the forgotten third child

(photos to accompany this post soon!)

It's sad, but you all know it's true- milestones and other cute developmental things for the poor third child frequently go unnoticed until they all start happening at once. Case in point- my sweet little Jonas. He has really had a language explosion in conjunction with a major growth spurt over the last few weeks since we've been home. It's taken me this long to actually put all of the pieces together and notice. This really makes it sound like he just gets ignored around here, but that truly isn't the case. He's just such an easy-going kid, doesn't make a fuss about anything that I'm not constantly worrying about him.

First- the growth spurt. He's been wearing size 12-18 month pants and pajamas this whole winter season so far. They are all of the sudden hilariously short now and probably way tight in the waist too. For the most part (except for this current winter season), I've been really lucky- in that I've been able to use Seth's old clothes for Jonas. The two problems are- 1. Jonas is way skinnier than Seth ever was, 2. We lived in AZ, so pretty much the only clothes I have for him are summer-wear.

Second- the language explosion. Keep in mind, all of these examples have been so sudden over the last few weeks. I'll do this section in bullet points to make for easier reading.

• he can identify 3 colors: "wed", "boo", "geen"
  


• he can identify all the little einsteins: "annie" (which is also conveniently his cousin's name) "doon", "we-o", "de-de" (Qunicy), and "wocket"
  


• he can identify most of the princesses: "Beow" (Belle), "Reh-rah" (Cinderella), "White" (Snow White), "A-e-o" (Ariel). We have 4 princess dresses in our house and whenever Maryn puts one on, Jonas has to have one on too- complete with shoes. Jon was mortified when he saw this for himself and insisted I find Jonas some sort of alternative- a prince costume or something. I looked around for a while and finally bought a Captain Hook costume from the Disney store online. We hope it does the trick. (I chose that one over the Captain Jack Sparrow costume because the Hook costume had sparkly brocade on it- hopefully Jonas thinks it's similar enough to a princess dress!)


• When we were walking through Target the other day, Jonas started yelling "paw-bwo"! At first I couldn't figure out what he was saying, then I realized he meant "Pablo" from Backyardigans. He had a seen a really cute little stuffed animal Pablo, so of course we had to get it for him.


• He's been able to hum and/or grunt the tune of 'Twinkle Star" for a while now, but recently, he's added in the word "star" and its rhyming words in all the right places. He's actually really good at singing (humming, grunting) along to all songs. Maybe he'll have an awesome ear for music like Seth.


• other new words: R-2 (R2D2) & "Pee-o" (C3PO), "Day-too" (thank you), "ulk" (milk), "nack" (snack), "Ni-neen" (Lightening McQueen), "icky" (Mickey Mouse), "Wah-ee" (Wall-E)

Jonas is so sweet. He is so friendly and will pretty much give anyone a hug if asked. Love him, love him.

p.s.- I am feeling much better, thank you. I was totally blessed this time around with very mild symptoms. I'm so ready to get back into a normal routine!