My mom and John came to visit for the week. We went to the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village. We had a lot of fun here for the week. One thing mom always teaches me in her visits after I have kids (only two but still) is to not let having an infant keep me from getting out and doing things.

Jonas was afraid to ride on the animals of the merry-go-round. So we had to sit on the bench that was by the horses and he managed. He has many more fears this summer at the village compared to last summer. Probably the fear of heights has emerged from him falling off the chair when he was helping me to do dishes.

Carmen takes after her Aunt Olivia. She loves to sleep. I couldn't resist putting her in the little dolly wicker bed to show how tiny she is.

And this is her yawning...
After his Easter egg hunt in the backyard...
Todd took Jonas to the mall one morning to give me some sleep. When they came home Todd says, "Em I just couldn't resist". He had bought Jonas his first pair of shoes. Black converse - like father like son. Thirty dollars for a pair of shoes on my son that is not yet two. Jonas was just as excited as Todd because when Todd tried to get him dressed after he had his shoes on Jonas just couldn't sit still and ran all around the house in his new shoes. He thought he really looked funny with only a diaper and shoes. In fact, he thought he was hilarious.

I am starting to enter that phase in which it is hard to remember what life was really like before Carmen. I think that is a good sign of adjustment - or a sign of amnesia from so many sleepless nights. Nonetheless it is here. Jonas has been a little more difficult. I have used the crib for his time-out. I usually take out all the stuffed animals and blankets and put him in the crib - because it is the only contained space in our home. I have decided it isn't such a good idea. He is having way too much fun. When I went to get him out of bed for the day (earlier this week) he had thrown everything out of the crib and while jumping up and down in the crib says "Time out? Chimichanga?" I had put him in time-out nearly a month ago for throwing his chimichanga on the floor.

Carmen Olivia Cox

Carmen Olivia was born March 17, 2010 at 3:49 in the afternoon. She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. I FINALLY am posting some pictures. I will let the pictures do the talking...

We blessed her on April 11. This was after church in our backyard.

The hospital picture...
She is an absolute joy. I finally am experiencing a "normal" infant. When she cries, there is a reason, and I can do something about it! She is so sweet, patient, adorable. Jonas is a great big brother and other than the occasional smushing her as an expression of his adoration and love, he goes about his usual business with not a lot of notice that things are all that different...

Nesting is REAL!

Okay,

So I can't believe it, but the "nesting" phase of pregnancy that they talk about is real! I didn't get it with Jonas but with this baby - the phase won't pass! I love it though because I am getting a ton done. I am perfectly content to stay home - clean (deeply) and organize, reorganize, and organize again. I am getting very creative with my new uses of space too! I have got to make room for a baby in our little house AND maintain some room for Jonas to run wild and store his toys. I have just finished putting curtains up in our dining room and our guest room is finally put together in time for my mother-in-law to come and stay. Let's see what else can I do? Seriously, am I going crazy?! I am looking for stuff to clean!

The latest with Jonas:

He said AMEN so loud at church last sunday after the concluding speaker that the whole congregation heard and laughed.

He wants to watch Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day every morning - sometimes twice ... and I let him.

He loves to vacuum with his little vacuum when I vacuum

When I do the dishes he always shouts to ask me if he can "help!"

He still loves his Thomas train that his Aunt Olivia bought him in Arizona. He is also addicted to watching the train crashes on Youtube tht Olivia introduced him to - thanks Liv.

He pushes his baby doll in the pink stroller around the house and even put her down for a nap today in the cradle that is set up in his room for his sister to come.

I am trying to teach him how to answer certain questions. I say, Jonas how old are you or Jonas, what is your name? He usually answers "One" to both unless I coach him on the name. Then he will repeat and say Jonas! The other day I said Jonas what is your name? He said "One!"

No Jonas, what is your NAME?

"Two?" he asks.

After I sing him any song (choo choo song, nursery rhyme, whatever) he says in a really high voice, "yea!"

Well that is about it. Just wanted to write down what he is all about these days so that I can remember it!

There is no better place to be in January than in Arizona! We had a great time. Jonas did very well traveling both ways. And lucky me, I got my flight changed to a direct flight with no additional fees....thank you Detroit weather!! We arrived in sunshine and warmth. We spent just over two weeks seeing all our loved ones and going to the park when we could. Here are just a few pictures from our trip.

Some of my girlfriends threw me a little get together/baby shower. It was so fun to catch up but not long enough! Dale (the male in the picture - is my cousin standing behind his wife Raina - he can't miss a good time!)
Amber Brown's little baby Harrison is so cute. He reminds me of a little linebacker. He is six mo. younger than Jonas but had no problem pushing Jonas around in his little stroller toy! This is the only picture I got of him though! Dang.
Pappy and Jonas did a lot of hangin out...
We threw my cousin Vaughn a little birthday dinner. Happy 30th Vevo! We are about to eat his favorite - pazuki. Yum.
This is Jonas's closest cousin Jack, showing Jonas how much he has missed him!
All of us at Dave and Hilary's house for a last minute family Sunday dinner. So fun to see everyone.
My father-in-law recently moved just south of Tucson (from Ohio) and so he was able to come to Dave's house for dinner. This is Jonas with his two grandpas.
We went out to see Guy and Dana (Todd's brother and wife and kids). We miss them!
Jonas got into my purse and put lip gloss all over his mouth. This picture was taken the next day and I think after his third bath... I was really starting to get worried that my son would permanently look like Jack Nicholson as the Joker in Batman. Luckily, it finally came off. Funny thing is that he was doing all of this while we were eating at Somburros. People at other tables kept telling me, "your son is putting lipstick on his face". I would say, "Ya, when the dad's away the kid can play...no worries I'll just wipe it off when I get home". I was enjoying my dinner and company and thrilled that Jonas was entertaining himself. Then I got home and realized it wasn't coming off! Whew, eventually it did though.

