Jones is 22 Months Old, or, What's Going on With Jones in February!

Jones is 22 months old!

Who, me?

At 22 months, Jones:

• Weighs around 30 pounds, wears a size 5 diaper, size 18-24 months and 24 months clothes, and some 2T, size 5 and size 6 shoes (depends on the shoe), and I have no idea how tall he is.  People comment that he's a tall baby, but I don't know ... he comes up to near the top of my thigh.

• Went through a growth spurt at the beginning of the month, I think, because for awhile he was all about cleaning his plate at mealtimes and then requesting, "More!", or needing a snack before dinner.  One night he ate his entire dinner of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and spinach, and then turned around and ate two yogurts and half a cup of milk before bed.  This little interlude didn't last long (lending credence to my theory that it was a growth spurt), and we're back to not caring anything about food at all.  He scarfs down his breakfast in the morning, and it's still his favorite meal of the day. The other night we had breakfast for dinner and he thought that was about the coolest thing ever.  Favorite foods:  spinach (we're off of broccoli, back to spinach), salmon (he eats an entire single serving package of salmon on his own), mashed potatoes, roast chicken, carrots (if I make him the carrot/pea/corn/green bean mixture (and by "make" I mean, "microwave the Steamfresh bag"), he'll pick out all of the carrots and eat them first), oatmeal ("Oats!"), pancakes, yogurt, Nutrigrain bars (always - "Bar! Bar!"), and marshmallows ("Marshy!").

Chowing down on some PB & J

You know how they say that some folks like peanut butter and some like the jelly?  Jones is a jelly man.

• Loves his tricycle ("My bike!  Bike, bike bike!") but still doesn't pedal it.  He just skims his feet on the floor and zooms all over the house.  Loves his Cozy Coupe ("Car!") and attempts to get in it anytime we head out to the garage (which is where it is staying 'til warm weather arrives).  Loves books, and wants to read with you - his four favorites right now are one entitled Colors that folds out and has (obviously) lots of different things in different colors.  Apparently, his favorite color is orange; the second favorite is a book called Shapes, and I have to say he's pretty good with identifying the basic shapes - circle, square, triangle (which, hilariously, he often calls pizza because that's the picture that goes with triangle in the book), heart, and star.  The third favorite is entitled Moo, Baa, La La La, and is pretty cute - it's all about animal noises.  He loves for Alan to read it to him because Alan really gets into making the noises realistic and Jones just grins and giggles and imitates the animals right along with him - it's super cute.  The fourth favorite, maybe the most favorite, is his bedtime book, Goodnight Baby, which has farm animals and all of their babies, and you put the baby animals in their beds.  We have to read this two or three times at bedtime, and I think Alan and I have just about got it memorized at this point.  Side story:  when I was little, my mom would read to me and would, occasionally, attempt to skip pages in order to hurry bedtime along.  Much to her chagrin, I had memorized almost all of the books, so when she would try this covert action, I would always grab her hand and make her turn it back to the page she was trying to skip and read it.  If our experience with Goodnight Baby is any indication, I think we can look forward to Jones also memorizing his favorites and accepting no substitutions.

• Talks more and more every day.  It's still hard to understand some of it, but a lot of it is clear.  He asks for hugs (so sweet, but beware:  the other day, he crawled up in my lap and was snuggling me, arms around my neck, just really giving me some good lovin' and then, all of a sudden, the little toot hauled off and bit me on the shoulder.  Bit me hard, too - it left a bruise.  I yelled out of a combination of shock and pain, and that scared him (and Alan), so maybe he won't do it again (he also got a talking-to about how we don't bite people)).  He can count to five, and he loves to identify animals and tell you what sound they make - horses, cows, and lions are are favorite animals to imitate ("What does the lion say?"  "Rrrroooaaarrrr!"  Too cute!), and he can also do chicken, rooster, sheep, dog, cat (he calls the cat a "meow-meow"), snake, zebra (although we don't really have a sound for the zebra, but he can identify one), monkey, duck, and pig.  He's also a big fan of trucks, cars, trains, and planes, and loves to roll them all around the floor and on any surface that can handle wheels.  He also loves to draw and color, and his favorite writing implement is a pen (he takes them illicitly from the desk while no one is looking), which we take away as soon as we see he has one, and give him crayons.  He likes the crayons okay, but he feels they are inferior to the power of the ink pen.

