Here are some cute clips of Jonah (with special guest stars Madelyn Terral and, of course, Kaeta). These days Jonah enjoys rolling on his tummy, kicking, grunting (oh boy does he like grunting!), and getting attention from his sister. It's already obvious that he really looks up to her!
It's two inches tall, yet she ran into the other room to get away from it. When I said, "It's just a toy. You wind it up," she said, "I don't need to wind it up!"
If you're thinking our kids don't get enough sleep...
...then you're right. A few days ago they both boycotted nap time, but I got to have them both fall asleep sweetly in my arms on the couch.
Jonah's new thing this month is rolling over. We'll lay him down on his back, and before we know it he's on his tummy. This is great fun for Jonah (and it makes diaper changes all the more fun for us), until he gets tired of being on his tummy after about three minutes. He can roll onto his back (he's done it a couple of times), but he's usually too frustrated to realize he can, so he ends up just pounding his fists into the carpet angrily. Same thing with scooting. He is so close; but he just hasn't coordinated his movements quite yet to cover any ground.
Jonah is also sitting up pretty well. He can sit unsupported for longer and longer periods. And the best thing now is to combine his three favorite activities: sitting up, rolling over, and bathtime. Which can be a potentially dangerous combination, I am fully aware (so my hands are never more than an inch from him at all times of course), but that's our boy -- living on the edge.
Jonah's biggest complaint these days is that we don't feed him fast enough. Keep those swoot potatoes comin, he says. Coach Taylor says he needs to bulk up if he's gonna make varsity this fall.
Here's an email I just sent to this guy, detailing a weird coincidence from today.
Here's something: Anytime someone makes a Twitter post that includes the word "Kurth," I get a notice. It's the lazy man's way of googling yourself, I guess.
Also, my wife's name is Karianne, but in high school she went by Kari.
So a few minutes ago, I got a pop-up that said: "(darinmcwatters): Instant messaging with Kari Kurth is like trying to have a conversation with a toaster."
Which is really funny, because, since we have 2 kids, talking with Karianne can be like talking with a toaster. Interruptions (and pieces of toast) pop up all the time.
But then I got to thinking, who's this "darinmcwatters" fella, and what's he doing instant messaging my wife? So I googled you and found your website. Since we live in Texas and you used to live in Texas, I thought maybe you knew her from high school or church or something. So I called her up and asked,
"Who's Darin McWatters?"
"I have noooo idea."
Pretty quickly we figured out that there is another "Kari Kurth" in the universe (what are the chances??). While we were talking, I saw a link on your site to the band "Everybodyduck." I bought that CD like 10 years ago, and I've never met anyone else who'd heard of them (no offense!). Then I discovered that you're the lead singer. What a weird circle of coincidences!
Given all that, I felt compelled to email you the story. Have a good day!
The other day Kaeta had quesadillas for dinner. While I was getting them ready, I told her, "Mr. Schroeder likes to say, I've got a bad case of the dillas!" She just stared at me.
But then a minute later, she said, "Mr. Doh-dah like to say, I gotta bad case of dee-yas!" And she's repeated it many times since.
So, Gottfried, your joke is popular with 2 year olds.
The first night Jonah ate sweet potatoes, I misheard Karianne and thought she said "swoot potatoes." Now whenever we feed those to Jonah, we say (in our "Jonah voice"), "Ooh, swoot potatoes, my favorite!" And boy, can he wolf them down!
Granola Thievery.
On Sunday we went to Whole Foods, and we stopped at a display of some fresh-baked granola (no, we are not hippies. Granola is good, people.). We were looking at the different flavors, when I glanced in the cart and saw that Kaeta had grabbed a box of granola, opened it, and started munching away! So we bought that one.
Thank God for Reflexes.
Outside Whole Foods, we were about to walk to the car. To make it easier to carry everything, I hoisted Kaeta up on to my shoulders. Then I reached to pick up something else, and the next thing I new, my arm had snapped back and caught Kaeta by the ankle, saving her from falling on her head on the concrete.
This was really scary, and it was several seconds before I even understood what had happened. She sits on my shoulders all the time and has never fallen. Another dad with his daughter was walking by, and he said, "Whoa, that scared me!" Me, too, buddy!
Jonah needs his space!
The other night after bedtime, Jonah was screaming his head off, so I went in to comfort him. As I stepped into the room, I glanced over at Kaeta's bed, and something didn't look right. I walked over to it... and she wasn't there! I flipped on the lamp and looked around -- no Kaeta.
