2 years old

This is basically just a blog post full of all the things I don't want to forget about Judah at 24 months of age :) Along with a few pictures, of course...

 These bath time pictures were taken just a day or two before his birthday. 

I just love them because they are so descriptive of his personality.

Things he says a lot at the moment:
"No touch the computer/heater/etc.! No touch it!" (he knows what he's not allowed to touch... doesn't always stop him though!)
"Mama get up too!" ... "Mama go downstairs too!"
"Mama sit down here"
"Come on Mama! Let's go!"
"Mama open the eyes please! Put on the glasses!" (when he's trying to wake me up, ha)
.... [Obviously from the above sayings, Mama does not move fast enough for him!]....
"Judah hold it! Hold it the tablet please!" (or anything else he's normally not allowed to hold...)
"Chocolate have some in mouth please?" (a boy after my own heart)
(He sometimes says sentences kind of backwards... with the important word first... "Phone have it please?" or "Food have some please?")
"More cabbage please!" (his "cabbage" actually means "ketchup"... haha, at least it sounds like he eats his vegetables!)
"Ok! All right!"... he says when he falls down. He also will ask his toys if they're ok/all right if they fall etc.
"Solly Mama!" (sorry mama), he says to me if he does something naughty...  or "Solly firetruck/other toy"... if he drops/throws them or is otherwise destructive.
"Judah ride the bicycle. Judah go that way." - he is obsessed with his balance bike that he got for his birthday.
"No like Mama's towel. Take off Mama's towel." - he tells me this whenever I have my wet hair wrapped up in a towel, he really doesn't like it!
"Firetruck go upstairs in bath too?"... he always wants to bring his toys with him for bath time/bedtime.
"Go in mama's car? Go to the work?"... he always asks to go to "the work" because that is where Papa goes everyday :)
"Go to the park? Play with the dump trucks in the dirt?" - his favorite park has a sandpit and dump trucks.
"Sharky have some pancakes with peanut butter and jam too?"... he always wants to share his food with his toys :)
"Play outside! Dig in the dirt! Find the squirmies!"... squirmies = earth worms :) His favorite thing to do now that the weather is getting warmer.
"I LOVE IT!"... he declares about anything and everything that he likes.... milk, water, food, activities, toys... "I LOVE chocolate!" or "I LOVE eggies!" or "I LOVE firetrucks!"
"Judah do it!"/ "I do it!"... yep he's definitely becoming a 2 year old!
"Get Judah! Get me!"... or "Judah get Papa!" - he loves chasing or being chased around the circle of our downstairs.
"I drive Mama's car?"... he asks every time we get in the car. haha.


Bedtime excuses:
"have some water? have some milk?"
"sing songs! sing songs! more songs!"
"more rock-a-bye chair?" (meaning he wants to be rocked and snuggled more)
"pray?" (how are we supposed to say no to that!)
"more kisses?" (the little stinker likes to withhold kisses from me all day, and then whips them out at bedtime... like Thomas says, he's got me wrapped around his little finger...)
"hugs?"
"sleep in mama's bed?"

When he really wants something his sentences go up in pitch and noise level... "Judah have some milk? HAVE SOME MILK? HAVE SOME MILK PLEEEAASEEEE!"

Talking about the baby:
"Hi baby!" while rubbing my belly... "Give baby kisses??"... "Give baby hugs??"
"Baby come out now?"... sorry, not for a while buddy!
"Mama and baby come play with the toys?"... he often includes baby now when he asks me to come play!
Once I told him that the baby was kicking me... he thought for a moment, and then said "Naughty baby! No kick mama!" .... haha! He knows that he's not allowed to kick people so he's trying to instill the same values in baby brother :)
We were going for a walk one day recently, and he asked "baby come out and ride in the stroller?"... :)
He got to hold a friend's newborn recently and now he's always asking for "baby brudder" to come out so he can hold him.

He's started quoting his favorite movies (which are Despicable Me 1 and 2, The Croods, Mater's Tall Tales, Leapfrog Math Adventures to the Moon):
"Lipstick taser!" (DM2)
"Cookie alabata!" (something one of the minions says in DM2)
"not cool! not cool!" (Croods)
"dun dun dah!" ... along with arm gestures (the little sloth guy in the Croods)
"cha cha cha!"... along with dance moves (Mater's Tall Tales)
"what happened?!" (MTT)
"Let's get outta here!" (Leapfrog)

