Merry White Christmas

We arrived home last night from a wonderful Christmas celebration with my family. Jonathan thoroughly enjoyed the time with his Nonnie and Grandpa and his aunts and uncles.

We were surprised to have a lovely White Christmas.

Jonathan had a blast with his cousin Logan, who came over on Christmas Eve. The two enjoyed the snow flurries.


Jonathan and Logan with the Mommies, Grandmas, and Aunt Heather.


Jonathan, all ready to go to Christmas Eve Service. Tiger was ready to go, too.When we arrived home from the service, the yard was already white with snow!

Then Christmas morning we went out early to play in the snow before the day warmed up. Jonathan was fascinated, but wasn't especially impressed with the flavor.

Daniel, Kimie, Heather and Justin on Christmas morning.

Jonathan got a little help with his presents...

Our home has again been stocked with toys that go Vroom, Beep, and Moo. The vroom vroom and beep beep aren't so much the problem, though. It's the string of car sounds that goes on for 15 minutes that makes you nuts in the brain. Still, we have to thank Jonathan's Aunt Sarah for the noisy car book and his Halmony and Hariboge for the Zhu Zhu pets that kept him entertained for the last 2 hours of the 5 hour ride home. Without those I fear we would have been few degrees more nuts by the time we arrived home. And Jonathan is in love with the Zhu Zhu pets. He learned how to turn them on today and pushes their little noses to hear the additional sounds. Anytime one gets stuck at a wall he's quick to notice and make sure it gets back on its feet and running around again.

Among the treasured toys... a rocking horse from Nonnie and Grandpa and a big dump truck with mega blocks. Jonathan can get to quite a gallop on that rocking horse.



I love this photo of Jonathan looking up at his Uncle Justin.
The helicopter in hand is what he woke up talking about this morning, though it wasn't in sight. The "hapta" was a gift from Jonathan's Grandpa to the men in the family, who spent the weekend working on their flight techniques, speed, and timing, to Jonathan's delight.

Another highlight of our trip was the opportunity to catch up with friends from high school and as far back as 1st grade. Jonathan got to come for our visit to the Cherry home and had a great time decorating Christmas cookies!


Saturday we got to celebrate Kimie's birthday in her new home. She and Daniel have done an amazing job making their new house into a warm home in just a few weeks. Happy Birthday Kimie!

There's almost more flame than Kimie in this picture. She's fit, though... she managed enough air to get everyone one of those twenty-something candles just before the fire alarm went off.

Wise-Man

Jonathan was playing in our room this morning when he saw this bearded character of our Nativity Scene and began exclaiming "Papa! Papa!" Papa is how he'd been calling his Grandpa this week. I figured my Dad would be honored to be the household WiseMan. The other character below is "Cama." After reading lots of board books about the Christmas story and talking about the aforementioned Nativity Scene, Joanthan's conclusions about Christmas morning is that there was a Camel ("Cama"), a Baby, a man praying ("Amen!" he says every time he notes the other wiseman, who is on his knees with a bowed head and folded hands), and I guess now he figures his Papa was there, too. Hopefully we'll work out a few more details next year.

Blowing Bubbles in Toddler Tinkle

Okay... not in straight up toddler tinkle, but only after I pulled my face out of his bathwater for the 15th time as he insisted "moe moe" (more, more) "mamamama" did it dawn on me his bath was, of course, at least one part toddler tinkle. That was this evening.

I remark on the presence of tinkle in the water only because it was so impressed upon me by yesterday's bathtime. That bath was one early in the day, born out of necessity. We had had quite the struggle on the changing table. There was some misunderstanding between us as to whether Jonathan does or does not have to lay still to have his ginormous messy poopy diaper changed. In the struggle that ensued, it became clear that despite the use of massive numbers of wipees, neither of us was escaping truly poop free -- the smell lingered. Well, bathtime it is, then. While he was standing beside the tub waiting for the water to warm, I reflected on how much bathwater the child drinks and figure it's better to give him a good once-over with a soapy washcloth to reduce the poop contents of the bathwater he's about to imbibe. I turn my back for half a second to wet a washcloth and turn around to an enthusiastic, "ooooooo!" There is Jonathan standing buck-naked on the bathroom (thank Gooodness it's tile) floor, with his hand in his own warm stream of tinkle. He's obviously quite impressed at his accomplishment! He couldn't have been more excited if a garbage truck had just drive into our house. Oh well... at that point, I figured there'd be less pee in the bathwater, but still a little more poo residue, and gave in to putting him into the bath while using the washrag originally intended for his rearend to clean and Lysol down the floor.

