January: Month 19!

As we finally put the Christmas tree away, we celebrated New Years Day with family and friends sharing our wieners and sour kraut. January then got off to a good start. Judah and I found plenty to do to keep busy with this month. And Judah also kept us busy with his new words, tricks, and opinions each and every step of the way.


First, Judah's daily vocabulary never ceased to amaze us. This month he has repeated words we say in conversation and developed the art of conversation. For example, after Christmas he came home saying, "honey," just like his cousin Jacob. He also learned "poop" during a conversation about dirty diapers with a friend. He even pretends to talk like with feeding his "Papa" below. Judah also pronounces three syllable words like "elephant" and "already." He continues to voice longer and longer phrases, lumping words together in short sentences. Still other times he names an object or uses a word that we did not even realize he knew what it meant.


Now that Judah can say, "animals," he wants to host a zoo in his crib every time he goes to sleep. We have "Oo-oo" monkey, little puppy, big monkey, big elephant, big puppy, and another occasional stuffed, furry friend from time to time. He starts out hugging his monkey and puppy but by the time you cover him up later, he is laying across one of the bigger animals. There is almost no or little room in the crib for Judah. During the day, he hugs them, tries to feed them, and plays with them. And he likes to count the tails.

Just like with his animals, we really noticed Judah start to pretend play and use his imagination this month in other areas. One day, I put the washcloth puppets he got for Christmas on his hands and he was saying "hello" and talking back and forth by his own prompting. He also likes to play with his balls (beo-balls as he calls them), rolling them, dribbling them, and spinning them into circles. Along with balls, he loves circles, experimenting as we try to spin every object in the house. He also made up his own game with the bowling pins by setting them up in a circle so we can run around them singing "Ring around the Rosy." If we cannot spin an object then it becomes a drum stick for hitting or a horse to ride. We also bring his little trikes inside only to turn them upside down to spin the wheels, observing how they work. Other times, he stacks his blocks to make a house, learning to build things on his own or run his trains (choo-choos) from Christmas on tracks.



Judah's growth this month is evident in his ability to do new tricks. Judah continues to show off his skills in climbing. He seems to know if a stool or box is nearby something else because you will find him using it to climb higher onto the chair and eventually the table. While I was gone for a weekend, I got this text from Tim that said, "Judah is standing on the table." I want to know where was dad? At a friend's house, Judah even bravely stepped down several stairs all by himself before tumbling to the bottom.


Judah's increased independence has encouraged new and effective disciplining for mommy and daddy. His expressions in attitude by telling mommy and daddy "no" followed by hitting have led to stronger discipline methods. Judah has also tested boundaries as he explores throwing items or climbing on unsafe things. His experience with other kids has increased awareness in sharing and playing.

At the table, Judah has really mastered the process of eating but not what he wants to eat. Each day is a battle over food, when we eat it, how we eat it, and what we eat. Now that he can say words like "crackers," "juice," "milk," and "bananas (mananas)," he lets you know when he is hungry or thirsty more often. He does spoon well enough on his own like yogurt (with granola) in the mornings for breakfast. However, when we are done, we like to throw the food and silverware on the floor for Maestro or to save for later. He still remains weary of meats and casseroles-type dishes where the food is mixed together. Instead, he enjoys his peanut butter sand which (pulled apart of course) and crackers. He continues to enjoy fruit even sitting to eat whole apples. Anything else begs creativity in what I serve, when I serve, and how I serve. This has resulted in us clapping when he finally takes a bite or sharing the food with mommy and daddy to eat with him.


We try to get out as much as we can during these cloudy, snowy days. If the frigid temperatures lift, we take a walk down to the mailbox. Sometimes we bundle up to play in the snow or go sledding at the nearby golf course. Other times we would run errands occasionally stopping at the mall for some play area time. Most of our social time was on still on Mondays when we had play group at our house. Fridays, our special outing took us to Starbucks for a snack and then story time at the library next door. Other days we travel a few blocks to the West Des Moines Community Center's open gym for toddlers. Running into friends on these afternoons, we can chat, play with the playground equipment, and run around until our hearts were content tiring out before nap time.


Inside at home, I continued to write every other day on my new blog, www.MommysRecess.com coming up with new activities for Judah and I to pass the time and for something to report. Often Judah and I would experiment on a fun project before I wrote about it. We played with Magic Mud and shoveled and scooped in our homemade indoor sandbox as some our activities to circumvent the winter blues.


Unfortunately, we did start January with another round of croup and sinus infections. Both Judah and I were sick with serious colds that caused us to be cooped up for a while over New Years. Tim had to hold the fort down by taking care of us and taking care of the house. While not tending to us sick, Tim was busy at work hiring new staff and training these new positions at work.

This month I enjoyed my first weekend away from Tim and Judah, leaving them behind at home. Staying at a cabin in Oskaloosa, I scrap booked with friends for an entire weekend. Our resting, relaxing, and rejuvenating consisted of some time in fellowship, eating good food, playing games, and watching movies. Tim experienced his first weekend alone at home with Judah. You will read about how it went over at www.MommysRecess.com since Tim wrote about it.

The weather has blown in a lot of visitors this month causing us to wash sheets multiple times over. First my friend Nicole was snowed in a few days while waiting for her rescheduled flight to New York. Then my friend Katie was around for a weekend to visit, celebrating New Years Day with us. The last weekend Papa and Gigi stayed with us for the weekend allowing us to go sledding and go out for a date. As they were leaving, Papa Ed and Nana Joyce rolled into town to visit.