Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Mini Cake or Amy Junior?

I have been wanting to dig up some baby pictures of J & I for a while now. I finally found a few from around the one year mark. Here they are...

Jonnycakes as a one year old-ish little boy:
(okay - in this 1st one he may be a bit younger)

Amylou at her 1st birthday:


And here, of course, is Miss Clarabou in a few recent pictures:

What do you think? Little Jonathina? Miniature replica of her mama? Or neither one? I'm curious to see what you think? I already have an opinion (of course). ;)

Monday, April 26, 2010

Jonnycakes is 29




This is my husband's last birthday in the 20's. Today he turns 29. Is it really possible that we are this old?(I guess I can't really say "we" - since I am still two years behind -one major benefit of marrying an older man is that he paves the way into each larger, scary-sounding number). But the answer to that question is yes. We really are old. Old enough, at least, to have a house, a kid, careers, and some grey hairs in eyebrows (Jonathan, at least). We decided that we both feel about 22. I wonder if that will ever change? I may just feel early-twenty-ish for the next forty years? Only time will tell.

Instead of continuing to rant about the weirdness of growing older, time, life changes (and such)...I will instead offer just 29 tidbits about my husband/reasons I am head-over-heels for Jono.

29 (Very Random) Things About Jonnycakes...
1. He works harder than almost anyone I know.
2. He loves food & is an incredibly adventurous eater.
3. He gives the most amazing massages. It's just one major benefit of his chosen profession.
4. He can hear a melody and it stays in his head forever. He can instantly hear a song and harmonize.
5. He can hear song lyrics over and over and will never remember them.
6. He has roller-bladed to work before. Because he wanted to.
7. He loves maps, back roads, and unique routes.
8. He eats frozen vegetables for lunch nearly every day (I'm talking the broccoli/cauliflower medley. Utter nastiness)
9. He remembers almost everything he learns (besides song lyrics). The man can still remember the principals of calculus from high school.
10. He is horrible at quick-thinking card games. It is nice to have two things I can do better (fast games & song lyrics. I hold on to these things tightly).
11. He has an amazing voice.
12. He weighed a whopping 220 at the height of his college football career...and now is easily 40 lbs. below that weight. He was never fat, just ridiculously thick. ;)
13. He likes to read five books at once (Right now he is reading Grace Based Parenting, The Brothers K, Purpose Drive Life, Blink, and some book about Louis Pasteur)
14. For being the most ridiculously athletic person I know, he has never planned life around watching sporting events -unless we're gathering with friends. I am so thankful.
15. He could play with Clara for hours. I often have to remind him it's nap or bed time.
16. He is the object of many teenage crushes (according to the secretaries at his work). Heck, if I was in high school and Jonathan was my physical therapist, I would have been asking for doctor referrals for a long time!
17. He loves Jesus -and his faith is the most important thing in his life.
18. He wears size 12.5 shoe.
19. He doesn't like being the center of attention/person in the spotlight.
20. A perfect day for Jono would involve some intense hiking, bike riding, surfing, swimming, snorkeling, running...anything active.
21. He hated coffee when I met him and now can hardly go a day without it.
22. He loves Hawaiian pizza.
23. He will be a life-long student/learner. He is working towards his OCS, then wants a MTC (or something like that?) and eventually would love to teach in some capacity. This should come as no surprise from the 3rd grader who checked out books about fencing from the library- just to learn more about it.
24. He plays the cello and guitar. And writes music.
25. He hates hard-boiled eggs. I didn't believe him & forced them on him once. Now I do (and the evidence in my parents' back yard 9 years ago stands as testimony that he absolutely hates them).
26. He takes really good pictures.
27. He loves having a little girl. (And I am so glad we have a little girl that will grow up with a strong, involved dad). He wants another girl.
28. He is the most patient, consistent, steady person I know. It is one of the things I am most thankful for in my husband. You probably wouldn't use those words to describe me!
29. The first thing that caught my attention (at age 16, no joke) was his humility & servant-heart.

I feel so blessed that I have known this man for over 10 years. He is so different than me in so many ways (frozen veggies, hard-boiled eggs, song lyrics, card games...), but so alike in every way that counts. I know that the people you spend the most time with rub off on you. You start talking like them, acting like them, and often thinking like them. I only hope that Jonathan can rub off a bit on me in the years to come!

Happy 29th Birthday, my love (if you read this....).

Here are a few more pictures from bday gatherings this weekend. Yes, one of those events included a "werewolf birthday" in honor of his striking resemblance to the carnivorous actor...Happy Birthday Jacob cookie & all ;). Of course I have no pictures of the dinner/movie last weekend or any of family this weekend. Maybe next year I'll be better at capturing everything.

Just thought I'd link my post from last year, just for fun. A lot can change in one year!

Or if you really have a lot of time on your hands (which you may, if you've made it this far!), check out his birthday two years ago!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Lunch Break

This is why I am extremely thankful we bought a house so close to Jonathan's office.


(It's so he can come home for a quick lunch break, eat some leftover spaghetti and serenade the Claranator with his guitar on the kitchen floor in his tie.)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Embarrassment #1


Friday was Clara's much anticipated first swim lesson. I had been eyeing the YMCA classes for a while and finally signed up for this session. The child has to like swimming. One set of grandparents have a pool. The other grandma was a collegiate swimmer. We spend tons of time at the lake during the summer. These are all good reasons for early swimming exposure, right?! I thought so too.

Unfortunately, our first swimming experience wasn't very positive. At all. In fact, it may just mark my most embarrassing mommy moment to date (for those of you veteran moms, I'm sure there are many more like this to come). What exactly happened?

Clara puked in the pool.

Gross, I know. It was probably a result of my feeding her too much cheese on the way. It was my attempt to tide her over - since I usually breast-feed right at 11, which was the beginning of class. It was a pretty small "puke". It was still pretty nasty as it swirled and eventually disintegrated in the chlorinated blue, though. As a result, two classes were evacuated from the pool so that they could "shock it". Really embarrassing.

The good thing? She had no clue. And was as happy as ever. The other good thing? It happened in the last five minutes of class. So we still got most of our time in the pool. Not so for the poor people in the class after. They had to move their lesson to the far less warm and slightly more intimidating big pool. Hopefully they won't have to give any refunds.

YMCA, I am sorry. I will not feed my daughter cheese on the way to class anymore. And I will do my best to stick her little chin over the edge of the pool if I see another puke on the rise.

Monday, April 5, 2010

She's Rude

What do all of the following pictures have in common?




Yep. Clara is pointing her finger in each one. It's her new favorite thing to do. I'm not kidding that every time I enter her room for the first time in the morning, or after a nap, she will immediately point to something in her room (I never really know quite what) and usually say "ba".

"Ba" is not to be confused with "ball", which happens to be her first word (and favorite thing). They do sound exactly the same actually, but I know they are two different things for the Clarabelle. She can point to a ball and name it in all her books (even if it's in the background & half-hidden), but then almost every other none-named item in her universe is also "ba". She likes the sound "b"...which works out fine given the fact that she lives in a world filled with books, blocks, babies and balls (of course).

I should also note, though, that coming in as a close 2nd behind the "ba" is a 4-way tie between "dada", "mama", "nana" and "lala" (thanks Aunt Leah for that one). That is it for her vocabulary. I tried uploading a video with Clara saying all her "words" but it didn't quite work. Not at all, actually. If my techy husband can figure it out, check back for the video. It might just be added to this random post. Happy Easter, yesterday!

Here is a video of her words. A little late, but better late than never ;)...