Autumn

Franken-baby walks!

This was taken almost a week ago; Manny is much steadier now, though he still prefers crawling. He's been drinking from a cup (open top, no sippy cut) while standing for at least the past three weeks, without losing his balance. I want to say to him, "Manny, if you can do that, for heaven's sake, you can walk." But the Moo likes to do things his own way, thank-you-very-much.

We call him "Crazy M"

Manny had a very happy first birthday. It was especially happy because he received a (second) Puppy Pal, which he is waving around wildly in this video. Manny is a barrel of laughs!

Sassy AND sweet

Twinkle, twinkle, this is our little star.

Manny's second 1st birthday

The weekend following Manny's birthday, two beloved families who once lived in Chicago but have since moved away were in town for Baby Luke's baptism. To give Manny a 'real' birthday (the kind with cake and friends) and in order to make time for the womenfolk to get together and cluck like a bunch of hens, I planned a Saturday morning brunch birthday. Four women and their children ended up coming and we had a pleasantly full apartment.

All the kids got in on the gift-opening action. Left to right are Jonah, Jackson, Ezra, Auntie Lex, Jude and Manny.
Here Manny takes his new black dachshund for a walk (thanks, Deacon and Mimi!). Manny checks out the tissue paper, while Madrina Corene (in the background) checks out the cuddly blanket Auntie Lexie made for him.

At some point during the present-opening action, Jonah quietly sneaked to the dining room table and helped himself to a cupcake. I've rarely seen Jonah quieter.

Pumpkin cakes for a Pumpkin Pie.

Manny enjoyed his cupcake immensely. So much so that I had to dig half of it out of his mouth, lest he choke on it. Manny is a champion eater, though he does have a discerning palate.

Jonah had loads of fun with his friends, especially Isaac (L) and James. Sadly, James (still known informally to Jonah as "Bia") now lives in Dallas, Texas; happily, we now have an excuse to visit Dallas, Texas (though I didn't know before that we needed one).
When we asked Manny to show us how big he was, he tried to hide behind his hands.

Somebody get this kid a bed! Incidentally, this is the same shirt that Gabe was wearing in the hospital one year ago. If there is anything that makes me realize how big Manny now is, it is certainly this picture. Sweet dreams, Pumpkin Pie!

Ouch.

Jonah "crashed" Manny a few weeks ago. This was Manny's first real injury, though it ended up being relatively minor. I had been trying to get out the door with the boys for a little pre-dinner park play, when Jonah basically laid down on Manny and then steamrolled him ("crashing" is a very specific action for Jonah). Luckily, it was really only Manny's face and mouth that hit the floor, not his teeth. Jonah knew that he was in trouble when he saw my reaction, immediately going to his room when I told him to while I called my mom (who used to work as a dental hygienist) to re-check basic tooth trauma information. Manny ended up being consolable, though it did take a little bit longer than usual, and we ended up going to the park anyway -- I think it had been an all-day-inside day, and we all needed to go out! I made mild attempts to hide the blood on Manny's shirt from other parents at the park, but ultimately decided that it wasn't worth worrying over too much.
(Incidentally, Manny's shirt says "Mean Monday". It was, in fact, a Monday, and, I fear, a bit mean for poor Manny.)
I remember quite clearly Jonah's first big "ouchie". He was just starting to walk and tripped and smacked his head on the corner of a square table leg. A bump formed immediately and the skin stretched so tight over it that it ended up splitting open and bleeding a bit. That was, of course, very sad, but the difference this time is that Manny didn't do this to himself. It was a willfull act on Jonah's part, however low his comprehension of his own culpability and responsibility may be. Because Manny is mobile and clearly not a baby in the 3-month-old sense, Jonah tends to think of him as more of a playmate than he actually is. It's hard not to get upset with Jonah when he does this sort of thing ("crashing" is not entirely uncommon in our house), and it's hard to find the balance between realizing that Jonah doesn't understand the full implications of Manny's size and letting him off the hook altogether. Often, Jonah's misbehavior towards Manny seems to come about when my attention is directed elsewhere; in such cases, misbehavior is completely an attention-getting device. With two boys, I know that I should be prepped for such bruises and blood to happen every once in awhile, though I hope that there are no more until Manny can rough Jonah up a little himself.

Happy Birthday, Pumpkin Pie!

It's been one year of the Moo. Manny came roaring into the world in somewhat dramatic (traumatic, for Mama) fashion one year ago today. The time has flown by. In fact, it really hasn't sunk in for me that my little clone is ONE; I'm sure that it will before too long and I'll burst into tears or something. In contrast to any future drama, though, we had a nice, fairly low-key day today. For Jonah's 1st birthday, we had a big party with friends and relatives in Michigan. Manny, on the other hand, spent the day with Mama and big brother and with Dada in the evening. However, it was nice, and I plan to file this day away in my box of happy memories.

Jonah and I made chocolate chip cookies during Manny's morning nap (Jonah LOVES to make cookies, though the time that they spend in the oven is always a bit challenging). Here's Manny, enjoying his birthday cookie. And he took his first two steps today, lunging from the table to me in pursuit of his cookie! Granted, they were the "I'm going to topple forward if nobody catches me" steps, but he definitely let go of the table and stepped towards me! Very exciting. He is our textbook baby.Jonah was nice enough to clean Manny up afterwards (unprompted -- we don't call him "Helpful J" for nothing!).

Before lunch, we went to the park. We were house-bound yesterday, as Manny had a pretty bad cold. Mama can only take so much indoor-time, though, so the park was on the agenda NO MATTER WHAT. Manny attempted the steep stairs -- he's way too daring.
Manny also spent some time in the swing. Doesn't he look sad? His tummy was bothering him, as he showed later by spitting up/having a small vomit all over the climbing equipment. I'm trying to figure out if it's the dairy or the chocolate in the cookies that irritating him (this happened a week ago as well). Wow, I hope it's neither! What a desolate diet, with no dairy or chocolate!
Jonah and Manny enjoy each other's company.

