Jonas is still a joy; I love seeing him learn new things daily. He has become quite affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses, even giving them unprompted. He is going through a bit of a "mama" phase and prefers to be around me if both Darby and I are in the house. If I'm gone, he does fine, though. We are seeing the first glimpses of the terrible twos, I think. He can throw a pretty big tantrum when he doesn't get his way and has preferences that seem illogical to us. He gets mad if we fill up the wrong cup, for example, or if we break a banana into chunks instead of giving it to him whole. And he likes to test the limits after we've told him not to do something: putting his feet on the table, pulling hair, etc. He's also asserting his personality in positive ways, though. He has his own little sense of humor and enjoys performing for us. He also recognizes himself as a person and calls himself "NoNo."
As Jonas gains independence, there are fewer physical demands on me. However, I can see the mental and emotional demands really ramping up. We have to be firm and consistent in our discipline. And he wants to help us around the house, which is very sweet, but also taxing. It's so much easier to just do it ourselves. Darby is very good about patiently showing Jonas how to throw away trash or put away his toys. I'm trying to get better about this. It is very humbling to see how much Jonas learns from watching us. I want to make sure he sees me practicing good habits as much of the time as possible. It is a blessing to be his mom.
Favorite foods: cheese, oatmeal ("hatmo"), pretzels ("puh-puh"), berries ("bee-bee"), Goldfish ("shee-shee"), beans, bananas ("nana"), crackers ("tah-tah")
Favorite toys: BALLS!, his play kitchen, mama and baby hippo Beanie babies, sidewalk chalk
Favorite words: football, beach ball, yellow ball (which are all used interchangeably for balls of any kind), chip, Matt, Yaya (Aunt Leila), mama, dada, no (he never says yes), VeeVee (his friend Avery), down, help ("hep"), outside ("hotsai"), sweep ("fwee"), Papa (both grandpas), Ama (both grandmas), snack ("nack"), cup ("tup"), water ("wawa"), milk ("nilp"), car ("tar"), baby ("bee-bee")
Favorite activities: stacking his cups to make a "tow-a", carrying as many balls as he can at one time, digging in the dirt with his gardening tools, playing with ice in a bowl, watching "Tai-Tai" (Daniel Tiger), watching videos of himself on my phone, hiding behind the living room curtains, playing with his cups in the bathtub, swinging
Favorite tricks: making animal noises, saying "knock, knock" while knocking on the table or wall, saying "dump" and squatting down like he's going to jump but not actually lifting off the ground, saying "shee-shoo" if he has a dirty diaper (we have Auntie Hannie to thank for that one!), giving high fives ("hi-pi").
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| Jonas's first Easter egg hunt. He was surprisingly good at it. |
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| Just doing a little light gardening. |
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| Swinging with Daddy |
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| Jonas's first trip to the beach with Mamaw and Grandpa. He loved collecting shells and playing in the surf. |
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| Grandpa and Mamaw. Our condo on South Padre Island was in a perfect location. |
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| Enjoying the local splash pad with gal pal Avery. |
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| His other gal pal, Myla. |
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| Learning how to cook already. |
