Proving that Spring Break hasn’t been a complete waste, Dad has finally posted Photo Gallery 24 featuring me in all my yummy goodness. As an indication of just how far behind Dad is, this covers December and most of January. Where’s February, you might ask. Another Spring Break and I’m sure Dad will get it posted. In the meantime this will have to do.
Here’s the link: http://www.jonahdavison.com/gallery/
I’m tall enough now that I can reach up and open doors around the house. I’m not sure if Mom and Dad are proud of my accomplishment like they are of most of my others or if they’re dismayed at my new freedom of mobility. One thing for sure: The bathroom door will be locked if somebody’s using it and we have company.
I think my ear infection from last week is gone. I’m still taking yummy bubblegum flavored antibiotics 3x a day, but I feel fine. Mom and Dad seem on the mend as well, though they don’t get the good bubblegum stuff. Too bad for them!
Now that the weather has turned sunny and pleasant in the afternoon, I’ve been going down to the park more. I’m a big fan of wide open spaces that allow me to run. Just Monday Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Bret, Mom and Dad, and I went to the park so that I could run around. What fun I had! Especially when I made Dad carry me back up the hill. After that we went to Izzy’s Pizza where I ate just about as much as everybody else (and for free!). I think we were belatedly celebrating Dad’s birthday or something.
Yesterday we went to a rally for Mom’s work. Thousands of teachers and friends of teachers (like me) turned out, and we walked up and down the sidewalk encouraging people to wave and honk. Dad carried me, so I thought it was good times.
Dad and I were having a talk the other day about elbows and knees and how I’ve got both of them and where they are and stuff like that. Today I explained about elbows to Mom while Dad was gone. He apparently thought this was very cool when he got back.
I also told my Dad to cut the string on my balloon, something he didn’t quite understand at first because, well, his French isn’t as good as mine. For some reason Dad thought this was totally cool too.
Conclusion: Dad’s weird.
I’ve been speaking my mind a lot lately, and when I say speaking, I mean speaking. My vocabulary grows daily, but thus far Mom and Dad understand the following English words: Apple, cheese, up, down, please, Momma, Daddy, Papa, binky, milk, sky, school, hi, wow, uh-oh…well, I’m sure there are more. I can’t remember them all right now. It’s hard when you’re not in the situation that calls for them.
Of course I understand a lot more than I can say. Both Mom and Dad talk with my regularly, though Mom talks with me mostly in French. I usually don’t have trouble understanding either of them, though I don’t always want to do what they’re asking. No change there.
For the most part, I’m sleeping through the night. That’s a bed time of roughly 9 PM and a wake-up time of 7 to 8 AM. I typically have a 1.5 to 3 hour nap about 4 hours after I wake up in the morning. I can get pretty unhappy if I don’t have enough sleep.
Thus far I’m continuing to eat everything that’s put on my plate. My big favorite right now is oranges. I like those a lot. I like apples, bananas, mac & cheese, milk, apple sauce…well, just about everything, really. I eat really well. And did you notice how many of my words are food-centric? Me too! Food makes me happy!
I took a month off from blogging since I’ve been so busy doing other things. I hope nobody’s missed me too much. To compensate, I’ve had Dad post another one of my very popular photo galleries. This one, Photo Gallery 23, features pictures of me from October and November.
I’m 19-months old now, and besides steadily improving my language comprehension in both French and English, I’ve begun to really try out some words. It’s fun! Mom or Dad will give me a word to say and I’ll try my best to repeat it. Usually they seem very pleased with my efforts.
They’ve been a little less pleased with my screaming jags which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I think me screams sound just fine, but they’re clearly not very happy about it. That get that same look they do when I throw my food. I don’t do that too often either, but, wow, when I do, they’re none-too-happy!
Dad and I have been playing a lot upstairs in the green room. We’ve got a little cushy Steeler football that I throw to him and he congratulates me. He says I’ve got a very good arm. Otherwise we kick little soft soccer balls and run around the room. If he doesn’t go where I want, I’m sure to point out the spot he’s supposed to be. I’m uncertain why, but most adults I try this with laugh before moving. Oh well, as long as they get there.