He also is really starting to play make believe:
- The other day he turned his little four-legged stool over and sat in between the legs, and told me "Judah's rocket ship! Go to the moon!" ... and now it's one of his favorite things to play. He does rocket ship sound effects and goes up to the moon and then comes back down and says "Judah back!". I ask him what he did on the moon and he grins and claps and says "Fun on the moon!".
- He does little voices for his stuffed animals and makes them talk and interact. Same with his cars. He was feeding his rubber ducky breakfast in his highchair the other day and asking the ducky "ducky like yummy toast?" and then saying for the ducky "mmmm yummy! more toast"
- He'll pretend that he is an airplane, or a car, or a firetruck, or a rocket ship etc... he will tell me what he is, and run around making the respective noises.
- He loves to sit in boxes/laundry baskets and pretend he's in a boat, and sing "row, row, row your boat..." and then climb out and pretend to splash in the water.
- He'll tell me his piece of toast that he's eating looks like a turtle or an elephant or a rocket ship whatever else he thinks it looks like at that moment.

Starting to answer more when we ask him what he did, or what we're going to do etc... Like if I ask him to tell Papa what we did at gymnastics class, he'll say "played in the balls! go in the dolphin swing! circle time!". Or when I say we're going to playgroup he will immediately start talking about how he's going to "play with the other kids!"

His memory astonishes me. For example, the first time we went to the birth center for an appointment with my midwife, the assistant gave him a little red ball to play with. That was back in... October? Every time we go back (once a month) he still asks for that little red ball even though he only played with it once. Also, whenever I tell him we're going to see my midwife, he says "listen to the baby's heart?"... he knows what's coming!

He is also very observant. For example, we were Skyping with my family and Uncle Matthew was in the background. We were talking away with Nana and Grandad, and Matt yawned in the background. Judah said "Uncle Matthew tired!" :) Even when he is totally absorbed in playing with something or acts like he isn't listening, he IS indeed listening to every word we say and if he hears something interesting (like how Nana made muffins...) he will instantly ask "Judah have some muffins please?!" (and then we have to explain that Nana did indeed make muffins... but Nana is in Kenya and therefore we can't have her muffins because they're on the "other side of the computer"... poor kid).

Other general language development:
- using pronouns more - me, you, I
- better overall sentence structure, getting the words in the right places
- starting to use different tenses correctly - "I go play"... "I went"... "I played"
- uses words to describe how he's feeling etc now: "Judah scared of the dark"... "I no like this sandwich" etc.
- using words like under, over, behind, around, close, far away etc... to describe things. "Judah hiding under the table!"... "Doggy far away" etc
- starting to sing more complete songs - Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me.

Personality:
He is two years old and therefore has his moments, but his general demeanor/personality is very sweet and gentle around other kids... he will try to hug them and hold their hands and play and laugh and giggle with them. This also means he kind of gets taken advantage of - other kids will grab toys away from him and he usually just looks sad momentarily and then goes to find a different toy. When other kids hit or bite him he just looks shocked. If the other kids' moms are watching and make them say sorry to Judah, Judah will grin and try to hug them - all is immediately forgiven and forgotten. If he does knock another kid down, it's always by accident because he is focused on what he's doing (I always have him say sorry! And remind him to watch where he's going.). If he wants a toy that another kid has, he will usually just follow them around until they put it down, haha. We do talk a lot about "waiting your turn" and he will ask "Judah's turn? Judah's turn?". I always hope and pray that he doesn't pick up any of those aggressive gestures, but somehow learns to stand up for himself in a healthy way! He does get more ornery and terrible-two-ish when he's just at home with us (because we're his parents I guess), but with other people he is usually very sweet.

Still very picky about food and textures. We're working on it. We finished nursing at 22 months old because my milk dried up at the beginning on the 2nd trimester. It was a great way to calm him and comfort him and get him through big transitions/changes, but we're figuring out new ways. There are definitely times when I sigh and wish I could just nurse him, when nothing else is working - when he's sick, or temper tantrumming, or inconsolable etc. Nothing works quite as well as snuggling up and nursing did!

He is SUPER active and full of energy... pretty normal for a 2 year old boy! But he also loves to sit and snuggle and read books. He loves to be outside and is so much happier and sleeps better when we get to play outside. Thank goodness winter is on its way out. He is silly and goofy and loves to "put on a show" and make us laugh!

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Judah William, we are just loving this age! It comes with its issues, as does every stage, but right now you are so talkative and you are developing the funniest little personality. You make us laugh all day long with the things you do and say. We are in awe of how quickly you grasp things. You are so compassionate and loving and gentle, even in the midst of your rough-and-tumble 2 year old boy-ness. We love you so very much!

TWO!!!

