Ben & Shae Cecka's family in Gilbert, AZ

The kid amazes me. I am fully aware that they are supposed to grow and everything, but it still shocks me when he gets bigger. Today he was pretty sick and spent most of the day snuggling with me on the couch, all curled up by my neck. Well, at one point he stretched out, and with his head on my chest his feet touched my knees! My jaw flew open. I can’t believe his body is nearly half the size of mine.

My mouth nearly hit the ground again when he clear as day repeated, “Gatorade!” Back to Julie tonight. I laughed so hard, and of course he wouldn’t repeat it. And certainly not for the camera.
Something he did reenact for the camera this week though, was his first kiss! He has been trying for a while, showing his affection skin on skin, but it wasn’t quite the “real thing.” So last night he closed his lips, puckered, smacked the kiss smacking noise and everything. For the first time he did a “real” kiss, and would you believe it was not for mommy, not for his papa, but for the handle on the kitchen cupboard. What a silly boy. Right after that he kissed his reflection on the oven door, and played peek-a-boo with the little shadow boy in there too.
Like any good parent, I became jealous over another boy’s development a couple months ago when I saw young baby Andrew pulling up his new pull-up pants. I ran out and got some pull-ups and exclaimed to Johnathan, “I’ve got BIG BOY PANTS for you!!!” He got excited right along with me, and that day, and every since, when I announce, “Time to go to the potty room!” He happily trots into the bathroom. ‘Er, that is, …if he doesn’t get distracted along the way, which, okay! It’s most of the time. But I still think it’s pretty cool that I tell him what we are doing and he knows what I am saying and he has got the whole routine down.
Pants come off.
Wipes come out.
Mom wipes butt.
Johnathan pulls up new pants.
Wash our hands.
Dry our hands.
Turn off the light. The final step, and Djai’s FAVORITE! I don’t know if it is because the light switch is something new and exciting for him, or if it is because it is the last step and we say “yay!” and clap our hands afterward. Maybe a little bit of both. At first He didn’t really pull up his pants- he would just press his hands on the pull-up and rub them upward. After many times of patiently explaining the whole thumb inside thing, if I get the pants around his ankles he successfully pulls them right up to his cute little baby buttocks. For now, I have to help him over the hump, but hey- one step at a time eah?
Djai has even sat on the “potty seat” a few times, but no duty. I know they kind of have to do this on their own time, but it would be nice if little man was done with diapers by the time little person number two comes along, hopefully in spring of 2007!