Jonah-buddy

I've been thinking a lot about my Jonah today. I took him to the kindergarten orientation, which was really fun, but I found out that kindergarten here is all day! I almost started crying. Just the other day, I was feeling like his childhood has flown by, and I wasn't sure that I'd spent enough one-on-one time with him. I consoled myself with the fact that kindergarten is just a few hours, and I'll have more play time with him without everyone home. Darn it.  So I played with him and Maggie all morning. (He loves playing with Eli, so when he gets home, Jonah doesn't want Mom-time as much.)  I just miss my kids when they're at school, and half a day for all of them sounds about right.

Anyway, for the orientation, they took them around the school, let them have story and craft time while parents listened to info., gave them snacks and took them on a quick bus ride. The bus ride was his favorite part. It took a couple of hours, and when we were leaving, he said, "That was really long. I was starting to think I hated it." I laughed, because he enjoyed all of it. I don't know when the near-hating started.

I need to post about Jonah's birthday. Since we don't have friends his age or cousins to do a party with, I really tried to make it fun in other ways. We opened his biggest gift the night before. (We usually do gifts in the morning, but John had an early-morning meeting.)

After school, we went to a big playground in town that we'd heard about.

He chose a Phineas and Ferb party theme:

For a cake, I got this cake-cicle thing.  If you ever buy one, know that you need to do a heavier, brownie-type mix, because the cake falls apart when you try to hold it up and dip it in things.  So we just used them to make little cake sandwiches.  (They are quite thin.)

We did a family home evening about Jonah, which I think I'll make a tradition - at least for this year.  We looked at pictures of him when he was a baby, read about his early milestones, etc.  Then each person said one thing that they liked about Jonah.  I'll include the list here:

Eli- Jonah is very nice and is always sharing.  (He even offered to give some of his presents to Eli.)

Tori - He is nice and funny.

Dad - He often asks how his (John's) day was.

Mom - He is thoughtful and concerned about the feelings of others.  He often tells me I'm gorgeous.  He is very affectionate - especially with Mom and Dad and Maggie.

Eli - He always feels sad when others are sad or hurt.

Maggie - She likes it when she kisses him.

Later that evening, Eli said that Jonah was the best brother a boy could have.  The next morning, Jonah said, "Did you hear when Eli said I was the best brother a boy could have?"  It meant the world to him.  He plays well with all the kids, but he is at the age where he really idolizes his big brother.  Maybe he always will.  I love my Jonah.