More Signing!

Jonah did the sign for music to a theme song from NPR this morning! He kind of stuck his little finger out when he did it.

He likes NPR, but Ani says she doesn't like Diane Rehm because she's "too naughty." Weirdo.

The Bank of Anneke, Jonah Keeps on Truckin' and More!

So Anneke has a new piggy bank. (A metal can wrapped in paper, covered in stickers and the yet-to-be-found pig to paste on the top.) We were having a discussion this afternoon about money and how I bought a toy for them even though we didn't have a lot of money for toys right now.

Her reply: "I have a lot of money. If you run out, you can just have some of mine." This after we've filled her 'piggy' bank with about a dozen pennies, two nickles and a dime.

Anneke also took a spill on her bike this afternoon. Handle bars twisted with her sprawled face first over it all. The brim of the helmet (thank goodness I insisted) caught the brunt of it, but she had a little skinned up spot. I parked Jonah's stroller, moved her bike out of the parking lot and picked her up to effect the planned-for dash up to the house. After a quick glance at her forehead and a few comforting words, I attempted to remove her helmet. She's still crying pretty loudly - about 45 seconds have now passed - and she immediately yells even louder, "No, Daddy. I want to ride my bike some more." I set her down and she calmly walks over to the bike and hops back on. It's nothing serious but there's definitely a skinned-up spot in the center of her forehead. She remains unphased. Wow.

As I type this, Jonah is on the other side of the room standing up, sitting down and taking a few steps at a time. This afternoon he took 8 at a stretch.

I also just learned this afternoon that he enjoys flying by the seat of his pants or rather being suspended by the suspenders Grandma Spoelma gave him for his first birthday party last weekend. I hope that they're well-sewn.

His other new trick is a kind of dancing whenever even the slightest muzak is heard in the distance that involves bouncing, a little bit of a hip-hop hand bounce, and then shaking his head side-to-side in a kind of crazy, happilly emphatic denial of whatever anyone else might think of his antics.

First Steps!

I can't believe I haven't posted this, but Jonah took his first steps on July 24! He has only done it once or twice since then, though. I think he's pretty happy crawling and climbing on everything.

Head wound

Ani was a flower girl in Ruth's and B's wedding ("When Ruth and B get married, Daddy is going to be UNCLE Daddy!" Um, not quite. . .) which was beautiful.

On Monday we went to Henry and Anne's house for supper after the beach. Jonah had been playing in their outdoor stone fountain and had gotten the grass around it wet. When Ani went running up to it, her feet went right out from under her and she hit her forehead on the corner of the fountain.

Kevin picked her up and rushed her inside to the sink so we could get a better look at it. It was gaping open. On the opinion of two doctors and one nurse, we took her to the ER at Holland Hospital. Kevin held her in the back seat while I drove. She cried for a bit, but then almost fell asleep in the car on the way there.

When we got there, no one was waiting, so we were seen very quickly. The nurse took a peek at the wound -- there was no doubt she needed stitches. We waited for a few minutes in the waiting room for the nurse. She gave Kevin a gauze pad soaked in anesthetic ointment of some kind to hold on her head. He held it there for 45 minutes or so. While we waited for the pain-killers to kick in, we told Ani what the doctor was going to do. She said, "Oh, that is fine if they want to give me a shot. I give my babies shots all the time and they don't hurt."

The doctor came in and asked her to lay down on the table. Kevin was at her feet and I was at her head. He gave her a series of shots in the wound and gave her seven stitches. She never even flinched. In fact, she spent the whole time talking about the time that her friend Rose came over and on and on.

We got her home that night and she never complained about it once. The only thing she didn't like was when I took the bandage off to replace it in the morning.

She had the stitches removed on Friday which "didn't hurt AT ALL." About three hours later, she fell on the stairs and opened the wound up again. It started bleeding all over again, but thankfully not as badly. I called urgent care and they said that they wouldn't be able to sew it up again now anyway, so all I could do was to control the bleeding. Ani was pretty unfazed: "Hey, look! My hair is getting all red again! Dat so silly!"

Ani's Son

Setting: Taking a walk with Ani, she's pushing Jonah in the stroller.

Me: Wow, that’s a cold wind, I’d better put this blanket over Jonah’s legs.

Ani: Sank you so much for covering up my son.

From: Nana

Woman With Wedgie

She is secretly doing storytime with her babies.

I just heard her say:

"There was an old woman and she was going for a long walk in the woods. Then she had to stop for a second because she had a wedgie."

Preschool

Well, she started school yesterday. Kevin and Jonah and I went to drop her off in the morning. She seemed a little apprehensive at first, but she did great. She hung her bag up on her hook and signed her name in the log book.

One of her teachers said to me "you said she would jump right in, but I've never seen anyone jump right in like that!" She said she volunteered for all the activities and had a great time.

