Hummus and Hissy Fits

I haven't seen the expression in so long, I couldn't help but grab "hissy fits" from my aunt Barb's Facebook post to use for the title of this post, particularly when Jonah is putting on a hissy fit in the background as Michelle tries to get him to take a nap. We aren't sure what happened, but in the past 10 days or so, the kid just won't go to sleep for us. If you were expecting the hissy fits to be about hummus, I'm sorry to disappoint you.

We used to be able to put him down awake in his crib and leave the room. He would take care of the rest. Now he stands up in his crib and cries if we try to leave the room. Even if we wait for him to fall asleep, his sixth sense kicks in ("Mommy's leaving!" or "Daddy moved!"), and he stands up in his crib and starts crying.

Not knowing what the problem might be, we tried a nightlight last night. I'm not convinced that is the problem, as he still cried for a while. He did finally go down on his own. Perhaps losing an hour tonight with Daylight Savings Time will help him sleep in "later" tomorrow.

He certainly has fun before bedtime, so it may be separation anxiety. 

The other night he got to try his first hot cocoa.

"Mmmm. Hot cocoa. I like to sip it from a spoon. Marshmallows are good, too!"

 He also likes to read while getting ready.

Nothing like a good book before bed.

"Hmm, what's going on here?"

"What's up with you people? I'm reading here!"

And we often have a good time playing hide and seek or just tickling and giggling.

On a more fun note, Jonah has really picked up a taste for hummus. I know, I know... Hummus? Fun? Just wait...

We seem to pull it out to have with vegetables as part of our lunch on Saturdays, and Jonah has started to ask for it. Lunch today was no different. Even with a plate full of peanut butter and jelly and banana, he asked for a carrot with hummus, and kept asking for more hummus. I had to capture a bit when he asked for more and Michelle decided to put some on his plate.

We think we are going to have to start sending hummus to daycare. What kid chooses hummus over pb&j (and he loves pb&j)?? 

A Fun Winter Day

Today truly was a day of ups and downs, but my hope is that the good memories are the ones that last. In an effort to preserve them and the reasons they were highlights over the rest of the day, I wanted to do this quick post.

We were going through a bit of cabin fever yesterday, especially after swim lessons were canceled. Michelle suggested that we go to see the butterflies at the Milwaukee Public Museum to make sure we got some time outside the house. It was a particularly good suggestion, because we've been talking about doing it for a while. Jonah loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar and this book Butterfly, Butterfly that we discovered at the library (and later picked up a copy), and he always gets excited when he sees butterflies in books and pictures.

So we headed to the museum and made our way right to the Butterfly Garden. Jonah does what he usually does when he is very excited about something: He was stunned silent. At first, anyway.

The first butterfly Jonah found when we set him free to walk.

Checking out some butterflies on the floor with Mommy.

"These butterflies are so cool!"

"Look but don't touch, Jonah!"

After our visit to the Butterfly Garden, we started to wander the museum. Jonah's favorite part wasn't any particular exhibit. He just liked the stools that they have in various places around the museum. The first ones were in the bug room next to the butterflies. He walked around them, climbed them, spun them around...

No, he isn't into planking. He's just short and climbs this way.

He had an uncanny knack for finding them, too. At one point he ran down a hallway, seemingly with purpose, and turned into a room that had a bunch of the stools, as if he knew they were there.

He also enjoyed finding any place he could practice going up and down ramps and steps. in one room, there was a ramp up and then four short steps down that he could handle pretty well on his own. He did a few passes on that loop. There was another room with a wooden floor that required you to step up to get in. He liked going around in circles there, too.

This spot was a particular favorite to walk in circles going up and down the step.

Jonah did really well handling stairs today.

Jonah fell asleep on the way home, and the transfer to his crib is not usually a problem when he falls asleep in the car, but I managed to wake him this time, and the past few days have been Go the **** to Sleep days.

Michelle had already planned to do a little shopping with a friend this afternoon, so she left and I read to Jonah to calm him. He nearly fell asleep again, but I couldn't get him into the crib without waking him. He stood right up bawling. I'd rather focus on the good stuff for the day, but he never did go back to sleep, even though he did later calm down. He just started talking and playing with the window blinds.

Later we went for a little walk outside and then the three of us went grocery shopping. Jonah seemed to have a great time. He was happy and smiling.

