Notes from August and September

The most noticeable development of the last few months has been in Jonah's language. He continues to add on words, but he is also adding parts of speech practically every day. In July, Jonah started using "not" and "didn't."
- When we caught him standing innocently by the toilet: "Jonah no flush pah-pie (potty)."
- When he is done: "Jonah not want carrot."
By August, he was using "can't." This makes for some funny, defiant, almost-two-year-old statements. As well as some cute ones:
- After his timeout for hitting Isaac: "Now can play in tent!"
- Coming back outside: "Now can pick more currants." (They love to eat the currants off our bushes. All the kids do, while most adults find them too tart...)
- At the playground, after waiting to go down the slide: "Now can have it turn!"

AUG 4
Jonah tattled for the first time. Twice that day he ran into the room where I was and said: "I-dack tell go away!" Isaac told him to go away. Ahhhh...here we go.

AUG 12
I asked who wants pizza.
Isaac: "I do!"
Jonah: "Ever-boby want pee-pul!" (Everybody wants pizza!)

AUG 24
Lulu came over to play with Isaac today. She lives across the street with her two sisters, in a house with considerably more pink and frills than ours. When she showed us her pink nails and started talking about looking pretty, this was Isaac's response to his friend: "I have a dress that I wear for work." All the while, he was shaking his head side to side the way he does. "It looks really pretty."
Do we tell him...do we just let him figure things out, hopefully very gently...? I think Lulu knows the difference already. But she was kind enough to just change the subject.

AUG 31
Now Jonah has also continued giving himself commands, apparently the way we must do:
- "Jonah, don't throw rice cake!"
- Walking down our front steps past the garden: "Watch out that bee, DO-NAH."
- At the children's play creek at the Botanic Gardens: "Watch out that wa-wa-fall (waterfall), DO-NAH."

SEPT 2
Snuggling in bed with Isaac, his bare skinny back and shoulders so wiry-strong and so vulnerable against me. Before leaving, I told him I loved him and would always take care of him.
Isaac: "I'll take care of you too. I won't let anyone hurt you. If they try to hurt you, I'll hurt them." And he would attack them, he said.

SEPT 3
Jonah now says "might be..." all the time. When he hears the key in the lock: "Might be Dada!" When he hears feet charging down the hall: "Might be I-dack!" Or today's conversation -
Jonah: There Jonah tie-tow (Jonah's Tiger)! Might be...Idack...Tie-tow (Isaac's Tiger)...toooo!

SEPT 10 - Random Photos


Above, Isaac and me by the gorgeous amaranth we planted together as tiny seeds in the spring.

Below, the boys love rolling around in the grass. Jonah was his usual silly self.