Jonah plays balloon soccer

Look at the new fun game Pat taught Jonah using the left-over birthday party balloons...GOAL!

Jonah - First Birthday Party

I can't believe it's not butter and that Jonah is 12 months old. To celebrate, we decided to have a kids birthday party for 49 people. 23 of those 49 were under the age of 9. So it was a fairly chaotic night at the Kent household.

Mommy spent many hours baking these cupcakes and the birthday cake. Thank goodness daddy didn't have to decorate as I'm not sure what a whale stick figure looks like.

Jonah wearing his whale outfit and his birthday hat. The hat lasted for about 4.5 minutes over the course of the two hours of the party. We sang happy birthday at exactly 6:53 pm when Jonah was born.

Jonah sure did seem to enjoy eating his birthday cupcake!

Here's Jonah opening one of his new toys with some help from the neighborhood kids.

Here's Jonah opening his presents with the help of virtually all of the neighborhood kids.

Here's Jonah looking a little overwhelmed and looking for daddy's help after being swamped by all of the neighborhood kids.

This is Jonah's cougar friend Shelby. She's a sweetheart and helped Jonah with his nighttime bottle.

Jonah waking up for the first time as a One-Year Old Boy!

Jonah's First Haircut

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Jonah - 11 months old!

The little peanut is 11 months old! Latest milestones: scooches backwards and forwards on his belly and rocks back and forth on his hands and knees (aaaallllmost crawling...), walks with assistance, said first word ("kitty", or actually a high-pitched "ki-ki-ki-ki" while chasing the cats), and responds to his name. Jonah has had two music lessons (see a couple posts ago for a run-down of that...) and has started eating table food. In particular he likes grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese slices, cheesy goldfish crackers, and cheese-flavored rice cakes. Hmmm...I sense a pattern. We also learned that avocados and yogurt make him throw up, so we won't do that again for a little while. Jonah also loves clapping his hands, and claps on his own whenever we say "yea!!"

First I put grilled cheese in my hair and then I ran laps in the basement

Jonah's First Music Lesson

Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man? Do you know the muffin man, who lives on Drury Lane?

Jonah knows the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man. Jonah knows the muffin man, who lives on Drury Lane.

Charlie knows the muffin man...
Avery knows the muffin man...
Olivia knows the muffin man...
...
...
...

Everyone knows the muffin man...class ended 7 hours ago and I wonder why I still have this in my head!! :-)

Anyway, Jonah's first music class went very well. The teacher led the class on an autoharp and we bounced along to She'll be comin' round the mountain, we beat on drums, walked in a big circle, danced, tapped our shoulders and rubbed our bellies and waved and found our eyes, noses and ears all to music. Everyone got "instruments" too. Jonah has a saxaphone. I'm kidding. We beat drumsticks together and shook these easteregg-looking shakers. Jonah seemed to enjoy the class very much and we think he is already smarter.

Beating drums. :-)

Shaking shakers. :-)

The Grilled Cheese Sandwich

1. Jonah eating a grilled cheese sandwich.

2. Enter Asti: "Hey - is that a grilled cheese sandwich I smell? Why, yes it is. Surely this sandwich will end up on the floor eventually if I sit here long enough".
3. Jonah eyes Asti. Asti eyes the sandwich.
4. Asti wins.

Guatemala gifts

Thank you Ana Silvia and Danilo for sending these adorable gifts for Jonah! Jonah is pictured here sporting his beautiful handwoven Guatemalan tunic and playing with a handmade jack-in-the-box toy (only it's a cone...I'm not sure what to call this thing, but it's reallly cute). Muchas gracias mis amigos! :-)

Jonah - 10 months old!

The little man has turned 10 months old! He's 29 1/4" long and approximately 19 pounds, has two bottom teeth, and continues to have an exceptionally large noggin for his age. Full of brains, of course! Jonah has natural rock star hair that grows straight up in the back....we think it's very cute but the first haircut may be in the not-too-distant future. He is flipping over in all directions to reach toys he wants, but would rather roll his way over to them than crawl. He loves to practice walking, and has pulled himself up once so far, prompting us to drop the crib mattress down and start babyproofing the house. He claps his hands regularly and has started waving to people and giving high-fives. The big blue eyes are charming everyone, so we know we will have our hands full come high-school.

Jonah mows the lawn (well, sort of)

For Christmas Pat and I bought Jonah this car/lawnmower thing. He doesn't seem interested in crawling, but he sure loves to try to walk! He pulls to the right a bit though, kind of like a shopping cart with one busted wheel. On an unrelated topic, today he also picked and ate his first boogie.