Bluegrass Fun

Well, we made it back from our trip to Kentucky, and it was such a wonderful time!!! I LOVED seeing Blake, Amy, Nathan, and Maggie. It had been way too long. Jonah had a blast. I think my favorite part may have been watching him and Nathan play. Nathan is 4 1/2 and really knows how to play well with Jonah. They were so sweet together. Jonah and Maggie, on the other hand, were a handful!!! Maggie is 5 months older than Jonah, so they are at a stage where they are really competitive with one another. For example, you hear about 500 statements of "mine!" during the day when those two are around!! But they are both really affectionate with one another......just never when the other one wants it! Seriously, whenever Jonah would hug Maggie, she would SCREAM. And then the times when she would go sweetly hug him, he would push her onto the floor. It was pretty funny actually. They'll get there. They do love each other! Amy and I kept having glimpses into life with twins and definitely felt sympathetic towards those parents!

Kentucky is beautiful, and the city of Lexington seems so nice. We took the kids to the Kentucky Horse Farm, to Ft Boonesborough, and to another fun park. One day, when the kids were napping, Blake and I did our nerdy historical stuff.....we went to see Mary Todd Lincoln's house, and then we walked around downtown, drove through beautiful neighborhoods in the older part of Lexington, saw UK, and treated ourselves to drinks at an old-fashioned soda fountain. It was a busy and fun week. Loved it. We were pretty tired when we got home though. The flights went well. The trip there was rough. Jonah really didn't understand that he had to sit in the seat the whole time, so there were a couple meltdowns at the beginning. But we survived. The trip home on Sunday was perfect. It was like it had clicked with him, he knew he had to sit there....he did so marvelously. I couldn't believe my big boy. But in the middle of the flight home, he saw a little boy about his age walking down the aisle for the bathroom with his mom, and Jonah realized that kids could actually get out of their seat. I could tell he was realizing that he might have been tricked. So I did the only thing I could think of....I told Jonah that little boy was in big trouble. He was going to have a time out at the back and maybe even a spanking. That was enough for Jonah! He was then content to sit on the seat for the rest of the airplane ride.

Two weeks ago, I had my child all figured out. I could have told you everything about him, what he does, likes, doesn't like, what motivates him, etc. More recently, though, I have had more moments where I have stopped, looked at him, and thought, "Who is this kid?" Seriously, he is changing so fast. I can tell we are quickly approaching the twos, because this kid has started throwing the tantrums. Before this past month, I think I could count on two hands the number of times Jonah has cried real tears in his entire life. He has cried hard so few times. Yesterday, he had 4 big crying meltdowns/fits before we even left the house before 10am! So this is new. I think I know how to handle it. But still, I have to really stay strong and consistent in my reactions. For anyone not there yet with toddlers and tantrums and having to stay consistent with discipline, don't let anyone tell you it's not exhausting. It is. But soooo worth it. I have already seen consistency with discipline pay off so many times, so I know I don't have a choice, even if it is tiring and repetitive and annoying. I'm just thankful that God gives personal discernment and wisdom for how to do it and the strength for it. I certainly wouldn't have that on my own. So we're enjoying this new stage, even if it is, um, different. He is still so precious and FUNNY. He has a new little fascination with hills. Whenever we're driving up or down a hill, he gets really excited. Only his "hill" comes out like "hell", so most of the day, my child is excitedly screaming what sounds to be a bad word. It's great. Especially at church and places like that. But anyway, he loves playing outside, racing his cars, going for walks, and he asks to go to the zoo almost every day. He is quite the little cutie pie. I just love when he holds his hands out and says "hode" for me to hold him. He started doing that with his aunt Amy last week, I think, because Maggie would, and of course, he felt like he needed to steal away as much of Maggie's attention as possible. =) But he has continued to do that more, and he has never been an especially cuddly or physically affectionate child, so this is one aspect of his new personality change that his momma is really enjoying!