20 Months of Jones

This month we stopped by the Garfield park mural.  We were on our way to the park for an event at the art center so it was fitting.  Jones was excited about the dog on the mural and also thought he was supposed to run to me as I took his picture but it shows his personality.

Jones Jones -

You celebrated 20 months the day after your sister was born.  

So far you are a great big brother.  You are very concerned about Thea crying and try to be helpful with the pacifier and getting me things we might need like her blanket or wipes etc.

You love to kiss her on the head or rub her gently like you see mommy do.  

Oh and you love her little feet you think they are funny.  

At 20 months you weigh 28 lbs and I think you are  33" tall but honestly I haven't measured you.

You continue to love to eat pizza, cheese, yogurt, blueberries, and beans.

You also love dipping sauce. 

We read lots of books you were so jazzed to find Where's spot on the shelf, but you also like Brown Bear and Look What I Can Do.

You enjoy drawing, painting, play dough, gluing, stapling, and cutting.  

Recently you are all about basketball.  You request we watch you and you practice shots while yelling "Kobe" like daddy.  You make maybe 20% and like it when we cheer for you and give you high fives. You probably play at least once a day.  

You get your head stuck under the tv trying to retrieve balls and I keep telling you to ask us.  

You also love to go swimming with your inner tube minus water and it's too cute. 

You can count to 3 and recognize letters a and b.  

You've been signing words we don't know lately too although we did recognize please.  

Mommy is most impressed with all the words you've learned or parroted recently you say many sentences and phrases now. Yesterday you said "terrible idea" which I thought was an interesting one.

Mommy enjoys having you read with her although mommy wants to pick the books.

Mommy loves when we do crafts or play ball.

Daddy has been giving you candy and mommy is not a fan of this.

Daddy has trouble telling you no.

Daddy likes when you want snuggle with him.

Jones you are getting so big, smart and strong it's great to see you grow.

Love mommy

Meet Baby Thea

Brand new to the family yesterday Thea Corrine.  We are so overjoyed she's here.   And what a crazy birth story I need to write for her.  She looks like her dad I think and even has a sprinkle of blonde hair.  

Jones-Made Valentine's

Jones and I typically will do some sort of craft each evening if we don't go out.  Whether it's markers, stickers, cutting etc.  so it seemed fitting to make up some Valentine's.  Jones actually initatatied the project getting out my cutter and slicing up our birth plan for Thea before I noticed what he was doing.  Who taught him how to use this??  

Anyhow so I swapped him out for red and pink papers I had.  He cut a bunch of strips out then tore and cut them with scissors to make them smaller.  He needs a little assistance wth his kid scissors but surprisingly not as much as I thought. 

Then with a handful of hearts I free handed for him we glued it all down.  He seemed to know exactly what to do.  He also drew on some hearts and added stickers that grandma sent.  The stickers were a huge hit and some Valentine's got like 4-5 stickers.  

With a short happy valentines love jones on the back we mailed them off.  

Snow

I have been waiting for some snow to come when I could take jones out in his thrifted $2 snowsuit.  Finally for Valentine's Day we got some. When I told him after his nap about the snow he immediately wanted to go out.  He was not so interested in waiting for several layers of clothes and mommy putting on warmer socks and finding her mittens etc.  he stood by the door waiting for easily 15 minutes.  He took a ball out into the snow since we had been playing ball too.

Once outside he was like "oh wow" and "snow" and "brrrrr" but he was totally into it.  He picked snow up almost immediately with his mitten hand and smashed it into his chest.  He thought snowballs were great.  Sadly it wasn't really packing snow so no snowman. And was practically jumping for joy when the snow plows drove down the street pushing the snow.  

He liked tasting the snow and was uber excited about his slide in the snow.  And even though he had ice gloves and snow in his boots.  He had a major meltdown when we brought him inside to warm up.

I hoped we would get more than the 2 inches over night so Dustin could take him sledding but we didn't get much and I am sure the snow will be gone from the sledding spot when he gets home from school today.