I went out for coffee with April and Jonah and then cleaned the house while Jonah took a nap. It was very strange being home without Ani. Ruth and Jonah and I went to pick her up afterwards. She was so excited! Later in the day she said that she wanted to go back to school and stay FOREVER. She was not at all concerned that she wouldn't see me then.

On another note: This morning she said to me "Mommy, when will I be big enough to like drive, and like, pick Jonah up, and like, tell him what to do?"

Also: Jonah climbed up the stairs yesterday! Ack!

Getting ready for School

Ani is 3 1/2 now and is going to start preschool in a couple of weeks. She is so excited! I was talking to her about it the other day and she said "But Mommy, you can't come, it's only for KIDS. You have to just dwop me off."

I know she is going to have a blast, but I'm still a little nervous about it. . .

Crawling!

He finally figured it out! He got the rhythm down and he's FAST! Just last week, at 9 months he learned how to crawl.

He's more interested in pulling up and cruising around the furniture, but he definitely has it down now.

Clapping!

Jonah learned how to clap yesterday! Now whenever you say "yey Jonah!" he starts clapping! It's very cute -- especially when he misses his other hand.

Predicting the Future

Ani: Mommy, am I still going to be Anneke when I grow up?
Me: Yes, you will.
Ani: Oh yes! Dat be so great!

Contemplating her Life

Me: Ani, what are you doing under the table?
Ani: Ooh, just thinkin' about my life.

Pre-existentialist Moment

So the following kind of neatly sums up many funny conversations had with Anneke about life before Ani. The other night I'm putting her to bed and she makes some comment about a picture of Marie and I at our wedding. She asks where she had been at the time. I reply, as I have many times before, trying to explain it in terms of Jonah's arrival:

"You remember when Jonah was born?"
"Yeah."
"Well you know how before Jonah was born he wasn't really around?"
"Yeah."
"Well your Mom and I got married before you were born so you weren't really around then."

She ponders briefly, then lights up as if recalling something so obvious one could seemingly never forget.

"Oh yeah! I was in Mommy's belly ... with Jonah ... we were talkin'."

Scary thing is, she probably really believes this. Really scary thing is, imagining the first time it'll truly sink in for her that her existence is somehow contingent.

Sibling Love

Today as I was cleaning up the bedroom, Anneke laid down on the bed next to Jonah with a stack of books. He listened attentively for about ten minutes and then drifted off to sleep. It was so sweet to see them both cuddling there together. I would have gotten a picture, but then Ani couldn't resist giving him a very enthusiastic snuggle and woke him up.

More Sibling Love

I am so happy to have to kids who love eachother and much as Ani and Jonah love eachother. I'll often be driving along with the two of them and suddenly hear them both cracking up at eachother. It is such a beautiful sound.

I have often tried to do something special with Ani -- either leaving Jonah at home with someone or when he's asleep. I'll say "So, now we can do something with just the two of us!" and she'll say "But where's Jonah?! I want him! I love him so much!"

She also says that when "him get bigger, him gonna put on him dwess and DANCE!"

Also: "When him get bigger, him gonna sleep in my woom and my gonna cuddle him and Cuddle him and CUDDLE him!"

Jonah Gregory's Baptism

Jonah was baptized today and it was a profound service. Early this morning Karen Muyskens, a member of the Church, died after a week-long struggle with a mysterious infection which came on very suddenly. So poignant, this telescoping of the beginning and end of the Christian life into the same, hour-long frame. Utterly heartbreaking and then mysteriously comforting in the same breath.

Jack preached on John 15: 1-11 which is Jesus' image of himself as a vine. I don't know if this was intentionally written to tie in with the baptism, but Jack's description of entrance into the Christian life as analagous to when a branch is grafted onto a vine, which does not always seem to take, was both beautiful and bittersweet.

We were worried because Jonah didn't get his morning nap in, but he was well-disposed and cute nonetheless. During the baptism itself, Anneke, who was somewhat worried about this whole thing on Jonah's behalf, whispered excitedly to her Mom, "He's yiking it!"

Eating Buh-Nanas

Writing about Names contained in words reminds me of how Anneke first learned to say "Banana." It was just the two of us eating breakfast and she kept insisting banana was much too hard a word to say. So I just had to remind her how often she says "Nana" as in: "Nana and Pop" (Mulder). Then I had her repeat after me, slowly: "buh," long pause, "Nana," then "buh," short pause, "Nana," then, "Buh-Nana." She thought it was hilarious for some time afterwards - "Buh-Nana," "Nana Buh-Nana," "Does Nana want a Buh-Nana?" and so on and so forth.

Don't Harm Anneke!

Yesterday Anneke and I figured out, somewhat accidentally, that her name is fully contained in the musical instrument we were both playing around with at the time: the harmonica.

This presents a new solution to the problem of explaining the pronunciation of her name to those tripped up by its Dutch spelling. We can advise them to just say "harmonica" minus the "harm". Otherwise it's just the old "Hanukkah", minus the "H" or "Monica", minus the "M".