February: Month 20!

This month of February propelled Judah into a huge growth spurt both physically and developmentally. Judah has gotten taller. He talks more, carrying on real conversations and saying sentences. He socially interacts more with his peers. He is on the verge of expressing himself through his own opinions and abilities. Overall, Judah seems more like what you would expect from a toddler.
Judah's has really started playing in his own right with his ideas of play. He likes to set up his farm animals, lining them up by the barn and the fence. His particularities are even more evident in the way he colors. He likes mommy to take the paper off the crayons. He still enjoys coloring shapes, especially drawing shapes which he can do on his own now. Then he is seen hitting and hurling his balloons across the room.


With the start of his Kinder Musik Class, Judah's interest in instruments and rhythm has evolved more prevalently. Most days, you will find him drumming or banging on his xylophone to his own beat or to the beat of a song. Beyond his instruments, every household item becomes a drum or a drumstick. He comes home repeating the games and rhymes often learned at class even to point of doing it loud and quiet. He moves his shakers up high and down low. He dances and hops around the living room as Tim and I join him for family dancing in the evenings. He often displays his slow moves and his fancy footwork. Even when he runs, he runs with a hop, twisting his body at the waist. We even took him to church early one morning to watch Tim warm up with the band for worship. Tim also showed him his guitar one day and since we have gotten it out practically everyday to "pick" at it and find the high and low notes.


Mid way through the month (Feb 18), Judah started saying "oh fun" and "hooray" for anything he thought was exciting such as foamy soap in the bathtub. He repeats everything he hears. Sometimes he pronounces words Canadian style with an "a" sound behind each word. He ended the month by chatting up a storm using three syllable words like "already," "umbrella," and "cinnamon." In his conversation, Judah even exhibits silly antics like shrugging his shoulders when you ask something or running away from getting dressed so you have to chase him. And he continues to wow us by knowing all his colors, numbers to 20, and his shapes.

Judah hit another noticeable growth spurt this month. The sleeves on his 12 month shirts are finally getting short and the legs on the pants are turning into knickers. He now wears closer to 18 month clothes even though the lanky boy only weighs 21 pounds. Being taller has allowed him to sit at the table more often for meals and to do crafts. He can also reach more things. He did move up a shoe size with his size 5 Velcro, blue tennis shoes. He also got his fourth haircut with a buzz cut making him look like a little Tim walking around. While we thankfully have avoided more illnesses, Judah has had a cough that seems to hang around.


Judah celebrated his second valentines day in several ways this month. Judah helped bake some valentines cookies by punching out the hearts and putting them on the pan. We then finger painted for the first time with our neighbor Zach using blue, washable tempera pain. Judah stood up to the table on the chair and made shapes with potato art. Then he immersed his hands to make finger and hand prints. We ate some more valentine cookies. After nap time, we delivered some valentines and cookies to our friends to finish celebrating the holiday.


We also did a number of activities this month to help pass the Winter blues. Believe it or not, one day it was 65 degrees (Feb 17) that we took a flashlight walk after dark. Judah carried around his little flashlight and walked beside dad. Then he thought he would walk in the light of the circle. This also about the time we started seeing Robins around the yard.

On another really nice day, we went to the Des Moines Botanical Center with cousins Caleb, Hannah, Isaac, and Jonathan. Going in the morning, we enjoyed our time walking around the garden watching the fish and smelling the flowers. We stopped for a picnic lunch and then finished our tour of the rainbow theme before heading outside to walk along the river walk.


Other days are filled with play group, music class, going to the library for story time, or hanging out with the neighbors. Mondays, we still have some friends over to play and chat. Wednesday mornings we enjoy music class followed by errands. And on Fridays, we visit the library for story hour and to check out new books. In between most often in the afternoons, we visit the neighbor friends to play outdoors or invite them over for dinner.


Later this month as the weather turned cold again, Judah and I made a trip up north to spend a few days with Nana Joyce and Uncle Charlie. Since my dad was gone overseas, Judah and I helped my mom clean and sort our old toys. Judah especially had fun playing ball and making faces at the table with his Uncle Charlie. Daddy came up for the weekend in time for us to go to cousin Jacob's birthday party at the farm.



This month, Tim and I started Financial Peace University at our church on Monday nights while Judah spends the evening with the neighbors. We also celebrated Valentines Day by going to a Married Life Live event at the church the Friday before Valentines Day. I spent a few days this month working on my crafts. My friend Sarah came over to quilt with me and I was able to start on my quilt by cutting out the t-shirt squares. Another day, I took time to work on Judah's baby book, making some more progress toward completing it.