My son, like many a 15 month old, I'm sure, LOVES drinking the bathwater. You'd think we didn't offer him water in a toddler cup at least 10 times a day. But these days he knows, too, that Mommy and Daddy don't drink from blue and orange plastic cups. He wants a glass cup or a ceramic tea cup, please. Or... bathwater. For the cups I've outsmarted him -- I bought some clear plastic ones that look pretty similar. While they still make as a big a mess as any other non-sippy-cup when turned upside down, they at least don't break when dropped (or thrown) onto the wooden floor, and he's ecstatic when I let him drink from one of them.

But bathwater is still right up there on the list of favorite drinks. So tonight I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone -- exchange the drinking bathwater for another trick, and do a little preparation for swimming lessons down the road. He knows how to blow bubbles, so I suggested he blow bubbles in the water. He puffed out his little cheeks and blew into the air, but the whole concept hadn't registered. Now fully into teacher-mommy mode, I pulled back my hair and leaned over the edge of the bathtub to demonstrate once. Oooooh, it must have been hysterical to a toddler to see Mommy with her face in the water and all those bubbles burbling up. He laughed and clapped, then reached up to pull my head back down to the water again. I tried to get him to do it himself, but he only wanted to see me do it again and again. So that's how I ended up soaking wet by dinner time, blowing bubbles in my son's bath. And every so often, he'd stop laughing for a moment to take a good swig of bathwater, and then request "moe, moe."


Now some photo catch-up, in reverse chronological order:
David and Jonathan had a great time doing the Jingle Bell Run
Jonathan and I loved visiting his Aunt Heather and Uncle Justin in Oklahoma

Let it snow!

Jonathan and his Daddy on my Grandma and Grandpa's swing on Thanksgiving Day

The Fork Stands Alone

I have no idea how to turn this video upright, but if you tilt your head to the left it looks alright. (We thought we were taking a picture, but it came out video)

Jonathan LOVES forks. In his mind, all that separates a baby from a grown-up is the use of the fork. He's mastered walking, speaks (jibberish, with English mixed in) fluently, so may be he's right. All we have left to teach him is how to eat with a fork, and he's pretty much grown up.

Last night he picked at his dinner. Our child, who ate EVERYTHING with enthusiasm until he was 1 year, preferred throwing his food to the dog and making a fuss about something or another to eating, for most of dinner. After offering him a cup of water, milk, a spoon, more chicken, just rice, etc, I finally gave up on dinner and moved him to my lap so at least I could eat if he wouldn't. He grabbed the fork beside my plate and proceeded to eat the biggest meal he's eaten in months. Such enthusiasm, if he gets to do it his way. In fact, he ate more of my dinner than I did. Here's Jonathan with his prized fork. At this point, he was working the fork with his left hand and attempting to use chopsticks (no joke) with his right. And while yes, I realize that the fork is sharp and they sell safe blunted baby forks, he's quite above baby utensils. Kiddo has apparently realized that Mommy and Daddy don't have big blue and green plastic handles on our fork and spoon, 'cause he insists on using our big ones exclusively. It cracks me up to watch him take a piece of chicken with his hands and spear it onto the tip of the fork in order to then use the fork to put it in his mouth, when he's having trouble stabbing it directly. Sounds like more work than its worth, but apparently the fork experience is worth the effort.

"What? What's so funny about shoes and pajamas?"
Jonathan, in shoes and pajamas (because shoes are fun), offers Pepper a bone.

