the army crawl is gone

It happened so fast. One minute, we were having our upteenth millionth conversation about how Jonah’s belly crawl is in fact a legitimate crawl and there’s no need to get up on hands and knees but maybe if he’d been on more carpet than hardwood? but no, he’s fine, he likes to scooch around on his belly, it’s perfectly effective, and anyway, when he wants to get up to standing he gets on his hands and knees so we know he can…

And then, this afternoon, he got up on his hands and knees and crawled. Just a few feet at first, from the chair to the coffee table. And then later a few feet again. And now, barely a few hours after that first crawl, the belly-elbows-legs scooch is gone. Like it never existed.

Things are changing.

Language continues to develop a pace.

On his birthday, Jonah woke up and declared, “Toe!”

It’s such a satisfying word, with its long round middle “owe” sound. And then he touches his toes and says it again and again. Toe. Toe. Toe. If you touch his toes, he has to tell you, “Toe.”

Because of this, he’s now enjoying Head-Shoulders-Knees-And… much more than before. Other songs are strangely off the good list. He no longer accepts any of his previous favorites (Austrian Yodeling, Allouette, Savez-Vous Plantez Les Choux, Open Shut-Them, etc.) especially when he’s fussy. We think he’s figured out that we’ve been using songs to trick him into a better mood and now he would prefer to have his little episodes for as long as he wants to have them, thank you very much.

We’re in Magdalena for Thanksgiving, visiting Jonah’s cowboy grandparents and great-grandpa. He’s loving it here. For one thing there’s THREE DOGS, and a backyard full of birdfeeders and thus birds (“Bur! Bur!”).

There’s Buddy, who is big and sweet and cautious around Jonah, Jackie who is little and leaps several feet in the air and barks a lot, and old Joe who’s deaf as a result of surviving a rattlesnake bite on his face a while back so we have to make sure that Jonah is very gentle with him and so far he has been.

Today we went to the old folks’ home in Socorro in the morning for Grandpa and Pappy’s weekly gospel and folk music performance — Pappy hasn’t missed a Thursday in 24 years except for the week he had bypass surgery.

I wish I could report that Jonah enjoyed the music but actually he was a little wiggly and tired since it was morning naptime and plus they had this huge aviary in the hall full of colorful tiny birds and he much preferred that.

I know, how dare I even suggest that he has a wish for a morning nap, except he did in fact fall asleep in my lap after all the dancing and bird watching but before the set was over.

Sadly, he woke up when I tried to transfer him to the car seat after the show.

And of course we had Thanksgiving dinner. For lunch — the way of Scott’s people. My family always had Thanksgiving dinner for dinner. Jonah enjoyed the mashed potatoes and turkey and Grandma Judy’s preserved peaches.

Everyone commented on how delightful and well behaved he was.

And then we put the clearly very tired boy down for his afternoon nap and he cried for about half an hour in protest while we all sat around the table post-meal listening and commenting on the quality of his wails as they rose and fell until he finally gave up and slept.

Interestingly he’s gone to sleep easily both nights and last night he slept straight through. A vast improvement (and so, relief) compared to the last time we traveled.