Jonas - 21 months

How is it possible that the next update will be for a 2-year-old! He is growing up so fast. Jonas's language has really exploded in the past few months. He now can talk in full sentences and uses prepositions, pronouns, and adjectives. It's so fun to hear what he comes up with. Much of his speech is still unintelligible to outsiders, but Darby and I have gotten pretty good at decoding what he's saying.

He has started hitting and shoving occasionally, so we're working on that. Overall, though, he's still very sweet and compliant. He loves to give hugs and kisses (sometimes he goes overboard with hugging strangers). He is such a sweet boy. 

Since I'm working on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this semester, we had to take Jonas out of his Tuesday/Thursday school. He now goes to the home of another ACU professor, where a nanny watches the kids. He seems to really love it. When I drop him off in the morning, he tells me "bye-bye, Mama" very matter-of-factly and doesn't like it if I linger too long. 

Favorite foods: cheese, oatmeal ("eatmo"), Goldfish ("fishy"), chocolate chips (thanks to helping Mama cook), raspberries ("raz-beedies"), blueberries ("bee-bee"), "salsa" (any kind of sauce), applesauce, carrots, donuts (which we get on Sundays before church)

Favorite toys: Forever and always, balls. He especially loves to name all the different types of balls. Baseball bat, little fuzzy craft pom-poms, measuring cups and spoons, puzzles, Mega Blocks, anything "Minion" related, cars.

Favorite words/phrases: 

• Heavy, which he uses for anything difficult. If he can't reach something, it's "heavy." He also likes to try to pick himself up and says "heavy" when he can't do it.
• "Help me up", which he says when he wants someone to get up off the floor. This is accompanied by yanking on the person's arm. ("Me" in this case means "you.")
• "Noo-nat," which is how he refers to himself. He likes to narrate everything we do. "Noo-nat eat bek-fast"; "Mama eat bek-fast"; "Dada eat bekfast." 
• "Bee-dee pah-dy" (birthday party). We had several family birthday celebrations over the summer, and Jonas really enjoyed them, particularly the tissue paper involved. Now, anytime there's a fairly large gathering or anyone gives him a gift, he says "Bee-dee pah-dy!" I think he's really going to be excited come December. 
• "Fall down". He falls a lot and almost never cries, just says "Noo-nat fall down." If he drops something, he says "Dat fall down." Actually his first full sentence was "Raspberry fall," after he dropped a raspberry at breakfast. 
• Choo-choo, said with extremely pursed lips. 
• Dump truck, which refers to any piece of machinery. 
• Too. He adds too to the end of many sentences. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes not. 
• Poopy, pee-pee, tootie. For some reason, he has latched on to all the potty words. (Maybe this is a good sign for potty training?) Every time I change his diaper (whether he has pooped or not), he says, "Noo-nat poopy. Mama poopy. Dada poopy." We try not to encourage this. 
• "Tat-dy" (khaki). I taught him the phrase "khaki shorts" and now he is obsessed with pointing out anything khaki (which is a very broad category in his mind). 

Favorite activities: "helping" Mama cook while standing on a chair at the counter, playing in the kitchen sink, going to "Bible tass", singing "Big Sun" ("God Made the Big, Round Sun") and "BBC" (ABCs), playing "Ring Around the Rosie" ("Ring Roadie"), going to friends' houses, especially if they have toy trains, visiting grandparents, watching Tai-Tai, playing guitar with Daddy. 

Favorite books: Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Peek-a-Boo Book (a very weird book that he of course loves), Jonas's Night-Night Book (a personalized book G-Ma and Papa got him for his birthday)

Favorite tricks: Making silly faces, doing a fake laugh on command, filling in the words in books if I leave a pause for him. 

Watching our neighborhood 4th of July parade with his good friend Luke ("Yoop").

Enjoying his new pool and still loving "ya-yo ball"

Our friends Dick and Billie came to visit from Illinois. Jonas took to them like a 3rd set of grandparents. It was very sweet.

He likes to be very close to Tai-Tai.

Giving Grandpa some sugar.

Loved his first churro at "Entra a la Plaza" at ACU.

It's been fun to see him actually be able to enjoy playgrounds. He's a little cautious, but he usually ends up doing everything.

Jonas likes to sleep with "Fox," "Elmo," "Baby Hippo," "Mama Hippo," and "Monkey" every night.