Wings of Paradise

Me: "Jonah, what's on Aunt Krista's hand?"
Jonah: "Buttah--die"












Me: "What were the butterflies eating?"
Jonah: "Orash"
Yes, we hit Wings of Paradise again last weekend! What fun! I posted on a previous visit here once, so check it out if you want to see how much Jonah has changed! And if you are in the area, make sure you plan a visit soon - it's SO nice to get out of the cold and into a nice, warm, humid environment!

"Do-dah" - Jonah is finally saying his own name. It's interesting that he started calling himself Dodah soon after I told him that his cousin Jedidiah calls him Dodah! Also interesting that he started saying his own name soon after we visited some extended family members - when we were there they asked him what his name was, and I told him that he doesn't say his own name yet! I think he understands way too much for me to be talking about him in front of other people now!

Way to go gold, b'ys!

I love my "home" province of Newfoundland and Labrador! The big news on CBC radio today was that schools were closing early in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) so that the kids could either (1) go home to watch or (2) stay in the schools' gymnasiums (if offered) to watch today's men's Olympic curling match - Canada vs. Finland! (Four of the five men on the team are from NL.) And it's a good t'ing dey did, b'y, cuz we won 'er!! Canada's first-ever Olympic gold medal in men's curling was won today, 10-4, by a bunch of newfs! Here they are, quite impressed with their flowers:


The school closure is just a good (but only partial) demonstration of the spirit of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador!

The Answer...

I'm disappointed - you all got stuck thinking Jonah knew the full name of a current hockey player. But actually, he can say "Don Cherry" - former player, former Boston Bruins coach, current CBC sports analyst/commentator/not exactly sure what to call him but if you're a Canadian hockey fan, you KNOW who he is!

I guess the prize will have to be awarded to... ME... I'm wonderful and I deserve it. I dare you to disagree.

yes, more!

First, none of you have guessed the correct hockey personality yet! So, this might help narrow it down. Hint#1: You probably need to be Canadian to readily know this man's name. Hint #2: He's not well-known for his hockey-playing. Let's have a few more guesses, folks!

Words I heard Jonah say for the first time TODAY:
-seashell
-butter
-bottle
-button
-ankle

Thanks to Aunt Krista who realized that I forgot two very funny words in my last update: hummus and bonjour. Although he's getting them a little better now, initially he was pronoucing them sorta like "huh-ch-ch" and "boh-ch-ch"! Krista was in tears listening to some of his first attempts!

Finally, a few more words I also left off the list, and then I'm giving up on tracking all this... I won't report again until I hear a 3-word-sentence (unless there are some more very funny pronounciations or some funny 2-word sentences)...

horse
table
tray
mail
rail
own
mine
is
tire
Caillou
Dora
shovel
pink
money
GT

For my southern friends who may be asking themselves, "What is a GT?" Here's a pic:

Glenn pulled out his old, dilapidated GT snowracer a few days ago and Jonah immediately insisted on going for a ride - it's all about the steering wheel! He had to sit on the two metal bars because the seat is so far back, plus he had to spread his legs awkwardly to get his feet in the right spot (avoiding the breaks) but he LOVED it. Glenn tied a rope to it and has pulled him on it a couple of times. The three of us also had an 'interesting' ride together through a forest. I guess I must have lost my good, safety-conscious mothering judgement. I don't think we'll try that again!

more new words

During supper tonight my mother-in-law taught Jonah a couple more important hockey words and my sister-in-law insisted I blog about it... Jonah now can say someone's first AND last name... any one want to make any guesses which hockey personality it might be? I think I'll create some suspense here and post the answer in a couple of days... If you KNOW the answer, shhhhh! Let's have some true guesses first! Maybe I'll award a prize. In the meantime, here are some others that I either forgot about during the last Jonah update, or, they are new as of the last week or so.

circle
square
oval
heart
juice
cookie
puppy
mouse
mice
dice
nice
purple
green
orange
blue
bass guitar
snow bear
no thank you

Still not having much luck getting Jonah's "yes" to be "yes"!

Jonah puked 11 times yesterday! In a span of 4 hours. It really sucked. But I'm glad it's all over already!

Night Commuters

As World Vision sponsors, we receive their quarterly magazine called “child view” and honestly, I sometimes just dread reading it. Although it’s filled with positive stories about how World Vision, enabled by donors, is helping to change lives, it also contains stories about the harsh realities that some people, many of whom are children, live through in this world.

