Jonathan, 22 months

I think one of my favorite things about this age is how much Jonathan is able to communicate. I love having conversations like this one that frequently occurs when I go get him up from a nap:
Me: Hey, Jonno! How did you sleep?
Jonathan: Good.
Me: Do you want a snack?
Jonathan: No.
Me: Do you want some milk.
Jonathan: Yeah.
It may not seem like much, but it is a definite improvement over:
Me: Hey, Jonno! How did you sleep?
Jonathan: Waaaa!
Me: Do you want a snack?
Jonathan: Waaaaaa!
Me: Do you want some milk?
Jonathan: Waahaahaaaa!
Even though he has been able to sign for some things that he wants for quite a while, I love that he can actually say so many words to tell me what he wants. Sometimes it's not very convenient, like when he is crying for "monkey" when I am trying to put him down for a nap, meaning he wants to watch Curious George for the 658th time, but it's still so fun. The other night we were driving back from a temple open house with my parents and he kept asking my mom and me, who were sitting in the back with him, to sing to him. We would pick a primary song, and every time we started singing a new one he would look at me in wonder for several seconds, the sweetest smile lighting up his face. I think those are the moments you live for as a mom.

Some of Jonathan's favorite things right now are:


Being outside. Especially if it involves the sandbox or playing with "geegawgeegaw" meaning water. *Note: He actually is starting to say "wa-er" for water instead of "geegawgeegaw." Peter and I are debating whether to encourage the change or not. We just loved "geegawgeegaw" so much!


Playing with cousins. This is a picture of him at one of our weekly play groups with two of my sisters-in-law and their kids. He gets so excited when I ask if he wants to go play with his cousins. He thinks they are the coolest thing ever. Unless they are in his personal-space bubble. Then he tries to push them down.


Finally, grandpa. Jonathan loves both of his grandpas so much. This is one of him with my dad. I think Jonathan would happily be grandpa's shadow 24 hours a day if I let him. I feel so blessed that we have lived close enough for him to get to know them both so well. And really, what better role-models could you ask for?

Catching Up on Summer

I'm not sure why I'm so bad at updating this blog. I think with my baking blog the posts are pretty straight-forward. You show a picture of some food, talk about it for a little bit, then post the recipe. For this blog, though, I think I just have a hard time figuring out how to sum-up all the stuff that has been going on in our lives. For instance, how do I describe Jonathan's excitement when we tell him that we're going to feed the ducks or the pure joy in his voice as he repeats "baby duck" over and over on the way to the pond? I really can't, so I just need to content myself with giving little peeks into our lives in hopes that years from now when I look back on my blogs as a journal of my life in 2009 I'll remember it for more than food.
To start what I hope will be consistent posting from here on out, here are a few highlights from some of our summer adventures so far:

Disneyland: Peter and I went to Disneyland at the end of April. I love Disneyland. I hadn't been in 10 years. It was magical, enough said.

Captain Peter Sparrow:


Me knocking on the white rabbit's door:


Me again, fulfilling my lifelong dream to sail on the ship Colombia:


Peter and me. The Tom Sawyer Island natives apparently wanted to have us for dinner:


Mr. Clean attempts to pull the sword from the stone. Sorry it's so blurry:


Me with the appetizing snacks in the Monsters, Inc. vending machine:


And one last shot of Peter, because he's cute:


Shortly after Disneyland we went camping with our friends Eva and Jeremy and their baby, Mariah, at Flaming Gorge. It was beautiful and fun. However, we probably won't be taking Jonathan camping again until he's ten, considering the fact that we ended up sleeping in the car and driving him around every two hours to get him to sleep.

The family:


Jonathan helped blow up the air mattress:


And then ate a snack of a marshmallow squished in some tongs:


Maybe my legs aren't so big after all:


The whole group:


A dinosaur bone still in the ground. How cool is that?


And finally, some cute ones of Jonno:




Man, I love my boys. And boy do I love summer.