My little monkey

I was trying to think of what to title this post, when Jon - no lie - says "oo, ee, ah, ah" a la a monkey in a zoo. He is currently sitting on the floor by my work desk playing with a box of cassette tapes. This is why I tell the grandparents not to buy him toys : )

Here is a much needed update on Jon, although without pictures. I know, I need to take more pictures of him...but I just don't!

Walking: Jon walked for the first time on February 25th and has quickly become pretty adept at walking! He still cruises for the most part, but I think that is more due to the fact of living in a small (semi cramped) apartment and less that he needs to hold on to things. We have taken advantage of the beautiful weather, and we walk outside at least once a day. I love the way he has a death grip on one of my fingers while we walk across our parking lot. He has started a rock collection from our walks, and I think one day soon we will need a 'Free the Rocks' day when we will put all the rocks back outside. On Sunday, he ate dirt - literally - as he face planted while walking outside. The walking has brought some scrapes and bruises, the first of many I am sure. Now that he can walk, he does not like being picked up. So...when we joined our church on Sunday morning, and we were up at the front of the church taking our membership vows, he was whining and squirming in my arms. I put him down, and he started to crawl toward the worship team's instruments. Jonathan picked him up and managed the squirm until we were finished. Everyone after the service commented on how adorable he was. Yes, for them, not the embarrassed parents trying to hold him in front of the congregation : )

Climbing: Jon can now climb onto the futon and chair in our living room and into the rocking chair in his room. He LOVES to climb, and tries to climb on everything. Thankfully a very stern 'no' and some redirection have kept him from climbing the bookcases. He is so incredibly proud of himself when he climbs up into the chairs. Getting down is of course a different story. I have tried to teach him how to climb down safely, but I must admit that 9 times out of 10 I just pick him up and put him on the ground.

Making Friends: Jon has a little friend from church who is about 20 days older than he is. When they see each other, they smile and squeal and point at one another. And, the other day when we were visiting at the friend's house, they held hands while having their diapers changed. Now, I'm not going to be one of 'those' mothers, but if these two get married one day, we will have a lot of fun stories : )

Pretty much the child does not sit still and 'talks' almost all of the time. He doesn't particularly have a lot of words (I try very hard not to compare him to other kids who have much better vocabularies), but he does have 'dat' for cat, 'diddee' for kitty, 'dud' for dog, 'dada' for both parents, and 'dut' for duck. He gets very excited when he sees babies, whether at church, the library, on Sesame Street, or even on his yogurt container. He gets a very high pitched voice, and pats them on the face. I am trying to teach him body parts. We had a bit of a breakthrough the other day when I asked where his nose was and he pointed to his mouth, then to his ear. I think he knew that his nose was somewhere on his face, he just wasn't sure where. He is very good at entertaining himself : ) I think he is the cutest little thing in the whole world, and we laugh a lot! Although I miss my baby, I love my toddler : )