More Moments

He is his happiest playing outside.

Jonah in his Thomas underware. He is back in diapers although he poops on the potty all the time. I just think little boys in underpants are so cute!

 

 

To "spice up" Jonah's cupcakes (no egg, no milk) I gave him some strawberry puree from the strawberry cake I made for the rest of us. He LOVED it. He spooned it over his cupcake and then drank the rest. So fun to give him a yummy treat.

Just chilling at Mariela's.

Playing with 'Lela on her playset. Emma actually has started saying Mariela but Susan and I have convinced her to continue calling her "Lela.

This is Emma's picture of Thomas the Train. She has not really developed artistically yet so we were really proud of this piece!

Busy fixing his Hess truck.

The Fireman, The Ballet, and The Museum

So Jonah has been "potty training" and obsessed with flushing the potty. You can see it coming...I was in the kitchen when I heard the toilet flush and since Emma was with me that could only mean it was Jonah. When I asked him what he flushed he proudly announced it was the fireman. Nice. We went for a few days without being able to use the downstairs toilet but Mike was able to retrieve the fireman who is now in the garbage! Yay for Mike!

Mike proudly displaying his find after several hours of trying to get the little guy to come out. He finally taped dental tools to the end of chopsticks. Very creative and effective!

So we had a toilet in the yard for a few hours. The kids thought it was hilarious. I don't think Mike shared their amusement!

Since the pool is about impossible for me to do alone right now, we have taken to playing in the baby pool and sprinkler. Mariela spent a day with us last week and they played outside for hours.

The kids and I had two play dates last week with some of Emma's friends. We went to the aquarium one day and then to the Children's Museum another day. Mike has access to corporate passes at work so we got to go for free. The kids really enjoyed it but it made me sad they cannot experience the one in Cincinnati.

Riding on the Firetruck

This little boy could not have been more excited to ride on a real firetruck.

Jonah loved the water table and found the only train engine in the room.

Again, Jonah was THRILLED to see and touch the railroad tracks and crossing signs.

Mike and Emma had the chance to go to the ballet a few weekends ago. The performance was part of a fine arts festival called Spoleto. Evidently it is a big deal and we were so thankful to be given tickets. Emma was so excited to go on a date with her Daddy! She was so well behaved and enjoyed her time so very much.

All ready to go!

Jonah loves to line up his trains and I love to see where he puts them. Today they were all lined up for a nap in front of the tv.

Behind the TV is his "shed" for his trains. It is always fun to see who is hiding back there.

Things I Love About Jonah

• He says "mores" when he wants more of something.
• When he wants to be held he says, "hold you, mama". It used to be "hold you me" but has progressed.
• He sticks his puppy's tail in his ear while sucking his fingers. When it is time to get out of the car, and leave puppa in the car, he has to stick the tail in his ear one last time. I had to laugh when I picked him up from the nursery and the teacher told me that he was sticking it in another boy's ear (gross and very sweet at the same time). One of the sweetest things Jonah can do is put that tail in your ear!
• When he wants me he says, "I need you, Mama. I need you much."
• Singing has been a new development for Jonah. He sings songs from church and from his CDs. So sweet to hear his little voice try to repeat those songs about Jesus.
• At dinner he likes to pray and starts every prayer with "Father God" followed by the biggest cheesy grin as he opens his eyes to see if we will laugh at him. The first time he said Father God we did laugh because it caught us so off guard. That smile he does at prayer time could not be any cuter though. He must have picked this up at BSF since that is not how we start our typical prayers at home.
• Also from BSF - Jonah looked at a bible the other day and said "True word of God". Yay for BSF! I love what they are learning there.
• He is terrified of bugs! THANK GOD! I am so glad he is not out searching for creatures to bring into the house...not to mention his reaction to bug bites is so severe.
• He plays babies and house and school with Emma and then turns around and puts dents in the wall and obsesses over football and trains. 
• His favorite thing to do is go look for Crossing Signs near the train tracks.
• His brown football shirt is the only shirt he wants to wear. Consequently, we have many early morning temper-tantrums over that shirt when it is in the laundry. Thank goodness I do laundry nearly every day.
• He says shif for fish so gold fish is gold shif and fishing is shiffing. I love it!
• Everything can be turned into a ball or a bat or tennis racket. He LOVES sports and is in a constant game in whatever he is doing. I am excited to see where this love takes him and excited for the football season to start up this year and enjoy watching games with him.
• I am so thankful for this sweet little boy! I could not possibly love him anymore.

May

The past month has gone by so quickly. We have had some great times in the month of May and also some really hard times missing "home". We are all feeling the loneliness of not having friends here yet, although Emma did point out that she has friends and Mike has friends - I am the only one who doesn't. Thank you, Emma!

Emma and I went out for a treat. She had received some money in the mail to get a treat and she chose a milkshake. She put the money in her purse and she and I and her baby went to Chick-fil-a and split a chocolate milkshake. She ordered it and she paid with her money from her purse - I could get used to that!

The kid LOVES football. He has started playing football and wearing Emma's helmet. So cute. He is only allowed to play football outside now because he takes aim at the ceiling fans and picture frames, and he has a good aim. He is obsessed with sports. It will be fun to see how this love plays out as he gets older.

Jonah went through a week of wearing "underpants". It started with pooping on the potty on his own and then asking to pee. He did really well for a few days and then started having accidents because he didn't want to stop playing. I have to admit I was so thankful to put him back into diapers. I thought we had another year before dealing with this and it is nice to eliminate an additional stress from our life right now. But, he was so cute in his underpants!

