Sitting Pretty

In the last few days, Jonas has made great progress sitting in his special "Bumbo" seat. Each day, he gets just a bit more comfortable it seems. We recently added a tray that helps him out even more, and lets him play with some of his "friends."

Didn't get enough? Here's another Bonus Jonas video of the big guy doing his thing.

Grand Marshal

Mom and Dad have all sorts of parade experience from their marching band days, but Jonas took in his first such festivities this morning -- the quaint little Fourth of July parade that goes around our block each year. One of the world's shortest parades, it lasts just one trip around the block, but draws hundreds of families and children from around the neighborhood. This year, Mom decked out Jonas' ride for the occasion...

We both took turns posing with our little grand marshal...

...and Jonas seemed to fit in just fine with the rest of his co-marchers (co-strollers?)...

But we couldn't get enough just from photos. So here's a short Bonus Jonas film of his first parade, with an exclusive look at how it all ended for the big guy.

Happy Family

A long three-day weekend at home together makes for one happy family.

Russian Doll?

Jonas is fortunate to have a wonderfully rich background when it comes to where his grandparents and great-grandparents came from. One of those stops came in Russia and today, while on a walk with Dad, he looked like he was honoring that particular heritage.

Concentration

It's simply adorable watching Jonas concentrate on things, including his efforts on his stomach, an exercise in focus that is typically followed by exhaustion and then fussiness. But when he's in the moment, he's pretty darn cute.

Face Mask

In the last few weeks, Jonas has continued to perfect his grabbing skills. Thanks to the bibs that he unfortunately gets to wear since Mom and Dad have grown tired of changing his milkified outfits every hour, his grabbing episodes often lead to some humorous results. His best legitimate progress in the grabbing arena seems to be while playing with one of his favorite play toys, which Mom and Dad no longer have to twirl since Jonas can do it himself now...

...at least, he does until he sees us watching him...

...at which point he usually starts to realize that he could grab his bib, too...

...which often leads to the bib flying over his face...

...which, ultimately, at some point every morning, just leads to this...

But at least he's making progress.

Hat Tricks

The last few mornings have been unusually chilly here, and while Dad took Jonas along on his morning coffee run, he decided Jonas could probably use a little hat, a relatively new experience for him. (Amusing Southern California moment: On Monday morning, we were walking in the lightest drizzle likely ever recorded, so light that it probably couldn't even be recorded, when we passed a man who looked at us and said, "How about this rain!" Well...) In any case, Jonas once again proves that his adorable-ness transcends to hats as well.

Stinker

We'd like to say that Jonas smells baby-fresh at all times, but...

Easy Choice

One of Niki's long-time dreams has been to own a Porsche. (Curiously, not even a new Porsche, but an '80s-era red 911 Carrera...) She was so interested in the concept that in recent years we've half-joked about skimping on all other expenses to see what it would take to own one. When Jonas came along, though, that idea took a back seat. But Niki's dream car still managed to play a key part in how she told me that the former Nub was coming into the world. "You know, a Porsche probably isn't the most practical car," she said that morning. "Why not?" I asked. A few moments of silence later and I caught on. So, it was with interest that Jonas and I saw the car of Niki's dreams parked outside the coffee stop the other morning. I snapped this photo, sent it to Niki and asked which one she would pick now. The one on the right won hands down.

Looking Good

We can't get enough of Jonas' namesake T-shirts. He looks like one cool customer.