Jonah 9 Months

He's done it again. Another month flew by.

Jonah doesn't stay down for long these days.

He's getting himself into pickles frequently and has little bruises to show for it. The one on his forehead here is from pulling a kitchen chair down on himself. He's very strong

and quick

and big!

April II

Jonah has made great progress on his teeth. They're coming in right to left on top. We are all ready for him to be done teething.

All the boys helped mow the lawn.

Jonah had his first slurp of mango.

He was hooked.

He kept his mouth open so he was ready as soon as it was his turn again.

He's perfecting his eyebrow raise.

Playing ball with Scott.

We put the toys in the playroom and there is a lot of space to play around. Plus now the other rooms in the house feel more spacious without toys.

Scott is a running blur. We like playing on the carpet after it's refluffed from vacuuming.

One Saturday morning I took Scott to run errands. We used our Kohls reward on a car and truck, tasted a truffle sample at See's, then stopped to see the puppies for sale outside of Petco. It was a fun Mom-Scott date.

My aunt sent an Easter package and Jonah found a treat just for him. He played with it so happily. A toy and lunch in one.

Jonah's been pulling himself up on everything. He'll stand with one hand supporting him and even lets go sometimes and wobbles over. He likes exploring his balance and strength, which is the opposite of Scott, who only seemed to do things once he was confident. 

After the above picture, I picked Jonah up to wipe his nose. I looked down and found the worst poo-splosion to date all over me and him. Much to Scott's dismay, we quickly left the mall play area and went home to change. And bathe Jonah.

He was very sorry. 

Scott asks for his glasses all the time now. He doesn't pronounce the "gl" yet, so it's fun when he asks for them really loudly in public.

He usually has them open and about half the time they're upside down.

Jonah and Scott have been playing contentedly together more often, which is fun to see and a relief from the constant monitoring that was needed in the past.

Scott gets excited when Jonah has a truck, train, tractor, etc. on his clothes and he'll point it out to me every time he sees Jonah. So I decided to get Jonah a pair of truck jams to match Scott's.

They wore them on our Sacramento trip and Scott was thrilled that they both had truck shirts, or "sruck shits" as he calls them.

Commencement

We went to Sacramento so I could go to National's commencement. I finished my classes the month before I had Scott and wrote my thesis before Jonah was born, so it seemed anticlimactic to walk after so much time. But John and I decided that if we had to pay the graduation fee anyway we should go and make a weekend trip out of it.

 I used his cap and gown, but bought my own English hood and '14 tassel.

I didn't know any other students since I took my classes online, but it still felt great to walk in to Pomp and Circumstance with everyone. It was definitely worth going.

We never really celebrated when I finished, since it was such an on-going process, so it was nice to set aside those two hours and just feel the relief and accomplishment.

My mom and John were a little busier in the back. I asked John what this picture was: Scott wiped his runny nose with his finger and drew on the floor with it. Super classy. Especially John taking a picture instead of stopping him.

John was a huge distraction when I was taking classes at San Jose State while we were dating, but after getting married he really pulled a lot of extra weight so I could focus on finishing. It was a lot of work and I'm grateful to him for supporting me through it all.

We're both excited about being 100% done with school. 

Sacramento

We drove up to Sacramento Friday after work for my commencement. Scott napped on the drive and didn't go to bed that night until 11pm. Then Jonah woke us all up at 6 Saturday morning. But at least that meant we made it to the hotel breakfast in plenty of time and got an early start for the temple.

 My mom played with the boys while John and I went inside quickly.

 Then we walked around the grounds. I really love the gray stone and door designs. It looked like something I would do to my own house. If I lived in a mansion. 

 After the temple we visited the railroad museum. I learned a lot about early California history and how the railroad influenced its development while Scott tried to pick up the rocks.

 We read about the early train cars and building the transcontinental railroad.

 Scott ran from place to place, anxious to explore.

 Then he pointed out yeyow choochoo! orage choochoo! 

 He was so excited that we could go through some of them. The sleeper/passenger train rocked and rumbled like it was really moving.

 Scott steered the fine dining car while we discussed going on another cruise. 

 He started crying when we left the room with the big trains, but was happy again when we arrived in the play area.

 They had several train tables set up. He played until he had to go potty. Then walking back he discovered the model train area and we spent the rest of the time looking at those.

 We left to get lunch and took a carriage ride around Old Town.

 Scott repeated horsie, neigh. horsie, neigh. Jonah looked all around and I think he enjoyed bumping over the cobblestone road because it put him to sleep.

 We explored some of the places my mom takes her class on their annual field trip. The old schoolhouse was not as exciting as the giant candy shop. You could sample any of the taffy and there were five rows of unique flavors.

 We walked around the Delta King steamboat, which made me want to go to Tom Sawyer's island. Scott was distracted by the train whistle. 

 We walked back to the museum and went in the engine room.

 Scott took an important call.

 Then we tried some mini donuts next to the museum and headed over to the Capitol.

 Scott was exhausted at this point and I wouldn't let him nap again. I realized we should have done the capitol tour first since it was less engaging for a toddler.

 He did like seeing Bacteria Bear.

 Until John put his hand in the bear's mouth

 and my mom growled, not knowing what John was doing at the time. The rest of the tour Scott would start crying randomly and give me his hand to kiss better, but then whine asking to go back and see the bear again. Such a weirdo.

 Jonah was perfectly content as long as he was being held, in the carrier, or on John's shoulders. We dragged Scott through the rest of the tour quickly. Luckily my mom had been there enough to know the highlights.

We had dinner, then John and I went swimming while my mom watched a movie with Scott and Jonah in the hotel room. Scott's whining all evening paid off when he went to sleep much earlier that night. We were all exhausted from a fun, full day exploring a new city.