Jonah ended up at the hospital this week. He got several bug bites while out in the yard, but this one started oozing and his ankle turned bright red and was very swollen. The doctor was quite concerned and put him on antibiotics. Once again we left with the warning that if things get worse to take him to the ER. This seems to be a theme for Jonah. It is the third time this spring I have left with this warning. Thankfully the Lord has protected Jonah and spared us the trip to the ER all three times. He is doing much better!

Swollen and red...it was so painful for him. We are so thankful it is clearing up without any problems.

These kids LOVE to do art projects. Right now that mostly involves coloring because the other options, like painting, are too consuming and messy when also dealing with a little baby. The will color several times a day for an hour at a time.

Jonah has been banned from coloring for the time being. He has eaten the tips off of all the markers and has moved on to chewing up entire crayons and then spitting them everywhere. He colors so nicely most of the time and will color for up to an hour. His consumption of his markers and crayons is unpredictable but very destructive and messy. The different colors of his face and mouth do provide us with entertainment though!

Emma has been learning how to take pictures - not too bad!

For those of you who have been here - this is a picture of our backyard now that we cleared out all of the "junk" on the back tree line. It gives us another 10 feet of yard, looks so much better, and makes us feel a part of things.

 A few other things that I don't have pictures to go with -


- Bugs have begun to invade our life now that summer is upon us. HORRIBLE. This is the one area of living here that I just cannot deal with. That said, I am SUPER thankful that we have had barely any bugs inside the house and the ones we have had were minor bugs.


- The pool is open, it has been for 2 months, and the kids are loving it. Jonah was very timid at the beginning of this season, but he loved it when we went yesterday. Emma could not enjoy the pool anymore than she does. She is jumping in by herself and swimming all over with her floaties on. Unfortunately I cannot yet manage all three kids at the pool by myself so the time there this year will be limited, but we are SO thankful for an awesome pool in our neighborhood.


- Major excitement took place in our home when Chipotle opened its first restaurant in Charleston last week. The highlight of our week was to drive 25 minutes to get some Chipotle - one of our favorites from home. Their menu is super friendly to Jonah which is awesome and we have one opening about 8 minutes from our house in the fall! YAY for some "comfort food".


- Crossing signs have become Jonah's favorite thing. He plays with his trains and train mats whenever he is not playing a sport. On days we need something to do, which is at least once a week, we get in the car and drive downtown to the railroad tracks. We look for the blue and the black diesel engines and drive down along the harbor looking for crossing signs. So very sweet. That ride includes lots of construction trucks, boats, shipping ports with the cranes and ships, boats, the "sailboat" bridge, trains, and trucks. What more could a little boy ask for in just 30 minutes?!

Oh, Sweet Jonah! The poor little guy has had another round of allergy testing. It was a year ago that we went through the first round and determined his allergies to egg, peanut, and milk along with dogs, cats, tree pollen, and a few other things. This spring we have been very thankful to already know that he has a tree pollen allergy. He spend the "spring" here with a constant runny nose and several bouts of breathing problems that just about landed us at the hospital. He is now the owner of a nebulizer and the kids are well versed in breathing treatments. As the spring progressed Jonah started having more severe breathing problems which landed us at the allergist. Our new doctor is absolutely wonderful (another answered prayer). He put Jonah on an inhaler twice a day along with Singular. It has been an amazing answer for Jonah! We have not had to do breathing treatments or watch him struggling to breathe since the middle of April. Along with that, we retested his food allergies...still allergic to egg, peanut, and milk. The fabulous news is he tested negative for all other nuts as well as fish and shellfish - especially important since we now live in the land of seafood. The doctor fully believes he will out grow the milk and egg. The peanut will be a lifelong allergy and we have now cleansed our house of peanut items...well except for Mike's and my stash! We are so thankful for the good news and answers to prayer with his allergies and we will continue to pray that he out grows the remaining food allergies.

The Recital

 Emma had her first dance recital last week. It was hilarious! In the video you can see how she comes out with her mouth open and doesn't close it. She was so happy and just waved and waved - the only one who did. She took lessons through the community rec center. It was exactly what we wanted - low key and noncompetitive. She really learned so much this year. The video is not great and the pictures are not either as we were juggling Jacob and Jonah and trying to figure out settings on the camera. We were so proud of her!

Getting ready to go backstage

Emma with all of her props

Jonah waiting for the recital to begin. He actually loved it!

Check out the mouth

Figuring out what to do - notice all the girls are doing something different

Showing some moves!

Whistling...she just kept whistling

Daddy took Emma out for ice cream to celebrate afterwards

The theme of the recital was a night at the circus. In Emma's first dance she was a pony.

For the second dance Emma was an elephant. She is the third one to come out. My favorite part of this one is toward the end when she is trying to do an arabesque and she is going the opposite direction of the other kids but pushing her way through. At one point in this dance you can also see her directing the girl at the end of the line.

For the second dance Emma was an elephant. She is the third one to come out. My favorite part of this one is toward the end when she is trying to do an arabesque and she is going the opposite direction of the other kids but pushing her way through. At one point in this dance you can also see her directing the girl at the end of the line.

Afternoon at the Pier

Today we took the kids down to the pier on the Cooper River. Quick lesson for those of you unfamiliar with Charleston - the Cooper River and Ashley river meet and form the Charleston Harbor. The Cooper River is on the north side of downtown and on the other side of the Cooper is Mt. Pleasant, where we live. We enjoyed the time outside and watching the boats. The kids also got to play on the playground. The playset is modeled after the Ravenel Bridge, which our kids call the sailboat bridge.

Sweet boy fell asleep in the car. He wears this hat everywhere and gets so upset when it is taken off.

Enjoying the swings

The pier

The pier is right next to the "sailboat bridge"

Charleston Harbor - the sailboats were out but are hard to see in this picture

The boys enjoying the new stroller

Downtown Charleston with a cruise ship in port

The USS Yorktown Aircraft Carrier