At Long Last...

This is in apology to those who check this website when I have ignored it for so long!

I had no idea anyone was still checking in regularly and more or less forgot about putting anything new up.

Highlights of the summer:

Jonathan learned to crawl in August, but has progressed in his usual mild-mannered fashion to finally deciding to be curious about everything in his reach since the beginning of November. We now are having to close basement doors and toilet lids, etc., since he's migrating far enough to try to get into these interesting areas of the house. We found a toy screwdriver in the toilet a few weeks ago and I got a mental picture of him on his knees peering in there saying to himself, "Hm...wonder what THIS is for?"

He likes to sit on his heels and he also kneels up to look at things. Occasionally he will pull himself to a standing position on the couch to reach books (or Legos!) and he no longer falls over backward when he does this. I would expect him to walk by next September or so, though he may beat that.

He says a few words, but they are only words to those of us who know him well enough to recognize he's saying them. He says "Hi!" loudly, enthusiastically, and unintelligably if you don't translate "Ha! Haaaaa! HAAAAAA!" as "Hi!" He says Mama very well. And always when he's hungry. He says "M-ba" for "Yes" and "Please".

Me: "You want some cheerios, Jonathan?"

Jonathan, clapping and bouncing: "M-ba!"

He understands quite a bit more than he says; when Mom was baking a few weeks ago, she gave him the spoon to lick off for the first time. Now, Jonathan doesn't put things in his mouth unless he's pretty sure it's food, so he just waved the spoon around and looked curious. Mom said, "Hey Jonathan, you're supposed to lick it" and he immediately stuck his tongue out and licked the spoon. It's always surprising when someone who doesn't talk follows directions so well.

He enjoyed the cake batter, though - he got it all over his face and in his hair because his aim with the spoon isn't so good yet.

He gives nice kisses - except that "kisses" are open-mouth-on-cheek and sometimes they're a little damp. We aspire to teaching him pucker-kisses, but the ones he gives now are pretty sweet. He also gives very nice hugs - puts his arm around your neck, lays his cheek on your shoulder, and generally melts right onto you. That's real tough to take.

He smiles all the time but still rarely laughs. Although we've heard him giggle now just when people say something he thinks is funny. It used to be you'd practically have to stand on your head and do an acrobatic routine to get a chuckle out of him.

Of course, he loves to tickle other people and watch THEM laugh. And he likes when the kids "chase" him around. He crawls away and they crawl after him making fearsome growling noises; then after a while he turns around and starts imitating the growl and expecting them to crawl away from him.

On his second birthday, he refused to open presents. He loves books and loves to turn pages, but the only book he's ever torn is his pop-up book: he thinks the animals and such must be removable or they wouldn't come up off the page. At any rate, he kept trying to put the paper back ON the present while we were "helping" him take it off.

He did, however, enjoy the cake for the first time. We have been so careful about his diet that he has very little sugar, and absolutely no dairy - so we made jello cake, which has lots of sugar but no dairy and he liked that.

Of course, Jonathan likes to eat anything. Except Tylenol. I think he has bad memories associated with it, but it's the one thing he refuses to eat unless it's disguised in cereal or applesauce.

He has had increasing trouble with croup in the past few months - he went a year with no trouble after the incident with RSV in his first year, but now every time he's gotten a cold he's been in bad shape. Apparently his airway is unusually small and when he gets croupy it closes up and he can't breathe. Similar to having asthma, except it's not in his lungs but his upper throat. We're trying a couple things to get this under control, and we figure as a health problem it's pretty minor.

His intestines are healing - the herbalist we take him to was having us give him acidopholus for a long time to help his intestinal lining heal, but she says he's looking pretty good now and we don't have to give it to him anymore.

He has had a few obedience tussles with Mom and Dad that were pretty intense, but that was all pretty much in May and June. Since then he's been very good, with only a few minor corrections needed. He comes when called, obeys when told "no" and is generally a very agreeable person.

I'm going to go post pictures now...