Manners at Home?

I have told many of you this story but it is definitely one that must be blogged about. If discussions about bodily functions are something that you're uncomfortable with, you may want to skip this one. :)

We are pretty free with our bodily functions around the house - that's just the way it is with family, at least my family, especially with little kids in the house. Mom exposes herself to feed the baby and bathroom doors stay open often. (They say kids learn by example so we're using that angle for potty training too.) So when it comes to burping and passing gas, the wind just blows where it will so to speak. Well, the other day, Jonah was making a farting sound and we asked, "Jonah did you poopy; do you need to go poopy in the potty?" Jonah replies, "No, I farted." Kelly then says, "Well, what do you say?" And Jonah proudly responds, "Please." We suppressed the urge to totally break out laughing and after quickly regaining composure, Kelly tells Jonah that the correct thing to say is, "Excuse me." Jonah then says, "Xcuse me." And so we find something else that is best taught by example - manners. He's pretty much got "please," "thank you," and "your welcome" down but we still have to work on the nuances of "excuse me."

Jonah's First Snow Day

We were out of town during the January snow here in Raleigh. That week we still got to enjoy some significant snow as we were visiting friends in the mountains. When we returned home we were still praying for a snow day - enough snow to warrant Kelly working from home so that we could all venture out together and play in the snow at some point during the day. On Monday, March 2nd our prayer was answered. So while this technically wasn't Jonah's first snow - it was his first snow at home. He loved watching Mommy and Daddy throw snow balls at each other - especially the part where mommy would squeal and duck. (He loves it when things get loud and boisterous.)

To Nap or Not To Nap?

At 2 1/2, Jonah has almost completely given up naps. He will go almost a whole week without one and then we'll have a week like this week. A couple of days ago, we had a church meeting out our home and I put him in his room for a while. My intention was to have a quieter living room, but he ended up falling sleeping. Today, I gave him a snack about 2 p.m. and noticed him rubbing his eyes and not his normal energetic self. After giving him a drink, I asked if he'd like to take a nap. He responded by heading to his room and saying, "Otay." I followed him as he climbed into bed and said, "blanket." I covered him up, turned on some music and left the room. I haven't heard a peep out of him since. The baby also had a 2 hour nap that overlapped Jonah's, so I was able to get a couple of loads of clothes folded and put away without any interruption. Jonah's naps are more like unexpected gifts now rather than a daily expectation.

Funny Girl

Here are a couple of clips from an afternoon with Elisabeth Rose a week or so ago. I had so much fun getting her to make this face. It is so cute. She scrunches up her face and smiles. The balloon in the clip was a Valentine gift from Kelly to me, but Elisabeth has definitely gotten the most joy out of it. She has played with that thing for two weeks. In one of the clips you can also see how she gets all into moving and looking at her hand and in this instance she is particularly pleased with herself.

Bath Time with Livy

A few weeks ago we had Jonah's friend Olivia over one evening. Jonah was in need of a bath so Kelly put him in the tub and Olivia went in the bathroom and began to play in the water from outside the tub. With all the splashing it didn't take long for her to start getting wet. I then took her britches off and put Jonah's rain jacket on her.

Kelly turned his back for a couple of minutes and then found Olivia in the tub diaper and all. So I decided to just put her in there with him. They played very well and it was even one of Jonah's more subdued bath times.