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Here are a few pictures of backyard fun: Jonas and DaDa playing in the sandbox (a gift from Aunt Tree and Uncle Dave) and Jonas and Petra (or “Good Dog”, as she has been affectionately dubbed) playing ball.

We very much enjoyed our visit with Jonas’ Great Uncle Bobby and Grandma Connie a few weeks ago. Here is a picture taken on our evening walk on the beautiful trail behind our house. Jonas had just picked a feye-eee (a flower) for Great Uncle Bobby that he borrowed back for the picture.

In his eighteenth month, Jonas is: spinning our heads with his language explosion (his newest words include: color, water, tractor, truck, slide, popcorn, sunblock, leaf, and sunshine AND his newest two-word combinations include: see DaDa, more DaDa, my DaDa, play out, play car car, orange juice, kick it, get it, hold it, get down, PePa (Petra) bone, PePa toy, flower MaMa, hold MaMa, and cozy MaMa); repeating anything/everything we say; honing his eating with a fork/spoon and coloring skills; figuring out how to turn the dishwasher on; putting himself to sleep for nap time and bed time (most of the time); telling Petra to come and get down; walking on tippy toes; becoming quite the climber; taking a shine to certain books that he could listen to over and over (his recent favorite is “The Foot Book”); waving to his shadow; and affectionately dubbing his favorite blanket “coz”.

Grandpa Phil and Grandma Jackie spent two wonderful weeks with us at the end of April. During the first week, Tom and Grandpa Phil built a beautiful fence for our backyard while Grandma Jackie and I took Jonas for visits to the library and to the zoo. During the second week, we stayed at a beautiful resort in Orlando, Florida and even got to spend a day at Disneyworld. We had a blast!!!

Here are a few pictures of our time together. For more pictures, click on the “Family Vacation: FL” picture page to the right.

Jonas loves getting into the kitchen cabinets. I looked down while making lunch one afternoon and saw him in the colander. HaHa!!!

At seventeen months, Jonas is:  continuing to add words to his vocabulary (his own versions of:  ice, water, drink, cold, blueberry, strawberry, grape, purple, cross, Jesus, key, heater, bicycle, truck, trash, gross, stop, no touch, slide, flower, pretty, sure, good dog, pat pat, pull, zipper, push, and vacuum); doing the sign for “please”; cutting teeth…left and right and bottom and top; enjoying helping MaMa with her work around the house (putting things in the trash and in the dryer, picking up/wiping up messes on the floor, and unloading the dishwasher); saying what a horse, a lion, a pig, and a dog say; champing out on his full transition to drinking only from a sippy cup (the bottle helped us out for a few months during the weaning process) and to taking an afternoon nap in a room that’s not pitch black, and passionately speaking his favorite word countless times a day…”more”.

Jonas has been having the time of his life running around and playing outside in the yard.  The weather has been so beautiful, and he loves all of the new space to explore. 

DaDa took a break from reorganizing the garage to set up the tent in the front yard just for fun (one of the many reasons why I love my husband).  And it made my heart start hankering for a camping trip (even if it’s in our own backyard)!!! 

We took Jonas to the Easter Egg Hunt at Holy Family on Saturday.  We thought it might be cancelled due to the rain but decided to drive by just in case.  We were glad we did, as they ended up moving everything indoors.  Jonas still had a blast and even found a silver egg that won him a special Easter basket.   

On Sunday, after moving the last load of our belongings from the old house to the new house and enjoying the Easter service at Holy Family, we spent the afternoon enjoying some down time with Grandma and Pops on their back porch.   

Jonas LOVED trying his hand at Easter egg dyeing at MeMe and PaPa’s house.  Here he is, intently working it out, with MeMe and his cousins Jordan and Dylan.  

More to come…

We were so honored to be a part of the photo shoot for the cover of Jonas’ Pops’ new album, Ghost Train, at the Tennessee Central Railway System in Nashville.  It was especially cool to see Jonas exploring the trains that are so close to his DaDa’s heart and enjoying the music that is so close to his MaMa’s heart.

Here is Jonas combining two of his favorite pastimes…getting into things and reading.  🙂

We had the most beautiful spring weather today and were so excited to take Jonas for his first visit to the Nashville Zoo (compliments of his Uncle Darren, who gave us a yearlong zoo membership for Christmas). Jonas especially enjoyed the Critter Encounters exhibit (a petting zoo with donkeys, llamas, and goats).  🙂  We can’t wait to go back and do some more exploring…   

In his sixteenth month, Jonas is:  adding even more words to his already amazing vocabulary (“tee” for “tree”, “goo guh” for “good girl”, “choo” for “shoe”, “cap” for “clap”, “cah” for “(dog) collar”, “momah” for “snowman”, “moh” for “more”, “i yah” for “i love you”, “tall” for “tall” and “talk”, “two”, “crakah” for “cracker”, “coo coo” for “cookie”, “ih neh” for “empty”, “aht” for “hot”, “no no”, “gentuh” for “gentle”, “nih nih” for “night night”, “peace” for “peace”, “piece”, and please”; and “wal-mah” for “wal-mart”); using a few new signs (“all done”, “change diaper”, and “thank you”); making valiant (if messy) efforts to use a spoon; spending more time scribbling with crayons than trying to eat them; wildly enjoying games of chase with DaDa and Petra; being a brave boy with his biggest boo boo to date (he fell at the dog park when he was running towards me and out came the largest goose egg on his forehead that I have ever seen); turning into quite the little spontaneous, heart-melting, snuggle bunny; going up the stairs walking instead of crawling; showing us all of the “no nos” in the house with a quick run to the site of offense and a passionate “no no” upon arrival; pointing to himself when you ask him where Jonas is; and continuing to explode with personality.

Did I mention that Jonas is into EVERYTHING these days?!?