Jonathan's Swim Lessons

Earlier this year we decided to put Jonathan in Swim Lessons at our local YMCA.  It was a parent-child class- so Joe or I had to be in the water with him.  At the beginning of each class, he was always a little timid getting into the water.  He would hold onto me tightly and maybe whine a little bit.  By the end of the class, he wouldn't be holding on as tightly to me and even let us dunk his head under water a few times!

Using his noodle to swim...

About to turn around and jump in..

Learning how to swim on his back...

His ducky that he would swim with...

Doing "super baby"

Doing "super baby"

Jonathan's Swim Instructor

Dunking his Head Under Water...

Jumping in and Swimming!

We decided to wait until the fall to put him back in Swim Lessons.  Miss Keke, his daycare lady, has a pool, and they have a lifeguard all summer there- so he will be getting more comfortable in the water while there and may even do some lessons with him as well!

Going to the Zoo

Now that Jonathan is old enough to understand what is going on and his ability to get into EVERYTHING is here, I've been trying to find activities in the Baltimore/DC area that are toddler friendly and fun for him and I to do!
On Memorial Day, Joe and I decided to venture down to the DC Zoo.  We were originally goilng to park at Joe's work which is a few blocks from the zoo and then take the metro in.  On our way down, Joe mentioned parking was free on holidays and weekends, so I suggested driving a little closer to the zoo to see if there was any parking available.  Sure enough, we found a spot about one block up from the zoo!!  We sunsucreened Jonathan up and I let him walk down the sidewalk.  He was having a blast watching the cars zoom down the street and checking out what was under everyone's hedges.

Strutting his Stuff

 Check out what is under these hedges mom!!

We didn't know where to start, so we decided to see the pandas and elephants first.

Then Jonathan led the way- he wanted to go see the bird house with all the different kinds of birds in them.  He loves watching the birds at Miss Kiki's (his daycare) house.  I think this was his favorite part of the zoo.

Jonathan telling Daddy he wants to go over here.

Excited about the birds.

 Then we left the birdhouse and made our way to all of the outside birds.

Mommy and Jonathan were twins!!

Look at the Birds!!

Checkin out the flamingos.

 After we saw every. single. bird. We went to see the gorillas.  It was cool, because there was a gorilla sitting right in front of us eating... however, Jonathan saw a little brown bird fly into the Gorilla's area- so he was much more excited about that.

With the gorillas

Not sure how he feels about this...

Wanting to touch the gorilla.

 After the gorillas we made our way to the Lions and Tigers.  One was out yawning.

After the Lions we went to the area where they had the sea lions.  We got to get up close to the glass and could see them swimming under water.  Jonathan really enjoyed it when they swam close- and would point and squeal everytime they did.  In the same area there was a little "tidal pool."  There was a little bit of water in the "pool" with a couple of little fountains.  Every few minutes a "wave" would rush in and fill the tidal pool up to Jonathan's knees.  He had soo much fun there.  You can even see on the video how excited he gets before the wave comes.

 

This is a video of Jonathan enjoying the Little Tidal Pool

 

After playing in the tidal pool, we passed the carousel- so of course we HAD to go on it!  Jonathan wasn't as thrilled as I was I think...

 

After our adventure at the zoo- Little Man passed out!!  He was sooo exhausted!  The zoo was such a fun adventure and easy (and cheap!) to get to- we'll definitely have to make a trip down to DC more often!!

Feeling Crafty!

With all the crafty little projects I had done for Jonathan's birthday- I decided to make his birthday thank you cards. I looked round and hadn't really seen anything I liked that it into our dump truck theme- plus Joe did not want me spending anymore money! I took our leftover paper I had after making banners, cut out more trucks, and made them that way. I think they turned out real cute!!















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Jonathan's First Birthday! (Finally!)

Well... since it has been TWO months since our little boy turned ONE I think it is about time we posted about his birthday!!  Joseph and I went back and forth about what theme to do for Jonathan's birthday- Pintrest had so many ideas- but we narrowed it down to puppies or trucks.  We finally decided on a a "dump" truck theme party since Jonathan enjoys playing with his trucks so much.  I am so upset I didn't take more pictures!!  Friends started coming a little early, and I was so excited seeing friends and their babies I hadn't seen in a while, I totally forgot about taking before pictures before it was too late!

Caitlin helped me design Jonathan's invitation and I had them printed up.  The dump truck said "Dump Everything" and then it opened up with the party details in the inside.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

I tried to blur out our address, my email, and phone number!

Jonathan had a special shirt with a dump truck on it!

We decorated the tables with black table cloths that we "drew" roads on- and put some of Jonathan's dump trucks on to go with the them.  One of the dump trucks held chips, one held silverware, and one held napkins.

I picked out my favorite pictures from over the last 12 months and made a photo banner month by month.  I can't believe how much my little boy had changed!  He went from being a (big) little baby to such a big boy!

I made a banner that said "Happy Birthday" and "Jonathan" that went over the fireplace where his presents were.  I also made another banner that said "I am One" that went over his high chair where he ate his cake.  In between the words I cut out little dump trucks.  Those took FOREVER!!!!!  I saw a dump truck online that I liked so I made a similar one to the computer and cut them all out by hand!  Many late nights, but I think they turned out real cute!

(I had no idea I left wipes on the mantel! Oops!)

Coming in from the front door we made a "road" on the floor that led to the kitchen.  I am VERY sad that I didn't get a picture of this!  We got lots of comments and everyone thought it was a cool idea.  You can kind of see it in these pictures...

He was OBSESSED with all the balloons.  

Did NOT like the birthday hat...

We didn't really know how to entertain a bunch of little ones- most of them being under the age of 2- so we made a "ball pit" from a plastic swimming pool and then bought plastic balls off the internet.  Jonathan is still enjoying playing with it-- and we can even use the pool this summer for him to play in!

With there being a lot of little kids- we weren't planning on doing any organized games or anything.... but I thought it would be fun to do SOMETHING... so I found an old poster board and I had everyone guess Jonthan's Height and Weight.  It was a lot of fun.  Different people kept coming up to Jonathan picking him up trying to guess his weight and trying to figure out how tall he was.  The winner got a dump truck with a bunch of candy in it!  I also put a picture of Joseph and I as one year olds and asked people to mark who they thought Jonathan looked more like!  Joe won... (I think he cheated! :) hehe)

Uncle Matty and Aunt Meghan won- they got the weight right and they were off by 1/2 inch

Joe definitely cheated! :)

We had Jonathan's cake made at Harris Teeter.  It looked like his invitation.  They also made a small personal cake for him!

Jonathan LOVED everyone singing Happy Birthday to him... but he didn't quite know what to do about the cake.  He sort of just picked at it at first.  I cut a smaller piece for him and he ate a bit more.  He didn't want to stay long in his high chair- he just wanted to go play in his ball pit and with the balloons!

Jonathan enjoyed opening presents and got a lot of great gifts from everyone!  

It was great catching up with great friends and their little ones too!!

L-R: Colleen with Natalie (born Sept. 2012), Jonathan and I, Jaime, Chelsey with Jake (born  Oct. 2012),
and Kelly with baby Evan (born Dec. 2012)

Before Jonathan's friends left- they received a little gift bag full of lots of goodies.  Since so many of his friends were under the age 2, we tried to find baby appropriate gifts.  We included a little board book about trucks, bubbles, some apple sauce, raisins, and goldfish.  The older kids also got a little truck to take home!