Dear Judah,

Today you are TWO years old! I can't believe we're here already... I can't believe it was two years ago today that you made your whirlwind entrance into this world. It feels like this year went by even faster than the first year - you grew and developed and learned at such a fast pace I barely had time to comprehend it.

It's been a very busy 2nd year of life for you. We moved to a new state, traveled around the world visiting family, settled into a new house and new routines, and made new friends. You went from toddling around to running and jumping, from saying a few short words to speaking in full sentences. Your little brain is working a mile-a-minute from the moment you wake up, figuring out new things. It's incredible to watch.

If the past few weeks are any indication, two is going to be awesome. Each new stage just gets better. Your level of comprehension and communication has jumped through the roof, and you are just so much FUN to play and interact with and be around. You ask questions, and you answer our questions. We have conversations about our day, where we went and and what we did. You love to tell Papa about your day when he comes home. You also talk about our family around the world and ask to call them on Skype. And sometimes you just hijack the tablet and call them yourself :)

You know your numbers and your alphabet, your colors and your shapes... you describe everything around you - "brown couch", "blue spoon" - and you spot shapes and letters and numbers wherever we go. You love to run and jump and dance and rough house. You love to play with trucks and cars and airplanes. You also love to sit and flip through books, reading aloud to yourself. You carefully build tall towers with your blocks, and then gleefully knock them down. You love to draw and color and paint. You love to "cook" things and help momma in the kitchen. You love playing chase and hide-and-seek. You love listening to music and singing and playing musical instruments. Some of your favorite things are balloons, firetrucks, elephants, choo choo trains, bath time, and playing with Papa. You are loving and affectionate and liberally give out hugs and kisses. You are a full-on toddler/preschooler, embracing every minute of life. The only times you really get upset are when you're hungry or tired.

This year you will be joined by a little brother. You are already so sweet and loving to "baby brudder in mama's tummy". I'm sure it will be a big shock to your system when he actually comes out, but I know you will love him. We will make the most of these last few months of just you & me... I will snuggle and rock you and play with you and give you the best of my time and attention. We've been each other's constant buddies for these past two years, and I will make sure that we still get our special time when baby brother comes along.

I still stare at you in wonder sometimes and think.... "Are you really ours? How did we get blessed this delightful little human being?". Other times I stare at you just completely amazed at how grown up you are, when you do things like ask for a specific snack ("have puffs and milk please?") and then get a bowl and spoon and climb into your highchair and wait for it. And there are yet other times when we've perhaps had a hard toddler day, and you climb into my lap and snuggle in and pat my face, fitting so perfectly into my arms... or when I rock you and you fall asleep in my arms like a newborn again... that I just melt into a puddle and thank God for the incredible blessing of being your Momma.

Happy Birthday, my baby boy! Papa and I love you so very much.

Little snow bunny :)

19 months old

Well it's been quite the couple of months, little guy... we moved from Texas to Kansas, and shortly thereafter took off on our travels around the world. You have been such a trooper, and a delight to everyone around you. You LOVED spending time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Nana and Grandad, and all SEVEN of your uncles!

We finally got around to your 18 month check up now that we're back from our travels... and you were really almost 19 months. The stats (as of 09/06/2013): 27 lbs 12 oz (72nd percentile), 32 inches tall (36th percentile), 19.7 inch head circumference (94th percentile). You wear size 4 disposable diapers and you are somewhere between a 4.5 and a 5 in shoe size, always XW to fit your chubby feet :) You wear both 18 month and 2T size in clothes.

At 19 months old you have traveled through ten states on various trips, moved to a new state, and been to three different countries on three different continents. You've been on 10 airplanes in the last six weeks alone! You are a little world citizen and such a good little traveler!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of you over the past few months:

{17 months old, on the Mahner farm}

{17 months old, on our back patio}

{17 months old, Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead}

{17 months old, in Oregon}

Sprinkler fun

Proof that you are a real toddler, meltdowns and all!

{18 months old, in South Africa}

We did a lot of driving around Cape Town in the blue combi and you were a champ. It helped that you had uncles to entertain you with rousing choruses of "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Old Macdonald" when you were awake :)

Trying Grandad's hat on

 Chocolate ice cream face (I'll let you guess who gave you the chocolate ice cream...)

Hugging a tree at Rhodes Memorial, Cape Town.

{19 months old, back in Overland Park}

You still love to climb in the media cupboard.

And you still love playing on our back patio

Sticks are a new favorite thing. You pick them up wherever we go.

You have grown up so much in the last couple of months. You understand EVERYTHING that we say now, and you follow multiple-step instructions like "Go to your room and get a diaper and bring it to momma so I can change you"... very handy :)

You are also talking so much now. It seems like you learn a new word every hour. You are learning to string together short phrases.