Christmas Day....Jonas got a choo choo train...
But he was more interested in eating the ginger bread house...
We are pregnant! This is us at 31 weeks! We sure are excited.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and everything else I have missed blogging in 2009......

Jonas cries when Todd has to go to work. In fact, since Todd is usually going "bye-bye" when Todd comes home and tries to give him a hug, Jonas just waves and says "bye-bye". Da-da and bye-bye are synonymous for him. I had to take a picture to capture the fact that yes, Jonas does sometimes cry for his daddy...it is not ALWAYS for mom - thank heavens.

2010 New Years Resolution: To blog about 2009. That way, I can actually meet my goal. Thanksgiving and Christmas wizzed by and now Jonas and I are SO excited to be preparing for a visit in the land of mild and honey (at least in the winter time). That's right - we fly into Phoenix in two days and I am so ready to see the sun shining and maybe even wear some sandals!

But first, lemme meet my new years resolution so that some day when Jonas is old and he wants to see some sign of a mother who was somewhat adapted to "techy" life - I will show him a blog (which will be totally outdated by then). We spent Thanksgiving with one of Todd's classmates from Midwestern University who is doing his residency at the Henry Ford hospital. He and his family were a lot of fun and although I had never met them, it was no big deal. We had a great time visiting and eating delicious food!

Christmas came and went, just like it does every other year. This was our first Christmas alone with just our family and it was nice! Nice and quiet - but nonetheless wonderful to be together and celebrate the blessings in our life.

Todd teaching Jonas how to eat an orange...
We invited Todd's co-resident Yolanda over for Christmas Eve dinner. She was on call so in order to save some time and help her finish earlier (so we could all eat dinner) Todd went to down to the hospital and helped her round on the patients. Yea, they she got to our house and we all ate enchiladas and other "mexican" food and talked all night. It was a lot of fun!
Jonas turned 18mo. so he is finally in nursery! I had to take a picture of his first day.
We finally gave Jonas his first haircut. Literally in the bathtub. We got clumps of hair in our fingers and snipped. It was choppy and sloppy, but it did look a little better. Ah heck, just give it two weeks...

I will have to publish more

Addendum

You don't have to read this. I just wanted to add the words I forgot to put the other day that are a part of Jonas's extensive vocabulary.

Scriptures, pray, teddy, um, lights, bus, pretzel

Latest Happenings

Well, it is 27 degrees outside today. After reading my friend's blog (who lives in Alaska) and her comment about the warm spell they had last week of 19 degrees, I have a new appreciation for the Detroit winter. Last week, we were all sick and on Tamiflu (except for Jonas). Feeling much better now. I stayed home the whole week and now that I am better, and can go outside, I see that the weather dropped 15 degrees. Bye bye 40's hello 20's. Jonas is asserting more and more independence everyday and I am not quite sure how to handle it. He wants to do the dishes all the time (even when there are none to do), climb up on the coffee table and dining room tables, read "choo choo" book all day, and get into everything he knows he shouldn't. The latest struggle is getting him to sit in his high chair and eat rather than stand up and sit on the tray. We got our first Christmas tree (fake but nonetheless pre-lit and perfect) and decorated it last night. I feel pretty good about my yard sale ornaments that I got a few months ago, figuring we'd have a tree in our lifetime, eventually. And now that we actually live in a space big enough for a tree - wha-la! It is really cool! I took Jonas to Value World yesterday since we have NO toys for him. He got a play vaccuum, and seasame street train. I got a wreath for the door...all for a total of 5 dollars! Love thrift stores. Okay, enough bragging about my good deals. This was an entry to post whatever was on my mind (since I rarely know what to say on these blogs). If no one reads it...at least I will know what was on my mind on December 8, 2009!

Oh, and I want to list all the words I can think of in Jonas's vocabulary:

1.Mama

2.Dada

3.Andrew

4.Olivia

5.Nana

6.apple

7.Paci (pacifier)

8. teddy

9.bye

10.hi

11.book

12.choo -choo

13.home

14.out

15.up

16.down

17.no

18.yes

20.thank you

21.please

22.puppy

21.shh

24.ball

25.egg

26.cracker

27. cookie

28.juice

29.milk

30.water

31.more

32.eat

33.store

34.wow!

35. okay

36. poo

37. cold

38. hot

39. night

40. sun

41. moon

42. moo

43. meow

44. cat

45. doggie

46. row-row

47. quack

48. duck

49. cow

50. moo

51. car

52. horse

53. sheep

54. boo

55. walk

56. bath

57. shower

58. help

59. dishes

60. Todd

61. Emily

62. fork

63. spoon

64. cup

65. airplane

66. two

67. three

68. one

69. cheese

70. yogurt

71. ouwee

72. hair

73. eyes

74. elbow

75. knee

76. nose

77. cheek

78. ear

79. hand

80. thumb

81. teeth

82. mouth

83. toothbrush

84. shoe

85. sock

86. coat

87. shirt

88. glasses

89. wash

90. truck

91. baby

92. toes

93. hat

94. soft

95. pee 

That's all that I can think of for now....darn, I wanted to make it to 100 - ah well.