Sunday, June 8, 2014

Our weekend

What a lovely weekend!  It's been the perfect combination of friends, family, home time, away time, relaxation, and productivity.  Wow.  

It started with ducks on Friday.  I usually have a learning theme for Jonah each day and decided Friday morning when we were playing with a cute stuffed duck Oma gave him that the day's focus would be on the word duck and the sound it makes! So I just decided hey - let's head to the river and look at the real deal!

Here's Jonah squawking at one duck at a time.  His audience kept taking flight.  I can't imagine why being screeched at by a large human baby would interrupt a pleasant morning swim...


I love that we can go to the river in our small town and see multiple friends without even planning!  So so fun.  I cherish that.

By the way did you know that in French (and all languages) animal sounds are interpreted differently?  So we also learned that ducks are called 'canards' say "coin coin" (pronounced "kwahn kwahn").

Jonah hears far, far more English than French so we'll see how much of that sticks.  

Hm.  Based in my previous logic with the ducks I think it's time for a field trip for learning French!  If only!

Friday afternoon when Papa got home from working at the ranch we logged some great pool time and got to see Jonah's awesome nanny from this past semester.  We miss her this summer!!  Jonah loves her son too, and I can tell he always wants to impress him. 

Saturday Jonah and I went garage sale shopping with friends and I found great deals!  I've never really shopped garage sales before and NEVER thought I'd buy clothes at one, but I scored a bagful of H&M and Gap clothes for this summer and I am still so fascinated by the fact that I spent $10 for it all and I didn't care when Jonah threw up all over my new shirt today!  Awesome!!  I am hereby officially a garage sale person.

Come to think of it, I also watch used TV.  I've been LOVING Jimmy on the Tonight Show lately via my computer (while I teach myself to use a drill in the process of childproofing and inevitably losing an eye or a finger or both so Jonah doesn't get into all those towels under the sink).  Since we don't have cable I watch the previous night's episode.  

I mean seriously.  Just call me Thrifty Hill.  

We spent the rest of Saturday at Oma and Opa's swimming and eating freshly fried fish with homemade tartar sauce and tomato basil pesto and homemade chips and guacamole and salsa from the garden and giving Jonah no attention at all and just plum wore this kiddo out.  

This is when we first got in the car to come back home that evening:


And this is at the bottom of Oma and Opa's drive:


He loved his time there and screamed when Opa wasn't holding him, so guess who held him. : )

Sunday morning was glorious.  

I was very nervous because it was our day to let Jonah cry it out at church class so he learns he can't just cry for 10 minutes and then we come and get him (and by we I mean I, and by get him I mean take him back to our church class and pretend for 10 minutes I can participate and pay attention while simultaneously wrangling a squirmy 9 month old until he's too loud and I have to take him out and wait until class is over).

If you are familiar with this blog at all, you know that Jonah is no stranger to the 30 minute nap intruder.  His morning nap is especially predictable at 30 minutes because I only push him to take a long afternoon nap.

Well.

He kept sleeping and sleeping this morning before church and when he was at an hour and we were already late, it finally hit me that he totally knew what he was doing.  I never wake him up from naps or in the morning and he so knew that was the way to get out of church.

I know, call me whatever.  

But I'm right.  I just am.  

I went in and he was fake sleeping and had this look like "oh dang it - you found me."

I mean c'mon.  He knew what he was doing.

So we got to church and he screamed when I handed him off, but the staff there was wonderful with him and got him calm after I left and he did great the rest of the time!!  They even took pictures and a video to show me how he did.  Yay Jonah!!  

This was his prize for staying the whole time, one of my very favorite books and a great prepatory study for some upcoming berry picking!  : )


Howard watched Jo during big church today and it was such a luxury to sit and focus and learn and worship.  Our pastor talked about maturity and I loved his statement: "Maturity is growing from soft skin and a hard heart to thick skin and a soft heart."  My amazing boss said something similar a few years ago.  He said the goal is to be like candy that's hard on the outside with a gooey melty center.  Just love that!

I think it's easy to think I'm tough when I'm not in the middle of a crisis, but when stresses occur - well, I let them stress me.  I internalize things and I hope with more age and more experience I can continue to grow and let things roll off a lot more.

I notice that about (wise) old people.  They don't care.  Not in the way that they're apathetic...but in a way where their happiness trumps all.  My age group is not around enough old people.  We are too caught up in peers, because they are so needed in this stage of life!  But I think in trying to form support networks for raising kids and having a social life, we (or at least I) are missing an important opportunity to grow by not simply being around older people.

Well.  I take that back.  I have Howard.

Ba-dum CHING!  Good night everybody!

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