More fun at our house

As I was cleaning up after breakfast, Jonathan grabbed the paper and began giggling and laughing at all the comics. I ran to get the camera but when I returned he was doing this instead. I love how long it took him to notice I was recording him. Make sure you turn up your volume.

My parents came up with this version of swinging and he loved it! I have not been able to rotate this but I will keep trying! Until then, just tilt your head :) !

We spent Easter at Chris's parents house with the whole family. Jonathan loved the egg hunt and his Easter Basket gifts. We had a great meal and tons of laughter. Here are some photo highlights.

A train! Yea! Ok, he really was more thrilled than this picture shows.

Jonathan picking up his first egg.

Entertaining him while we set up for the family photo. Look at how high his feet are! (For reference, my brother is 6'5").

Check out my hot husband. :)

Sometimes I am reminded that he still is just a small little boy.

We FINALLY got our new table and he christened it by grabbing a piece of (fake) chicken, taking it to the table, and eating it!

We installed a 6' tall fence on the side yard to contain our dog Scout and Jonathan was a big help to my dad and Chris. He even learned what sound a drill makes- vvvrrrr!

I love having a sweet dog! Here is Jonathan walking my parents' dog Shadow around the house and later he walked Scout to the neighbor's house and back without Scout dragging him down the sidewalk!

He worked on this new skill for 4 days and finally got it!

Jonathan took a few trips around this triangle wall with me (it goes up, then down, then flat) before he was brave enough to do it on his own.

We went to our town fair and had a blast! Scout even got to come! He climbed in a fire truck, rode a train, bounced in many different rooms and even stuck to climbing up a huge slide when he was being jostled this way and that by a bunch of bigger kids. Jonathan's favorite was seeing the K-9 unit demonstrate how a dog attacks a criminal. He told everyone all about "Dog Bite" at Grandpa's dinner celebration that night.

He loved this train ride once it got going. He wasn't too sure at first. However, he did have perfect driving form from the start. Granny would be proud.



Uncle John got a kick out of Jonathan's reaction to seeing himself on John's camera. BTW, if you've ever wondered why I don't call my son Jon, it's because it would get too confusing around here with 2 of them! I spent my first 18 years that way and I'm not going through that again! :)

Aunt Kirsten drives a convertible and Jonathan thought it was so cool that he could just hop right in without opening the door. Then we gave him the keys and he wanted to drive his aunt home! We said sure! See you at home Jonathan!

March Fun 2008

Hi! I know it has been forever so here are some new pics from this month. Jonathan is such a big boy now, it sometimes takes us by surprise. His favorites are golf, cars, books and trains. I think we can safely assume he is all boy.

He is still our sweet little man, although toddlerhood is kicking in daily instead of weekly. It is really hard to keep a straight face during the tantrums because they are in slow motion. He is such a cautious kid, he can't even throw a tantrum without making sure he isn't going to fall too hard or bonk himself on something on the way down!

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and I hope to post more often than I have in the past!



I guess this really is a case of "Like mother, like son". :þ



He was a wonderful help while we were replanting our garden. He insisted on wearing his gloves even though it was 85 degrees outside. After all, Mom and Dad got to wear them!



This was the first time he had ever seen Mom on rollerblades. He thought it was great fun to roll around the house with me. Scout wasn't so sure, however.



On a beautiful AZ day, we went to the park to hit some golf balls. He can really "whap" that thing!



After learning the hard way not to taste dandelions, he bent down for an impromptu sniff.



We finally got to go to the zoo with Chris's parents and everyone had a blast. Here is J playing in a tree trunk with Grandma.



I wanted to get shot of him looking at the big blue frog, but he was way more interested in getting laughs from his grandparents with his goofy faces.



He saw a little girl sit on this for her birthday and wanted a turn of his own while we were out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.



His first, and surprisingly my first, St. Patrick's Day and the grandparents'. He even liked the corned beef and cabbage!



Uncle David: always pushing Mom's limits, but then J smiles like this and all is forgiven. :)



His new thing is dancing. His feet move so fast, I am really surprised I got this shot!



Some of you may remember he did this "what up homey" thing a long time ago. I wonder how we ended up with a "gangsta" kid?



He hadn't been in the pack in awhile so we were stunned to see his feet could touch the support bar below! He thought this was the best part of riding in the pack.



At the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. See, toddlerhood!



He loved all the flowers until he accidentally tasted one. He pointed to the next ones we saw and said, "YUCK!" and wouldn't smell any other yellow ones all day!



J and Grandpa. We figured out he could ride down the hill alone and the car would gently come to a stop at the bottom. He must have done it 20 times and everyone had to take a turn pushing him!

Funny Funny Kid

Jonathan decided this would be fun to do and did it for more than 10 minutes! Chris and I were rolling on the floor laughing at him. Even the dog joined in the fun.

The best part of Florida

Jonathan had been getting really close to crawling so on March 3 while we were hanging out after the beach, he decided to go for it. I think it was the traction he got on the carpet since we have all hardwood floors at home. I couldn't believe it when he followed me into the bedroom. Luckily, Dad was nearby as was the camera! Enjoy this video!

