Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Judah is three!...and...Andrew is 11 months!


September 1--Judah opening presents from Ohio grandparents.
September 11--Birthday party with Iowa grandparents
September 21--The ACTUAL birthday. I made sourdough apple cake. Yum!

September 21 was Judah's official birthday, although we started celebrating it for a couple weeks before. Now he thinks we should have a birthday party every day, especially with cake and preferably candles to blow out. ;-)

A couple weeks before he turned three, he started telling me that he had to go potty! So, we ran to the bathroom, got him on the potty, and voila! Pee in the potty, not in the pants! This is a big deal. After about 9 months of on and off potty training, I had pretty much given up and had him wearing diapers, and only put him on the potty before or after sleep times.

What a difference a couple weeks make! Now he's wearing big boy underpants! And in the last couple of days, he's gone all by himself a few times, without alerting me to his need to use the potty. Pretty cool. Now if we could just get night-time potty trained. One thing at a time, Mom.

Other milestones... Judah enjoys choosing his clothes, and sometimes wants to change several times a day, much to his mother's chagrin. He also likes to take his socks off and leave them in random places, then when he needs socks, he goes and gets out a new pair.

Sometimes he can get by without an afternoon nap, although then he's reeeeally ready for bedtime.

He is doing more pretend playing, especially talking on his phone. I will hear him recite parts of hymns, prayers, and nursery rhymes to himself. And of course, he still loves to be read too.
And he LOVES machines, with a special affinity for tractors, although he also loves 4-wheelers, snowmobiles, and combines, as well as other big equipment such as those.

He is much more observant now, too. Last night he looked out the deck door and noticed three deer eating under the crab apple tree just outside of our house!

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September 22 was the 11-month mark for Andrew. Hard to believe how big he's getting.

I missed the 10-month mark. So, to bring you up to speed, here he is at 10 months. Yes, he is playing in the toilet. Look at that smile!
August 22
Tried getting a good picture of both boys. These are all I got.

The cousins visited on this day. Here is Stephanie with Gabriel, and me with Andrew! Johnny, Malia, Judah, Gabriel and Andrew are below.
September 3
September 5--I was blanching corn to freeze, and we cooled it off on the bathtub. Andrew discovered that he LOVES corn on the cob, so was in heaven when two of his loves were joined! He almost fell in a couple times trying to swipe a cob.

September 9--Sooooo big!
September 10

September 14--almost 11 months

And here he is at 11 months:

He likes to climb up the side of his crib, from the floor and will just bounce on the ledge as he holds on. I'm surprised at how coordinated he is.
September 21
The brothers.

He is now saying what I think is "amen"... sounds more like "meh", but it's at the same time we all say Amen at the end of prayers. He is also very good at doing "soooo big" by raising his hands high above his head. He is still a very active boy, and will sometimes move the gate away from the stairway so he can climb. He gets a very impish grin and laugh when he's climbing.

Other words he tries to form: peek-a-boo (he covers his eyes with his hands while he does this), banana (sounds like na-na), quack (comes out more like quaaa), Judah (hit and miss...). He likes to just jabber noises, which is so fun to listen to. Overall, a pretty happy guy.

His personality is showing through and I think he's going to be a people person. He readily gives smiles. So far, he hasn't shown any stranger anxiety, and when we're around other kids, he wants to be right in the middle of them to watch them and laugh at them. He has no fear of animals, and will let big dogs come right up to his face. So I need to be wary, since he's not! He loves the outdoors, and long ago lost his fear of the chickens, so we enjoy watching those.

Andrew still isn't walking, just not brave enough to take that first independent step. But he's doing a lot more free-standing. I'm in no hurry!

That should bring you up to speed for now. Until next month....

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Birthdays and the cakes that go with them


I wanted to take a moment to share the birthday cakes I've made for myself, my husband, and Judah.

My birthday was July 16, and I made a double layer sourdough cake with a recipe out of the cookbook "Healthy Choices." Pretty tasty. I used a regular powdered sugar frosting and had a few small raspberries I used to decorate it.

My husband's birthday was August 6, and he requested a coffee cake. I wanted to make a healthier version of the coffee cake he likes, so I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake recipe from "Healthy Choices" into a Sourdough version. I pulled it out of the oven and stuck candles in. Dumb idea. Candles are made of wax and wax melts when your cake is hot. Otherwise, it tasted really good. Got a good review from the birthday boy.

Yes, I'm obsessed with sourdough.

Because I even made a different sourdough chocolate cake recipe for my son Judah's 3rd birthday party this past weekend! (We celebrated early... maybe i'll make another one for his actual birthday... :-) ) This recipe came from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa's blog. I just couldn't resist. And I made it in a bundt pan, which turned out really great! Again, I used a powdered sugar frosting, which wasn't my first choice, but we've been having a hard time finding local maple syrup and honey, which are my sweeteners of choice.

Andrew turns "one" in October.... what kind of cake will he get. I'll leave you hanging... to be continued...