History of the J Man

Jonah still isn’t talking much but as Chris mentioned in his last post he’s clearly understanding a lot.  It floored me the other day when he went into my jewelry box, managed to reach some pony tail holders then fiddled around with them near his hair.  I didn’t think he’d seen me put my hair up that many times to know exactly what those things are for.  It was pretty impressive.

Then today it seems he discovered dress up.  Some of Chris’s socks were laying around and he tried putting them on his feet.  Right over his socks.  I had to help him but then he loved having them on.  They went up past his knees!  Then he dumped out his basket of bibs, which is nothing new, but he brought me one.  I asked him if he wanted to wear it and he nodded yes so I helped him put it on.  Then he brought me another and said he wanted to wear that one too.  So here’s a photo of Jonah all dressed up in his two bibs, one in front and one in back, and Daddy’s socks. 

It’s hard to get a head on photo of him these days because if he sees anyone with the digital camera he immediatly wants to come and look at the photos.  So this is the best photo I could get of him without him running to come and look at the shot.  What a silly guy. 

Oh and on a totally unrelated note.  Jonah had his 15 month check up yesterday and he’s in the 90% for head height and slightly below that for weight.  Essentially there are only 10 percent of babies his age that are taller than he is.  We’re not sure where he gets the height from but we’re hoping the trend keeps up.  People at the park always think he’s 2.

Hooray!  Jonah is able to climb on everything about knee-high in our apartment.  This is a wonderful turn of events that surely will bring us loads of relaxation and time alone.

I kid, I kid!  But seriously, the dude has learned to climb on everything he sees.  He can’t quite make it onto the couch or the bed, but the ottomans, boxes and his little stationary tricycle are all fair game.  He’ll even try to climb up you when you’re sitting down at his level.  It’s a little worrisome as we live on the second floor and we have a wonderful sunporch with screens, so we will need to be extra careful about making sure the windows are closed. 

In other news, two upper molars are pushing their way through his gums.  He’s developed some diaper rash recently, and I’ve heard that diaper rash can be a symptom of new teeth.  If so, hopefully his butt settles down on the fiery red patch front.  He also doesn’t seem to be drooling quite as much as before.  I tried to peer into his mouth to check on the lower molars, but his tongue kept getting in the way.

His development continues to astound.  Tonight I was feeding him some cereal and decided to pour a bowl for myself with some milk.  He took an interest, so I fed him some right from my bowl.  We finished all of the cereal, but it was clear he still wanted more.  Julie suggested I give him some dry cereal, so I put some on a spoon and fed it to him.  He grunted in disappointment and looked at the cereal box, and then made the sign for milk.  That earned him another bowl of cereal, I am happy to report.

Sometimes you wonder if they really understand some of the things you tell them.  We work in signing all the time, but this was much more than “Yes” and “No.”  This was real communication: “Excuse me, but I would like milk with my cereal.”  Very exciting!

One final note: We have some videos of Jonah, but we don’t feel entirely comfortable posting them on YouTube.  So if you would like us to send you the file, please drop an e-mail to me: diehlce (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Last weekend, we went to Aunt Amy and Uncle Tim’s house in Normal, Ill.  They come to see us all the time, but it had been a while since we’d driven downstate to visit them.  While we were there, Jonah had a good time running around their house with Estella, their boxer.  Stella (as she is usually called) is much bigger than our dog but very sweet and put up with Jonah really well for a dog with no kids in her house.  Likewise, her size didn’t faze Jonah at all; he seems to love all dogs.  He also got to run around at the park on Sunday.  This park was great because it didn’t have any swings so he actually ran around.  Usually if there are swings at the park, it’s game over–that’s all he wants to do.

The big scheduled activity we planned for our visit was a trip to Elan Studios for more portraits of Jonah.  Aunt Amy’s friend who owns the studio is the one that got all the great shots of Jonah when he was 4 months old, so we thought it was time for an update.   Apparently Mom, Dad and Aunt Amy even made it partway into a few shots.  Check out the photos by going to: http://www.collages.net and fill in the following information:

Username: Koslen0907
Password: 9809

Aunt Gail and family might recognize Jonah’s striped whale t-shirt.  They sent it to him a while ago.  At the time, it looked huge but it’s the perfect size now and has come in handy since the weather seems to have gone from hot to cold with nothing in between.