The Fall

To all of Judah's loyal fans, I'm sorry I fell off the blogging bandwagon for such a long time. It was a very crazy fall, what with buying a new house, being pregnant, etc. But enough of the excuses. Here's a recap of Judah's Fall.


We spent a lot of time exploring the most noteworthy part of the season - the falling leaves.

We got to compare the result of throwing leaves into the creek with throwing rocks.

Rocks, of course, were a lot more satisfying sound-wise, but Judah did very much enjoy watching the leaves float down with the current. He said goodbye to each and every one.

Then there were the pumpkins. When our neighbors began putting pumpkins on the front porches Judah was in heaven. He started talking to them and naming them ("this one is the abba pumpkin and this one is the mommy pumpkin") and insisted that we have conversations with him as the pumpkins. The one he's holding below is the one he called "the sweet little pumpkin." To everyone who walked by he held it out and said, "look at this sweet little pumpkin!!"

We had a lovely Sukkot this year, and Judah enjoyed eating meals outside in the Sukkah (most of the time). He also really loved holding the lulav and etrog.

Then came Halloween. Judah dressed up as a penguin for the neighborhood parade, but only wore the costume for a total of about 5 minutes. He was in a terrible mood that day, and had no interest in participating. I barely had time for a couple of pictures before he announced, "You (I) don't want to be a penguin anymore."

Judah was very into Hannukah this year.

He certainly enjoyed the presents...

(and the wrapping)...

But by far his favorite aspect of the holiday was lighting the candels. At first we denied his request to light them himself, for obvious reason, but Judah is not only insistent and persuasive, he is also very true to his word that he'll "be very very careful." So first we let him light while holding his hand...

And eventually even let him do it by himself. which made him incredibly proud. He really does have an amazing sense of when and how to be careful.

We ended the year with an incredible snow storm which dumped something like 22 inches of snow. Judah was thrilled, albeit also a little overwhelmed.

And of course, in addition to all the holidays and exciting events, the Fall and early Winter were also marked by waiting for Judah's baby sister. We spent time reading about having a new baby, and talking about the baby growing inside mommy's tummy. It was hard for us to know what to expect from Judah - we were never quite sure how much he understood. But there were several sweet moments like this one, when he seemed to get it and actually like the thought of the baby that would eventually be ours.

The things I learn from Mommy

I have to be so careful these days. Judah doesn't miss a thing in general, and he especially doesn't miss anything I do or say. So I've been getting in a fair amount of trouble lately. For example, when I muttered a bad word under my breath in the kitchen while he was in the living room, he was repeating it for the rest of the day. Recently when Doug and Judah and I were in the car together Judah pointed out that Abba had fixed this rear view mirror attachment which Judah had knocked off while playing around in the front seat. Judah then said, "Judah's going to knock it off again and then mommy's going to say 'oh, for crying out loud Judah!'" Doug looked at me and said, "you're so busted!" which, of course, was true.

Here's a video of one of the most hilarious things Judah picked up from me recently. A few weeks ago I was pretty sick so mom and dad came to take Judah out for a while so I could rest. Judah said he wanted me to come with them and I replied that I couldn't, because I had to lie on the couch and moan. Well, ever since then when he asks me to do something and I say "I can't right now," Judah says, "because you have to lie on the couch and moan." The other day he took it to the next level and decided to try it himself. So in this video you'll see him running back and forth to go lie in his chair and moan. Unfortunately, his moan is barely audible on the video. But you'll get the idea.

It really is funny what he picks up from us. He's been playing this game lately where he pretends to go off to work. He carries my purse and tells me to have a good day and marches off. Then he pretends to type on the computer until I tell him it's time to come home. Then he happily marches back. He also loves trying on my jewelry and putting on my sweater (getting extremely frustrated when he finds it doesn't fit him very well). The other day we had a bunch of women in Target cracking up because he ran right up to the jewelry aisle and started trying on necklaces and holding up earrings. One woman said, "he must like his mommy."

How we spend our time

We're always on the look out for new, fun things to explore, like a trip to a toy store just to play with whatever interesting things we can find...





Or examining new things in the house.

But truth be told, some of Judah's very favorite things to do are things we over and over and over again. For example, one of Judah's current obsessions is riding elevators (this seems in keeping with his life-long love of pressing buttons). So we often go on outings to the mall or wherever we can find elevators where he can reach the buttons and just ride up and down and up and down, greeting people as they get on, telling them things like "Judah forgot to watch his fingers!"

Another favorite activity is playing in the front seat of the car. There are, once again, many buttons to press, as well as seatbelts to buckle and mirrors to adjust.

One of my favorite things about this activity (aside from the fact that I get to sit down and not chase after him) is that I've noticed a change in how he plays. He's been getting much more into pretend play in general, and this is no less true in the car. Whereas he used to just press buttons and buckle the seatbelts, now he also pretends to drive somplace, turning an imaginary wheel, manipulating an imaginary gear shift, and telling me about where he's going. I can almost see his little imagination taking him someplace. It's delightful.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

"This is not for babies"

Last Friday at Shabbat dinner Judah expressed strong interest in Abba and Grandma's wine glasses. In order to quell his desire, I got out a plastic champagne glass I had bought years ago for a New Years party and filled it with a little bit of water. He was thrilled!! The following hilarity ensued.

What a crazy Summer so far!

It's been a long time since my last post! I apologize to our die hard fans. But in my defense, there's been quite a lot going on lately.

About a month ago we said good bye to Ramita (at least as Judah's nanny - she's still our dear friend).



And Judah started preschool at Temple Emanuel.

These happy pictures notwithstanding, the first several weeks of school were extremely difficult for Judah (and mommy). It's a wonderful school, but it's incredibly different surroundings from what he was used to - so many kids, so many adults, new place, new routine, and crazy things like needing to line up to come inside. And let's face it, Judah has not always been so quick to adapt to new situations. So the adjustment was very hard. In addition to crying a lot at drop-off, he refused to eat at school, had a hard time napping, and frequently reminded me at home how "mommy left Judah at school" with a sad, forlorn tone. He also started waking frequently during the night crying for me and we both became unbelievably tired. Of course, this all coincided with Doug's three week trip to Israel, which likely also contributed to Judah's discombobulation (and certainly contributed to my stress and sleeplessness!)

But I'm very happy to report that Judah is now doing extremely well at school. He doesn't protest going and he talks very happily about it in the evenings. He sings the songs they sing at school and tells us things about his day. He speaks very fondly about many of the teachers and he seems to have already developed very strong bonds with many of them. It's really very exciting. We feel that Judah is being exposed to a much bigger world, and he really seems to be soaking it all in.

And now Abba is back, which is wonderful!!

In addition to school, we've been spending our Summer doing all kinds of fun things. We've been going to the park and doing pull-ups,

we go on other excursions, like downtown Silver Spring,

And, as always, we spend a good amount of time just hanging out at home.

Last weekend we were looking for something to do on a rainy Sunday so we decided to go play at Ikea. We started out in the toy area where we found some fun things to do...



But the real fun to be had was in one of the kitchen displays. Judah was in heaven - his very own life-sized play kitchen. What could be better than that?!

Happy Father's Day to Abba!

Okay, I'm a week late, but here you go...

Summertime and the living is easy

We've been enjoying the warm weather - spending lots of time outside. Judah particularly loves going to the merry-go-round,

and the park nearby,

and we also recently discovered the joy of the fountain in downtown silver spring, where kids are always having fun getting soaked. Judah was definitely skeptical at first, but ended up loving it.

It was a great outing, including the post-soak snack and rest.