We were saddened this month when my old 1997 silver Dodge Stratus officially died. This put us down to the challenge of a one car lifestyle. The end of February was the most challenging and the busiest thus far. One day started by getting ready in the morning to take daddy to work before 8:00am just so we could have the car for the day. After dropping off daddy, Judah and I went to music class. From there we had to drive across town for a dentist appointment. This brought us up to lunch where we doubled up grocery shopping and lunch at the local grocery store deli. We managed to make it over to the church for two meetings back-to-back. Finally, Judah fell asleep for a late nap on the way home. I hurried to make a dinner for a friend and when Judah woke up, we got back in the car to run it over to their house.

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.

December: Month 18!

Judah has started to explore his independence. This has entailed falling out of the crib one day with a big thump. Tim and I ran to open the door of his room only to have him walk out crying. Needless to say, we had to lower the mattress again to the lowest setting. This means he now sits with his feet hanging out and banging them against the crib. Also, Judah learned to open the doors by himself (Dec 21), turning the handles. Judah finally outgrew his little bath, taking his bath in the big tub with all his toys.

This independence has carried over into eating. He now wants to eat with a plate or bowl all the time, trying scoop with a fork and spoon. He tries to feed mommy and daddy his food or at the very least have you eat the same item at the same time, including drinking. He also pulls apart his peanut butter sandwich to take bites out of the middle of the bread. His main food staple has become bananas as he likes eats three a day (cause he can walk over to the pantry and tell you he wants one). He wants to have the cereal box on his tray so that he can look at the pictures.

Judah is now talking in phrases, saying words that never ceases to surprise us. His frequent talking also includes the concept of plural as he adds the "S" sound (i.e. boat verses boats). We also were shocked when he exclaimed the letters "O" and "Y" from our stocking holders out of the blue one day. Even more so, he really wants to learn his shapes, already recognizing circles to the point of drawing them and pointing out squares and triangles, correctly naming them also. He is starting to concentrate on his colors, knowing blue and black for sure and noticing the others. He will help you count items out to ten if you ask "How many are there Judah," saying a few numbers like 2, 4, and 8.

Judah really picked up some new songs to sing. Singing Head and Shoulders and Your Happy if you Know it really helped him learn his body parts. We would participate in the actions, pointing out the body parts. He would also point out his body parts when asked telling you where his head, ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, shoulders, tummy, belly button, knees, and toes and feet were.
He also discovered winking and making funny faces, especially at himself in the mirror while eating in his high chair. He would also go around clapping and stomping his feet.

Besides all the newly, unpacked Christmas decorations, Judah loved to color in his box. We drew circles, squibbled other shapes, and doodled every inch of the box all the while climbing in and out of the tunnel. Judah would make you lay on your stomach so that you could color his beloved circles. He also picked out which colors you had and where you could color. Usually he had his favorite color blue while you had the other colors you practiced naming. Judah even made Nana Joyce color his box.

Our December started out with croup the first week back from Ohio. Judah's little body shook from the awful cough that seemed to keep him up during the night. We started the week at doctor's only to be told that croup is a virus that can only be cured with lots of rest and fluids. We then ended the week back at the doctor's for the cough turned into a bad sinus cold. During the days, Judah laid on the couch and watch his videos.

Once we were well, it finally started to feel like Christmas. Papa Ed and Nana Joyce came down to see us one weekend. Another weekend, my friend Sarah and I baked 15 plus dozen cut-out and oatmeal cookies while Tim and Judah went to winter Farmer's Market. Judah came home to his first taste of Christmas cookies, even calling them crackers in hopes of getting more.


When we were not focused on Christmas, Judah and I continued our normal activities. We resumed our play group with our friends on Monday mornings and went to story time at the Des Moines Central Library on Friday mornings. We also went to open gym (Dec 15) at the nearby West Des Moines Community Center in Valley Junction during the afternoon. Here Judah joined the other kids in letting out some energy by sliding down the slide, chasing balls, riding Big Wheels, and running around the gym.

Getting ready for Christmas meant cookie cutters, gift bows, and crayons strewn all over the house. Except for baking with my friend Sarah, Judah played with the silver cookie cutters setting them up on the floor downstairs. They never made it on the tree as intended. We even tried stringing a few of the smaller cookie cutters but to no avail as they soon were back on the floor for play. Upstairs was littered with gift boxes and wrapping paper. Judah's idea of wrapping gifts was helping with the tape and sitting on the paper. We went through a lot of tape this year as we used long pieces of tape often. Then we would get out the crayons and stickers, decorating the white gift boxes while mommy actually tried to wrap presents.

