Last Life Lately

I promise I'm going to quit this blog. Soon. I really just need to take some pictures of Jonas's room, because I want to have a post showing that, and then I'll be done. In the meanwhile, here's a last "Life Lately" post, and then I'll do a few about our time in Orlando (that's where we've been for the past week) and other random things before quitting for good.

In no particular order, here's what Jonas has been up to lately:

We visited Zack at work for lunch one day and checked out his office. If I could caption this shot, it'd say "C'mon people, I told you I needed those reports an hour ago!"

Jonas sleeps in some odd positions. We've found him upside down, completely sideways, half hanging off the bed, covers almost always off, etc. This "touchdown" position is probably the most normal position we've found him in!

Jonas loves playing at Wash Park. I'm so glad it's only four blocks away from our house.

We've had a few follow-up appointments at Children's Hospital. Jonas now recognizes the campus and looks for this bear statue, where he always makes the cutest growling sound and puts his arms up in the air.

A few days after our Mother's Day snow, it was 75 degrees outside, and Jonas said goodbye to what was left of his snowman.











Zack found this hat of his and put it on Jonas the other day. Super cute!

Jonas's new favorite hobby is chasing birds. Seriously-he could do it for hours. Too bad they always fly away!

We spent an afternoon at the Five Points Jazz Fest. Jonas got to try cotton candy for the first time. He thought the texture was weird and didn't eat much of it.

He also got to try out some stilts. Hey, as long as he has his helmet on, I don't care what he tries!

















Jonas has gone to lots of library story/craft times, another music class, and some playdates with friends. It's funny to see him interact with other toddlers. He often likes to copy what older kids do and usually finds one or two toys that he "takes over" and doesn't want to share!

Jonas is my little buddy, as we do most everything together nowadays. The other morning after dropping Zack off at the bus station to go to Boulder for work, we went to Union Station and had a "date." We shared donut holes, and I had a chai latte while he enjoyed a chocolate milk. We have lots of good times together!

You've Got Mail

So, many of you who read this blog have probably already gotten our adoption announcement in the mail. It took me awhile to finally send them, because I was waiting to get pictures done with Jonas by a photographer who is part of the Red Thread Sessions program. These photographers waive their session fee for adoptive families, so you get awesome (free) pictures of your new family! We did our session at Wash Park shortly before Jonas's surgery. So here is the adoption announcement I sent out to some friends and family members, along with other pictures from our session. Jonas looks so different now; I feel like we need to get new family pictures taken!

Garden Helper

Jonas "helped" me with the garden the other week. All of these antics are of his own doing, well, other than asking to be put in the wheelbarrow. He cracks me up.

He really enjoys moving my plant markers around and sticking random ones next to random plants, so I may end up getting carrots where I'm expecting peas. We'll see!


















Denver is still getting tons of rain, which is great for the garden, so we should be able to enjoy lots of fresh veggies this summer. Not that Jonas (Mr. Picky Pants) will eat any of them!

There's Snow Day Like Mother's Day

I finally got to celebrate Mother's Day! Though it's currently 70 degrees in Denver, on Sunday we woke up to this.

So we went to brunch at Lucile's. We had to wait over an hour for a table, but that place is always worth it. Jonas enjoyed sharing my chai latte during the wait.

When we got home, we went outside to play in the quickly melting snow. Our poor son doesn't even own boots or gloves, as we didn't see the point in buying him winter gear that might not fit next season since he was adopted in spring. So we put double pants and socks on him, a heavy coat and vest, and let him wear our big mittens to build his first snowman. It was a pretty pathetic snowman, but Jonas had fun practicing his new word ("snow"), rolling around in it, and eating it.

Zack did all the diaper changes on Mother's Day-woohoo! He also kept Jonas entertained with playing in the music room, reading books, watching basketball, and making him laugh with "This Little Piggy" (seen in the picture). He had Jonas help sign a really nice card, and I did a craft with my boy to preserve his handprint in an ornament.

Jonas also made it all the way through church without having to go to the cry room! Not that he ever cries, but he gets so crazy sometimes and wants to leave the pews (and yells if you won't let him) that we have always had to head to the cry room partway through Mass. I guess him making it the whole way through was his present to me!

Mother's Day used to be a holiday I dreaded. Now I'm grateful I have a reason to celebrate! Here are my two "babies" looking cute as can be. Lucky me!

What We Do

Okay, we feel like we live in Seattle. It's been raining for days in Denver, and this is SO not normal. We're all kind of going crazy. Here's how we've tried to keep sane...

Jonas has enjoyed watching basketball (another word he's learned) with his daddy.

He also has liked taking Molly for "walks" inside the house.

Here's Jonas trying on Mommy's shoes.

We've been waking up early with Zack for work, so the other morning, Jonas fell back asleep on me in our back room for about an hour. I just watched The Today Show and enjoyed the extra cuddles.















I'm not sure what Jonas is doing here. This was after breakfast this morning between pajamas and getting dressed.

















Today we met up with our friends Emily and Adam and their son Graham at the mall to let the boys run around in the play area. Jonas had a blast climbing everything, going down the slide, and as you can see from the picture below, hanging with the ladies! And now the rain has turned to snow...

Mongolian Spots

Mongolian spots are bluish colored birthmarks that are found on 90-95% of Central Asian infants. Jonas has them in all the normal spots (lower back, butt, shoulders). They usually disappear before a child starts school, and they are caused by melatonin-containing cells getting trapped in a lower skin layer during embryonic development. They are flat, painless, and don't cause any problems.

I first noticed the spots when I was visiting Jonas at the orphanage on my second trip. We were playing outside, and when he bent over, I noticed these bluish marks on his lower back. Having no idea about Mongolian spots at all, I kind of freaked out internally, thinking he was bruised! I tried to take a picture for documentation, pressed the area gently to see if it hurt him, and wondered if he had had a bad fall or if I should be worried about abuse. The next day, I showed the translator, and she said something about that being normal for Asian skin. When I got back to the hotel and Googled something like "bruise marks Asian toddler back," I knew right away that he had Mongolian spots and that I could stop worrying.

I wish I had known to expect them, and as recommended, I've told his pediatrician to document them (so we never get accused of abuse), but now that I know what they are and that they will eventually go away, I think they're kind of cool. I thought I'd include this blog post in case someone else has never seen Mongolian spots, especially prospective adoptive parents of Asian children, so they don't have to freak out like I did at first!

Rain Dance

We've had some unusually cloudy and rainy days here in Denver lately. But Molly still needs to be walked, and we were getting cabin fever, so Jonas and I went for a walk in the rain the other day.

The fun started when Jonas decided to try splashing. He walked through a little puddle first. That got his shoes wet, along with the bottom of his pants.

The rain started coming down harder, and at that point, I had given up on trying to keep either one of us dry. So I let Jonas go hog wild in the puddles. He found the widest and deepest ones and ran through them over and over and had a blast. His pants were soaking wet above the knee. I had fun just watching his joy.

I honestly don't think Jonas has ever felt rain before. There's no way the caretakers brought the kids outside in the rain at the orphanage. When we got back home after our splash session, I stood under the patio roof, but Jonas just stood out in the rain holding his hands up to the sky and feeling the drops.

After bringing his bike out in the rain, playing with the gushing gutters, and eating a snack on the patio, Jonas could finally be convinced to come back inside to take a warm bath and put on dry clothes. I'm so glad I didn't try to stifle his desire to jump in the puddles, because we both had an awesome afternoon in the rain.