Every month since Jonah was born, we took a picture of him with Tigger as a constant to see him grow over time. We just got the twelfth month on his birthday. Here are the results from the year:
One month old. It was so easy to get him to sit still then...
Two months old.
Three months old.
Four months old.
Five months old.
Six months old. On Cape Cod.
Seven months old. Next to impossible to get him to sit nicely with Tigger.
Eight months old. With attitude.
Nine months old.
Ten months old.
Eleven months.
And now the birthday boy with Tigger:
One year!
We've had to resort to bribery to keep him entertained with something other than Tigger to stay seated.
At this point, we will probably take a break from Tigger pics until 18 months...
Tuesday, July 5, 2011 was a big day for Jonah. While he has been walking for a while now with props, and we've gotten him to walk a couple steps with the proper incentive (typically puffs, but once with Mommy's Cheez-Its), he really hasn't gotten the nerve to stay up and try more. When we attempted to put him down to walk, he would "retract his landing gear." All this seemed to change yesterday. He made several passes back and forth between us without much more incentive than hugs.
Unfortunately, he has an uncanny sense of when a camera is pointed at him, so we had a lot of difficulty in getting a video of him walking. We were finally able to capture a little something to share, though:
He didn't walk very far yesterday. Baby steps, right? Today was a different story!
At the library, after we read a book together, Jonah seemed to want to move, so I set him down, and he walked a good 15 feet to get to a little stool he likes to push around the library. This was not an isolated event. The library has some very enticing items that prompt Jonah to walk to them. The best thing is that he could just as easily have grabbed a shelf and cruised toward his object of desire.
Again, we weren't able to capture some of his longer foot journeys, but we did get this one to share:
The little girls in the video absolutely loved seeing Jonah walk. He even started to turn and maneuver a bit while I was checking out our books.
He did some more walking when we got home, but mostly behind his John Deere. It must have worn him out pretty good, though, because he went to sleep easier tonight than he has the past few nights.
Jonah's room at day care took a trip to the zoo on a Friday in June (the 24th). As it was the day prior to his birthday party, he brought along an entourage, including Grammy Sweetser and Grandpa and Grandma Gregg. Parents had to accompany their children, so it turned out that only about half of the kids in Jonah's room were able to participate, but it was a great opportunity to see the teachers and student workers outside the classroom, to get to know the other parents better, and to witness animal antics.
Probably the most memorable moment of the outing occurred at lunch time while we were eating at picnic tables outside. Two of the many peacocks that wander the zoo got into a bit of an argument and chased one another under and around one of the tables our group was seated at. Hopefully Miss Tracy's daughter isn't scarred for life!!
Jonah showing some love to his teacher, Miss Tracy.
Jonah insisted on helping Grandpa push the stroller.
Liam and his daddy, Craig, have some fun. Unfortunately, Liam's graduated to the 1-year old room.
Adeline smiles for the camera.
Jonah and Grammy Sweets
Sharing a laugh with Grandma Gregg.
All tuckered out.
One of the zoo's elephants.
The zoo's three giraffes. Rahna, the lightest, is not albino, but on the light end of the color spectrum.
The polar bear put on quite a show with his ball.
More photos from the outing are available on our photo website. For those who live in the Milwaukee area, we highly recommend the zoo pass; we've used it twice already this summer and it's paid for itself. We're planning to visit again this coming weekend and I'm sure we'll go more before the end of the summer. It's nice to be able to go for just a couple of hours and not worry about seeing everything there.
We picked up a little outdoor play set for Jonah over the weekend. We didn't figure he would do too much with it yet, but that it would be something he could grow into. He can climb, crawl through doors and holes, and slide. As I write this post, I realize that we haven't really gotten a picture of the entire structure. This means it is a little more difficult to get a sense of its size. We did get some fun shots, though.
One of the most important things to remember when climbing through the door is to stick out your tongue.
Incoming through one of the side portals.
Checking the structural integrity of the upper platform.
One of Jonah's first trips down the slide. He wasn't too sure what to think.
"Look, Mommy and Daddy! I can climb!"
Climbing out the door.
One of the biggest surprises on the set came yesterday when Jonah resolved himself to climb the slide. We had to capture it to share.
Jonah is always surprising us with new things. The other day, he got into his Cozy Coupe police cruiser by himself when we opened the door for him. Yesterday, we were able to capture it:
He still needs a little fine tuning on the process, but it is just so cool to see him putting together these types of processes.
