PARTAY

There are no words adequate enough to describe what Jonas' first year of life has been like...joy, contentment, tough, fun, hard, exciting, excruciating, anxiety, happy, sad, bewildering. Is there a word that sums all that up? One thing's for sure: we love our son more than he will probably ever know. We love being parents. We delight in the sweet moments and want to pull our hair out in the trying ones. We are different people than we were a year ago that's for sure. But, I am convinced this different is good. We have grown as people, we have had to cling to what we know to be true more than one time, we've fought, we've had the time of our lives, we've experienced pure joy. I have struggled for a long time with believing God is who he says he is, and being a parent has pushed me toward filtering through my unbelief. Paul would say the same thing. Sure, at times we would love to have a taste of our "old" life again...sleeping in, eating a leisurely meal, etc, but if I guess that is what babysitters and grandparents are for :) We often find ourselves staring at Jonas and saying "can you believe this is OUR child?" Almost as if shaking our heads that God would let us be in charge of another life. But, that is it...God let us. He gifted us with the most precious gift we've ever received. And that is what we are learning. Everyday we get a little better glimpse of the way God feels about us as we parent our boy. It is a hard thing for me to learn, and I have a LONG way to go on this particular road. This year has been a crazy year with crazy changes, and sometimes I feel like I am going crazy. But, crazy has been a catalyst to experience a fuller joy. And peace.

We have never blogged about where the name JONAS came from. When we first started talking about that name, several asked if we got it from the Jonas Brothers. Fortunately, we didn't. We decided if that was the name our child would have, the Jonas Brothers would be long gone before any schoolyard ridicule could happen. The name JONAS means "the dove" (which is a symbol of peace), and the spiritual connotation is "declarer of peace of good". I have an unexplainable need for peace in my life and at the time we were choosing names felt that need very intensely. We didn't name our son until we met him for the first time. We had two names going into the delivery room, and when our doctor asked what his name was moments after he breathed his first breaths, Paul and I looked at each other and said "JONAS". We just knew that our son was to be a symbol of peace in our lives.

A few statistics on Jonas at one year...
- walks, almost runs, everywhere
- can say "dog", "hello", "this", in addition to "mama" and "dada"
- points and says this or grunts to tell us what he wants
- favorite foods: sweet potatoes, carrots, yogurt, any fruit, meat...not a fan of green veggies
- has a severe allergy to cows milk which was confirmed through a blood test
- loves to ride his tonka truck and race day rider
- dances to music
- has taken up the need for a lovey (which is a tab blanket my friend Charissa made him)...he sleeps with it and generally likes to hold it
- still loves his paci
- climbs on and off the couch/bed
- sleeps about 10 hours a night
- has 6 teeth...still
- weighs 19 pounds, 1 ounce (this was the dr's scale...our scale said more like 18.5)
- 30.4 inches long
- rides in a forward facing car seat (the dr said it was OK even though he isn't 20 pounds) which he LOVES
- loves the park and pretty much anything we do outside. He is also liking the water this summer
- got his first haircut
- squeals and runs when his daddy walks through the door in the evening

Here are some pictures of his party/birthday weekend... (btw: I am having the hardest time with the pics. They are supposed to be side by side but aren't posting that way even though they show that way on the draft screen. Anyone have any advice?)


Jonas' monkey cake and the living room jungle safari...his theme was "Jonas' Safari Fiesta"

singing happy birthday


opening presents...he got so much stuff. We are still trying to figure out where to put it all!


with his #1 pinata and with Grandpa Snow

our little family...there were several cameras and we didn't know where to look :)

with Grandma Snow and Gram Gram at a Japanese Steakhouse...he is watching the fire

I LOVE my new seat!