After dinner, we put on a Pandora station based on Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Jonah and I had it on earlier in the day and had some fun marching and dancing around to it, but it was even more fun with Mommy there, too! Jonah was having such a good time, he decided to give Mommy some "kisses." You'll see what this in quotes in the pictures below. We kept "cutting in" and switching, and Jonah would get upset each time because he didn't really want to switch, but we were all having such a good time, it didn't take him too long to get over it.

Who's leading?

Jonah's future dates beware: you can't tell if he is going to kiss you or eat you...

"You step on my toes much more than Mommy does..."

One of Jonah's favorite parts. Though, what kid doesn't like hanging upside down?

We wore him out good, because he went down for bed better than he has in the past few days.

More pictures from the day can be found on our family photo site.

Sledding!

To date, it has been a pretty lackluster year for snow. While we don't want to get tons of the stuff (especially when I am traveling for work), we have been hoping to at least get enough to allow Jonah to partake of different snow related activities. No, we aren't going to get him on skis yet (particularly here in the flat lands of Wisconsin), but we'd like to build a snow man, take him sledding, make snow angels, etc. Particularly because he loves to be outside so much, even when it is cold out.

On Friday we got about 4-6 inches of really heavy snow, which stuck around long enough for us to get out sledding this morning. I wish I could say I had thought of it, but Michelle made the suggestion as a possibility yesterday. Unfortunately, a hair appointment mix up prevented us from getting out until today.

So after Jonah had his morning snack, we bundled up to head to a little hill where we've seen kids sledding in the past. Thankfully the hill was extremely quiet at that time in the morning. It was also very bright, and we were thankful that he kept his sunglasses on.

Prepping for the Oscars tonight? "No autographs, please!"

We were actually the first ones to the hill this morning, but another family arrived right after us. We used the sled that Grammy Sweets sent Jonah for Christmas. It is a little wooden sled that got some comments from other kids ("What a cool little sled!") later in our excursion.

Well, to say Jonah loved sledding would be an understatement. From the second he started moving down the hill, he had a HUGE grin on his face.

"This is fun! Let's go faster!"

Of course, Jonah had it easy with Michelle and me pulling him up the hill. We would take about three runs and trade off to give each other a turn. He had fun either way. At a couple points, Jonah would get up and walk around to stretch his legs a bit. He even tried going up the hill once.

Down the hill with Mommy.

Down with Daddy.

Jonah makes his way up the hill... He got about half way.

When we got to the bottom, Jonah would often say "Up!"

You can see more photos on our family album website.

I also captured a couple quick videos, but I think the photos capture Jonah's smiles a little better. You can be the judge, though. Here are the two runs I captured.

Jonah certainly seemed to enjoy his first experience sledding! We look forward to future adventures in the snow.

This one's for the birds!

I'm constantly on the lookout for new activities and projects to try with Jonah, especially ones that are seasonally relevant and allow all three of us to have a bit of fun together. Earlier this month (or maybe last), I came across a link to create molded bird seed "ornaments" that can be put out for the birds to enjoy.  As Jonah enjoys looking at animals in his books, out the windows (this time of year), and at the zoo, I thought it would be a fun activity that would allow us to talk about the birds and what they eat, practice some stirring and "measuring" types of skills, and allow Jonah to feel new textures. Plus we could mold them into hearts, tying into Valentine's Day coming later in the week.  A week ago, we saw a beautiful red cardinal in the back yard and it's exciting to think about Jonah watching the cardinal come around to eat his creation and being able to watch the cardinal further.

I knew it would be a messy project and assumed we would be using the vacuum to clean up from the get-go. I wasn't quite prepared for how exactly he would play with the bird seed, though.  He simply picked it up in his hands, put them over his head, and dropped the seed on the ground! 

This was messy, but also instructive in terms of how the different types of seeds bounced (cracked corn versus sunflower seeds, for example).  We used measuring cups to pour the seed around in the bin (or on the floor) and into some metal muffin tins (which make a different sound than the plastic bin).

Overall, Jonah wasn't too terribly interested in helping to make the ornaments (I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised), but he did assist in putting some of the seed into the bowl to be mixed in, as you can watch here:

Ben hid a few of Jonah's toys in the birdseed for a complete sensory bin experience.  Here's some video showing Jonah playing with the measuring cups and discovering the toys in the seed:

Overall, Jonah was pretty quiet for the majority of the nearly one hour that we spent engaged in this activity.  This is rather unusual for him, as he is constantly jabbering, but we think he was simply having a great time, concentrating on what he was doing and thinking about what he might be able to do with the seed and tools at hand.  Hopefully it was a very good learning experience for him; he returned to the kitchen several times in the evening looking for the seed. We have a feeling he will LOVE the sand box this summer.
 