Manny attempted to get Jonah's afternoon cookie. As you can see, Jonah was having NONE of it. Not even on Manny's "birthday time", which is what Jonah went around calling it all day.

Jonah was nice enough, however, to share his apple with Baby. Again, unprompted; he's just that sweet.Unfortunately, I think Manny was holding a grudge about Jonah not sharing that cookie. He bit the hand that fed him! Jonah needs to be a little quicker on the withdrawal. (This photo is priceless. This is my best work, folks.) Not surprisingly, given my hectic schedule as of late, I didn't remember that I needed to wrap Manny's gifts until about 4:30 p.m. (One of the gifts was picked up at CVS last night -- is that lame?) However, Jonah was kind enough to "ease" my burden ("Helpful J" to the rescue!) and give me a hand. Here he's putting Manny's new pup -- a duplicate of one my mom gave him as a baby -- into the bag he picked out. This gift was definitely the hit of the later gift-opening party.

Manny with his haul of gifts. Not too bad for a boy whose family is far away! (And, yes, I know that I need new jeans, Dad.)

Manny was as excited about his birthday gifts as any one year-old I've ever seen; I was impressed. These are his stackable alphabet blocks. In the lower left, you can see Jonah completely absorbed in the books that Grandma Camille sent for Manny. The books were about Clifford the Big Red Dog and a train -- who can expect Jonah NOT to steal them away?

Fun with Dada. Manny loves his Dada. It's like watching a sweet, dutiful puppy follow his master around. Except that this puppy is a little pink pig.

This was supposed to be a picture of Manny being partied-out, but he managed to recover good enough spirits to stop crying and look at the camera. What a tough little buddy. We love you, Manny Moo!

Happy boy

Things have been a little Jonah-centric around here lately, haven't they? Here are a few for the Moo-lover in everyone.

(That strange noise causing Manny to giggle? Mama's hiccups.)

Mother-Boy.

Nature-Boy.

Baby J is growing up.

A few weeks ago, we forced Jonah into a "big boy bed." "Really?" you say. "You forced him into it?" Oh, yes, friends, we did. And by dirty trickery, no less. I'd been talking up a big boy bed for a few days (as a part of my very, very slowly unfolding plan to potty train him), but each time I brought it up, Jonah would say, "No. No big boy bed." All right. But then! Gangee and Pop-Pop came to visit for the weekend! On Saturday my dad and I took one of the sides off the crib, and I said to Dad, "Here, Dad, you're going to have to take the blame for this one." We brought Jonah into his room, talking about the great surprise that Pop-Pop had for him. "Look, Jonah, Pop-Pop gave you a big boy bed! Wow!" As much as Jonah loves Pop-Pop, he was initially apprehensive about the bed. Lucky for us, though, he was so exhausted that evening that he basically passed out in the bed, with no energy to protest, and he hasn't complained about it since. Victory! Now, of course, we're trying to figure out how to prevent Jonah from leaping out of bed at 6:30 a.m., running over to Manny's crib and screaming, "Hi, Baby!" in order to wake up his best pal. This scenario does not make for a happy Manny, though Jonah hardly seems to notice.


Animals on bed; animals off bed; and repeat (endlessly).

Baby coffee

Some people I used to baby-sit for bought their daughter "baby coffee" from Starbucks; it was just a small hot chocolate, if I remember correctly. I always thought that the term was cute, and I've now passed it on to my own child. While Jonah has been to Starbucks enough times by now that he recognizes the logo and will sometimes ask for Starbucks by name out of the blue, he has also consented to being served a baby coffee at home. When Mama makes it, it's just warmed, frothed milk; Dada adds Hershey's syrup. Either way, Jonah loves himself some baby coffee (sometimes with a cookie: here, a Goya Maria).

Season's over

Well, the Sox are out of the playoffs... but we have fond memories of our month-past trip to the park. We scored free tickets from the Kids Club packet (bet they don't have that at Wrigley), which the godparents had passed our way. Some new friends baby-sat Manny so that Gabe and I could take Jonah to the game on September 11. We saw only a few hits, stayed only thru the 7th inning, and the Sox ultimately lost the game, but we did enjoy some tasty ballpark food (steak pita!), saw an idiot from the crowd try to run across the field (he avoided a tazer-ing, but not a take-down), and had fun with Baby J at his second big league game.

Jonah couldn't always keep track of where, exactly, the game was being played. What do you expect from a 2 year-old?Jonah had fun trying to escape down the stairs. I think that this was his second-favorite activity...
...after eating tasty treats. Like this pretzel...
...or this ice cream, which, sadly, he was forced to share with both Mama and Dada. Oh, the injustice!
The awesome night was capped off by a Blue Line ride. It doesn't get any better than this.

Bird watching

Last night, Jonah sat down next to Gabriel on the loveseat, with his hands behind his head, just how his Dada was sitting. I pointed this out to Gabriel.

G: Oh, hi, parrot.

J: Hi, parrot.

G: Jonah, are you the parrot?

(slight pause)

J: Squawk!

Back to Alaska

Though I do think that most in the media hate her and accordingly want to tear her down, I'm starting to think along the lines of Kathleen Parker's column in National Review Online (click here) when it comes to Sarah Palin. What a mess.

Baby model

I hope that Jonah doesn't suffer extreme embarrassment in ten years when we trot out this series of pictures, which is sure to become known as "Jonah's first modeling portfolio." (Yes, I was asking him to model this jacket for me, but only to make sure that it fit.) Wouldn't you buy clothes that this baby was selling?


"You know it -- I'm beautiful."