Then I looked at Jonah's crib. She had climbed up into his crib with him, she was snuggling with his little blue bunny, and she was sound asleep with him screaming right into her ear. So we figure, she wanted to snuggle, but he was upset. "I need my space, Kaeta! Quit crowding me!"
Where? Where. Where?
It's hard to convey how funny this was in person, but I'm going to try. Last night I was reading Kaeta her favorite story, Peter Pan. But randomly while I was reading, she would point somewhere on the page and say, "What's that?" So it went kind of like this:
K: What's that?
D: Tinker bell.
K: [moving her finger] What's that?
D: Peter Pan's knee.
K: What's that?
D: Peter Pan's hat.
K: Peter Pan's SHOES! (She wasn't even pointing at his shoes, she just gets excited whenever she thinks about shoes. Girls...)
Then her finger moved over to the words on the page.
K: What's that?
D: The word "ship."
K: What's that?
D: Pirate.
K: What's that?
D: And.
K: What's that?
D: Where.
She looked up at me, then kept her finger on the word "where."
K: What's that?
D: Where.
K: What's that?
D: Where.
Pause.
K: What's that there?
D: Where. It's the word "where."
K: That's a WORD!
I looked over at Karianne, and she was totally cracking up. She said it was like "who's on first?"
Only four months until varsity try-outs! Every time we mention it, Jonah vigorously flaps his arms in excitement. Jonah's big news is that he has started solid foods this month, and he loves it. Dinner time is his second favorite time of day; his first being right before bath time when he gets to be naked. It is adorable how he smiles and giggles at being a naked baby. I need to get this on video so that I can embarrass him in front of Brinnly someday.
Getting these pictures of him proved to be a little more challenging this time, between Jonah grabbing onto Tigger the whole time, and Marty charging into the frame and sticking his nose right in Jonah's face. Jonah didn't seem to mind though, he is really fascinated by Marty, and only grins when the dog slobbers all over his face.
Allow me to make a plug for a great product I've discovered. To all the nursing moms out there, if you don't have a "Hooter Hider" -- get one! It is one of the best inventions ever. (Plus it has such a great name!) When Kaeta was a baby, I had no idea that anything like this existed. Whenever I had to nurse in public, I struggled with a blanket -- with it falling, with Kaeta pulling it down, not being able to see what I was doing.... it was so awkward and stressful. The OPPOSITE of what you want for a nursing experience. It would help if Derek was with me, so he could hold the blanket up while I got situated, but that only seemed to draw attention to the spectacle -- I think people were expecting us to do a magic trick. Needless to say, nursing in front of someone was a last resort.
But then when I was pregnant with Jonah, I found the Hooter Hider (queue cheesy miracle music here). Nursing in public is a totally different experience. It has a strap that goes around my neck, so there's no worry about it falling down or the baby pulling it off. It is plenty long, so I know I am fully covered. And best of all, it has flexible boning around the collar that makes it possible to see the baby. So nursing is easy and pleasant, no matter where I am. I know I am starting to sound like an infomercial here, but it really is that great. The Hooter Hider goes wherever Jonah and I go.
You can get the Hooter Hider for about 35 bucks, which may seem like a lot, but in my mind it is totally worth it. If you're crafty, you can be like my friend Jamie and make your own. She said it wasn't hard and cost her less than $10. Or, you can go to this website and enter this contest by April 11th to win a free one. Oh, and believe it or not, you won't find it at Babies R Us. My new favorite baby store, Baby-Wise, has them.
A couple of years ago, I posted a video of my good friend Johnathan Fowler and me singing Decatur by Sufjan Stevens during a concert Johnathan gave at his house. Using the tip from Lifehacker, here is the mp3. (And here is the YouTube video.)
Bible Explorer is totally free Bible software that's stuffed with features and has a growing library of electronic books (currently around 150 free, plus over 1400 additional books for sale. Click here for a list of the free books). I highly recommend giving it a try! I work for WORDsearch, the company that makes it.
Instaverse is a free progam that makes Scripture references pop up when you mouse over them in a web browser. This is nice if you read online commentaries, devotionals, etc. that refer to verses without quoting them. If you have the Bible memorized, please disregard.
(If you don't know about RSS feeds, I recommend spending 5 minutes at bloglines.com. I'm hooked on it -- it's a great way to check multiple sites for updates in one fell swoop, and you can keep up with news, your friends' blogs, and anything else with an RSS feed very easily.)
Blidget (i.e., a Blog Widget)
If I put our names here, maybe googling for them will someday lead people to this page, so here they are: Derek Kurth, Karianne Kurth (formerly Karianne Leikam, aka Kari Leikam), and Kaeta Kurth.
Since we started counting on January 24, 2006, this site has been visited times.