Have you heard anything about war-torn northern Uganda? It’s horrific. Daily at dusk thousands of unsupervised children, as young as 5 years old, leave their huts in rural villages and walk for up to an hour or more. They are fleeing to the urban centres where they sleep on cold, hard floors of schools, hospitals, and shelters to sleep in relative safety. Why are they fleeing? If they stay at home, they are at risk of being abducted by LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) rebels who brainwash and train children to fight in its campaign against the government.

These boys and girls are beaten, tortured, raped, forced to fight, and sometimes killed. Sometimes they are even forced to kill their own family members before they are taken away.

I won’t go into any more detail here, but here are a few links if you want more information or if you want to find out what World Vision is doing and how you can help:

World Vision – Canada – and their information on the situation in northern Uganda

World Vision – United States – and their information on the situation in northern Uganda

Also, if you are aware of any other organizations that are helping, feel free to post information here via the comments section!

Encouraging Literacy in Young Children

I’m pretty sure none of you will argue that literacy is a must in our society. The first few years of life are really important to getting a good start on it. A child’s success throughout his/her entire education is dependent on his/her ability to read. It’s amazing how much you can increase a child’s interest in books simply by creating a cozy space (or two) in your home that is dedicated to books.

In our house, we now have two “reading centers.” They have very similar set-ups, both containing the following items: one or two child-sized cozy chairs, a basket of soft cuddly toys, a blanket on the floor as a mat, and a dozen or more board books in a basket. The only difference is that downstairs we also have an adult rocking chair in that area, and another basket of books that I would call “needing adult assistance” AKA “don’t trust young children not to rip out the pages.” To keep interest up, all the books are on a rotation – 3 sets of our own books, plus I get books from the library every two weeks. The blankets are soft toys are also rotated every two weeks.

If you decide to do this yourself, remember you might need to "model" reading for them. Sit down in their space with the books and read to your child. Lie down and read your own book, and so on. The more they see you, the more they will follow!

I’m really impressed with how much Jonah and Miles will actually now spend looking at books. I can’t tell you how many times it has gotten quiet in the playroom and we wonder “what they’re getting into?” only to peek in and see them both sitting and looking at books. Too cute! See for yourself by looking below at a couple of pictures taken this past week.

And remember, literacy isn't just about reading little children's stories. You can make your child more aware of printed words in all kinds of circumstances - at the grocery store looking at food labels, in the bath looking at shampoo bottles, and at home or in the car, examining warning labels on toys, carseats, playpens, and so on!





Yes, occasionally the reading center DOES get destroyed and the boys just have fun carrying around the giant chairs and sitting in them in silly ways!

New words, etc

For those of you who like Jonah updates (he's 20-months old in a couple of days!!), here are some new words and phrases from Jonah: (keep in mind he doesn't say most of them perfectly, by any stretch of the imagination!)

Sometime in the last two months or so he picked up:
-heater
-skate
-ice
-net
-stick
-hammer
-nails

In the last two weeks or less:
-zamboni
-no way
-dirty hands
-dirty milk
-poo (my favorite phrase is "bye bye poo!")
-happy
-hairy
-cold
-potty
-snowball
-playdough
-hippo
-tire
-pipes
-library
-scarf

And I'm sure there are more that I can't recall! One slightly frustrating vocabulary change is that instead of saying "dah" for "yes", he has changed his "yes" to something that sounds more like "no", so now we're really working on having him say the 's' in 'yes' to reduce frustration on both ends!

He really enjoys painting (with sponges and sticks, "dot dot dot") and also likes playdough (usually wants to make either a snowman, or a hammer and nails).

And I still can't seem to get that boy to sing, although his interest in dancing has increased quite a bit. He is still quite interested in letters and words. If you have a book open, and ask him to find any of the following letters, he usually can do it: Oo, Ss, E and sometimes also T and B. When I spell his name, he will usually chime in for the o, n and h.

Since last Friday I would say Jonah has finally settled into life full-time with Miles! It has been such a relief for me. They still have their issues to work out but considering their ages, they are doing well playing together and enjoying eachother's company. With them being so close in age, I really have my hands full! I'm looking forward to the spring, when they have both matured some more.

Finally, I'm sick of this weather. LET IT SNOW!