I’ve been watching a fair amount of Seseme Street. I know Mom and Dad debated a long time about when to let me watch any TV at all. I think they finally decided that Seseme Street was OK since it’s educational and since it reinforces a lot of the things they’re trying to teach me anyway. I guess we’ll know in 15 years or so if they were wrong.
My favorite words right now are “hi”—which I usually say repeatedly—and “uh oh”—for whenever even the slightest object drops to the floor. I also use “Pa” for Papa (Dad hasn’t stopped beaming about this) and “ba” for ball. Mom’s even started writing a Jonah dictionary of words and signs that I use. This is somewhat complicated by me knowing and using some French, probably already more than Dad knows or uses.
Dad says that I was up the other night, so whining and fidgety that he picked me up to rock me a bit so I could go back to sleep. Well, after he got me to sleep, he was putting me back down into my crib when I looked down and said, “Uh oh.” For some reason he thought this was very funny. I got back to sleep, either way.
Last Friday was Homecoming at the high school where Mom works, so we got to ride on a float in the Homecoming parade. We saw my friend Abby and her mom Cindy, and all the big kids threw candy to them. I was pretty stunned by everything that was going on, so I just huddled with Mom and took it all in.
This morning I got a haircut right after Dad. I did not like this one bit. I don’t know what that razor thing does, but it has an evil buzz and I don’t want it anywhere near my head. I was very clear about my displeasure!
But I don’t mean to dwell on events either puzzling or unhappy. On the whole, I’m having a very good time. I’m learning lots of new wordsespecially when I read my books with Mom or Dad. I’m running around a lot and very fast too! I know you’d be impressed. And I’m getting to be pretty helpful. I can pick things up and take them to people or places. Dad likes this a lot! He’s hoping I can learn to kick a soccer ball back and forth soon, I’m sure. (Right now, I prefer to pick up balls.)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Life is good.
Seriously, I don’t know what Mom and Dad would do if I weren’t here to tell them where to go. In tonight’s game, we were very clearly running around downstairs between the filing cabinet and the toy car. But without my pointing and clapping, I’m not sure either one of my parents would have had a clue what to do.
I’ve begun using a fair number of signs”more” and “food” are two of my favoritesso that Mom and Dad can tell what I want. Since my spoken vocabularly is still rather limited, the signs are very helpful to them. I like using them because they help me get what I want.
I’m understanding a fair amount of what Mom and Dad say, both in English and in French, and I usually decide to do what they ask of me. Sometimes I don’t feel like it though.
My favorite books right now are The Little Engine That Could & The Big Chase and I Just Forgot by Mercer Mayer. In the first one, I like to point out the giraffes and the flowers. In the second one I point out the mouse and spider. When I’m with Grandma Carole and Grandpa Ed, I like to read Little Boy Blue.
Dad and I pass a ball back and forth by kicking or throwing it. It’s a lot of fun. He doesn’t seem nearly as thrilled when I throw my food or my fork, though. I’m not sure why yet.
I went to my friend Elana’s 2 year-old birthday party a couple weeks ago. Finally I know why the little gorilla gets a cake at the end of the Little Gorilla story. That never made sense before.
Nowadays I’m eating virtually everything Mom and Dad do. They cut my stuff up into smaller bits, but otherwise, we tend to eat the same things. Tonight we had pizza with olives. I love olives, especially when I put them on my fingers and eat them off.
Dad’s gone and posted another big photo gallery which he hopes everybody will enjoy. I’m looking fine, if I do say so myself. Be sure to check it out.
Dad’s also posted another .Mac screensaver series, so if you’re on Mac OS 10.3, you can select .Mac and “tydavison” for your screen saver source (in the Desktop & Screensaver prefs), and see a bunch more pictures of me.
I had my 15 months “Well Baby” checkup yesterday. I am fine. The nurse nonetheless jabbed me twice with a syringe of something. Dad said it was for my own good, but I didn’t see him getting jabbed, so how good can it be? It wasn’t that big a deal, but I was annoyed at the time. Then Mom showed me a copy of The Fox and the Hound, and I forgot all about the injections.
I’m 31.5 inches now and looking forward to hitting 3 feet. Won’t that be something! My head size now above the 50th percentile on the EPIC charts, but my weight (22 lbs 7 oz) is 25th which is down a bit from previous charts. Of course I wasn’t running around like a madman then and I certainly am now. I’m climbing things too. Woot woot!