So to update where we've been...Jonah's 21 and 1/2 months old, and I'm 33 and 1/2 weeks pregnant. Jonah's been SUCH a great helper and he's excited to have a little baby sister. He's already a great big brother. He's talking so much, forming lots of sentences. He's excited for my mom to come visit in less than 2 weeks.
We're ready to paint the new baby's room. Greg is planning to paint it, but if he doesn't get it done before March 6, my mom will help paint it while she's here. I wish I could just do it while we're at home, and maybe Jonah could help. But that would be a bit messy. I wanna get some finger paint for Jonah to play and get creative. It's been hard for me to make it to the store with Jonah these days. He does great, but I have trouble walking some days (I guess the baby's in a strange position for me sometimes) and lifting Jonah gets harder when I'm having pain walking. So, for now, Greg does the grocery shopping and I love him for it! I know it's just about one of the least favorite things he does, but he's loving me and filling my love tank by doing it.
So now, Jonah and I enjoy staying home and playing and learning new things. I'm focusing more now on reading words instead of just reading the books, but showing him some words that he recognizes to emphasize reading. My dad said that a Japanese woman had 4 children and they were all geniuses (an IQ of 140 or more) and the one thing she did with them was label everything in her home. With a phonetic alphabet, that can really help reading in English. I'm not sure how phonetic the Japanese alphabet is, but I know that the Chinese alphabet, which contains 40 characters, helps with literacy, but one must know and recognize over 3000 characters to be considered literate. Anyway, I could see Jonah reading more being able to see how "chair" is spelled or "spoon." Right now he says "boon" for "spoon" and other words he's really good at correcting his own speech when we tell him what's right, but with "boon" he's pretty stubborn and won't say the "sp." I'm so amazed at how well he does repeat and pronounce things, but it's not too much of a surprise considering his genes and all the linguists that are in his family. So, when I finally get my Dell PC replaced, I might get down to that printing labels for almost everything, so Jonah can continue reading.
He loves music and loves hearing songs that he knows. Mostly, he likes songs that his mommy and daddy taught him and then he hears other people sing them, like, "If You're Happy and You Know It," "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes," "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Jesus Loves Me," " Jesus Loves the Little Children," "Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man" or the Animals song (a.k.a. De Animals A Comin').
We just went to the Purdue Glee Club concert at Carmel HS on Sat. night, and the second song was the Noah's ark animals comin' song. Greg had been singing it to Jonah when he'd look through his Bible Stories book with the animals entering the ark, and we knew some of the lyrics. I only knew the tune and barely a few lyrics from hearing Greg. Well, Jonah recognized the song, and we told him "That's your song, Jonah! the Animals song!" We cheered loud for them and that song, and later during the concert, he kept saying, "AMinals?" That's how he says "animals" and it's cute. So, Sat. night, that song and those lyrics were in my head all night, and I couldn't sleep. I drank a chai late that night, so I guess the little caffeine it has effected me too much. Anyway, here are the lyrics to "De Animals A Comin'" which I found online.
Dere's animals an' animals an' animals
an' animals an' animals an' animals
Yes, Lord.
De animals a comin', one by one
De animals a comin', one by one
De old cow chewin' on a caraway bun
De animals a comin', two by two
De elephant and de kangaroo
De animals a comin, three by three
De bear and de bug an de bumble bee
Oh de animals a comin', four by four
De ol' hippopotamus stuck in de door
De animals a comin', five by five
Thus de animals did arrive
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah to the Lamb.
Oh de animals a comin', six by six
De hyena laughing at de monkey's tricks
De aminals a comin', seven by seven
De old fat pig says, "Who's dat shovin?"
De animals a comin', eight by eight
Noah hollered out, "Shut that gate?"
Oh de animals a comin', nine by nine
Noah hollered out, "Cut dat line"
Oh de animals a comin', ten by ten
De old ark blew its whistle then
And nobody knew where they was at
Till de old ark bumped on Ararat
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah to the Lamb.
The Gospel song, "De Animals A Comin" is a traditional Afican-American hymn describing the animals in Noah's ark. The author of this song is unknown.
I'm considering making a children's book with these lyrics and numbers and pictures for Jonah. Don't know if I'll ever get to it, but right now, it's in my head.