Mom's Proudest Moment

Well... close to my proudest Mom moment. There was the day Jonathan was born, his first steps, and the day he first said Mama. But this ranks right up there.

Jonathan discovered "clean-up." After 15 months of wrecking havoc on the house, today he discovered that everything has a place to which it is to return. I came home from work and gave Jonathan a cup of milk. After drinking it, he asked me 'please' while pulling on the fridge door to get me to open it for him. He then reached his little hand up as far as he could go to put his cup back on the shelf. Hmm... nice. Later we were playing in his room and he unpacked boxes of wipes and burp cloths from a cabinet, then put them all back and closed the door. I was pretty pleased. It was when he unloaded all the socks from his drawer and proceeded to put each back into it's bin before attempting to stuff the bin back into the open drawer that I started to see the pattern. I think I'm going to like this phase! What are the chances he's this excited about picking up for the next 18 years? I'm doing my best to contribute... there was lots of praise and enthusiasm for each sock that made its way back in the drawer!


Here's my little munchkin at what I fear may be the peak of his enthusiasm for cleaning house.

Mass Casualties at Lunch

My parents did a pretty good job raising us kids (Thanks Mom, Dad), so I tend to rely on much of my experience growing up for parenting style. Plus, it's faster than reading the books, which I don't have time for anyways. But come'on Mom & Dad... I could use a little follow-up in terms of what worked and what didn't -- from an adult perspective. For example, we kids skirted the lights-out bedtime rules by keeping the hallway outside our bedrooms dark. When we saw a crack of light under our bedroom door, we knew the perimeter had been breached and that our own doors were only seconds from opening, too. Flashlights were quickly stowed under the pillows 'til you'd returned to the secret super-cool adult world were you had all the fun after we were forced to go to bed. So, did y'all know we were so insistent on keeping that hallway dark so we could read as late as we wanted... were we allowed to keep our little flashlight game going 'cause at least it kept us in our rooms?

What I'm really getting at here, though, is the mess on my floor. Which I'm blogging about while the dog cleans up. (Pepper's household value has risen dramatically since Jonathan started feeding himself). That little airplane game ... where you put the yucky puree green beans on a spoon and whirled it around our little toddler heads like a plane until the excitement was too much to take and we eagerly opened our little mouths to gobble up the now appealing green mush that was looking for a landing... did that work? Granted, we ate the green beans. But how about a few months down the road? Am I the only parent this has backfired for?

Jonathan is very excited about using a spoon. It's quite cute, really. And, as is the case for just about everything these days, he wants to do it just like Mommy and Daddy. Which means while eating chili (RED chili) today, he was insistent on whirling his airplane spoon, topped with chunky chili passengers, all around his increasingly messy head before eating each bite. Or rather, before licking the spoon, which inevitably landed passenger-less. The casualties were innumerable. I don't think a single chili passenger actually landed in his mouth the entire meal -- and he's actually pretty good at the spoon thing, when the path is a little more direct. Each spoonful toppled off somewhere in the circling pattern before being called in... some hit the table, many hit the floor, and plenty hit any one of the white chairs in a 4 foot radius, since the plane was flying a little fast and reckless. And there was no talking this toddler out of the fact that every spoonful needed to make a minimum of a few passes, complete with airplane noises, around the high chair before being allowed to land.

Dog's about done with his job, but we haven't found a training school that even purports to teach dogs to do laundry, so it's now my turn to complete the clean-up. And I'm thinking we'll have cheese and crackers for snack... much safer, and no airplanes needed.
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Thankfully, there's no photo evidence of the wreck that is the dining room at the moment, but here's a token photo:



If you don't count the Oreo(s?) Jonathan manages to finagle out of David every week at the grocery store, this is about Jonathan's 3rd cookie (to my knowledge), and a much cleaner day in the life of the dining room. He was pretty happy about eating the cookie, but stopped long enough between bites to smile for a picture.

