My baby can read!

Fluffy Chick and Friends is Jonah's favorite book lately. We read it several times a day - actually I recite it and Jonah turns the pages. He can sit up on his own pretty well although he's a little wobbly after a few minutes. We're still learning how to balance his weight but it's given us an extra activity to do while we're playing on the floor.

the fish

Everyday after our walk Jonah and I feed the fish. They really capture his attention - especially the black one since it will come over and say hi. The orange one stays away in the corner by the bottle where it is safe.

Sometimes he likes the fish so much he sings to them. This has been a recent development as the last three weeks were dedicated to the raspberry noise ONLY. Needless to say, I'm thankful that vowel sounds are back on the playlist. The fish actually like Jonah's performance, too. His sweet serenade can lure the orange fish out of the corner AND make the black fish do tricks - check it out:

picture of the day

lesson of the day

Today's lesson is brought to you by the letter P

and

the number 2.

Yes, it is only 8:30 and we already have learned today's lesson: Jonah may not sit in his jumper until he has pooped for the day. It was a tough lesson to learn - one that required a rinsing in the sink and a new outfit but mama is a fast learner and you can bet we'll be enforcing this!

A tooth eruption!

All that fussy behavior last week and allusions to a napless child in recent posts can be blamed on one cute little tooth that poked it's way through the other day. While we had received several comments from little old ladies at the library and grocery about how Jonah must be teething, I really thought he was a little too young to actually cut a tooth. But you know he certainly isn't lacking in the calcium department of his diet! Since discovering the cause of discomfort for our drooling and overtired child, our lives have been much happier - Thank you, Baby Oragel. Hopefully the rest of the tooth will follow without too much sleep lost, but then there are probably 19 to follow (not to mention the 32 permanent teeth he'll get later on).

jdub's new toy

taa-daa! here is an awesome craigslist find for my growing baby.You can see he isn't quite big enough for it to be a real bouncer (which you can tell he needs by the looks of those thighs, some squats wouldn't hurt the boy for sure - and let's be honest it wouldn't hurt me to do some either... but i have an excuse since i don't fit in the bouncer). Good thing Daddy has big medical textbooks to give him a boost!The bouncer has totally captivated his attention, and is strengthening his core so he will be able to sit up unassisted for more than a few seconds. He had time for a quick hello to his blog fans :)

Another update? Why not! Jonah and I are finishing up our third week here with Justin (I had to double check the calendar to make sure that was right!). His radiology elective has pretty nice hours and he and Jonah get to spend time together in the evenings before bed. Jonah has really started reaching for things (like the camera in this picture) and is so close to rolling over to get the object of his desire. He'll turn his head and stretch both arms over to the toy, but then his hips don't follow so he gets stuck halfway. I know he's so close - it's fun to watch him try and figure out how his body works... until he gets frustrated.

We've also been practicing sitting up. He can hold a tri-pod for a few seconds before his heavy head tips him over.

We go on lots of walks through the apartment complex and are working on being a better napper. We have three more weeks until I go back to work and we're making the most of every minute!

on a stroll...

Here's my big boy in his stroller ready for a walk. The straps crack me up - they look like the suspenders on lederhosen. It had been raining off and on all morning, but the sky looked clear when we started to get ready. By the time we were all strapped in, another shower had started so Jonah played with his froggie activity bar. By the time we did get to go for a quick walk I realized that as big as Jonah is, he's still not quite ready to use the stroller full time. He kept wanting to lean forward a little too much. He's getting close, that's for sure.

midweek update

Jonah and I love blogging. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to this week.Since we're in Michigan without our baby bathtub, Jonah has been taking showers. He loves to drink the water off my shoulder, so we tried giving him sippies of water from our cups. Now he will reach for our cup if we are holding him and try to drink at the same time. Too bad it gives him diarrhea.

His hair is coming in pretty thick. It is still so fine, but when you rub on his head you can feel how much has grown in - it is just hard to see it because it is so light.

We've been staying busy during the day while Justin is at the hospital. Yesterday we went to the library and we usually take two walks. Jonah loves watching the fish and is working on lifting his whole chest up off the floor when he's on his tummy. He is so close to rolling from back to tummy, he just needs to coordinate his legs as his weight shifts. He will put cloth objects into his mouth, but isn't interested in plastic yet (besides his pacifier, obviously).

Ann Arbor

Justin, Jonah, and I drove down to Ann Arbor to meet my dad for the weekend. He was in Ohio for work, so we met in the middle. Ann Arbor ended up being a really nice town and we found lots of things to do.

We did our own walking tour of Michigan University's sports complex including their football stadium which the picture below does not do justice. It is a massive structure with really nice brickwork. We saw a girls lacrosse camp practice, and a baseball camp scrimmage. We found a cute deli for lunch and later on we took Jonah to Domino Farms to the petting zoo. We got some great pictures, which I will share as soon as I get them downloaded (that may be a problem seeing as I left the connector cord in Baltimore! Jonah wasn't quite sure what to think about all the goats who were very excited at the prospect of carrots. The farm also had Alpaca, pigs, bunnies, and peacocks. The hayride was lame, but then Jonah isn't quite old enough to fully appreciate such things.

We ate dinner at a hamburger place featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives called Crazy Jim's Blimpy Burger. Their "from the deep" section of the menu included fried cauliflower and zuchinni along with the standard onions and mushrooms. It was a little disappointed, actually - especially later that night when all the greasiness made me sick!

We caught the tail end of a summer music concert on campus and enjoyed walking around. We had a great visit with my dad and were glad to get to spend the weekend with him!

Jonah's new trick

This trick is especially cute at bedtime when you'd rather stay awake and you know your daddy can't resist encouraging you.

napster

Saving all my energy for when Daddy comes home!

4 months

Jonah's four month stats:

weight - 15 lbs 13 oz 70.5%

height - 26.25 inches 90.6%

At his two month apointment, his weight was the 70th percentile, but his height was only the 50th, so he's done some serious growing over the past two months!

We met our new pediatrician at the clinic closer to our new apartment. He said Jonah looks very healthy and I agree! We are constantly getting comments about what a big baby Jonah is - I had no idea he was in the 90th percentile! His feet reach the end of his swing!

The other thing we get commented on regularly is how talkative he is. Especially when I have him in the carrier when we're running errands. He loves looking around and does a running commentary of what he sees.

He is just starting to laugh/squeal while we play. He will either get really quiet when I sing or he'll try and sing louder. He loves to be held up so he can stand, and he can hold up a lot of his weight. He fights naps. He can't hide when he's tired though, his eyelids get red and he'll rub his eyes. We're still working on sleeping through the night. I know he has it in him, he just loves his midnight snack(s)! We've been going to the park and walking Sadie pretty regularly, and he really enjoys being outside. He also likes to see himself in the mirror. He hasn't started putting anything besides his hands in his mouth, but he loves to suck on his fingers. He'll even pull out his pacifier to suck on his fingers. And that is my baby!