a boy of few words

The following are two short clips of Jonas talking. As you can see, his vocabulary is quite small and consists of about 5 words: Mom, Dad, ball, hi and eat.

what we've been up to

We are enjoying our beautiful summer here in the midwest. Humid- yes, but not too bad...yet. Because the sun doesn't go down until 8:30 pm, we have been spending many evenings after dinner at the pool or the park.

For the grandparents- more pics of our 4th of July fun and other July adventures here.

Jonas doesn't realize that he will have to endure many years of teasing later on for this picture (eh, Scotty? I think I feel a song coming on). But I'm simply trying to document his life. Because of the closeness in age (I think) Jonas loves to play with or do whatever Maryn is doing. This includes donning princess shoes. (The only reason Maryn allows this is because a little plastic heart broke off of one of the shoes and now she won't wear them.)

In other news, we got one of these. Still not sure how I feel about it. Sure it's fun, but is it really worth it?

Happy Summer!

Happy 4th!

true love's kiss

Maryn has really entered the "princess" universe.  I'm not really sure how it started--several months ago, I think she got a gift from someone that had the Disney Princesses on it--and since then she's been hooked.  (I'm pretty sure a vast majority of little girls like her are really into it to judging by the sheer amount of Princess paraphernalia available.)  Her princess birthday party was a big hit, some of the moms I have talked to since say their little girls are still talking about how fun the party was.  (Surprising since it was only 90 minutes.)

She is constantly singing.  She picks up on songs we listen to in the car and then sings them to herself while she's playing, sitting on the potty, laying in bed at night, etc.  Some are Primary songs that I know she didn't learn in Nursery (because I'm in there with her) so she must have learned from the church CDs we listen to in the car.  But she also sings snippets from other CDs we listen to (like Coldplay--Seth's afore mentioned favorite) and most recently--James Morrison's "You Give Me Something".  But her current favorite songs are from Disney's Enchanted movie.  The video clip above is Maryn singing along to "True Love's Kiss", which actually sounds more like "Twoo Wub's Kiss".

Maryn is also still really into Care Bears and has collected quite a few (like, 15) as gifts from her two Grandmas.  She still wants to sleep with them all in her bed, but after we passed the dozen mark--there was more Care Bear than Maryn in her bed.  So now she gets to pick three each night to put in bed with her.

Maryn also loves puzzles and is really very good at them.  We have several boxes of 25 piece ones as well as some large floor puzzles with 50 or so pieces that she can do unassisted.  

Another great thing about Maryn is that I think she is growing out of her milk allergy.  I have been starting to let her eat small amounts of cheese and ice cream and she seems to be doing fine, with no noticeable GI problems.

(A side note, has there ever been a 3-year-old that, when asked how old they are, responds by saying something other than "free"?  That "th" sound is so hard for kids this age to make, I'd like to meet a 3-year-old who can do it.)

 

Maryn has a bit of a Jekyll/Hyde streak.  One minute she's a sweet girl--giving "true love's kiss" and hugs, and the next she's screaming, throwing a huge tantrum, and hitting Jonas.  (We're working a lot on this hitting problem, luckily Jonas is a resilient little boy.)  She is so cute though, so we enjoy all the happy moments. 

It's nice to have a little princess around.

when I grow up

Seth has been constantly talking about what he might want to be when he grows up. His growing mind is so moldable- I love it! After seeing Indiana Jones, he talked for weeks about wanting to be an archeologist- asking tons of questions about the job that I couldn't answer.

Then, a few weeks ago we were at an outdoor community event/concert, listening to a local rock band. They were actually pretty entertaining and we would have stayed longer if not for all the smokers (I miss you Arizona and your Clean Air Act). Seth said "I've decided that instead of being an archeologist, I want to be a singer in a band." You and your forefathers before you, Seth.

This morning on the way to the pool, we were listening to Coldplay's (Seth's current favorite band) "Talk". He asked if you could really climb a ladder up to the sun. I explained to him that the sun was a big ball of fire and you would get burned up, so then he asked if you could climb a ladder to the moon. I told him that the only people who get to go to the moon are astronauts. So he decided that that's what he wanted to be when he grew up- an astronaut.

Walking back to the car after swimming, Seth said "Mom, I don't want to be any of those other things when I grow up- archeologist, singer, astronaut- I want to be a lifeguard." In regards to this most recent aspiration, I'm not sure what he's more interested in- saving lives or getting to tell all the other little kids what to do.

Because this is my little girl's third birthday, I guess I should have written something about her....