Jonah at 18 Months

Jonah is now one and a half! He is growing and changing every day. He is more fun than Mike or I could have ever anticipated. Below are some pictures and updates.

During his breathing treatments he makes sure that Puppy has his mask on as well. We had to purchase a nebulizer when Jonah had so much trouble breathing with his cold that he needed to do regular breathing treatments. He was one sick little boy.

Shopping trip with Daddy - so much more fun than Mommy. Mommy trips usually max out the excitement with purchasing prunes or brussel sprouts.

Jonah loves his time with Daddy and is so excited to "help" Daddy fix things. He is soaking up all he can about tools and music and football from Daddy. They play tackle football. The other afternoon I asked him to play football and he looked at me and said, "No. Football with Daddy."

Jonah's allergies have become a painful thing in our family. Jonah is adventurous when it comes to food and very well aware of what he is missing. He has meltdowns and temper tantrums when he is unable to have the food we are eating. It is become more necessary and more of a challenge to find meals that he can eat along with us. Eating out is essentially impossible and finding treats for him is difficult as well. This past week I took Emma to get a cupcake as a reward from not crying or taking Ducky to dance or Jesus Class. As we entered the store Jonah started cheering and yelling, "CUPCAKES". We bought one for Emma and took it home where he was able to eat one I made him. He was so proud to have the same treat as her and we all sat and had a cupcake together. We have also found a yogurt place that has sorbet he can have. He loves that, but we do realize that it will not be long before he figures out that what he is having is not the same. He will be retested in May and hopefully we will be able to add dairy and egg to his diet. We will see though. I never anticipated it to be this emotionally difficult to deal with food allergies.

Jonah had his first playdough experience this week. He quickly realized it did not taste good and he was consumed with making balls and dropping them through a tube. He also enjoyed the rolling pin and cooking in the frying pan.

Jonah is waiting for Poppa to visit at the end of February to have his first chocolate milk. He knew exactly what it was when I put it in the cart and when he hears us talk about Poppa he says, "Poppa coming...drink chocolate milk".

This little guy has always been a climber so going to the park is a challenge. He always wants to be where Emma is and at the park in our neighborhood he has mostly mastered the large playset and slides. Of course I stay close by, but I have stopped climbing up with him - mostly because I now physically cannot. Here he is coming down the big twisty slide by himself.

Here he is climbing up to the slide. The picture doesn't fully capture the scale of the slide, but it is much taller than I am. He thinks he is hot stuff up there!

The following list is mostly for our memories since this is essentially taking the place of his baby book.

• 25lbs 2oz (39th percentile), 35in (98th percentile), 18.75cm head circumference (45th percentile) Jonah grew in all areas. He continues to be tall and lean. He is a healthy skinny boy!
• Jonah's favorite things include: playing football, Thomas, tools, books, cooking, painting, playing with Emma, playing outside, going for walks, bridges, boats, cranes, construction, planes.
  
• He is happy most of the time but he can throw temper tantrums that put Emma's to shame. He is very opinionated and passionate, so if told no, he will make his displeasure known to all. He also gets very frustrated when things break, like his waffle or banana. He screams "BROKEN" and gets really mad. We have worked on recognizing that now he has pieces, but he still is pushed over the edge when things break.
• He loves playing with his sister. They play babies and cook in her kitchen and play ball and she reads to him. They plays really well with each other and we are so very thankful for that!
  
• Jonah is sensitive and as sweet as any little boy could be. He loves to hug and kiss and cuddle. He hugs and kisses pictures in books and toys and people. He will point to something and say, "Hug? Kiss?". He takes care of Emma and is always caring for his Puppy. When someone is crying he gets very upset and needs reassurance that everything will be ok. One of his favorite things is hugging and kissing my belly. No one taught him that. Emma doesn't really do that, but he does. He kisses it and says, "brother, love".
• This child talks up a storm. By 18 months he should be saying at least 10 words. I cannot even begin to guess how many he actually knows. He strings words together into three and four word sentences and is extremely effective in communicating with us. He has started telling Mike about his day at dinner time without my prompting his answers.
  
• Jonah knows his colors. I take no credit at all for this, but the child knows them all...including brown, purple, orange, pink, blue, red, green, black, white, yellow. No idea how, but he does.
• Jonah also has been picking up on his letters. He knows E and can identify it anywhere. I am pulling my hair out trying to work with Emma on her letters and he is just learning them along with her. I am afraid he will know them all before her! :)
• Jonah loves numbers and likes to count. He can tell you how many of something there is if you ask up to the number three. He counts to 10 and loves calendar time in the morning.
• The boy loves to run, although his run is more of a prance. He is FULL of energy and I am so thankful we can get outside often.
• Jonah discovered Thomas about a month ago and has been obsessed ever since. He carries Thomas and Percy around all day and has started lining them up and pushing them around. He takes them in the store and makes them chug along the handle of the cart while we are shopping.
• We moved Jonah to a new room a few weeks back to get the nursery ready for the baby. He was excited about a new room with his toys in it, but he did not handle it well that we took his bumper pad away. After a week and a half of screaming through the night we finally put it back in to see if that was in fact what was going on. Once he got the bumper back he went right to sleep and was silent for four nights. I found a great deal on a new bumper and put it in his room so I could get the nursery ready. He screamed through the night again, so we are putting the original bumper back in his bed and using the other bedding in the nursery. Crazy.
• This little guy has stolen our hearts! We are having some anxiety about sharing our hearts with another little boy. We are praying for a smooth transition for Jonah. He is very much attached to Mommy and we are expecting a significant adjustment.