Andrew the emotional bunny

this is a little stop motion video i put together. it was andrew's idea. i think the best part about the whole thing was scrolling through the pictures on the camera and watching everyone fall of the floor laughing as they watched it over my shoulder. it's most likely one of those "you had to be there" moments, but oh my gosh was it funny! i need to do this more often!

Monkey on my back: a social experiment

At first I just thought this was going to be a video of some funny monkey hijinx with my kid, but after watching the video again I realized there was a deeper meaning hidden under the surface.

Sometimes life puts a "monkey on our back". At first it doesn't really bother us too much. It's kinda funny. We think it will fall off on its own. When we finally start to try to get rid of it ourselves, it's just no use. We can't reach it and all of our flailing about just wears us out.

If we would just stop and ask for help, someone from the outside with a better view of what's going on would probably be able to help us if we just let them.

Or maybe it's just a video about a crazy kid with a stuffed animal in his hood. You make the call...

It's Signing Time with Jonah and Momma!

After lots of research and recommendations from other parents, Dave and I decided to teach Jonah sign language. They say it helps kids communicate before they can talk, which reduces their frustration level "virtually eliminating the terrible two's". So we figured it was worth a shot.

Not only is it helping Jonah communicate with us already (he did his first sign at about 10 months), but it's also a lot of fun seeing him learn all these new tricks! Now that he's getting the hang of it, it seems like he's picking up a new word almost every day. You can tell it's really starting to sink in that different motions actually mean something. And as his fine motor skills improve he's able to do even more signs.

By the recommendation of my good friend from our mom's group we got these DVD's called "Signing Time". They're great! The host is this really cute mom named Rachel. And her daughter Leah and Leah's cousin Alex help show the signs. Now as soon as we start singing the theme song, "It's signing time with Alex and Leah" Jonah gets a huge grin on his face, looks toward the TV and starts bouncing. It's way cute!

We usually watch one DVD a day. For the first week or so Jonah just watched and smiled and bounced when they'd play a song and I would try to help him make the signs. Then I was totally surprised when a week or so after we got the videos he started making the sign for ball along with the video all on his own. What a proud mom moment that was!

Now he knows everyone's favorite - more! Make your two hands look like duck beaks and make them kiss in front of you. That's more. This one has to be the easiest to teach because there's such an immediate reward... food! Jonah hasn't quite mastered putting all of his fingers together. It's more of a clapping motion, but it's at least closer than just smacking his tray like he used to do.

He picked up the sign for milk pretty quickly too. Picture the motion of squeezing an utter milking a cow. I think that one wasn't too hard since he knew how to wave. It's just like waving but with your hand turned sideways. Since he hasn't picked up the sign for drink or cup we just let him use the sign for milk for any drink, whether it's a bottle or a cup with water or juice. Handy!

Another helpful sign has been All Done. We have him shake his hands in the air. It's already helped a lot. Instead of getting frustrated and trying to hit the spoon out of our hand or turning his head and whining he can just make this sign. We usually have to ask him if he's all done and remind him how to do it, but if he is done he does it right away.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a sign, but he's very good at "so big". And today he picked up "Sleep". He was acting a little cranky and I asked him if he wanted to take a nap and I made the sign for sleep (you move your open hand down over the front of your face and then close your fingers under your chin). He started moving his hand down over his face. I'm not sure if he knew exactly what I meant, that I was going to take him up and put him in his bed, but he mimicked me like a little monkey and acted so proud.

He thinks the sign for bird is very hilarious. You make a bird beak in front of your mouth with your forefinger and thumb and make it chirp. Actually he thinks a lot of signs are funny. Tonight before his bath we were singing and signing in the bathroom mirror. One of the songs from the videos is called "proud to be me" I think. The lyrics are "I'm a boy, I'm a boy, I'm proud to be me, yeah!" and the same thing for a girl. And you sign boy or girl along with it. I was standing in front of the mirror and I had Jonah sitting on my hip. I'd point to his tummy and then do the sign for boy on his forehead (it's like you're grabbing the brim of a hat) while singing the song and bouncing side to side. He was laughing and screaming with glee. I live for these moments!

Here's a video of Jonah watching the opening theme song of "Signing Time". You can just see it in his face how much he loves it. He cracks me up!

"Are you seeing this, momma!?"

Jonah's cousin Kylee - Future Super Star!

You are my sunshine!


Twinkle twinkle baby!


Aunt Molly being silly with Jonah & Kylee

Jonah in May - a month in review

Since I didn't really post anything in May I thought I'd do a quick "month in review" to get us all caught up.

Here's Jonah eating his mirror...



