Jonah's Gym Class

I'm going to continue to postpone elaborating on our recent Northeast road trip for a while yet.  (Most of the photos are on a no-wifi camera, and I haven't yet had a chance to download them to my computer--cumbersome antiquated technology!)  Instead, to keep things interesting, we'll fast-forward to the more recent past, in which Jonah started his incredibly fun and entertaining toddler gym class.

Every week, Jonah and I head to the gym to exercise and challenge his little toddler muscles (including that greedy sponge of a brain).  We jump and balance, climb and slide, hang and swing, and do all sorts of other things that I wouldn't have realized Jonah was capable of doing if his gym teacher hadn't suggested otherwise.  Jonah's favorite part of the class, though, is probably playing with the parachute at the end.  First, he plays on top of the billowing parachute, then he runs around underneath.  It's a giant giggle-fest.
 

Jonah prepares to launch, hanging onto rings.

 

Playing on the parachute.

Later we generally practice at the playground what we learned in gym class.  Here's a video of Jonah orienting himself and going down the slide all on is own at the playground:
 

Trucks!

I hope to continue with our travel adventure story soon, but in the meantime here's a quick pic to describe Jonah's adventures today.  We're having some work done in the backyard, and bulldozers, backhoes, and dump trucks abound--much to our fascination and delight!

Month 13: It Began with a Birthday

It's been so long since my last post, I don't even know where to begin...

Jonah's a toddler now.  The transformations over the past month have been so astonishingly quick and complete, we've remained interminably on the tips of our toes attempting to keep up.  J's walking and talking and doing a great many other things, too, as you'll soon see, if I can only get myself organized enough to catch up here on the latest month of our story.

One big event to which I must make reference, of course, is Jonah's first birthday.  It was a simple affair with family, whom we were visiting in Buffalo.  Carvel cake--my favorite (and perhaps Jonah's, too, if the blue hue of his lips and tongue after the party were a clue) and a merry round of the birthday song following dinner.  Jonah received most of his gifts back home, since our trip out of town was already an extended, luggage-filled affair.  Probably the biggest hit was his new sandbox.  A toy kitten from his cousin also made the top of list.  (Jonah immediately took a liking to his grey Khan-lookalike, whom he aptly named "Khan".)  And then there's Dragon: a pretty awesome, giggle-inducing puppet from Grammy and Grandpa.

The birthday-coincident jaunt to Buffalo was actually just the first stop on a long road trip through the Northeast, and I have lots of pics to share from our many stops along the way.  In my next post.