It is harvest time and such nice Fall temperatures has allowed us to be outside a lot this month, playing ball or riding bikes with our neighbor friends. Judah started taking walks with mommy around the block without the stroller, stopping long enough to explore, collect sticks, crunch leaves, and point out all the pumpkins. We have built a woodpile beside our house of all the sticks we have collected from around the neighborhood. We discovered the hills beside our house climbing them on our way to the mail box every afternoon. Several times we went to the park to fit in some swinging and going down the slide before the weather turned cold. Each day we would be outside playing in the leaves enjoying every last bit of the warm, Fall sunshine.
Judah's favorite activity this month has been playing with balls. He likes to roll them, kick them, bat at them, carry them around, bounce them, and scream "ball." Every kind size and shape of ball is interesting: bouncy balls to big exercise balls, footballs to soccer balls, and even small, indoor vinyl, hand balls. Everything that is round and sphere-like such as gourds and pumpkins or even pear shape like lightbulbs are also "balls." Even the walnuts in our yard are "balls" and he seems to find every one of them.
Judah also has sat and played with his toys more this month. We found a Noah's ark with animals that Judah likes to stand beside his little table and play with. Then he has rediscovered his Fischer Price Little People Barn with the farm animals as well as putting the animals into the tractor wagons. He likes to zoom his Fischer Price Little People Bus around, calling the bus driver, Papa. Finally, he has sat and played with his building blocks more and more, stacking them, helping me stack them, and of course knocking them down.
Judah's new thing is climbing and along with that getting into things. He has found the one cupboard where the safety latch is broken only to pull out all my mixing bowls and lids to crawl inside and shut the door. This makes a lot of extra dishes to wash. He still enjoys plopping down on the pillows especially when they are on the couch or bed. Unfortunately, he has not comprehended the message from the "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." He tries to stand on his chairs before mommy catches him. He climbs into his toy boxes or laundry baskets whether they are filled or empty. With being a little taller and stronger, he has discovered opening our nightstand drawers to find mommy's chap stick and lotion. So I replaced these items with fun things for him to find making the drawer his place to open and explore. His eagerness for adventure can be summed up on the day that daddy was home watching him and found him standing on the kitchen table where he had climbed up the chairs and was playing with the light.
Judah has started playing directly with us or other kids instead of just parallel play. He wants you to drive his cars with him or read separate books sitting side by side. He likes to "Hop on Pop" or pick up sticks as he walks with you around the block. Overall he is better about sharing his toys, offering them to friends, and observing what other kids do. He has really started to pick up his toys. He understands what it means to put on shoes and get ready to go bye, bye. You can really see his interaction when he plays with his cousin Jacob if we go north to the farm or on our Monday play dates with his friend Sean.
Even more so, Judah's conversation skills started out with two syllable consonants and ended with saying short phrases. The highlight came when Judah (October 29) held up his arm and said, "mom" so he could be carried. Later that day, Judah again came to me, said "mom," followed by "please" and then when I bent over to help him, he finished with a "thank you." He is picking up more words than I can keep track. His pronunciation appears to be right on except for the one word he seems to struggle with, "Maestro" as he replaces it with "Detro" followed by "no no." Other than that I have heard him say the following words: bubble, tractor, hippo, kitty, taxi, yes, ark, these, thank you, puppy, monkey, Binky, shoes, socks, box, pepper, stick. Judah woke up one night at 3:00am saying, "Puppy, monkey, and Binky." I proceeded to go get him these things since he had thrown them out of his crib. I tucked him real good since he got cold. On the way out of the room with a Binky in his mouth, I hear this "Thank you!" If you listen closely, you can also hear him say from time to time: what's this, all right, and I touched it.
This month Judah has finally grown to 20 pounds in spite still wearing his 12 month clothes. This means that he can finally graduate to the bigger car seat. His first ride was like opening a whole new world. He could watch the road, see trucks, understand what mommy means by stopping or going at the light, and watch daddy drive. Surprisingly this month, Judah got taller and lankier, filling out those 12 month clothes better. Often we would cover his brown mop of thick hair with a fun seasonal hat (to hide that he needs another haircut already) for a photo opportunity.
This month he tasted strawberries for the first time. Judah also really enjoyed taking a trip to the pepper plant in our small garden to find one to eat raw, seeds and all. He also liked raw onion and discovered raw broccoli. Every piece of food is "hot" even if it is cold and so we have to blow on everything before he will eat it. Other than that, Judah practiced with his fork and spoon, leaning more and more how to scoop up his eggs and cheese or fork his macaroni. Judah finally got a high chair putting him on the same level as mommy and daddy and allowing him to watch himself eat in the dining room mirror.