Here's Jonah and mommy at Emily's 7th birthday party...



Recipe for hours of fun: one bink, one baby food container lid and one Dada!



Here's a couple pictures from Mother's Day... Jonah & Kylee with Grandma and me with my Jonah boy...





It was hot out so we let Jonah roll around in his diaper all day, but sometimes it's a droolfest with him, so we put a bib on him. I think he looks like a baby chip n dale dancer with the bib and no shirt... he's as sexy as babies get! And look at that crazy monkey action!







In case you missed the video, Jonah loves to swing!





I just love this picture of curious George... oops, I mean curious Jonah...



My tough guys...



Havin' fun and makin' a mess!



Jonah can stand while holding onto stuff!



Another Jonah first this month... on May 25th Jonah finally ate finger foods and didn't spit them out! Here's a video from a month ago on April 24th, the first time we tried to give him finger food...



Jonah also took his 1st plane ride on May 30th to Austin, TX to visit Dave's family. Here we are at O'Hare airport getting ready to board.



And here's the other things Jonah was doing in May that I don't have pictures or video of:

* He can roll around and scoot backwards
* He loves strings, chords & straps of any kind
* He loves bath time and kicks his feet to splash
* He tries to eat basically anything he can get ahold of
* He can make a clicking noise with his tongue
* He says "mama" and "dada" although we're not sure if he means them as actual words or if he's just babbling

Click here to see Jonah's May photo album.

Pure hilarity... if you're not too picky about your comedy

As Jonah sits innocently in his high chair chewing on his baby food container lid two mischievous froggies converse.



This was not planned... as if you couldn't tell.

Babbling baby boy

A month and a half! My how the time flies! Well, we're back! And here's the latest Jonah video. I'll get some more up soon from the time we've missed. What a slacker mommy I am!

Here's Jonah talking/babbling and doing my favorite new thing... he waves at his mouth as he's talking... well it's hard to explain. You'll just have to watch it.

Daddy pushing Jonah on the swing

We went for a family walk while the weather was still nice one evening last week. We stopped at our neighborhood park so daddy could experience first hand Jonah's excitement and love of swinging on the swings...








Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/littlelisa1212.

Comments:

I got an email from my cousin Liz. I just wanted to share her son William's reaction to the videos...

"That is a really, really cute video. That’s the best part of babies, their unbridled enthusiasm!!

"William watched the movies with me and said “Again! Again!” then, “Baby! Again!” He was quite entranced. He even grabbed the mouse so he could click to start the movie over. I had to drag him away from the computer!"

Swinging at Wheeler Park

Jonah boy and I went Wheeler Park on Monday afternoon with our friends Rachael, Jaycob & Zack. It was one of my first days off work and the weather was beautiful. So we started with a walk around the park and then when the Noes got there Jonah tried out the swing. I'm pretty sure he loved it! Check this out...



The rest of the pictures are here.

Step & Play Saturday Fun!

Here's a video of Jonah in his Step & Play Piano. He loves movin' those cute little feet, so he has tons of fun kicking and entertaining anyone who will listen!



And here are some pictures of Jonah from today...

Play time with Daddy & Winnie the Pooh

Here's Jonah playing and laughing with Daddy...



And now Winnie the Pooh joins in the fun!

5 Month Update & Little Kicker Videos

Jonah is such a fun little boy! He's a little over 5 months old now. He can roll over front to back. He's working on back to front and can get half way there, but you've got to give him pretty good incentive since he really doesn't like being on his belly.

He's also getting better at sitting up. He still needs to be surrounded by pillows or have a quick catcher available as he tends to tip over pretty easily, but I think he'll be sitting up all by himself in no time.

We also think he might be getting teeth soon. He puts everything he can get his hands on in his mouth, especially his hands, which usually have a pretty good layer of drool on them... so don't shake hands with him unless you're prepared to be slimed!

Here are a few videos of Jonah boy from the past couple days...

In this one Jonah is missing something. Can you spot what it is?



And this is why we call him "Kicker"...

3 Easy Steps to Rolling Over

Here Jonah demonstrates how to roll over in three easy & exciting steps...

Jonah's 1st Cereal

Jonah's blog entry:

Hi! I'm going to be 5 months old on Wednesday. Mommy & Daddy gave me my first taste of rice cereal today and BOY did I LOVE it!!! Why haven't I had this stuff sooner?! I even got to sit in my highchair like a big boy. I tried my best to help mommy get the spoon in my mouth and I especially loved eating the cereal right off my hands. Here I am after I got all cleaned up... boy, that was some good stuff!


Here's a video of me getting my first taste of cereal...



Other future Hackbarth home videos will be posted here.