In a word....

The picture above is : Jonathan and Matt outside of Rain Forest Cafe, after our dinner there.
The picture below is : Jonathan and I outside of the resturant after dinner, he was apparently distracted by the HUGE snake dangling from the ceiling (not frightened though, just intrigued by it and moving around to see it).We went to Rain-forest Cafe for dinner tonight, for Matt's 28th birthday. I thought all week about where to take him it would be a good place to go. I asked around and everyone had suggestions, but none were really baby (or even child) friendly and since Matt does not get to see Jonathan much, I thought it would be best if I found a place where we could all go together. So after someone mentioned a resturant in Hartford, I thought to myself, RAIN FOREST CAFE! I figured it would be perfect and we all would be entertained.
While we were there, we were a little concerned about how Jonathan would react to the thunder storms and such but he was soo good. Matt shot this video of him. You cannot see Jonathan the whole time becuase the thunder storm was making the resturant dark, but you can see flashes of him smiling and looking around. He loved it!

Another huge thing, a first, happened when we were there...
Right before we ordered, Jonathan looked at Matt from across the table and said "da-da". Very distinctly.We asked him to say it again, but he literally just laughed at us.
I am always so worried that Matt is going to miss this stuff since he works so much, so I am soooo happy that so far he has seen his first smile, his first crawl and now heard his first word. AND on his birthday!The picture above is : Jonathan looking over at some creature making a sound inside the resturant (I thought it was the ape, but Matt didn't think so).
The picture below is : Jonathan carefully looking over the menu (he decided he didn't want his own meal, instead he just wanted some of daddy's chicken, a cucumber from mommy's and daddy's salad and mommy's bread --- he made a really funny face when he ate the bread, becuase it wasn't the plain bread like he normally gets, but rather a cheesy-garlicy bread {we obviously didn't give him any with cheese or garlic - but the fact that it touched the cheesy-garlicy piece, made it smell like it})

The picture above is : Jonathan staring at the gigantic butterfly that was positioned on the tree we sat next too. He was in awe looking at it, just about the whole time we were there.

Matt and Jonathan

Here is a cute video of Matt demonstrating how much Jonathan loves to be up-side-down!

Catch

Jonathan loves to play catch, and today he played catch with Granpa (my dad). I caught it on tape.

The infamous bunny

Jonathan received this bunny from Ga (my mother) for Easter. Ever since he got it he has been mesmerized with it!
No matter how upset he is, it always makes him smile... and now since the batteries are slowly dying, he totally cracks up when it makes any sound at all.

Crawl Video

Here is Jonathan's FIRST crawl on video! If you have seen him recently, it's probably shocking how fast he has gotten in such a short time.

I forgot to post this when he did it... The video was taken on Saturday, August 9, 2008.

More JACK'S BIG MUSIC SHOW!

Jonathan was wrestling with daddy today and despite his great love for his daddy... He STILL could not be torn away from his Jack's Big Music Show! So much for out of sight - out of mind! :)

His first "shiner"...

Matt, Jonathan and I went to Grandpa Cella's and Grandma Cella's house today for breakfast. We had wonderful blueberry pancakes, sausage and bacon (of course Jonathan didn't --he had blueberry and pear oatmeal).
After we ate, I was clearing the table and washing my hands, and Matt and Grandma Cella were playing with the little mister when crazy doggy came running. Kodi ran and jumped up on Grandma Cella, (maybe thinking Jonathan wasn't there or maybe being a little jealous), in any event he got Jonathan and gave him his first (of I am sure many) black eyes....
Jonathan and Kodi made up though, which is really good, beause we don't want a little boy who is afraid of dogs! :)

