Jonathan - One to Two

As Jon hit the one year mark his personality could be summed up in two words: happy and content.

And he preferred me to anyone else...my mom was a close second. He wouldn't cry when I left or anything, but if I was in the room, I had to be the one holding him.  He also looked an awful lot like me when I was little.

  And as long as he had his blanket and two pacifiers (one in the mouth and one in his hand) he was happy to stay in bed as long as he had to. Which was wonderful since I was not a morning person!

At some point, Jon decided the dishwasher was fun to move, just as C.J. did.  But no dance for him.

He was pretty quiet.  C.J. took the spotlight most of the time and Jon was content to just hang in the background.

Notice the sucker in his mouth?


It was at about 18 months that I realized there was something wrong.  Not only was Jon's vocabulary simplistic and very limited, he also had very little understanding of the spoken language.   His vocabulary consisted of three "words":
mama
dada
bah-bah (blanket)
Directions were followed at times and then not at other times. His pediatrician agreed with me and referred him for a speech evaluation.

At 19 months old he fell in love with Thomas the Tank Engine.  This also expanded his vocabulary by one word: choo-choo.

Just as I thought, the speech evaluation showed delays in receptive and verbal speech and he began speech therapy at just 21 months old...two half hour sessions a week. 

Sometime around 19 or 20 months, the terrible twos kicked in.  Now, I have to say, honestly, that none of my kids have ever had a temper tantrum.  That was not the problem.  Jon just became...um...curious about the world around him.  He was usually into something he shouldn't have been, and logged more than his fair share of time in "time outs".
Here he is about to play with the clock radio in a motel we were staying in.  I think he ignored our warnings here, touched the clock anyway, and we have a picture somewhere around here of a crying Jon in a time out!

Look at his mischievous little face.


  But how could you stay mad at a face like this?

After the eating struggles with C.J., I was pleasantly surprised that Jon ate rather well.  He liked most things but bread and macaroni and cheese were his favorites.  By the time he was a year old he was on all table food and completely off the bottle.  Also, unlike his brother, he LOVED milk!

Jon loved books too...though not as much as C.J.  Each night we would crawl in my big bed with C.J. on one side and Jon on the other and they could each pick two books that I would read to them.  Jon's choice of books would usually be Thomas the Tank books, but he would sit still while I read C.J.'s choice of books too.

Wow! I can't believe how sweet and innocent he looks in these photos.  The truth is, the closer he got to two...the more he kept me on my toes with his over-curiosity!!~ 

By his second birthday, he still did not have much of a vocabulary but his receptive language was improving.  
And, of course, he had a Thomas the Tank Engine cake...made by my great friend, Carey.

At his two year check-up, he was no longer on the charts for height or weight.  Yeah, this was old news for us!

Two year stats:
weight: 23 pounds 2 ounces (3%)
height: 32 inches (5%)

And oh-so-adorable!