Jonah is 18-months-old, and he is truly just too stinkin' smart for his own good!! I can't even keep up with his vocabulary anymore. It's enormous. He also consistently identifies the colors "yeyyo, wed, reen, and purple" and he knows fruits, like "apple, peh, rrrapes, and memmon (melon)." I'm going to start using flash cards with him because he learns SO quickly with puzzle pieces. He differentiates such vehicles as "Trrrruck, A cah, scooter, plane, train, chopper, bus and boat." He LOVES to sing and can sing the alphabet song and has been singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from start to finish for a few months now. (And, you can even tell them apart, despite the fact they're the same tune!! Lol!) We get lots of looks in the grocery store, because he loves to sing or jabber using his "outside voice" (haha!) the whole time we shop!! He knows all of the body parts that we can think to teach him, including the BOOTY (I should post a video of the booty dance -- which we did NOT teach him, by the way!). He also knows the eyes, ears, nose, hair, mouth, teeth, face, chin, elbow, hands, "peet," knee, shoes, and his newest.....the "weewee."
He's also becoming a pro at using his manners. We try not to endulge whining, by giving in when he fusses, but rather make him use his words to tell us what he wants, and he really responds well to this. Yesterday, he wanted a toy that was in a no-no zone. When I moved him out of the no-no zone, rather than throwing a fit, he simply pointed at the toy and said, "Peas?! Peas?!!" So, of COURSE I gave him the toy!! He loves Nnno! (snow) and wain! (rain), and he regularly asks to go "bye-bye?" or "outside?" My favorite Jonahism, though, is the rare and coveted, "I wuh yooooh." And, one night I told him, "I love you more," so now he says, "I wuh yooooooh," and I say, "I love YOU," and he says, "More!" (with the accompanying sign for more, of course).
He habitually blows my mind, and his teachers at daycare even remark regularly about how smart he is.....that is when they're not remarking about him biting his friends that day :( That's been our biggest struggle lately. He's a biter. But, oh, I am THAT mom -- the one who actually wrote a Behavior Intervention Plan (aka: a BIP) for my own child at daycare! That's right!! It's what I DO, so why not do it for my own kiddo?? We have now had 3 bite-free days in a row, and I'm praying we stay that way. Jonah has also started having night terrors, which just down-right SUCK! (Sorry, no sweeter way to say it). We took him to the dr. and he's in good health, so it's just a nasty phase we'll have to get through. I'm hoping he moves past it before his sister (that's RIGHT! It's a girl - confirmed by 2 different ultrasounds now!) makes her debut in May. It'll be quite a struggle to have both of them awake and unhappy in the middle of the night when Daddy's at work.
We've been trying to get back into a good routine of going to church on Sundays, and we will celebrate a baby dedication for Jonah on Sunday, April 11, so that's exciting!!
Other than that, we've got our little bundle of girly goodness getting ready for her debut in late May. We had a 3-D ultrasound this past weekend, and those pictures were very fascinating! I really wanted to name our baby girl after my grandmother, Charlotte, as I'm convinced my Grandma is a saint sent straight from heaven. Well, we toyed and toyed with names, and finally we decided on the name Alexia, which is a feminine version of Grandma's maiden name, Alexander. We also gave her my middle name. So, Jonah has his dad's middle name (Wayne), and Alexia will have my middle name (Marie). We have agreed to call her by the nickname Lexi, although some may decide to call her Alex, which is the nickname my Grandma was called until she married my Papa.
(a collage of 4 of the ultrasound pics from 3/13/10)
(comparison of Lexi in-utero & Jonah 1-day-old. WOW! The technology!!!)
Of course, we are gluttons for punishment, as we have started yet another big home-improvement project just a couple of months before Lexi's scheduled arrival. We are building a garage, which is a necessary addition for storage of the "junk" currently housed in our spare bedroom -- which will become Lexi's nursery. They poured the slab a couple of weeks ago, and there's nothing like a major project on a time crunch to make the pregnancy seem to go EVEN faster!! I pre-registered at the hospital this morning, and I'm already having bi-weekly prenatal visits, so the big event will be here before we know it!! What an exciting time for the Holmes' Sweet Home.
I put Jonah in his new "PuhnBahhh!!" jammies tonight, and caught him playing peek-a-boo with his pajama bottoms. It went something like this: 
MUST HAVE A BATH AFTER A DAY IN THE PARK!
CAN YOU GUESS WHO'S THE NURTURING ONE OF THE PAIR??
