Some of us have a lot to say

I've noticed a glaring omission in my blog. By centering my posts around photos I have failed to capture one of the most significant (and hilarious) facets of Judah's personality: his verbal communication. To blog about Judah without talking about the things he says is to miss out on one of the most fun and fastest developing aspects of this little guy.

To put it simply, Judah is a talker. It seems like he never stops talking - there is a running commentary on absolutely everything he is experiencing. We always know what is on his mind!

Not only does he label everything he sees; he also announces everything he does before he does it, which Doug and I have found quite helpful. For example, he says "throw sippy!!" right before he hurls his sippy-cup onto the floor in frustration, which gives us the opportunity to at least try to convince him otherwise. (This works for a great many other items besides sippy-cups. The word "throw" followed by some object he's holding is a very common refrain in our house).

Another helpful announcement is the general "no no" declaration. If Judah is in the other room and we hear him say "no no," we know that he is poised to do something we don't want him to do and is waiting for us to come in and confirm the admonition. If we don't respond right away he stands there and repeats "no no" until we do. He's clearly much more interested in getting the confirmation of his understanding than he is in doing the forbidden act. Fascinating.

Lately he has been very interested in saying hello and good bye to people and things. Very often when I get him from his crib in the morning and take him downstairs for breakfast he says "good bye room, good bye door, good bye night-light," all the way down the stairs. When we arrive in the kitchen he says "hello table, hello grapefruit," and so on. Just recently I was in hysterical laughter because before I had a chance to turn on the lights in the kitchen he said, "hello dark!" This has recently expanded into "good luck," which he has heard us say a few times. So now he wishes good luck to a great many people and objects we pass by. I'm sure they all appreciate it.

At first we were all marveling at his rapidly growing vocabulary. But lately it's become not just about the number of words he knows, but the concepts he's able to express. For example, "grapefruit, cut knife, sharp, careful." Not exactly a coherent sentence, but he certainly conveys an idea. Or my personal favorite, "grandpa eat pills, put mouth" (Judah is exceedingly interested in grandma and grandpa taking pills - that's the subject for a whole other post).

I think I can safely say that the development of verbal communication has been the most fun and rewarding aspect of parenthood for me. His use of language (absolutely all the time) provides such a wonderful glimpse into his little brain and his ever increasing understanding of the world around him. It's also extremely entertaining!

Happy Chanukah!!

Judah has really gotten into Chanukah this year. He loves the lighting of the candles and singing. It's a little bit difficult to explain that he can't take the candles out and play with them once they're lit (one of life's many frustrations) but as long as we keep singing it seems to be okay.

This year we gave him the "Kitty Keyboard," which is a keyboard that not only looks like a cat, but if you press a certain button the keys play "meows" instead of piano tones. This, of course, appeals greatly to two of Judah's biggest obsessions: pressing buttons and animal sounds. Needless to say, the gift has been a huge hit.

Toys with staying power

One of the funny (and often frustrating) things about toddlers is that they are much less interested in the actual toys we buy them than they are in random things around the house. Take, for example, the small bottles of vodka he found when the lock on the liquor cabinet broke recently (I love that we can now add "vodka" to his list of vocab words).


But there are a few toys that have been consistent, reliable sources of fun. For example, the mardi gras beads I picked up for him at Target (the best $3.99 I ever spent).




And of course, his beloved music table, passed down from his cousins, Eli and Hannah. Much as I generally dislike electronic toys, it's hard to argue with the staying power this toy has had. He's been playing with it since he learned to stand. In fact, I'm pretty sure this toy is why he learned to stand! And it's still incredibly popular.

Trains...and other things

For the last couple of weekends Judah and I have made trips to the model train exhibit at Brookside Gardens.

As usual, the trains hold some interest, but the most fun to be had is picking up rocks and throwing them into a plant.

CDs: the new obsession

I don't really understand why Judah becomes so fixated on certain things. But for whatever reason, the current fixation is CDs and CD players. His favorite activity is opening and closing CD players and putting CDs in and taking them out. Who knew this could be such a profoundly absorbing activity. He is also somewhat interested in listening to certain albums and songs, but he unfortunately is missing an important concept: that a song he wants to hear is located on a particular CD. So he often becomes enraged when he asks to play a song and I dare to suggest that he relinquish the CD he's holding to put it in the player. Ah, logic, what a tricky thing.

Cold weather activities

Now that the weather's getting pretty cold we're spending much more time indoors. We do still venture to the park sometimes, but he usually spends the whole time saying "cold!" or "windy!" so I tend to feel guilty. So we spend a lot of time at Target (his favorite place on earth) or the library, or if he's really lucky one of us will come up with something new, like Doug's brilliant idea to take him to the 12-story elevator at the Hyatt in Bethesda. Pure toddler heaven.

But we have a lot of fun around the house too. Here are some of Judah's favorite activities at home:

Building leggo stacks

Playing in the bathtub (as long as there's no water and he's fully clothed - otherwise it's no fun at all)

Snuggling with mommy

Pressing buttons (seriously, if there is a button anywhere in this zip code he will find it and want to press it. This is definitely the obsession du jour).

Exploring whatever is new and interesting

And generally acting like a goof ball.

Thanksgiving weekend

After spending a wonderful Thanksgiving day with the family, we went down to Wintergreen Virginia, a resort town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with our dear friends David and Melinda (or Dabid and Minda as Judah calls them).

It was a really great weekend for all of us. It's rare for Doug and me to get to spend so much time with each other, let alone with friends, so it felt like quite a luxury. And Judah had a good time as well, exploring his new surroundings and playing with his new friends. One highlight for Judah was watching Doug build a fire in the fireplace. He was absolutely fascinated, and very astutely said "candles!" when he saw the flames.

Judah was a real trooper on this trip - he slept well, he explored, he let me take him into the pool (no small thing), and he even traveled well - for some strange reason he was awake and content for the entire 3 hour and 20 minute drive home! (Full disclosure: Doug and I had to suffer through the unbelievably terrible "ABC Sing Along" CD about three times in a row - you do what you gotta do).