• Loves Mickey Mouse, and can identify all of the main characters in the Clubhouse.  It's the only show that he actually sits down and watches.  He also loves the Little Einsteins, I think primarily because of their catchy theme song.  Still a big fan of PBS, especially Curious George, The Cat in the Hat, Dinosaur Train, and Sesame Street.  He likes to ride his tricycle around the room and watch cartoons - multi-tasking, toddler-style - with all of these shows except for Mickey Mouse.  Mickey Mouse requires all of his attention.

He's annoyed with me taking his picture while he tries to watch Mouse.

Entranced by the antics of Mouse and the Clubhouse

• Wants to do a lot of things on his own:  brush his hair, brush his teeth, put on his socks and shoes ... he doesn't really like to hold my hand and walk, he wants to walk by himself or be carried (one extreme or the other), but we're working on that - he's really too much for me to carry if I have anything else in my hands!
• Shoes are still our favorite item of clothing.  On the weekends, he wakes up and has to put on his shoes with his pajamas.  It makes him so happy :o).

I had to add these pics of Jones and Alan, because they look so cute, and their outfits are coordinated :o)

• Is precious, in every way.

A Day in the Country, or, the Wards Get Some Fresh Air

On Sunday we went up to Grammy and Papa's - our favorite place to be!  Fresh air, wide open spaces, and, of course (and most importantly), horses!

I think this is a cute picture - my two guys, in their matching Carhartt bibs;
Alan was walking, and Jones strolled along behind him.

Jones is waiting for the horses to come to the fence!

 

Papa and Jones, and Alan, watch BoJangles walk to meet us.

 

BoJangles is checking everyone out - we brought carrots and apples to sweeten the deal!

 

"Horse!  Horse!  Horse!"

 

BoJangles was super-interested in Jones; he kept dipping his head through

the lowest part of the fence to try and check him out.

He loves the carrots! 

Don't you love the hat?  It's Alan's Indiana Jones hat - it was keeping the wind off of my ears. 
Jones refused to wear a hat and, in fact, threw a huge fit about it, so he is bare-headed.

 We always have the best time at Grammy and Papa's!

Let Me Help You With That, or, a Spoiled Labrador Cleans Up

I think Jones must be going through a growth spurt, because as of late, he has had no trouble cleaning his plate at dinnertime.  We've also kind of started letting him just sit in the chair like a big boy, no high chair.  I'm still not putting the high-chair away, though.  It's good for when we eat at the dining room table, and it's good for when we have guests over, and it really is good for getting him to focus on actually eating dinner.  When he's just loose, sitting in an unrestrainable seat, he has a tendency not to focus, to get down and then want back in the chair, to run around, etc.  But, lately, since he actually wants to eat, he's been doing really well with not being in the high chair, so we're seeing how it goes.

Needless to say, Augie loves that Jones is on his level when he eats.  This results in endless opportunities to clean food from the floor, off of the table, and off of Jones.  Jones will tolerate this to a certain extent, but he does occasionally get put out with Augie for sticking his nose in where Jones doesn't think it belongs (Augie is all about trying to snatch a Nutrigrain bar out of Jones' hand; since Jones regards a Nutrigrain bar as the greatest treasure of mankind, this is not cool with him).  Most of the time, though (when Nutrigrain bars aren't involved), he just giggles and lets Augie go on about his business; he will even feed him sometimes, which really makes Augie's day.  Layla is our sweet little lady, and she doesn't bother Jones.  She sits off to the side and she only goes after the bites that fall on the floor, or only comes over if you specifically call her to give her a bite.  Not Augie though.  Augie is shameless in his begging.

The following is a pictorial of what dinnertime is like at the Ward household ...

Don't you just love the desperation on Augie's face in this pic?  And, just so you know, Jones is having salmon, mixed vegetables, and mashed potatoes for dinner.  Does that sound like anything a normal dog would be interested in eating?  Augie is no normal dog - he's a Spoiled Labrador!

Augie switches sides to get a better vantage point:

Can you tell that he's moving incrementally closer?



Augie makes his move:



"Mom!  He's doing it again!"

Being a Spoiled Labrador means taking candy ... well, taking any food of any kind, from babies.  And having no shame.

Happy Valentine's Day, or, the Wards Get Crafty

Jones is always coming home with cute artwork from school that involves his hand prints or footprints.  I keep all of them, and even now at this early stage of his life, when I look back at stuff that was done this summer, I find it hard to believe that his hands were that small.  Imagine how I'll feel when he's an adult!  I love these little creations, so I thought I'd give it a try at home and we'd make some homemade valentines for some special people.

We set up shop in the garage.  Jones knew just what to do!  He sat down and held his foot out and grinned when I started painting it red.

