Won't you be my neighbor (or mail man)

Jonah's imagination has really been expanding. Today I noticed he was playing "post office man" with a fridge magnet that he would stick in the horizontal slots between his dresser drawers, saying: "Post office. Magazine - in. Movie - in." He was obviously sticking mail in mail boxes. I asked him if he was "post office man" and he smiled, all pleased with himself. How great!

Before that, he has pretended to be daddy going to work with a bag over his shoulder and keys in his hand. He has also pretended to be a digger (and a driver of one). He has fed and changed his bear and doll and taken both on a stroll. Sometimes he plays "kitchen man" too, baking pizzas in the oven and cooking in the pots.

Lately he has been imagining random things to be other things - a piece of a fried egg may become a bulldozer, for example. When he draws, he now describes the drawings sometimes. He will draw a squiggle and call it a dump truck.

As you can tell, he still hasn't quite moved out of his obsession-with-construction-equipment stage. That's why the mail man game was so encouraging to me!

The other day Jonah caught me off guard. I made various objects out of play dough, fulfilling his requests: dump truck, digger, garbage truck (that one was tough . . . and hardly recognizable, I must confess). Then I made a person, sitting on a chair, starting from the feet up. When I finally added the funny-shaped head with ridiculous hair and unintentionally spookey looking facial features, Jonah took a look at the play dough person, and remarked with conviction: "Neighbor." My mom and I almost fell over in our chairs. I am glad the neighbor didn't hear.

funny guy

We were eating pizza in one of my favorite pizza restaurants, when Jonah snuck up behind me, made a fart noise with his mouth and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Mommy farted!!!"

The pronouncement echoed loud and clear through the restaurant, which was fortunately half empty. Tim and I roared with laughter. Jonah - what a funny, funny guy. Not yet two, but so cheeky already.

the boys then and the boys now

Here are the boys that went camping together this last weekend before they were toddlers.

And here they are now.

first time camping

Just got back from our first camping trip with Jonah. This one was in honor of Father's Day.

Three couples with one little boys each went. Yes, that's right. Three toddler boys in tents. We had a great time though the weather was cold and off-and-on rainy. The boys really enjoyed themselves.

We had a couple of scares when Jonah refused to go to sleep in the tent, saying things like: "All done forest. Go home." But eventually he got to sleep and slept more soundly than at home.

The highlight was the adult badminton game (no score kept) with the boys running in our midst like crazy. The two older boys loved playing with their construction equipment and would occasionally get into a tiff over diggers and such. But not too bad.

Lenore and Ted, the parents of Espen, who is only three weeks younger than Jonah, made the most fabulous dinner over fire: grilled salmon and veggies. Wow! I told them they won first prize for most gourmet meal I've ever had camping. Beat canned chicken soup, that's for sure!

You can see pics from our trip here.

shameless plug

I just participated in the 50 Voices of Equality campaign, "a public education campaign by the Basic Rights Education Fund (BREF). BREF's mission is to build community through education and advocacy and to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Oregon."

As a volunteer I interviewed prominent Oregonians dedicated to working against discrimination. After the interviews, I wrote copy for the campaign's website.

I interviewed Oregon Senator Frank Morse and activist Lew Frederick. I will be interviewing State Representative Judy Uherbelau later this month. So, go to 50voicesforequality.com, click on meet the 50 voices, and you will see the pieces I did.

a budding gentleman

The other day I sneezed and Jonah, completely on his own, brought me a package of tissues, saying: "Here, mommy."

What a little gentleman!

the terrible twos are here!

Because Jonah is such a genius and so advanced for his age (tongue in cheek, I hope you know), Tim and I are convinced that he has hit the terrible twos early. Why do we think so? He is so determined that any little thing he is not allowed and wants to do or vice versa - anything he doesn't want to do, but we make him do, sets him off. He screams, cries, kicks -you name it- to assert his will. Like whatever is happening is the biggest trategy or attrocity ever known to - well, our little man. It's quite a challenging stage, because it's very easy for the adult in the interaction to get angry and frustrated as well, which only escalates the situation.

Let's hope this phase passes quickly!

checking in

I have been so swamped lately that I've hardly had time to blog. Between work, the university course I'm taking, and parenting, there has been very little time to spare. On top of all that, I am hosting the Erase Racism Carnival at my other blog, White Anti-Racist Parent, this month. It's been taking me quite a few hours to put that together. When it's up, I'll let you know, so you can peruse the contributions from all the brilliant bloggers that sent in their writing.

