The past week or so Jonathan has been growing up right before our very eyes. Although it’s been obvious for a while that he’s been aware of his surroundings, only lately has he started to communicate back to us. He talks a lot of gibberish, but now we at least know whether the answer is yes or no.
We know this because he now nods or shakes his head. Shaking his head is pretty standard – it’s the nod that cracks us up each time. It’s very exaggerated and involves most of his body. I’d say it’s a combination of a bow and a head bang. It’s hard to mistake at any rate. We’ve had a lot of fun asking him questions and watching him answer.
He’s all boy but still show signs of sweetness. Last Sunday he and I were playing in the living room together. He kept pointing to the top of the fireplace, so I asked him if he wanted to sit above it on the ledge. He bowed and nodded (and almost hit his head on the tile around the fireplace) so I picked him up and placed him at the top. He likes playing the game where he sits on the ledge and slides off into my catching arms. After a few times I would catch him and we would purposely fall to the ground. We would roll around and then he’d pretend to bite my chest. About the third or fourth time of falling to the ground he decided to sink his teeth into me. I let out a yelp because it really hurt. He was initially taken back, but then realized that his biting really had hurt me. Instead of laughing or running around, his response was to take a couple steps towards me and to give me a kiss on the forehead. It was definitely his way of apologizing and making sure I was OK.
Not to be outdone, Julia had an interesting observation at dinner on Wednesday. We had salad for dinner topped with black beans and corn. Julia said that we were eating salad with deer poop on the top. I guess I had never thought of black beans that way, but they pretty much look identical to deer droppings. I guess that explains why she doesn’t like them very much.