Before bedtime

We have established a wonderful routine. Every night Jonathan eats, gets changed, brushes his teeth (well, has them done for him), takes his vitamins (which he totally hates), the three of us, (some-times four) climb into our bed and he listens to a story (I think this is his favorite --- IT'S DEFINITELY Matt and my favorite time of day), then we relax for a minute and he is finally carried off into bed. He gets two kisses, (sometimes four, if we are all big mush balls that night) and he is given his blanket, a teddy bear and a pacifier, then I climb over his crib (because I can't reach) and give him his last kiss for the night. He falls asleep looking at the stars projected on his ceiling and his Baby Einstein CD of the day (currently Baby Symphony Lullaby). WELL.... this particular night, the camera was handy and caught Jonathan and I in a tickle fight... and his eventual capturing of the camera. You can just barely see his head in the shot (apparently he gets his photographing skills {or lack there of} from his Grandpa 'Cella -- only he cuts off bodies and leaves heads in the shot).

NOT THE MAMA!

Do you remember the baby dinosaur from TGIF's Dinosaurs? He would always hit his daddy with a frying pan (or whatever he could get his little hands on - for that matter) and shout "NOT THE MAMA!" --- Well, all Jonathan is missing here is a frying pan!

He can wave!

Our little mister waved "bye-bye" to Ga (grandma-my mom) today!
And later in the mirror (to himself). AND again to his to bunny and froggy (his favorite toy).

Anniversary

Matt and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary this weekend.
The funny thing is, I can remember getting married like it was yesterday! Never have I been so excited about an event (other than Jonathan- which really isn't an event)

We got a sitter (thanks mom) and went to dinner at the Milestone Inn on Saturday the 9th. It was so nice. We were the only ones there. I ordered the fettuccine pancetta, and Matt the grilled pork chop. We had a delicious Mediterranean ravioli for an appetizer. Of course we had desert too, I had the peach melba and Matt the carrot cake. PERFECT!
When we came home, Jonathan was sleepy, so we all went to bed early.
Matt had beautiful flowers delivered to the house. What an adventure, trying to open the door with a baby in one arm and a dog in the other, not to mention I needed to sign and carry in flowers....eek!
And tonight Matt came home with dinner (our actually anniversary) chicken parm and fried ravioli... YUMMY!
He bought me a beautiful quilt with our names and wedding date on it, (since it was the cotton anniversary), and I got him MOJITOS, and a couple plaques to hang on the wall "Grow old with me, the best is yet to be" and "Happily Ever After". We went to bed early again, Matt said he wanted it to be just like our wedding night... lol
Jonathan is STILL probably wondering what an anniversary is, since he has heard the word six or seven times over the weekend, and from various people....lol

Playing Ball

I went to the Dollar Tree on Tuesday and bought a tiny kick-ball. I was thinking it would be good for my classroom, for one game or another...that is until I realized it fit perfectly in Jonathan's little hands! I washed it when I got home and handed it to him since he was starring at it. Again, He just wanted to eat it.... But this morning, since we both were up early :) we went downstairs to play. I sat Jonathan on his foam alphabet/number mat and picked up the ball. I rolled it to him and he caught it. Not a delayed, "what is this" or "oh there it is" but a "I GOT IT".... SO FUNNY! So, I said "Jonathan, give mommy the ball" and he rolled it back! I was cracking up! Needless to say, this little man is off to a great start! We rolled and eventually bounced the ball back and fourth for a good half hour. And when Pop-pop came over, Jonathan played catch with him as well! What a neat new trick!

New trick

Matt thought Jonathan how to "click" and repeat!
Jonathan can be "re-pete" now!

We have lift-off!

Jonathan's crawling!!! He started rocking and push-ups about 2 weeks ago and yesterday (Sunday), BAM movement!

JACK'S Big Music Show

Jonathan discovered his favorite TV show. It's on Noggin (which is supposed to be "preschool", there are NO commercials which is awesome!) Of course his daily viewing is WAAAAAY limited, but this show, Jack's Big Music Show, mesmerizes him! He has even shot me NASTY looks if I made too much noise while he was trying to watch it! He even smiles when you talk about it, or the characters, Jack, Mary and the dog Mel....