Two Weeks!

So this time it's been even longer! (How quickly New Year's resolutions fall by the wayside!) It means there's a lot to say in this blog though :-).

Perhaps the most important event during the past two weeks was Judith's 18 month checkup with a new doctor (February 9). We had become increasingly uncomfortable with how "conventional" our previous pediatrician is, and I had asked my own doctor to recommend someone who might be open to more alternative medicine. She recommended Dr. Hepworth, who also happens to be within walking distance of our house (in case we ever need to walk). Right from the start I was more impressed with this office, because it's much more kid-oriented in decoration and toys. (There's a huge fish tank, and neat toys on the walls, and a train that runs near the ceiling around the whole office - even the examining rooms are decoration to make kids excited - the table in the room we had was a big dog.) We had to undress Judith and put her on the table for the weigh/measure part, but the doctor actually examined her (mostly) while we were holding her, which made her slightly more comfortable - and he took his time showing her what each tool was and explaining what he was going to do with it. Granted, she still screamed bloody murder as soon as he stuck the light in her ear, but at least he tried. In comparison the old office was much more "sterile" (as in atmosphere, not cleanliness). So, for her stats: She's 34.5 inches (90th percentile), and 23 lbs, 11 oz (40th percentile) - she's continuing on the tall and skinny trend (no surprise there!) Because she had been sick for almost a month with her two colds back-to-back, we said we didn't want her to have shots at this appointment, and the doctor was totally fine with that (yay!). That means that she'll have a "shot" appointment this coming Wednesday, and I'll be the only one going with her - a little nerve wracking! We'll see how that goes.

Here's a picture of Judith from Sunday, February 7. We went over to Nate and Amanda's to watch the Super Bowl (ok, really just to hang out), and Amanda put Judith's hair in these two ponytails. I've tried to replicate it since then, but Judith won't stay still enough for me. At any rate, I took one look at her with her hair like this and thought "oh no, my baby's totally turned into a toddler!" Very cute though.

Puzzles!
Here, Lance and Judith are putting together a floor puzzle of the world. Judith loves this puzzle, and she's constantly taking it out of the box and spreading it all over. She can't even begin to put it together...I think she just likes seeing all the pieces.Judith got a puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa Sjoerdsma for Valentine's Day. She really enjoys this one too, because she knows the animals...especially the Zebra ("Zayba").
Grapes! Judith's newest favorite food appears to be grapes. Last FLG (see previous blog) Char had brought grapes along, and Judith was fascinated by them...she asked everyone for some, so I really have no idea how many she ate that night. Now she wakes up in the morning asking for "keeps," and she gets a huge smile on her face whenever I let her have some. She "chain-eats" them, holding the next one ready to pop in as soon as the previous one is gone.

Valentine's Day
We had a Valentine's celebration on Saturday - when Lance came home from work, we took him to the park for the first time. He got to watch Judith go down the slide by herself, help her climb up the "spider web," play on the swings, and take a walk around the park. Here's a beautiful picture of the two of them crossing a bridge. That evening our good friend Renee and her daughter Jessica babysat Judith for us at their house, so we got to eat dinner and watch a movie at our house without a little girl clamoring to get up or dancing in front of the TV hiding the movie from us. When we went back to pick her up, I was anticipating Judith being extremely glad to see us (it was the first time that she stayed at someone else's house without us), but instead she looked up, said "Mama!" and went right back to playing with Jessica. She didn't really want to go home, and once we got her home it took her more than an hour to fall asleep!

Monday, February 15, was Presidents' Day, and Lance had the day off. The weather was beautiful, and we all spent some time outside. I did a whole bunch of yard work, and Lance brought Judith out to play once I was done mowing - he didn't change her out of her PJs first, just put her tennis shoes on - but the grass stains came out ok, so it was alright :-). At lunch time, I got out a blanket and we had a picnic lunch. It was Judith's first time eating off a plate instead of just her high chair tray. The next day she kept reminding me that she had cheese outside :-).

Also on Monday, Judith and I watched the Olympics together, especially the figure skating. She said "spin" constantly :-).

The final picture for this blog entry is from our playdate with Aiden Domecq this past Thursday. He and his mommy, Erin, came over for about an hour in the morning. It was fun to have him over, because (so far) he's the only one of Judith's "friends" who also talks. They didn't do much talking together, but they both talked to both Erin and me. They also didn't do too much playing together - apparently that's normal at their age - but I did catch them putting shapes into the box at relatively the same time.

Friends

It's been a whole week again, but it seems to turn out that Sunday night is the time I really think about sitting down to blog. (We'll see if next week is any different.)

This week we had three play dates, dinner with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Tim, and dinner with friends. So Judith got to spend a lot of time with people besides me (a nice break for both of us!). Here are some pictures of all our times together:

On Monday morning we went to visit Kelsey and Naomi (9 months). Judith was almost a little scared of Naomi - whenever Naomi would crawl toward her, she'd come running to me. And Naomi thought Judith was fascinating, so she kept trying to crawl toward her - Judith spent the first 1/2 hour glued to my leg :-). But eventually Judith got more comfortable, and was willing to play near Naomi. Here they're sharing a Cheerio snack.


