busy, busy, busy

We have been busy, busy, busy packing up and getting all ready to move to our new city. Elijah has been a big help with packing -- so HE thinks -- and loves to be involved with "packing for our NEUUW house." I don't know if it's the Texas blood in him or just that he likes to think things through clearly before he speaks but Elijah says his words really slowly when he speaks -- hence the drawn out NEUUW for 'new house'. If he sees that I'm trying to pack something, he runs and grabs one of his favorite toys or animals and says "mommy, should we pack my puzzle pieces too?" and insists that we will forget to bring said toy to the new house if we don't pack it up right now.

Elijah is so funny. He will follow one of us around the house calling out a play-by-play of what's going on in that moment. Today it was: "daddy, are you eating your brehfest?" "daddy, are you having milk wif your cereal?" "daddy, did you put dat milk in the fridgedator?" "daddy, are you getting dressed now?" "daddy, should you put on your shirt?" "did you hear dat? is dat mommy? mommy's taking her shower." then if you don't respond it's "daddy, is dat mommy taking her shower?" "ooh daddy, what's that noise? dat a drill outside. should we go see dat drill?" and on and on and on and on and on......

He's also very very particular about the way things are done. And lets you know if it's not done the right way (i.e. his way). Some days we have meltdowns because we gave him the wrong spoon with his yogurt (although it's never consistent because there's never only one spoon that's right), or you peeled his banana when he wanted to do it, or he wants music on but only wants "different music" than what's playing. But we are nipping this little issue before it gets too too out of hand and have a no whining, no throwing fits policy.

But just how cheek-squeezin', dimple lovin' CUUTE is this boy? My heart melts.

A new favorite toy that just came out of rotation (we are rotating toys so that there's always something 'new' -- er, just forgotten about that seems new in a 2-year old's mind) is the alphabet train puzzle. He can do A to around L by himself and then after that he tries to put "P for panda bear" after "M for monkey" or something. I blame the ABC song where it speeds up at L.M.N.O.P. But it's really helping him learn his letter - although sometimes it's: "mommy, where is A is for carrots" or "help me find D is for frog". Oh well, he'll get there eventually.

In Bonus news (*we often call him Jonas the Bonus -- and we even overheard Elijah calling him Bonus today :) He just turned 3 months and is cute as cute. He's eating like a champ and sleeping pretty well. He's taking about two 2-hour (sometimes 2.5 or close to 3!) hour naps plus a little cat nap during the day and waking up every 4 or 5 hours overnight to eat, but literally eats and goes back to sleep right away. Although last night he did a 7-hour stretch..maybe we're onto something new here! He's finally picking up his head during tummy time and even enjoys it for about 5 minutes. So far he's a bit slower in the developmental milestones than Elijah was, but what can we expect with a rough start to life and spending 9 days in the NICU not able to move?! Right now he has his first cold and looks so sad and pathetic with a runny nose and cough. I've been having to do extra loads of laundry because a couple of times after or while he's nursed he's gotten a coughing attack and coughed so much that he's gagged himself and spit up allllllll over us and anything within a foot of us.

I don't have too many new pictures of Jonas...I've been slacking. Sorry moms.

I will try to get a good one of him enjoying his tummy time soon. Until next time...