Florida Vacation

These are some highlights from the trip to Florida we took in March. We went to visit my (Randi's) dad's mom and her husband Bill, and to introduce them to Jonathan. He was the hit of the party. We couldn't walk down a hallway at their retirement home without having to stop and accept a very sweet compliment from one of the residents. We loved hanging with Gram and getting to see a little part of her world. We love you Gram!


Uncle David always has a huge cup of tea with him and J thought it was only fair to share!

David was great at entertaining the little guy, something Mom and Dad were very grateful for.

This is just a pic of his first plane ride!


We were bored the first night, still on AZ time and in need of entertainment so we invented "Sugar Packet Poker". There were cards but no chips and basically nothing else in our room but this ancient basket of sugar packets. Just to mix it up, there were some packets of unrecognizable tea, too! So we came up with a rating system (one sugar=5 sweet and lows, etc) with the tea bag being the ever so important $50 chip. (Did I mention it was REALLY late?) I was out pretty quickly and David and Chris played it out for quite awhile. I think David ended up with all the sugar-- a fitting end for my sugar loving brother! Anyway, I highly suggest this game next time you are staying at a retirement home in Florida. Maybe with enough players we can get the World Championship Poker Tournament to switch over to our currency! :)


My brother thought this was hilarious because he remembers me drinking this way well into my late teens!

This next set is from a great park near Boca Raton. Everything was free, including the science and exploration center on the campus. We spent several hours there and had a wonderful time!

His first carousel ride.

Just a cute Daddy and J pic

First trip down the slide with Mom. He had gone with Dad once before a few days earlier and showed Daddy his breakfast again on the way down, so this was really much riskier than it looks. He is excited though!

He LOVED this swing! Check out the video below to hear him giggling!



This was in the science center and he loved the ball floating in the air.

Ahh, the beach...

The next day we went to the beach. The kid is good. By 8 months old, he'd had his feet in both oceans!

It was really windy and he loved the sand a little too much so we didn't stay long.


Getting belly kisses from Dad.


Checking out the sea turtles at a local rescue center. They put nail polish on them to distinguish them-pink for the girls and blue for the boys!


Well he kind of understands how to use a spoon!


Uncle David having a goofy moment again!

Playing cards with Gram at her apartment. She is still one of the best card players I have ever known!

Getting a kiss from Gram!


Ironically, the smallest bags belong to the big people and the biggest bags (4!!!) belong to the littlest person. In order to fit all the stuff in the car, I rode in the back seat with a suitcase and umbrella stroller at my feet and the entire other half of the seat filled.

This is J next to the driver's seat on the bus. He used more forms of transportation in the 4 days of travel than he had in all his previous months combined!

Gram, when you see this I hope you are doing as well as when we said goodbye! We love and miss you!

Flagstaff Trip

In late February, we took advantage of the wide variety of Arizona weather and headed to Flagstaff. While it was sunny and mild in Phoenix, it was chilly and snowy up north. I remember thinking people were pulling a fast one on me when they said they were going skiing in Arizona, but it's TRUE!!

Mike and Krista Smith were kind enough to host us for the weekend so Jonathan could put his winter jacket to good use. Unfortunately for him, Mom forgot that his feet needed extra protection too, so he ended up with a big furry coat, bear mittens, too short pants and just socks! Oh well, live and learn! (Don't worry, we were only in the snow for about 10 minutes.) The Smiths are expecting their first boy in March, and Jonathan helped their 4 pets get used to the sound of a crying baby. :)

Meeting Puma, the reigning member of the household. I believe his exact sentiment was "What the heck kind of animal are you?"

Here he is, testing out the exersaucer for his soon-to-be-born friend, Robbie

Jonathan really isn't sure what to think of the cold, white stuff...

Our first family pic in the snow!

The laughing boys!

I've been tagged!

I have been blog-tagged by Marlene and Kathleen so here is a two-for-one deal:



THE RULES:

1. Post these rules before you give the facts.

2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.

3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) people and list their names (linking to them).

4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!



Random Facts:

1) I can only eat candies like M&Ms or Hot Tamales in even numbers, one for each side of my mouth.

2) I have never had bangs.

3) My passion is photography: I'm just not that good at it yet. :)

4) I only read romance novels that were written at least 100 years ago.

5) I HATE bell peppers of any kind.

6) I only joined track in high school because I wanted a workout and it was a "no-cuts" team so no matter how slow I was I couldn't be kicked off! (And I was so slow they made me do shot-put.)

7) I sang and danced in a multi-state Show Choir competition in high school and we won.

8) I was the worst behaved "good student" in college. I'd show up for class, sit in the front row and go back to sleep, and still ace the tests. Ironic that I am a teacher now, right?



OK I tag Kirsten (Check out her recipes- they rock!)



In other news, I PROMISE to have this site up to date by the end of August. If I do not, you have my permission to pester me daily with "I want new pictures!" emails.



Here is a teaser pic:

Jonathan showing off Mom's sunglasses with his own personal flair added!

Thanks guys! I'll be writing soon!