28 - Make Cookies with Jones

Making cookies with toddlers is straight up a mess.  Jones did like "smooshing" dough, eating dough, and doing sprinkles.  He only liked squirting icing on for like a second and cutting cookies for maybe two seconds. But he had such fun and auntie Lita joined us too.  

sadly though our cookies taste terrible!  I don't even know why!  Oh well it was a fun adventure.  

16 - Playdate 1 - morning at the museum

Saturday we did a little play date to burn off energy in the morning.  Since its winter and Holly and I both have museum passes we met at the museum.  We met up in the playscape.  Jones was not interested in doing anything without mommy but then he jumped in to play with Ewan.  

Jones loved watching the carousel and clapping for the music but when we got on it he flipped out.  He was super terrified and wouldn't let him let him go the whole time.    I made him ride it anyhow - and afterward he clapped.  Funny kid.  

Jones really liked the water table but he was not happy with the kid who was snatching away his ball and toys that he found in the water.  He also loved the ball machine and just watching the other kids too.  

It was a good trip we spent all of two hours there and then left and it was a good way to spend the morning.  Thanks to Holly and Ewan for joining us. 

Book - Year of Yes! By Shonda Rhimes

Even though I finished my 52 books and decided that reading X amount of books was a terrible goal for me.  I have continued to attempt to read.  I actually started like 8 books since December - all of them quickly abandoned for the most part.  But alas I did find a keeper - "the year of yes" by shonda Rhimes.  

First off let me preface by saying I actually had no clue who she was before reading her book, I have only seen one of her shows but I absolutely loved her book!  I love how she calls her people her people - me too.  I would recommend and even read it again.  And I really appreciated her message with the "Yes" - the last year or so has been a lot of "No" or "not now" for me as I figure out motherhood and we had some struggles.  And while I don't think my theme/word of 2016 is "Yes" I think we all need more yeses;  and I liked the tag line too "how to dance it out, stand in the sun, and be your own person" - yes to all three.  So here's to more yes.

WIP - oh so many projects

Let's start with something that has moved forward maybe the most.  The nursery for baby Thea.  Everything's painted except the trim.  I have washed a million little things.  I got the decor hung up.  And her little rocker out.  I am still sorting through donated clothes we don't need and figuring out where to put things.  This is why this side of the room looks like this.  I am also on the look out for bedding for the twin bed.  But alas we got a bed.  My hope is to get the clothes to re-gift moved out, and new bedding by the weekend.  I do however love how it's coming together.  

I also have been gathering Thea's quilt fabrics.  But I need a few more.  Finding just the right pink is a real challenge.  I do have a plan for what I want the pattern to be however.

Speaking of quilts I have moved ahead on this gift quilt. I am actually quilting it now.  Such a sense of accomplishment to finally be working on a creative project again after being sick for over a month having almost zero energy and just generally feeling yucky.  Sorry for the junky photo can't be showing the whole thing though.

I also have been working on Jones's baby book.  As I do it I am so grateful for this blog and the little posts I have written since he was born.  Moving forward I want to make sure and write more stories and share more little snips of our life. So I have moments to include for him.  I want him to know that he calls apples app-balls and bananas bee-nannies and how he's been practicing his basketball game and is attempting further away shots and making them from his knees like daddy.  These are important things.

I probably have 8 other projects in the works but no time to recap everything these are some of the biggies.  

"I ove you"

So Friday morning when Jones woke up I went to get him from his crib. And he greeted me with "hi" and the worlds biggest smile and then proceeded with "I ove you" (I love you).  I melted, and responded with "hi I love you".

We have been attempting to get him to repeat this back to us to no avail he hasn't even attempted it.  But he said it on his own to me Friday.  It's moments like these that make the continual messy living room, finding sippy cups in the trash, being awoken at 2am when you went to bed at 1, and walking around with snot on your pants all day worth it.  Even if the "I ove you" magic wears off ten minutes later when your kid smears diaper cream in your face and hair.  It's still worth it.