Little Climber

We already knew Jonah is a climber; he loves climbing up the stairs. So it should have come as no surprise that a toy we picked up at a yard sale last week would be used as a step stool rather than its intended purpose as a chair.

"Hey, I can see the top of the table better if I climb up here!"

Our little daredevil is braver standing on the chair when he is just on the ground.

10 point landing! (Ok, he didn't really jump off the chair, but it kind of looks like it here...)

I think this is the *only* time he actually used the chair just for sitting...

Jonah never lets the chair play a full song. He just likes to hit the light over and over again to see the different colored lights come on.

Climbing the chair was not a "one-off" activity. It has become more of a favorite pastime.

Easy access to all the goodies on the coffee table!

"What do you mean I'm not supposed to be up here?"

Jonah and the Cork Drop

Jonah pretty much only uses a pacifier when he is sleeping. Even then, he doesn't always use it, and we don't like to keep it in, especially when he is smiling and happy because a pacifier (or cork, as we like to call it) hides his wonderful smile!

If he doesn't fall asleep with it at night, he sometimes finds it in his crib. If he doesn't, he might sit up and cry a little, and we can "re-cork" him and he lies right down and goes back to sleep.

When we get him out of his crib in the mornings, we would pull the cork out and drop it back into his crib. Recently, he surprised us and started doing this himself! He pulls it out, waves it around a little, and drops it in his crib. Some days this is clearly more difficult for him than others. In fact, one day he reinserted the cork instead of dropping it. It is just so cute when he makes the drop. He will often gaze longingly at is as it rolls to a stop on his mattress.

Grammy Sweetser visits

Wow! It has been a long time since we've made any posts! We completely missed the month of May! Well, let's see if I can make up for that a little.

Grandma Sweetser came out to visit Jonah at the end of April/early May. We had a great week and though he missed the week with his friends at day care, Jonah had a lot of fun hanging out with Grammy for the week. The day after Grammy arrived, we went to the Boerner Botanical Gardens. Because of the cool weather this spring, we weren't expecting there to be too many flowers out, but there was a craft fair going on, too, so we headed over.

Though the temperatures were reasonable, it was *super* windy! We felt pretty badly for the craft fair vendors who were outside. We did get some pictures, though!

We also stopped for some Kopp's frozen custard after the botanical garden!

At the end of the week, we went to the aquarium at Discovery World. Jonah seemed to enjoy seeing the fish, though he was just as interested in the glass and metal of the aquarium tanks.

 Jonah made some pretty funny faces... perhaps he was trying to mimic the fish?

 Grandma Sweetser met Bing Crosby in the Les Paul exhibit.

Jonah took a little nap.

 But woke up energized before Discovery World closed at 4 pm.

See more pictures from our visit to Discovery World on our photo site.

The next day, we hit the zoo. It was the first time Michelle and I had been to the Milwaukee Zoo since the first year we moved here. We picked up a Zoo Pass - it only takes two visits to make up the cost, and we certainly figured that would not be a problem.

 We started in the primate house. Jonah loved playing with the apes!

  Especially this statue of a baby ape!

"Wat-chew lookin' at?"

 Jonah ate and took a nap not long after we saw the primates, but he woke up in time to see the penguins.

 There are TONS of peacocks at the zoo. They hang out with all the different animals and don't seem to have a place of their own.

 Jonah enjoyed watching the seals swim around. He got pretty excited.

 Later, we went to see the sea lion show.

All in all, it was a great day. You can see more zoo pics on our photo site.

We finished it off with some Red Robin for dinner and some awesome carrot cake from Mitchell's Fish Market.

Grandma Sweetser flew home the next day (the day before Mother's Day), but it was a fun visit!

New Photo Site

I've got another post in the works, but I thought I would post the link for our new photo site on Phanfare. I just got notification today that Phanfare has been acquired by Carbonite, so we'll see how that affects the site moving forward, but hopefully it won't be a problem.

Here are a couple samples of what you will find on the site:

Enjoy!

Going two for tooth

A couple Sundays ago, Jonah's first tooth broke through his bottom gums. A second one has started to make an appearance in the past couple days. Sometimes he seems to have a really tough time with it. Other times he is obviously very curious about what is going on in his mouth. Early last week he started putting his tongue down on his gums more frequently with very obvious curiosity. Toward the end of last week, he started wagging his tongue around. Maybe he likes the way the teeth feel under his tongue?

It was so funny, we decided we had to capture it on film, but Jonah's sixth sense kicked in whenever the camera was running and he would stop doing it. Finally, we were able to capture the "little windshield wiper" in action here, along with some good long growls (another new activity... as though he were testing his lungs). There are a couple false starts early on. It even gets going at one point, but he grabs his tongue as if it were doing something he didn't expect it to do. The good tongue wag starts about 57 seconds in (maybe I will trim the video down a bit).

Enjoy!

Just a Swingin'

Sunday's beautiful weather (80+ degrees) provided us with the perfect opportunity to take Jonah for his first ride on the swings at Enderis Park, just around the corner from our house.  We weren't entirely certain how he would do with them as we didn't use a baby swing, but we did swing him a bit in the Johnny Jump-Up and he hadn't seemed to mind that.

I don't think we needed to worry.  Does it look like he had a bad time?

Let me tell you how to do it.

Higher, higher, Daddy!

I also shot the video below while helping to push him, so the quality isn't the best. 



The park was pretty popular Sunday and there was a line for the two infant swings, so we couldn't stay on for long.  Ben took Jonah back to the swings last night while I went to a children's consignment sale and it sounds like they had a great time.  Too bad the weather has turned cold again! I'm not sure when we'll make it back, but I'm sure many more visits are in our not-to-distant future.  Before then, I need to stock up on sunscreen and wash the bucket hats I bought last night. I wasn't quite prepared for the change in weather and the fact that he's grown leaps and bounds since last summer!

Maiden voyage of the bike/jog stroller

Today was a beautiful day, and we couldn't resist getting out for a walk after work. Despite the fact that it was warmer and sunny, it was still a bit breezy outside so we decided to use the new bike/jog stroller that we got for Christmas for our walk. This allowed us to keep Jonah better protected from the elements because the stroller has a completely enclosed compartment. It had the added benefit of not allowing Jonah to kick his blanket off as he could in the other strollers.

Here are some quick snaps from our little journey.

Jonah checks out his new ride.

There's nothing quite like a good rattle to prep you for a walk.

Blanketed and cozy.

Protected from the elements.

Side view with the rattle still in his mouth.

On the walk. Jonah really seemed to enjoy the ride!

The stroller rode really smoothly. We're looking forward to trying it for runs and bike rides!