Ben & Shae Cecka's family in Gilbert, AZ

Much to my amazement, Djai is drawing faces. He has been drawing circles for months- (January is the furthest back that I can remember) and one night in the bathtub he narrated his water crayon circles as eyes, nose and mouth. I was amazed that he thought to draw facial features.

Within a week, the features are drawn in the right spot, a large circle for the head appears, eyes have pupils and the mouth is a curvey line. They are “Elmo” and “cookie monster” faces according to him, which explains the fuzzy head and lack of ears:) Look at what our little two year old artist can do! I didn’t think anyone would believe me so we have it on video too.


…Oh yeah- and he’s working on his alphabet now too. He can identify about 25% of letters, and can draw an “O,” a “Q,” and a mountain range looking thing for an “M” upon request.
…and did we tell you he knows all the names of the chess pieces? Okay, mommy brag time is over. For now.

In light of Johnathan’s new fascination with flicking the light switch on and off, here is some scientific/mathematic proof that every time you switch on the light, you don’t “burn up enough power to run the light bulb for 30 minutes.” (Contrary to our parent’s attempt to rationalize the ban of this activity.)

Shae had an early birthday “Ladies Night Out” last night so, naturally, I assumed the role of sole caretaker of Johnathan. Something that I’m not always used to and often struggle with but consistently enjoy nonetheless.

We had a great night with lots of reading and laughing and eating (only a few cookies… I made him share) but the real gem came in the morning. Well, we woke up in the same bed because he sensed something awry with the Mama-less house and climbed up with me at about 1am. I always enjoy being kicked in the face by 3 inch feet! Really I do! Seriously! Anyway, this morning I was getting him ready to go to church so he could play with his toddler friends in the playgroup and I could work in the back with the Sunday school audio/video techs, and he touched his diaper and said, “poo?” Well, normally we have a routine of sitting on the potty (by we I mean Johnathan) for ten minutes at a time just so he can coax us into blowing bubbles for him, but i thought this might be different. So I pulled off his overalls and hustled him onto the potty, and blew bubbles, and… “plop — plop!” That’s right! Two golden ones (not literally) right into the honey-bucket! I think we’re making some serious progress!

Tonight marks Johnathan’s first night in a real bed! He crawled in there all by himself, we read a few stories, and he winked out. A month ago it seemed to us that he learned a new word every day — now he learns ten. When we get settled in the new condo, hopefully this weekend, he will have the real thing setup rather than a mattress on the floor. Things are definitely on the up-and-up for Djai!