Our daily Fall routine has remained the same. Judah still takes his naps during the afternoon allowing errands in the morning and chores after nap. You can always tell when he is tired because he reaches up with both hands and grabs his hair or mommy's hair. Usually we go outside and take a walk around the neighborhood and stop to get the mail in the afternoon. He enjoys watching his one video a day while mommy makes supper. Before bed, daddy reads books to him ending with his special goodnight book. You will see him carry his puppy and monkey (called oo-oo) around before cuddling with them in bed.
At the beginning of October, we took our annual Fall excursion to get apples in Wisconsin. Staying with Grandpa and Grandma Kreis the night before, we all traveled on Saturday with the big white van loaded up with us, Grandpa and Grandma, and Uncle Philip and Uncle Charlie. Arriving at Gays Mills, Wisconsin, by afternoon, we filled the back with baking and eating apples. As we went from one Orchard to the next, Judah got his fill of our family Fall tradition. The first stop, Judah immediately went to a pallet of apples and starting taking them out of the bushels, saying, "apple." At another stop, Judah enjoyed seeing the petting animals, waving at the rabbits and pointing at the goats. Our day was complete with a tire swing ride, Wisonsin cheese, and playing chalk with Uncle Charlie. Before stopping to eat at the Pizza Ranch in Olwein, we visited the Pikes Peak State Park for a glimps of the beautiful Fall color.
Our three day weekend allowed us to continue filling it with all the activities of Fall. On Sunday and Monday, we stayed at the Rittgers Farm with Papa and Gigi. Judah had his first sleep over with cousin Jacob. Together the boys played and then played off each other. Judah rode with Papa in the combine helping harvest a bumper crop of corn. Then we selected pumpkins from the patch and carved them with the boys. Each boy cleaned the seeds out of their pumpkin and then ate it and played in the leaves. The weather was even pleasant enough for the boys to take a dip in Grandpa's pond.
Unfortunately, after our little trip, we experienced our first cold and illness of the season. Judah was on his first round of anti-biotic for a sinus infection. At least his ears were thankfully clear this time. However, once the sinus infection cleared, Judah came down with some kind of respiratory viral infection the following week. This meant little sleep for all of us as Judah experienced very high temperatures (103), vomiting, and sore throat especially during the night. We had to take shifts since the little guy wanted to be cuddled often and to keep a close eye on his fever. We would strip him down putting on cool wash cloths to keep the fever under control and then give him medicine to lessen the pain. Still, we ended up taking him to the Emergency Room after calling the Mercy Nurse for advice. Being an viral infection, all they could do was provide pain and nausea medication as the infection ran its course. Judah would only drink Pedialyte or juice and eat vegetable chips (only thing he really wanted) when he felt good. Otherwise, he watched a lot of videos when he was not sleeping. After a week, you could tell he was feeling better when he would ask for his ball or laugh at Maestro running nearby.
Besides catching up on sleep from many nights of caring for a sick kid, I was fortunate to add some new fall activities. I was fortunate to spend a day at the church scrapbooking on Judah's baby book. Then a conversation and brainstorming session with my friend Sarah Bowman on one of our Monday play dates turned into a blog for moms. Calling it Mommy's Recess, we update it daily with tips, advice, and thoughts for other moms of young kids. We take turns posting ideas related to various days of the week that we have identified. Wednesday afternoons have also become a weekly craft day with my friend Sarah Cutshall ever since our annual pie making day. We have started working on quilt projects while Judah naps. Having a craft day allows me to archive my projects on another blog I started with my sister-in-law, Hilary Rittgers, called Handiwork Inspirations. Other than that, Judah and I have spent a lot of time getting to know the neighbor kids, Zach and Porter, often going to play with them after nap time in the afternoons. Sometimes these play dates turn into a dinner collaberation between families.
Tim's Fall activites have picked up with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Iowa. This month, the organization put on their annual Old Bags fundraiser. Moving offices to the south side of town made things crazy for a while as he helped set up the computer network. In addition, he participates in his Leadership class on every other Thursday nights as they discuss topics such as the history of Des Moines. Tim still sings once a month as part of the worship team at church.
As a family, we took one weekend to clean out the garage and winterize the garden. Judah had fun helping wash down the sand box and chairs for storage. Then he enjoyed digging up the flowers with mommy. On another weekend, Rachel came to babysit Judah so mommy and daddy could double date with some friends. Then for Halloween, we went to Hy-Vee for a family fun night with $0.99 kids' meals, cake walk, pumpkin decorating, and trick-or-treating. On the acutal holiday, we put on Judah's monkey hat and went out to eat for supper to celebrate.