Here are a few of your sayings:
"Oh no! Stuck!"... when you or one of your toys is stuck. Which seems to be all the time lately, lol. You like to get yourself and your toys stuck on purpose. Funny boy.
"Moh chiz pease" (more cheese please)... or more toast, milk, bubbles, Pingu, Timmy Time etc...
"Gapes (grapes) all gone"... with a sad look on your face. You love your grapes.
"Papa seeping (sleeping), shhhhhh" ... or whoever else might be sleeping.
"Uh oh! Boken! (broken)"... when you find a toy or something else that is broken, or when you are playing with an app on my phone and somehow get out of the app and can't get back... usually followed by "Mama fits (fix) it?"
"Oh! Look!"... when you see something and want us to look too
"Oh! Wow!"... when you are excited about something
You say "Oh no!" and "Uh oh" a lot... it's really cute :)
You say "Ow!" when you hurt yourself, with a pained expression on your face. You like to remind us of your "owies" multiple times a day :)

You're good at saying please ("pease") and thank you ("dak you") when we remind you, and you're starting to say them without being asked. You say "muhk!" for milk and "nack!" when you want a snack.

You identify things by person... "Papa's shoes"... "Mama's car"... "Grandad's watch"... etc.

You're also becoming quite... opinionated. It's helpful in some ways because you answer our questions definitively with "no" (and vigorous shaking of the head) and "yes" (and vigorous nodding). So you know what you want. Unfortunately for you, you don't always get what you want. Which is hard for your little 19 month old self to understand. We pick our battles but stand our ground on the important things.

You're a pro at shapes now. I have a shape sorting app on my phone which really helped you learn them. Your favorites are stars ("stah!") and circles ("shir-cul") and moons ("moo-nuh"). Especially stars... you find them everywhere!

You recognize the alphabet because I sing it to you every time we see it. You don't know individual letters or anything, but you point at it and start doing a little sing-songy thing asking me to sing it.

You recognize numbers too... when you see numbers you start counting "one, two, three, two, two, two, two..." haha! You get to about three and then just fudge your way up by saying two and looking cute.

You spend the majority of your day playing with your cars, trucks and trains. You like to be at eye level with them, so you will either lie down on the floor and push them along, or have them on the coffee table or the couch or the media console etc.... anything that you can stand or squat by and push your cars along :) I guess you like to watch the wheels spinning. Our coffee table is usually covered in your cars. You line them up and push them along, and I just wish I could get into your little head to see what you are thinking as you carefully position each vehicle.

You are starting to identify vehicles more specifically... instead of just "truck" you know "dump truck" and "fire truck" and "garbage truck" etc.  You also know "digger" and "roller" and "tractor" (and I need to learn all those other construction vehicle names so I can tell you them when you ask!). You point and ask me "that?" when you see one you don't know.

You are starting to do more pretend playing - you pretend to put your stuffed animals to bed, for instance. You will lay Pingu (your beloved stuffed penguin) down and say "night night! shhhhhhh" and pat him gently. And then (here's the funny part) you scrunch up your little face and make little crying noises, pretending that Pingu is crying, and then quickly pick him up and hug him and rock him and pat him on the back. And then (here's the even funnier part, at least to me) you look at me reproachfully while protectively holding Pingu as if to say "mom, THIS is what you are supposed to do when you put me to bed and I cry... pick me up and rock me". [But really, I am a total sucker and cannot listen to you cry... so if it's up to me you do get picked up and snuggled and rocked. Because you're only little once.]

You love to draw and do stickers. I took a blank notebook and some crayons and lots of stickers on our travels and it kept you happy for long periods of time.

You LOVE clocks and watches. You point "tick tock clocks" out everywhere we go, and when you see them in books. You become best friends with anyone that lets you play with their watch. You could spend hours studying them and trying to figure out what makes them "tick". Maybe you're going to be a watchmaker?! I definitely see a mini Judah-sized watch in your future...

You are kind of a picky eater. You love carbs - bread and pasta and crackers. And you love cheese. So any combination of those works well - pizza, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, cheese on toast, cheese and crackers etc. You also love fruit - grapes, berries, bananas, peaches, oranges etc. And you'll eat yogurt sometimes. But it's hard to get you to eat anything else - especially veggies. Sweet peas and sweet corn are about the only ones you'll eat! And even then it's iffy. You will usually at least TRY something if you get to dip it in ketchup (I went and got some organic, no HFCS ketchup to make myself feel better about that...)

You are still nursing so I'm glad you're at least getting that nutrition to fill in the gaps!