Zoo Boo

I joked to some friends this week that Jonathan was dressing up as a Monkey for Halloween, and David and I would be going as Tired Toddler Parents. This morning, Jonathan played his part quite well and had a blast at the zoo with friends, and we were actually relatively 'with it,' as toddler parents go. This evening, Jonathan started out in his Monkey costume, to welcome Trick-Or-Treaters (or at least those who came before bedtime). But dinner got underway, things were looking messy, the costume got scrapped, and we had a toddler eating egg drop soup in a diaper. Toddler shares his glass of water with Mommy. Doorbell rings, dog barks, toddler cries, Daddy consoles crying toddler. By the time we arrive at the door, we are in fact the scary version of Tired Toddler Parents. Jonathan's in a wet diaper with food down his chest. I'm drenched in water down my front. And David now has swirrled eggs scattered across his brown cashmere sweater, from picking up the crying toddler, who was himself covered in egg drop soup. Our neighbors all think we're quite a mess, but we did at least get the candy distributed to lots of small children, who wouldn't have cared if we'd had eggs in our hair, as long as we had a basket of Nerds.

A few photos of our little Monkey's day at the Zoo...




Weee!

Every Monkey needs a Banana break once in a while.

PJ's, stories, & Skype

A few shots from bedtime the other night.

Jonathan loves talking with his Halmony and Hariboge on Skype.

He's into standing on top of...

and sitting on top of... everything.

Story time, and Night Night!

Camp Toddler

Wow! So much has written since we last posted! Since our last post 2 or 3 weeks ago, Jonathan's vocabulary has grown from Dada and Ack (quack for a duck) to well more than 15 words and a handful of signs. He's figuring out more every day, loves stacking blocks, walking Pepper, giving his Monkey rides on his push truck, and collecting things in little baggies and boxes.

As I put Jonathan to bed this evening I found myself thinking of how being his Mom is more fun every day. It absolutley is. It's amazing to watch him learn and engage his world more each day than the day before. Of course, this evening our toddler was absolutely delightful. It wasn't but two days ago that I called my own mother to say, "Wow, today I realized for the first time what 'You're asking for a spanking' means. It means 'You're asking for a spanking.'" Leaving aside the debate on parenting styles, it hit me as my sweet toddler looked me in the eyes to watch my reacion as he put that piece of paper in his mouth for the 4th time or as he reached out to smack poor Pepper again after being told that we don't hit, "THIS is what my parents meant when they said, 'You're testing my patience,' and 'I don't want to spank you, but I will if you make me.'" I can still hear my own thoughts, "I'm not MAKING you spank me. I'm not MAKING you do anything." Oh no... no, I get it now. Jonathan, in all his enthusiasm to explore life and the world around him, is also learning to "test the limits" and thereby is definitely participating in the Good Lord's plan to sanctify his mother with a character that apparently needs a little more patience. That said, we're having a blast with Jonathan and can't help but laugh at most of his little antics.

He LOVES the outdoors. I'm about to start my own toddler Boy Scout troop if there isn't one. We were outdoors Saturday hiking, then Monday through Thursday camping. On Saturday he was again so insistent on playing outside that between us we must have spent 4 to 5 hours of the day talking walks, playing at the park, or exploring the backyard. Here are a few highlights from our adventures of the week:



Last Saturday we went hiking at a nearby state park with church friends. It was a great time to visit with friends, and Jonathan enjoyed his ride on daddy's back in his hiking backpack. No morning nap was no problem for this happy camper, but he sacked out in the car on the ride home.


First order of business on arriving at our campsite Monday was Snack. Once Jonathan had had his cheese and crackers at the picnic table, he was set to go.


While his Mommy and Daddy set-up the tent, Jonathan found an empty baggie and started a leaf colletion. He was pretty excited about it and clapped for himself when he saw me admiring the leaves he'd found. After the leaves, he got to working on finding good sticks. He spent much of the week digging in the dirt with sticks or dragging around branches that were taller than he is... back and forth across the campsite. He also developed an affection for our car, parked right beside the campsite. He learned the word "car" and would walk around it in circles, stopping every so often to reach up his arms and press his cheek against it, hugging the car more or less just like he does us. My attention is now called to the window by an excited toddler every time a car drives by the house "Car! Car! Car!"