On Monday night Grandma Sandy came along with Grandpa Tim to his weekly computer time with Lance. Judith got to hang out with Grandma for a couple hours - and they had a great time playing together. They played hide-and-seek in the curtains and behind the couch cushions, played with Judith's kitchen, shared some coconut sorbet, and colored some pictures. It was especially good to see Judith interact so joyfully with Grandma, because a year ago she (Judith) cried whenever she saw her. :-)

On Wednesday morning we had a playdate with Ethan at Miss Traci's house. Ethan is two months younger than Judith, and she seemed a little more comfortable with someone closer to her size than she did with 9-month old Naomi. They didn't play together necessarily - unless "fighting" over toys is playing :-). I'm hoping that as we have more play dates Judith will learn more about sharing. Here's Ethan watching carefully while Judith plays with his guitar.

On Wednesday afternoon we met Julia and Vika at the park again (it was such a beautiful day!). This time I brought my camera along so I could capture Judith on the slide - here she and Vika are sliding down together. We had a very hard time getting them to slide simultaneously because they were both so excited to go down that they didn't want to wait. A little anecdote about the slide: Vika prefers to try to climb up the slide from the bottom, while Judith likes to go up the steps. Note that Vika can't climb the slide - she can't grip it well enough, and she only makes it as far as the beginning of the slope before she starts asking for help, so I wasn't too worried when Judith decided to try it too. In fact, I was standing a few feet away when she climbed up on to the bottom of it from the ground - a pretty big feat for a little girl who can't even climb onto the sofa by herself! She stood up and started to climb as Vika had done, and I thought, "she'll ask for help and I'll get her down." But either her shoes stick to the slide better or she's a little stronger, because she had no trouble at all once the slope started - and she made it all the way to the top of the slide! (I did move very close behind her once I saw her starting to climb.) I'm not going to encourage her to climb up that way, but I think it's pretty cool that she figured out how to do it :-)

On Friday night we had FLG at our house, and Judith was in high heaven having so many friends to play with at once. She chased Caleb all around the house, and she had great fun knocking down towers that the older kids built for her with the blocks we made at her birthday party. Here she is checking out Camryn's earrings.


Another note from this week: Her right lower molar is finally through. I think it's probably been slightly through for a little while, because I suddenly saw a huge mass of white - and I doubt the whole tooth came through at once. We also started brushing her teeth this week - and she wants to do it all the time. If she didn't drool all over herself while she chews on the toothbrush, I might be more inclined to let her hold it more often.

a whole week again??

How does time get away from me so quickly? I really was going to blog more than once this week...but it didn't happen. So here's a summary.

Judith has at least one more new tooth. I keep expecting to see another molar coming through on the bottom right side (to match the one that's in on the bottom left), but the newest one I see is a molar on the top left - to oppose the bottom one, I guess.

Fun new words include: grass, sky, moon, blue (yes she recognizes the color), swing, and elephant.

We've been playing outside a lot this week, because (starting Thursday) we finally had some sunny weather. Unfortunately, I've been working in the yard, so I didn't take my camera out, and there are no pictures (yet) of Judith enjoying the grass...or rather, the mud. She's been exploring in the yard, rediscovering acorn "hats" for her fingers, climbing (or trying to) on the terrace bricks, and sliding in the muddy grass. Today I cautioned her to "be careful" near the edge of a short grass step. She stood on the edge saying "ej" "carpees" (edge, careful) and then slid down it on her bottom.

We also went to the park with Vika and Julia on Thursday. Vika and Judith had great fun swinging and playing on the slide. Vika tried to teach Judith how to climb up the slide, but since the most she (Vika) could do was climb onto the end of it, I don't think any lasting damage was done :-). By the end of our time at the park, however, Judith was climbing up the play structure stairs, walking across the (bouncy) bridge, and going down the slide all by herself! (Actually, that was pretty scary for me, so I don't know how often she'll get away with it.)

Here are some pictures from this week:

Peanut butter face!
She was actually wiping the peanut butter off the toast with her finger, licking her finger, and then eating the toast.

Dance!
I was working in the kitchen and had the stereo on. Suddenly I heard wild giggling from the living room, and when I looked in, saw Judith dancing up a storm - giggling wildly as she did so.

Movie?
I asked Judith one morning if she wanted to watch a movie (yes, I finally given in and let her watch some DVDs - one of two hand-me-down Baby Einsteins or a Veggie Tales.) I put in a VT movie, and within five minutes she had taken Baby Beethoven off the shelf and brought it to me, saying "moopees" (movie) over and over - obviously she wasn't happy with my selection! The part that she's watching in this picture is one that she always anticipates. That little toy begins to spin with the music after sitting still for about 1 second - Judith always says "pin" (spin) as soon as she sees the toy.

Tonight I tried giving Judith macaroni and cheese (again). In the past she hasn't really eaten it, just played a little bit with one or two noodles, but tonight she actually ate quite a bit of it, and was able to chew it just fine (thanks, I'm sure to those new teeth!). We did ask her not to eat it with her hands, and you can see how successful that request was. It was pretty humorous to watch her hesitate over putting her hand in the bowl, and then slowly give in to the temptation.