Decorating the tree was a chore with Judah. It was all we could do to keep him focused as excitement prevailed. We went to the tree farm this year but instead of actually cutting one down, we opted for a pre-cut one on that bitter cold day. Judah loved watching the model, Lego train set puffing its way around the track. Immediately we found a very large white pine we liked and Judah was amazed at the workers shaking the needles and wrapping it up. Judah came downstairs one morning to find the tree already set up, exclaiming “oooo” in his excitement of touching the needles. Later, when we went to decorate, he loved playing with the red, garland beads, dragging them around the house. He practiced his colors by pointing out lights, declaring the color.

Tim and I finished all the other Christmas activities after Judah went to bed: decorating the tree, Christmas cards, wrapping gifts (with the paper), making surprise videos, and even eating Christmas treats. During the day with Judah, the radio was constantly tuned into festive caroles, especially as Judah controlled volumn. He also discovered his nativity play set, setting up all his people around the manger scene or carrying Jesus.

Tim took off a few extra days to celebrate Christmas. Uncle Matt and Hilary stopped on their drive from Colorado to spend the night. The next morning, we woke up to a big homemade breakfast complete with daddy's muffins, eggs, and sausage. Later that evening we dressed up for the Christmas Eve Eve service at Point of Grace. Judah enjoyed the stage of snowflakes. The service ended with putting together chains of trust for the New Year. Afterwards, we came home for our Christmas dinner of Chicken Kiev, stuffing, and green bean casserole. Judah opened his big gift from mommy, four colored blocks and two sets of vinyl balls.

On Christmas Eve, we continued our own family celebration by opening stockings the next morning. Judah found a banana sticking out of his stocking. Inside were some choo, choo trains, Thomas and Percy. He also got really really excited over the new box of crayons. Tim liked the shorts he found in his stocking along with two new Stephen Bly books. And I discovered candy and gift cards in my stocking. Even Maestro found catnip and a light up ball in his stocking for him and Judah to play.

We took our time opening gifts throughout the day as a family only to stop to eat another wonderful breakfast and take a nap. Judah was really excited over his big gift from daddy, Thomas train and track. Tim had surprised me with a collection of home videos of Judah. And we all opened up matching pajamas of Polar Bears as part of our Christmas pajama tradition.

Also among the Christmas tree Judah found a frog shelf for the bathroom toys, his favorite book, The Baby Goes Beep, an ABC Iowa book, felt board with numbers and the alphabet, and much more. Tim found needed socks and undershirts.

It was fun to watch Judah get into Christmas this year. He would rip open the wrapping paper and awe and coo over the toys. Meanwhile, Maestro found the gift bows and catnip playing all over the living room floor. Tim enjoyed taking videos and pictures of Judah. And like Mary in the Bible, I pondered the happiness of the season while picking up the remnants of Christmas strewn across the floor.

Later that day, we packed and planned to come north only to get snowed in Des Moines another night from our Christmas snowstorm. We finally left the next morning on Christmas day, trudging through snowdrifts and the woods to Nana J and Papa Ed's house. When we got there ate our fill of the French toast casserole and eggs and sat around the tree with the rest of my family to open gifts.

Judah found a Radio Flyer scooter among the gifts. While Tim and I opened clothes, hand towels, and sheets, Judah also found puzzles and a set of sports balls to play with Uncle Philip and Uncle Charlie. Afterwards, we napped, ate some more, and threw around the balls. Then later in the evening, we loaded back up to head out to the Rittgers Farm.




Once we arrived at the Farm, Judah played and played with his cousins, Jacob and Gabe. Having all the grandsons there, the boys followed each other around the couch, up and down the stairs, and into the boys room full of toys. The rest of us visited and watched the boys make a mess.
Even Papa played with the boys so the rest could play cards.



On Monday, after a big breakfast, we gathered in the sun room to open gifts. The boys featured old Christmas sweaters as we all posed for a family picture. Then we sang the Christmas story through Away and a Manger and blew out the candles to the cake. Soon the room became full of tractors, trucks, and lots and lots of wrapping paper as the kids played to their hearts content.



The rest of our trip was spent visiting with family. While the boys continued to play, the adults found some cards to play. We also did our after Christmas shopping, looking for those good sales. Finally, on Tuesday, the frigid weather warmed up enough to allow us a ride on the sled behind the four wheeler. Bundling up Judah except for his eyes peeking, Tim took us for a ride down to the pond and back. Then Judah explored the deep snow with his cousin Jacob, taking another sled ride, making snow angels, and trying to get stuck in the deep drifts. Even Gigi took a ride.

Tuesday evening we celebrated New Year's Eve with extended family by making ableskievers, the little round pancakes. Judah thought they were balls. Tim and I ended up cooking for the whole family before we packed up to go home.