With all the moving and traveling and jet lag, you haven't been sleeping great. While we were traveling you ended up sleeping with me most of the time, so when we got home you weren't so thrilled about going back in your crib! We are slowly working with you though and we're down to about one or two wake-ups during the night. I hope we can get you sleeping through the night soon... I can't remember the last time I slept through the night! There were a few weeks when you were 2 or 3 months old where you slept through the night (8 hours or so)... but then you hit the 4 month sleep regression... and you went from one regression/teething bout/illness/move/travel etc to the next and you've never slept through since. Sigh. We are getting there though.

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This is just SUCH a fun age. You run circles around me with all your energy and astonish me everyday with something new. Never a dull moment, that's for sure. It's so fun to hear you stringing words together and communicating so well. When you wake up you yell "Mama! Mama! Muhk? (milk)" from your crib... and when you're hungry you say "high chair! nack! (snack)"... when you want to go out and play you say "shoes! outside!"... etc. I just love it!

Papa and I love you so very much. You are our world.

I can't believe you're closer to being two than you are to being one now... this year is going even faster than your first year. Slow down a bit, okay buddy? Maybe spend a little more time at each age, so it's not gone before I can blink? Just a suggestion :)

currently {01.31.2013}

Eating: We've started using the Fresh 20 meal planning service - it's wonderful! Each week you get a grocery list of 20 fresh ingredients that make 5 dinners. {They also have a list of 20 pantry basics to keep stocked up on... pasta, rice, spices etc.] The recipes make enough for 4 adults so it's plenty of food for dinners and lunches for the whole week for us. The food is absolutely delicious... we've had blackened salmon tacos, thai-style tilapia, steak fajitas, southwest bean chili, chicken mac n cheese, quinoa minestrone etc. The recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, but since I'm not really a recipe-follower I tend to tweak them a lot. We were on the Classic plan which does four meat meals and one vegetarian meal a week, but that was too much meat for us (we usually only eat meat 1-2 times a week) so this week we have switched to the Vegetarian plan, which is easy to add meat in if you want too. If you do the suggested "make-ahead" prep work (chopping veggies, pre-cooking and freezing meat etc.) each week, which takes about an hour, the meals are SUPER easy and fast to throw together each night. I was in a bit of a "rut" with meal planning, and this has just made life so much simpler.

Looking forward to: Judah's Uncle James is coming to visit next week, unexpectedly! James is Thomas's second youngest brother. He is coming over from Kenya for a scholarship competition at Letourneau University, which is only 2 hours from here. We only get to see him for one night before and one night after the competition since he has to fly back to Kenya for school, but we are so excited that we get to see him at all! Judah has never met his Uncle James! It just so happens that Uncle James will be here for Judah's little first birthday party, which is another fun thing I'm looking forward to :)

Listening to: Lately we've been listening to a lot of Pentatonix... they're pretty amazing, and Judah LOVES them. He gets so excited when he hears them.

Watching: A lot of Pingu, haha. These days we can't say the word "Pingu" in front of Judah because he'll get super excited and then mad if we don't put it on! We have resorted to the age-old parental tradition of spelling out words so he doesn't know what we're talking about. Thomas and I don't currently have a show that we're watching, which is unusual. Thomas has been so busy with work and grad school, and we've been so exhausted from Judah's frequent night wakings that we just haven't watched anything lately.

Loving: Central Market's Organic Chocolate Truffles... seriously. Cannot get enough of them. Thomas loves them too, which is saying a lot since he doesn't even really like chocolate.

Reading: Sadly, I haven't read a book in a long while. I need to remedy that because I really truly love to read and I want Judah to grow up in a house where books & reading are a big part of everyone's life. Most of my reading these days involves researching things like "how to get your almost-one-year-old to sleep through the night" on Dr. Google.

Thinking about: I've been thinking about my baby turning one so very soon... I can't believe how fast this year has gone. It's a strange feeling - a mix of so much happiness at watching him grow into each new stage and a little tug of sadness at kissing the little baby stages goodbye. I've also been thinking about what kinds of educational playtime activities I should be doing with him and how to best teach him his letters and colors and numbers etc. through play. He is such little sponge at the moment, absorbing information at top speed, and I want to make the most of it and somehow make sure he's getting enough [but not too much] stimulation. Just today he added the baby sign for "light" to his repertoire and now he runs around the house pointing at the lights and making the sign with his little hand.

Sleeping: Ha! Barely. Poor Judah is teething and his poor parents are exhausted. Turns out, having an uncomfortable teething thrashing 24 lb baby in your bed = no sleep.

Good thing he's cute.