came home from daycare, having played on the playground that day. Therefore, he had little tiny rocks in his shoes. So, while we were taking his shoes off so he could go potty, the tiny rocks fell on the bathroom floor.

Mama: “Uh, ohhh! You had rocks in your shoes!”
Jonah: [scrambles to find the rocks, which have scattered on the floor]: “I put rocks in the potty!!!!”

Needless to say, we found another word for the rocks in the shoes. How about PEBBLES, next time!!!

[Jonah’s smart]
In Sears, I see a bicycle with “Lightning McQueen” from the movie Cars. Jonah calls Cars “RACECARS.” I point out the bike, expecting Jonah to respond with a simple, “Racecars!” Here’s what I got:
Mama: “Jonah! Do you see that? What IS that right there?”
Jonah: “Dat’s RACECARS, Mama! Dat’s Racecars on a bicycle right there!”

[Letters and Numbers]
Jonah was confusing his letters and numbers. He could identify 1-10, but also thought the letter Z was a 2 and the letter S was a 5. For a week or so, he’d bring me a Z and proclaim “Twoooo!” to which I would correct him. Same thing with the S. Now, his favorite thing to do in the bathtub is grab a z & 2 in one hand and an s & 5 in the other hand and proudly proclaim:
“I gotta z and a 2! And, I gotta S and a 5!” over and over again!

[Alphabet song]
“A B C D E eh Geee {breath} H I J K eminymoPeeee {breath} Q R eSSSSSSS T U Veeee UBBELDOO X Yand Zeeee {out of breath, inhaling while singing}:Now I know my ABCeeee’s, Next time won’t you sing with MEEEE!”

[at bedtime]
Daddy: “Say 'I love you, Mama'."
Jonah: "I yuv you, Mama."
Daddy: "Say 'I love you, Daddy'."
Jonah: "I yuv you, Daddy."
{pause}
Jonah: "Say 'I yuv you, Jonah'."

I'm a BAD BLOGGER!!

Okay, what a BAD BLOGGER am I!  I haven't posted ANYTHING since before sweet baby Alexia "Lexi" Marie made her debut on May 22, 2010!!  And, she's nearly 7-months-old!  This may have to be a nutshell summary with BEST intentions to do better in the future!!!

Jonah:
Jonah started potty training about a month (or so) ago! We were blessed that daycare offered to train him "cold-turkey" in undies only, and within 2 weeks, he stopped having accidents altogether!  So far, we can even go out in public or to activities out of the home, and he is very consistent about telling us when he needs to go potty!  What a BLESSING to have him out of diapers!!  He was fully trained at 2-years and 2-months.

Jonah is so smart, and we've come to realize he is just truly gifted!  Every time I think he will eventually "even out" with the rest of his same-aged peers, he proves us wrong!  At 18-months, he could name his colors.  Before turning 2, he knew all of his basic shapes & colors, and was counting to 10.  He can now identify many letters of the alphabet.  His vocabulary continues to astound us, and now he's learning concepts that I don't think are typical of 2-year-olds, although I may be wrong.  He understands how to correctly use the words "yet" and "too" and he understands directional concepts, like over, under, and behind.  And, he understands when something is big versus little.  His daycare director shared a hilarious story one day.  She was wearing a shirt with 3 crosses on it.  Each cross was made of a different animal print: leopard, zebra, and giraffe print.  Rather than looking at the shirt and identifying that she had crosses on her shirt, Jonah looked at the shirt and pointed to each cross, saying, "Giraffe, Zebra, BIG Giraffe!" (he thought the leopard print was "small giraffe," I guess :)

Alexia (aka: Lexi):
I went into pre-term labor with Lexi at 32-weeks.  Thankfully, they were able to stop my contractions, and she made her debut on May 22, at 4:19am.  I went into labor that Friday evening.  Since I had been induced with Jonah, I kept expecting my contractions to get much stronger, but I finally decided I'd better get to the hospital.  Since I wasn't totally convinced I was truly in labor, the hospital staff wasn't convinced either, but they believed me after hooking me up to a monitor.  Ha!

Lexi was born with a heart murmur.  Her pediatrician, Dr. Capra, explained to me that a heart murmur is very common in the first 24-hours or so, but he ordered an ekg and echocardiogram, just to be safe.  Well, the results indicated that she was born with several holes in her heart (called fenistrations).  Based on that information, we felt all the more blessed that the dr. had been able to stop my contractions when I went into pre-term labor.  As it was, the holes probably wouldn't cause much long-term concern, but if she'd been born prematurely, we would have been looking at a completely different story.  She had a cardiology check-up at 6-weeks, then 2-months later (at which time they said she was progressing exactly as expected, although she still had at least one hole in her ventricular wall (VSD) and one in her atrium), and again 4-months later.  That appointment was just on Dec 3, and we got the wonderful news that the only hole she has left is a tiny hole only 1/10", and she doesn't have to see the cardiologist again until she turns 3-years-old!

Lexi's a strong-willed little toot!  She was very colicky in the first few weeks of life, which was truly exhausting!  She was even WELL-KNOWN in the hospital as being very VOCAL!  LOL!  But, at 6-weeks, Dr. Padon put her on Prevacid for reflux, and she never once had another bout of the incessant hours-on-end crying that she had been having!!   She was also a tummy sleeper, which racked my nerves, because of the association with SIDS.  Up until about a week ago, she was still waking up 3 or 4 times per night sometimes!  We finally resorted desperately to making her "cry it out," which worked like a charm!  Now, she might still wake up twice a night, but she goes back to sleep within 10 minutes.

Because she slept on her tummy, she hit many of her gross motor milestones earlier than Jonah.  She rolled from tummy to back at 3-mos, back to tummy at 4-mos, and has been army crawling for about 3 weeks.  She's been sitting up independently since 11/18, and at her 6-month well check, she weighed 18 lbs 10 oz and was 27", placing her in the 95th & 90th percentiles, respectively (which is where she was at the 2 & 4 month checks, too!)  She's going to be a big girl! :)  She loves to babble, and she L-O-V-E-S her BROTHER!  Nobody can make her smile and giggle quite like Jonah! 

I used to think the most wonderful sound in the world was your child's laugh, but I've changed my mind.  Now, I think the most wonderful sound in the world is the sound of your children laughing at each other!






Lexi & Jonah "reading" together

 Jonah went through a short time where he was pretty jealous of Lexi, although he never acted out toward her too badly.  Now, he enjoys playing with her and looks out for her!  Some of my favorite moments, by far, are when Jonah "baby talks" to Lexi.  For instance, when I'm giving Lexi a bath, Jonah will come in the bathroom and squeak out to her, "Sista takin a BAAAATH?"  One day, I caught him teaching her all about the world :)  He'd point to various things, and tell her what they were (in that high pitched squeak that I hope I NEVER forget).  "See da fwowder? Dat's a fwowder!  Dat's pink!" and ending by pointing up at me, "See your Mama?? Dat's your Mama!"

Nap-time routine: watching a Baby Einstein video to wind down

For awhile now, Jonah has had a naptime routine, where he watches a show, while laying in the floor, in order to wind down before nap.  I was tickled one day when I lay Lexi in the floor on her boppy, and she and Jonah were both glued to their "show" on tv.

Jonah and Mama playing in the front yard for Halloween pics

Floored at how much Lexi looks like Jonah in this picture!

Lexi and Jonah are REALLY starting to favor each other.  I snapped this photo at dinner last night because Lexi's hair's getting lighter.  I was so surprised at just how MUCH she looks like Jonah in this picture!!  So CRAZY!!!