 

 

This was the hardest part, getting him to put his foot down neatly and then lifting it up.  In the future, I think I will tape down the paper, because it caused problems when it came up with his foot, and there was a lot of wiggling going on, and we would move the paper on accident, etc.  I would put his foot on the paper and say, "One ..." and then Jones would say, "Two, three" and lift his foot up.  

I'll just say I don't know how they get all of that artwork at school to look so neat!  It took all Alan and I had to get the footprints that we did, and there was only one or two that were really okay, the rest all had issues.  I mean, I still used them, and they are fine and cute and all of that, but I really do want to know how they manage this at school with multiple wiggly toddlers?!

 

Loved us some finger painting!  Luckily, it's washable and non-toxic, since it got all over us and the garage, and some of it even got tasted.

 



 The finished product, hanging proudly on our fridge!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to the World, Eliza Ann Glass, or, Glass Family: Party of Three!

Last week was the due date for BA and Stephanie's baby, Eliza Ann.  At her appointment on Thursday (the actual due date), Stephanie hadn't progressed, so they scheduled her to be induced on Monday morning.  Steph joked that Eliza had gotten an eviction notice, and we made the comments in passing that you never know, maybe she'll show up this weekend.  This was on Thursday, mind you.  Well, on Saturday night, BA texted Alan and told him that he and Steph were at the hospital; she had been having contractions on and off all day, and she thought her water had broken.  They got sent home then, but at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, they were officially admitted to the hospital to have Baby Eliza. 

Alan, Jones, and I headed up to NWA after church.  BA and Steph came the next day after Jones was born, and were the first of our friends to come see us (and him), so we wanted to do the same for them, plus, BA and Steph are like family, so it was really like we were going to see a new niece :o).  It was a beautiful day to have a baby, and a beautiful day for a drive up to NWA. 

We arrived at the hospital around 3:00; Steph was already at 10, but Eliza hadn't dropped yet, so they had given her some medicine to get her head down, and were waiting for that to work.  We got to hang out in the waiting room with both sets of prospective grandparents.  Jones, needless to say, provided entertainment for all of us while we waited.

Luckily, the hospital was pretty much deserted since it was Sunday.  I mean, seriously, there was no one there but us, which was nice since Jones ran up and down every hall in the place, giggling like crazy, and we played cars on the floor, and we toilet-papered the waiting room, and left a trail of marshmallows, Oreos, and goldfish for everyone to see.  The nurses didn't seem to mind, they told me he was cute and I think they got a kick out of all of his shenanigans.

Horsing Around!

At around 5:00, Eliza Ann made her debut!  6 pounds, 15 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long, and a full head of dark hair!  So precious!  The nurse came out to tell us she was officially here, and she said to Jones, "Hey cutie, your girlfriend's here and she's gorgeous!"  We gave BA and Steph some time to be alone together with their new daughter, and then we snuck in to see her and give congrats in person.

Beautiful New Family!

 



The Wards and the Newest Glass:

 



"It's a Girl!" Cigars:

Jones said, "Baby!" multiple times when we introduced him to Eliza, but he seemed sort of confused and and I think he was worried about Aunt Steph and wondering why she didn't get up and love on him like she always does.  We didn't stay long, because it had been a long day for BA and Steph, and a long day for Jones, so we got our lovin' in and headed back down the road.

Congratulations BA and Stephanie!  Eliza Ann is perfect and beautiful!

A Photo Shoot, or, The Ward Family Cleans Up Nicely!

So, a year ago (that's right, it's been a whole year), we loaded up the fam and went and had professional pictures taken.  It was actually a lot of fun, and we enjoyed the photographers' constant comments about what a good, easy baby Jones was to photograph - he smiled nonstop and posed, and was generally his usual happy self.  Naturally, it took, literally, like 6 months for us to make the appointment to pick out and actually purchase photographs from this shoot, but we did that this summer.  And now, one year later, I'm sharing some of the best photos from the shoot on this blog.  I figure, better late than never, right?  So, here you go:  The Ward Family!

The Cutest Razorback Fan You'll Ever See:

 

Our Little Family:

 

I llllloooovvvveeee this picture, for reasons I can't really articulate, but I really think it's because I feel like it captures joy in so many ways ... it's just a joyful picture.

 

Our Lil' Cowboy:

 

Cuteness:

 

Cuteness Overload:

Shout out to Strain Photography in Conway for the awesome pictures and all-around awesome experience.  And you're welcome for all of the cuteness you just got to experience ;o).