The other day when I went to get Jonah up in the morning he wouldn’t stand up. He made me reach all the way down there into his crib and pick him up. The same is true when I put him down at night (he won’t let Chris put him down unless I am not home).
I decided last week that he was too big and heavy to keep that up. I decided it was time for a big boy bed. His room is really tiny though so I wanted to get him a toddler bed. I always thought they were a waste of money in the past but in this instance it made the most sense. Since we paid so little for his furniture in the first place, I was fine that his crib didn’t convert. I went back to my favorite site: Craigslist, and found a used wooden toddler bed in the area. We picked it up for a few bucks on Sunday.
After Jonah’s nap on Sunday afternoon we took apart his crib and set up his new bed. I think it helped that he saw the process. All afternoon he played in his new bed. Getting in and out, tucking in Daddy and Elmo and checking out his cool new car sheets. This morning he was “fixing” it with his tools.
I was prepared for a rough night ahead of us and kicked myself a bit for choosing to do this on a Sunday but it went absolutely smoothly. We read a couple books as usual but this time we had to do it sitting in Jonah’s bed with him instead of his chair. Then we did our kisses with Daddy and he laid right down. I did hear him cry out around midnight but I went in there and he didn’t even have his eyes open. I covered him up and turned his music back on and he was fine.
This morning instead of getting up and coming to my room like I expected him to try he just laid in his bed and called me as usual.
He woke up from his nap this afternoon crying for reasons I haven’t determined but he went down to sleep in there fine and was still in bed when Kate went. We’ll see how long this keeps up but really, what a great kid!
Chris and I got a new, king sized bed last winter. It was money well spent. We love the thing but it’s really tall. You literally have to lift your hips up to get in. I never much worried about Jonah if he was in our room until Chris called me one day saying, “Um, did you know Jonah can climb up onto our bed?” I didn’t think he could. In fact, the day before, he could not. How quickly things change. He now has this technique where he grabs the covers, puts one foot on the frame and tries to climb up the blankets like a ladder. It’s pretty clever if you ask me. Not the safest place for him to play….but he amuses us trying to get up there. Watch the video.He still needs a little more practice.
(This is the first published video shot with our new Flip Video camera, it’s pretty cool.)
Photos of the 2 friends on a couple occasions. They do a great job together sharing and holding hands. Jonah had been crying on the day the two are pictured on the bench until Kerala came. She cheered him up.
Today was Jonah’s first day ever at day care. When I say day care what I really mean is Leah’s house. Leah’s mom is a former nanny, now SAHM who was willing to watch Jonah at their house, one day a week. Our nanny, Kate, still comes here 4 days a week but she’s not available on Thursdays. This summer Nana, Papa and Grandpa took turns coming over to play with Jonah on Thursdays but now that Nana has to go back to school it was time to find a permanent solution. I wanted to find a place for Jonah to go one day where he could be around another kid or two. I wanted him to go there so he will get used to being in another environment, not always at his home with his toys.
I was very happy to find Leah’s mom. Leah is only 18 months but already can identify letters by pointing to them and saying the name of the letter. I was impressed by that alone and her references were outstanding. We went to play at Leah’s house a couple of times before today so that Jonah could get use to it there. Leah has a ton of toys so he jumped right in.
Today I woke him up early and got him dressed and ready to head out the door with Daddy on his way to work at 6:30. At first Jonah just sort of lay his bed looking at me like, “what is going on?” since I never wake him up in the morning. We’d been talking about Leah’s house all week though so once I said that and mentioned her toys he was up.
Chris dropped him off and Jonah went straight for Leah’s singing Elmo. Leah was still asleep but they had breakfast together and played all day. He even napped there no problem. They played with toys, stickers, made daddy a b-day card and played in the sandbox. Overall he did great for his 1st full day away. Pre-school here we come!
He did fall asleep for a bit in the car ride home though so I know he was worn out. He must have been playing all day because it worked up an appetite! For dinner tonight he had 1 full ear of corn, green beans, mac & cheese and best of all “happy, happy” birthday cake that I made for Chris today. Jonah didn’t seem to like the cake when it was his birthday but he scarfed this one down no problem and asked for more. So far he’s the only one that’s eaten any.
It’s just past 8 and he’s in bed now. I’m happy it went so well. I had the house all to myself today, it was strange and nice.
We’ve been slow to post about our annual trip to Michigan because it’s always hard to come back from a trip, unpack, get back into the grind of work and still get all the photos downloaded.
We actually didn’t take a ton of photos because we had aunts, uncles and grandparents around to act as paparazzi so I really only have the video below to include.
We stayed in the same house as last year and had a great time. The weather was nice the whole week. We got a bit of rain here and there but nothing that stayed around long enough to dampen our fun. Not that it would have mattered to Jonah. He loved running around in the living room (as you can see in the video) and making garages and parking spaces for his cars, trucks and trains with the Jenga blocks that Aunt Amy brought. And as long as Aunt Amy was around he was happy. He woke up in the morning not saying hi Mama or Daddy but, “Amy, Amy?”
Last year the first couple nights sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room were hard for Jonah but this year we didn’t have any problems. It probably helped that by the time he went down he was pooped! He slept from about 8:30-6:30 each day. Of course we always try to tell him to sleep in till 8:00 but that only happens VERY rarely.
This year we got to spend a day on the public beach in Frankfort which we’ve never really done in the past. We were going to meet everyone for lunch in town later so we thought we’d just head to that beach and be right there in time for lunch. We got there around 9:30 and were the first ones at the beach! By the time we got to Dinghy’s and got our food I literally had to catch Jonah as he fell asleep in his chair. He was in a booster seat so we were worried he’d fall right out! He napped for the next hour in his stroller as we walked around.
Jonah also got to go on his first boat ride on this trip. Chris’s parents (and sisters and future uncle) rented a house about 15 minutes away on Crystal Lake. Their cabin came with bikes and a pontoon boat. The day Chris, Papa and Uncle Tim went golfing Jonah, myself and the rest of the Diehl’s went out on the pontoon boat. Jonah even got a chance to drive the boat (he likes to turn left we learned, as we did a complete circle in the middle of the lake)!