At the end of May, Jonah's Montana grandparents paid us a visit. It was wonderful to see them, as always. The highlight for all of us, I think, was seeing Jonah "swim" in a pool for the first time. He swam on the backs of several whales that day - daddy whale, grandpa whale, and uncle whale. So much fun! Pics here.

I also enjoyed the Portland Underground tour that we took to learn about the disturbing history of women and single men getting "shanghi'd", or basically kidnapped and enslaved, for labor (or prostitution) and profit. Portland was the number one U.S. city for this in the mid to late 1800's and early 1900's, with anywhere between 1,500 and 3,000 men being kidnapped each month to be imprisoned underground in dark holding cells, then sold to sea captains to work on ships for no pay, and shipped who knows where. Scary stuff! The underground in Portland's old part of downtown is so complex, that one could easily get lost. It's also one of the most haunted places in North America.

As you can see, the granparents' visit was quite an adventure.

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.

watch out for powerlines, laptops, and more

Just read an article about radiation from laptops being harmful to children. Something to keep in mind for when Jonah is older and wants to start using a computer. Parenting a child in the computer age will be an adventure. Uncharted waters for me, that's for sure.

Another article I came across today talked about a report based on a study of the health of children living near powerlines. The study showed "clear evidence that living near an electricity line could be linked to fatal childhood diseases such as leukaemia." Additionally, the report also "raised concerns about the electric and magnetic fields inside the home caused by radios, televisions and even washing machines and cookers. It called for the Government to advise householders on reducing risks, for example by moving electrical equipment away from the bedside."

The authors, a collective of academics, medical charities and representatives of the electricity industry, urged equipment manufacturers to "investigate how to limit electric and magnetic fields."

ice cream

The other day Jonah tried ice cream, well gelato to be more specific, for the first time. We generally don't give him any sugary foods. Just fig bars, raisins, fruit and juice with no extra sweeteners. He likes all of that of course. So, I thought he would go wild for ice cream. Suprisingly, he was more excited about the scooping action than the ice cream itself. The gelato came in colorful cups with little plastic shovels. Jonah enjoyed about five spoonfulls and then was done. I was very happy about that! Now he knows what ice cream is. Several books he has mention it. He likes to reminisce about us having it together, but doesn't beg for it. Good deal.

mom learned her lesson

For the first time in a long time Jonah and I watched a cartoon together on the computer. We haven't had our TV set up since Jonah was about four or five months old, so he has only watched TV a handful of times in his life. Maybe three times total? I've shown him cartoons on a couple of occasions before when he was sick with a fever and I wanted to slow him down. But at the time he was just about a year old and his reaction was more of a non-reaction. He just sat there mesmerized. This time, we watched a Czech cartoon about a little mole. I grew up on this stuff. First, we watched Krtek a zelená hvězda or Mole and the Green Star.



When the mole cried, I got a little emotional. The film tugged at my heartstrings, okay? Hey, I grew up watching this stuff, so I got a little teary-eyed. I hid my half a dozen tears from Jonah, who looked worried about the crying mole. Nevertheless, he asked to watch the cartoon again. The second time he knew what was coming when and predicted when the birds would enter the scene and when the bunny would... This time around, though, he got so worked up when the mole cried, that he began to cry a terribly sad and loud cry. He could't stop. I was horrified that I might have traumatized him. But stupid enough to let him watch another mole cartoon the next day:



This one was even more emotionally trying for Jonah. When the mole squeezed into the glass bottle and floated around in the see, Jonah was very concerned about him. Then, when the little boy appeared and shot an arrow aimed at the mole's rocket ship in the end, Jonah started bawling uncontrollably.

He empathizes so much these days that he couldn't handle any thought of danger or injury bestowed upon our hero, the mole.

I took a long time to calm him down. Finally, I resolved to not show him cartoons for a long time to come, even if they are created with little children in mind. He is so sensitive now and he takes the cartoons seriously. Lesson learned.

name the drawing

For the first time Jonah drew something. He's been experimenting with dots and squiggles for a while, but last weekend he drew a squiggle, pointed at it and said: "Had." That means a snake in Czech. A big milestone!