stinky is funny - to mom only

Just the other day I was asking Jonah if he wants a snack, offering him a lengthy verbal menu of choices. He looked at me and said: "No, no, no, don't care. Don't care." My eyes almost popped out of my head. Don't care. Where did he get that?

This morning after Jonah woke up, he yawned, covered his mouth, puckered his nose and stated: "Stinky." Then in the car he repeated: "Stinky breath, stinky breath, stinky breath." Funny, funny guy.

Also, I coached Jonah to say "stinky daddy" when dad entered the room, and sure enough, Jonah didn't disappoint. Unfortunately, Tim wasn't amused.

finally a hike!

Today we finally went on a hike after a long, long time. I've missed hiking so much. Tim and I used to go nearly every weekend before Jonah was born, but it was nearly impossible to go for many months after Jonah came around. He would get too fussy on car rides lasting longer than 20 minutes and in a backpack, preferring to walk, first with our help, then alone, but of course, for only short distances.

Today he was pretty fussy in the backpack too, so we had to make frequent stops and didn't hike very far. The best part was our stop over on the shore of the Clackamas River, where Jonah dug in the sand, waded in the cold water, watched the rapids, and threw rocks in deep water, listening to the "plunk" sound with great gusto. The weather was gorgeous!

The most disturbing part of the hike was the graffiti on the picnic table - in German. Scribbled on the table in thick black marker were the words which the Nazis placed over concentration camp gates: "Work brings freedom." But the author also added the word Jews in German. This hit me right in the pit of my stomach. My grandparents and many other relatives were imprisoned in concentration camps, many died there. How could anyone propagate this kind of thought and hate today? And in one of the most beautiful places in our region. Truly despicable.

On a positive note, here are the pics from our trip.

update on language & other stuff

Just this week Jonah looked at me and for the first time said: "Mama, I love you." What an amazing thing!

He also uses adverbs such as never and seems to understand tenses, distinguishing between simple past and present progressive. He also uses plurals and the -er ending for people. Skateboarders, for example. His brain and language development is really incredible to watch. He is now interested in numbers and letters. He can pretty reliably recognize the number 3, 5, and 0. As far as letters, he usually correctly identifies m's and o's.

Yesterday we went to story time at the library. When we did our usual Ring Around the Rosie, I encouraged Jonah to hold the hand of another toddler in the group, a girl named Angel. This was his first time holding another child's hand and he LOVED it. He smiled and wanted to hold her hand for each round. So sweet!

Also, I got Jonah a new book, trying to ease him out of his construction equipment obsession. This book is called This Jazz Man and it introduces young kids to famous jazz musicians from the past with playful language and beautiful collage-style illustrations. Each page is sung to the tune of This Old Man. Jonah loves the book so much! We've already read it about twenty times today. His uncle is a jazz drummer and Jonah got to play his drum set, piano, and xylophone when we visited him and my sister in New York in March. Jonah still remembers and we use the book to review his drum vocabulary: high hat, cymbal, bass drum, snare drum. Maybe he will be a drummer some day!

weekend on the coast

Just got back from a wonderful weekend on the coast with friends Mia, James, and their one-year-old son Ira. We all had a fabulous time. The weather wasn't too bad and the house was perfect - a play structure in the backyard for the kids and a hot tub for the adults. It was so great to vacation with another couple with a child close in age to Jonah. The two of them get along great. I put pictures of our getaway here.

flu relay

Over here in Jonah land, we're keeping busy by playing flu relay. First, Tim had an awful flu, which put him out of commission for a few days. Next, Jonah got it and had a fever and slept for almost two days straight. Now he's better, but still coughing hard and tired a lot. And for Mother's Day, I too got the bug. How wonderful. Right now I'm laying in bed, covered with three blankets and still feeling like I'm at the North Pole. Happy Mother's Day to me :(

my piece got published today

My first column is up on the parenting blog Anti-RacistParent.com today, the day Jonah turns twenty-one-months.

my compassion and his

Mine first: Jonah's been running a fever the last two days. We think it's his teeth since he has been drooling profusely and always sticking his fingers or other objects in his mouth. Hopefully he doesn't have the flu Tim just got over.

His compassion: Today our cat Pancho was coughing, trying get rid of a hair ball. Jonah got so concerned that he began to cry, saying "No" and "Au," the Czech equivalent of "Ouch." He got so scared for Pancho. I picked Jonah up and held him, consoling him and explaining that Pancho is just coughing and that he is fine. After Pancho stopped hacking, I told Jonah: "See, he is happy now." Jonah stopped crying and repeated: "Happy."

a day of firsts

Today Jonah finally laerned to climb up and ride down the slide all by himself at the community center where we go. There he also introduced himself to a little girl. He was playing with a toy when she came up to him. She must have been just about a year older than him or so. I said hello to her, she said hi and then watched Jonah quietly for a while. He looked at the girl and then with a smug smile said: "Jonah." If you ask me, that was a little toddler introduction. Remarkable.

The other new thing that Jonah did today was try to draw a circle, which he couldn't physically do. But he did draw over a squiggle which he called a snake. He drew and drew over it with a brown crayon and said "Neni," which means it's not there anymore in Czech. He then called the brown area he had colored dark and a tunnel. He talked about cars going through that tunnel. That's quite imaginitive if you ask me.

Jonah has also started using articles. Now he makes such requests as: "Make a bottle" and "in the backpack" when he wants to sit in the backpack. Very cool

Jonah's friend Ira came over with his mom today. They played nicely together except the few times Jonah pushed Ira for no reason at all. He is in his cause-and-effect experimentation stage. But I sure don't like it. Still, the boys seemed to enjoy each other. They played with pots and pans, read a book together, played hide and seek, and fed each other cheerios. Jonah handed Ira toys too, which was quite an accomplishment in this hate-to-share phase.