We knew Jonah got birdseed everywhere while he was playing, but the biggest surprise was finding a fair number of seeds IN his diaper when we changed him!  Now that takes talent (and no, he did not eat the seeds).

The ornaments are currently drying and we'll probably hang them next weekend, the next opportunity we'll likely have in the light. I'll post pictures later and will hopefully be able to report on some birdwatching activities as well.

C is for Cookie!

We had a really great day today, despite the fact that Jonah woke up at a quarter to six. A great breakfast led into some good morning play time before our friends, Kristin and Ryan Nord, came over to make Valentine's Day cookies.

The plan was to let Jonah experience some cookie making, from the rolling and cutting of the cookies, and then after his nap he would get to try the cookie. Things seemed to go pretty well at first with the rolling and cutting.

Rolling, rolling

Cut!

Put the cookies on the sheet.

"This is my favorite cookie cutter!"

Everything was going great. Then Jonah discovered dough.

"Wait. Why are we making these funny shapes with this stuff? Why don't we just EAT it??"

We captured a little on video, too. Jonah's cookie making time was pretty much done at this point.



After we made the cookies, we had a nice pizza casserole for lunch, and then Jonah went down for a nap. While he was down for his nap, we decorated cookies. Kristin and Ryan have been taking some cake decorating classes and brought their toolbox of tips, so we had some fun.

When Jonah got up, he got to sample a cooked and decorated cookie. Despite his joy at discovering the cookie dough, he wasn't all that interested in the cookie itself. The frosting was another story, though.

"What's that? Where's the cookie dough??"

"The frosting isn't bad, but I would still rather have some cookie dough."

"Ok, this cookie isn't too bad, but can you get me some more of this pink stuff?"

Michelle caught a little of the cookie licking on video.



More pictures are available on our family photo site. Michelle is writing more about our day in another post. be sure to check it out!

It's Potty Time!

For well over a month, Jonah has been notifying us with a resounding "Poop!" that he either has to go potty or, as is more often the case, just gone potty. We tried to get him on the regular potty a couple times, but he found that a bit too intimidating (and I think he maybe thought we were trying to put him down the toilet, based on the way he reacted). We picked up a little Baby Bjorn potty for him to use. No frills. It doesn't talk or cheer when it is used. Just a simply little kiddie potty he can use.

Well, we often let him sit on it when he says he has to pee or poop, but we've never gotten anything more productive than story time out of it (we keep a book handy, because it helps keep him seated on the potty). We figure, if nothing else, he gets used to sitting on the potty, particularly when he says he has that urge.
That all changed tonight!

12 February, 2012: Jonah did he first pee on the potty. He got some cheers from Mommy and Daddy (no cheering toilet required), and got to flush the toilet and watch it go down as a little reward.

And no... no pictures on this one. Some things shouldn't be photographed.

Dishes Detail

Normally when we finish dinner and clear the table, Michelle, Jonah, and I would all adjourn to the living room together and play. This meant that one of us would be doing the dishes after Jonah went to bed, causing for a later night. 

Toward the end of last week, Michelle had a great idea. Jonah is getting old enough that he should see us doing more chores around the house, like the dishes after dinner. This also means that we can get more non-chore things done after he goes to bed.

On Saturday, it was just Jonah and me at home when he got up early from his nap, so I pushed the chair that has arms up to the counter so he could watch me do the dishes. Well he wasn't going to just stand there and watch! He wanted to participate. At first I thought he could just copy what I was doing with his own little dish cloth, but he isn't quite ready for dish washing yet. 

He is, however, ready to rinse! I would wash the dishes and pass them to him to rinse, trading whatever he had in his hand for a new dish to rinse. We had a great time with it.

Yesterday, Michelle did the dishes with him. In fact, she simply mentioned doing the dishes and he said "Chair! Chair!" So we got the little dictator his throne to stand upon at the sink. As Michelle discovered, you can't sneak dishes past him. When you've got a new dish that needs rinsing, it is "Mine! Mine!" 

Tonight again, as soon as I mentioned I was going to do the dishes, Jonah was requesting his chair!

Michelle grabbed the camera, and here's some pictures of Jonah helping with the dishes.

Up on his toes and ready to help!

I love the way Michelle caught the water on this one.

"What's with all the pictures, Mommy?"

"Hey, I'm working here!"

So that's how we ended up with so much water on the floor...

You can see more at our family photo site.