And one last picture of Judith playing with Daddy and NayNay. They were rolling her pink soccer ball around, and Daddy stuck it under her stress. She thought that was pretty hilarious!

A night away, a party, and coloring!

No pictures from this last Friday night-Saturday, but it was a very momentous occasion. I attended the River Rock Women's Retreat, and it was my first night away from Judith! I wrote out very detailed instructions for Lance - just in case there was any part of her routine that he didn't know, and I left at about 2:00 p.m. on Friday. And (of course) they were both just fine. Apparently Judith asked for me a couple times ("mama?") and even went and patted the garage door once, in case I was out there. But otherwise she was just content with Lance. She slept fine on Friday night, ate well, and went down for her afternoon nap. And I had a great time at the retreat.

Saturday's picture is from Grandpa Tim's 70th birthday party. Here's Judith helping to unwrap the afghan that I made. She was fascinated by all the animals on the paper, but she obeyed "do not open" instructions. She also had a great time playing with all the cousins and aunts and uncles. (She didn't say "Happy Birthday" though.)

Sunday's picture turned out too blurry, but the anecdote that goes along with it is worth telling anyway. There is a small spot of chocolate on the wall near our dining room table that got there sometime during my Holiday candy frenzy, and has yet to be washed off. On Sunday night Judith noticed it (again), and also found one of my Pampered Chef nylon scrapers. I guess she's seen me use the scraper to clean off a cupboard door or to scrape tempered chocolate off the table, because she kept saying "caca" (chocolate) and rubbing at the spot with the scraper! Apparently my cleaning isn't quite up to her standards. (yes, I cleaned the spot off this morning.)

On Sunday night she also said what we have decided is her first complete sentence. She sat down on one of her stools (there are two next to each other), patted the other, and said "Nay Nay, Sit!" She's patted the stool before and said "sit" but never put it together with someone's name. And this morning she was going around the table where we sat for Life Group last night and patting each chair to tell me where Amanda (Dama), Nate (Nay Nay) and Daddy were sitting.

This morning I was working on stuff in the kitchen and searching for something to entertain Judith. I got out one of the pieces of butcher paper that came as packaging in a box, and put it on the top of one my big rubbermaid containers. Then I got out one crayon, and demonstrated. Judith liked the idea very much, except she was constantly wanting a different color. So I eventually gave her the box, which she found much more intriguing than the actual coloring process. She spent a good hour, at least, first coloring and then taking crayons in and out of the box. I also drew her some flowers and stars, which was perhaps a mistake because she no longer wanted to color on her own, but only wanted me to draw more "fowrs" and "tars".

"spatula"

One of our favorite new Judith-words is spatula. She learned this word when she got the play kitchen and tools, and she likes to say it over and over - it's such a fun word to say after all! Here's a little video (my first video post!!!) of her saying it.

sick

Judith has a cold :-(. She woke up Wednesday morning with an extremely runny nose. And since she doesn't quite understand blowing, we've been following her with a kleenex for the last three days. It is starting to dry up a little, and she's getting really stuffy as a result. We've been giving her C-Plus cold tablets, and putting liquid garlic in her ears to help prevent an ear infection. She thinks the liquid garlic process is pretty fun, actually (much better than having her scream the whole time!), and as soon as we finish, she wants to do it herself. Here's a picture from yesterday morning of her showing that she knows exactly what to do :-).

This morning Judith re-discovered her moose slippers (given by our good friend Char at a baby shower). They're still a little big, but she wanted to wear them, so I put them both on her feet. And she had a great time running around in them...for about 5 minutes. Then she brought me her shoes to put on instead.

A Whole Week?

Oops! I didn't mean to go quite so long between blogs, but I'm not going to publish 7 pictures here . We've been just fine, although Judith would really like to be able to play outside - our yard is currently flooded. I think she's been getting a little stir-crazy. We've been able to take advantage of a few breaks in the rain to talk short walks along the sidewalk, but it's not the same as being able to really run. Unfortunately, it'll probably be several months before she can do that in our backyard.


On a positive note, Judith's been sleeping much better - and we didn't have to take naptime away (yay!). She's adjusted to taking her afternoon nap around 12:30, and she's slept 10 hours straight for the last two nights (I'm hoping that's a trend, and not just a coincidence, we'll have to wait and see). Here's a beautiful picture that Lance took of her sleeping:


I took this picture to show how proficient she's becoming at feeding herself with a spoon. Yes, she gets oatmeal all over the place, but it can all go back in the bowl, and eventually gets into her mouth. Incidentally, she loves oatmeal ("ohbeal"), and eats about a cup of it every morning.

Here's a picture of her playing with the alphabet magnets that Grandma Judi made for her - on this day she was transferring them one-by-one from the back of the front door (it's metal) to the wall (magnetic painted).


And here's today's picture. Lance and I had finished our dinner, and we were all just hanging out in the kitchen. She's become quite excited by the camera - wanting to see the "baby" every time a picture is taken. So I told her to go and sit by the wall and I would take one. Lance got her to give this beautiful smile.