Judah is 22 months old! I can’t believe our little blueberry is almost two. He seemed to have aged about 5 years since Elias joined our family :). Here are 10 of Judah’s FAVORITE THINGS:
1. ELEPHANTS — His new favorite animal! He calls all elephants “dodo” (his version of the German sound that an elephant makes) and is constantly looking for dodos. “Where’s dodo?” and “Dodo, where’d you gooo?” are questions that follow us around all day, whether we’re looking at books or playing with his toy animals.
2. SWEETS — Man, that kid likes sweet stuff! He goes crazy over ice cream, would drink a whole milkshake if we’d let him, and really liked getting into his Halloween candy. He also is quite fond of pop (after all, his Papa is a Pepsi man) ,any sweet drinks, and egg nog, of course :)!
3. LAUGHTER — He is one joyful little boy and loves to laugh! And we sure love to hear his laugh. Things that make him giggle: being tickled, playing tag, when we imitate everything he does, seeing animals outside, being scared, doing silly things with Dada, dancing with his friend, playing frog, pretending to be asleep and woken up, being held upside down, his baby brother making funny noises…
4. INDEPENDENCE — He’s our Mr. I-can-do-it-myself-and-don’t-need-any-help. Going on the big kid slide? Don’t try to help him. Roaming around the playground? He’ll send you away if you follow too closely. Using a ‘real’ glass to get a drink? He’ll point to it, say “halten, halten” (hold it, hold it), and will want to drink all by himself, no matter how heavy the glass.
5. CHILDCARE — I’m so thankful for the childcare ministry here and for Judah loving it so much. He usually just runs into the room when I drop him off, ready to play, eat snacks, go outside, watch Elmo, sing, and hang out with the other 1-year olds. I’ve been told that Judah often leads on the “snack cheer” — when they’re all sitting in their little chairs and are waiting for the snacks, he starts yelling “Yaaaaaay!” and the other kids join him :). I also heard Selah (a sweet girl that Judah is quite fond of) and Judah dance together almost every day…so cute! I wish I could put a camera in the room and watch him interact with all the kids for just a day. What I love the most is that he comes running to me with a big grin and arms wide open, yelling “Mama, Mama” when I pick him up!
6. DADDY –– Since Elias has joined our family, Judah has become quite the Daddy’s boy, which I am very thankful for. Now often times when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap he actually yells “Dada” first. They’ve spent a lot of time together since I’m busy with Elias, and I just love seeing the two bond, go on adventures outside, and laugh and giggle for hours.
7. HIS BABY BROTHER — Judah is just IN LOVE with Elias. It’s so sweet to watch. He usually asks for the baby when he wakes up and gets so excited when Elias is awake. He wants to hold him all the time (“halten, halten”), constantly gives him kisses, strokes his hair, gets really close to his face and just stares at him with a big smile on his face, gives him his toys, offers him his food, puts blankets on him, tries to burp him, plays with his feet, waves at him right in front of his face, and talks to him. The cutest thing is when Judah imitates every single noise Elias makes. Elias yawns — Judah pretends to yawn. Elias coos — Judah laughs and says the same sound. Elias breathes really fast — Judah does the same. So fun to watch!
8. ANIMALS & BUGS — He loves finding bugs, spiders, and ants outside and gets super excited when he finds one. He usually lets out a high pitch scream and then yells: “Ameise! Ameise!” (which means “ant” in German). His knowledge of animal species is fairly limited at this point — he calls everything “Ameise”… although he has started saying “Spinne” (spider). Besides bugs, he’s also quite fond of dogs and cats… and probably any other animal he’d come in contact with. He’s also quite proficient in making all kinds of animal noises 🙂
9. BOOKS & MOVIES — I love it when Judah comes over, sits in my lap, and says “book, book” :)! He really enjoys looking through his books, pointing at everything and asking “What’s that?” over and over and over again, and even pretending to read. His favorite books are the ones with animals in them (preferably Dodos, of course). As far as movies go, Judah still is quite enamored with anything we put in his little DVD player. His favorite show used to be Veggie Tales, but that has been replaced by Benjamin Bluemchen (German show about an elephant) and Biene Maja (German show about a bee).
10. THE GREAT OUTDOORS — He’s still our little nature boy. Several times a day he just stands by our door, face pressed against the glass, saying “raus, raus” (outside, outside). He gets super excited when we go outside, he brings us his shoes, his jacket, and his hat (he goes nowhere without some kind of head covering), and is as happy as can be. When John has some time off, the two of them just take off on their little adventures…just this past week, they went on a paddleboat on the lake here on campus, and Judah was playing in the water and somehow got his whole head soaked… he didn’t cry, though; he just started laughing :).
We are so blessed to have Judah as our son… he brings so much joy, laughter, wonder, and excitement into our lives (oh and did I mention SANCTIFICATION?!? But that’s another story), and we are praying that Judah will grow to live up to the meaning of his name and praise God with all of his life.
Lindsay says
Judah is so cute cant wait to see you at church around christmas
Randy & Barb Anyan says
I love you Judah!!! :O)
Jill M. says
Love this post. I can attest to his amazing laugh 🙂 We love his joy and love for life!
Joellen & David says
super sweet post!