I don't remember what he found so funny at the moment, but he thoroughly enjoyed our hike on Tuesday despite the rain. We were grateful to have our raincoats and actually enjoyed a beautiful walk in the rainy woods.




Wednesday was sunnier, and we spent the afternoon near some small falls. Jonathan enjoyed dipping his feet in the cool water and scrambling around the rocks (not these... some much farther from the water, of course).


Riding on Daddy's shoulders is super cool.


Look at how happy these guys are. I love living life with these two.


Jonathan was so excited to sit up in a big chair beside his Daddy and watch the camp fire. We were lucky to arrive just after a 2 year ban-burn was lifted (thanks to all the rain). We usually set up the campfire after Jonathan was in bed, but the night he got to see it he was pretty impressed. We were equally impressed with how well he slept in his little pack-n-play in our tent. There were a few minutes of protest when we peeled him away from the excitement of bouncing around on Mommy and Daddy's air mattress (yeah for car camping and air mattresses), but after that he and Monkey called it a night. Jonathan usually sleeps to the sound of waves on a white noise machine, but this week his nature sounds were real, and he slept great.

Monkey Rescue

It's been a busy month in the Hong House. We have both been working long weeks and can't wait for a fresh start this coming month. We are grateful to my parents and Jonathan's wonderful nanny for their extra time this month to help us hold it together. Even with the busy schedules, Jonathan's been having a blast being an active 13 month toddler and we're loving every minute with him. Here are a few highlights.

Jonathan's favorite game these days is Monkey Rescue. David puts Monkey at the top of the couch and creates an obstacle course out of the couch cushions while mimicking Monkey's desperate voice: "Jonathan... come save me! Come save me!" Jonathan cracks up laughing, then gets a look of concentration and determination while scrambling up the cushion tower, sometimes with a little assistance. He finally grabs Monkey with a screech of satisfaction, laughing, then clapping to acknowledge the achievement. Any accomplishment... be it getting a taste of yogurt into his mouth with his own spoon or climbing onto the couch, doesn't slip by without a moment of celebration. If we don't clap for him, he'll take care of it himself. Jonathan's so into Monkey Rescue that when David comes home in the evening, Jonathan takes two steps towards the back door, then as he see's the first hint of his Daddy stepping into the house he tears off towards the couch, waiting for David to join him and play.


"Jonathan... come save us!" (Two Monkeys participated in this round, which means the Grandparents must have been around. They always seem to break out all available Monkeys.)


Oops... wrong way, no Monkey down there.


"Gotcha!"


Proudly surveying the room from above.

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This picture pretty much tells it all.
While my parents were down over Labor Day weekend David and Jonathan's Grandpa enthusiastically set up Jonathan's sandbox. A birthday gift from his Grandparents, we were excited to see him explore it. It turned into a classic parenting moment. We broke out the camera to document Jonathan's anticipated excitement and then set him in the sandbox... to his complete horror and panic. Guess Little Dude doesn't like the feel of sand on his bare feet. He freaked out, couldn't get out fast enough. You can see the tears streaming down his cheek here. And the look on David's face pretty much says it -- a mixture of disappointment and frustration. "You've got to be kidding... we spent hours putting this together." So we gave the little guy a respite from the horrors of the sandbox. I've been letting him sit on my lap while I shovel the sand around every so often the past few weeks. Then yesterday Jonathan sat on the side and before he knew it, he was in the sandbox playing too. He stopped... looked down with a worried look, then looked up and started clapping with a look of satisfaction. "Yeah! I did it! This is kinda fun, actually!" After the drama of the first attempt I'm impressed how quickly he's taking to it :) Thanks, Nonnie & Grandpa! I think we'll be having a lot of fun in the sandbox from here on out.

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This weekend we went to the park. Jonathan had a blast riding the train and watching the ducks and the fish.




LOVED the train.





Fish, ducks, people... too many interesting things to see to spare a second for the camera.

Sleepy on Daddy's shoulders after a fun day.