Judson at two

We are enjoying Judson so much right now!  Yes, he does throw some pretty loud fits when things don't go his way, but those are, thankfully, fairly infrequent.

Here are some things we want to remember about him at twenty-four months (okay, almost twenty-five, but who's counting?!)...

First of all, he's so incredibly sweet to his sister.  He kisses her every chance he gets and says, "Hold Cooper," at least once a day.  He often calls her "Super Cooper," which just might be the cutest thing ever.  :)  There are definitely times when he wants me to put her down ("Put Cooper in bouncy seat."), but mostly he acts like she's always been around.  What a blessing!

(Our friend, Joani, took these a month ago.  To see the rest, click here.)

Judson's gotten pretty bossy lately.  Firstborn, anyone?!  Not that I ever bossed anyone around.  :)  It's mostly when we're playing.  "Mommy, sit right HERE!" and that sort of thing.  Another one that he tries a lot is when I start to put my hair up in a ponytail.  "Leave it DOWN, PLEASE!"  We certainly don't always do things his way, but he likes to keep trying...

About two months ago, Judson really started "singing" songs.  He started with "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and has most recently been singing the alphabet song, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," and "Happy Birthday."  He sings others, too, but those are the most popular right now.  He still loves to dance...and has moves like his father.  If you've never been to a wedding where Nate was dancing, you have really missed out.  :)

We went through a rough patch of sleeping issues for about a week.  No clue what was causing it.  New baby?  New molars?  (They're not through yet, but he's recently started drooling.)  Just a phase?  Thankfully, the worst seems to be behind us.  (He slept thirteen hours last night and he's back to taking 3 hour naps.)

Judson had his two year appointment on Monday.  He is 38 inches tall and weighs 40 pounds.  As usual, he's WAY off the charts.  Out of curiosity, I compared his stats to the three year old growth chart.  He's not on there either (for weight).  So, I tried the four year old growth chart.  He's in the 80th percentile for four year old boys.  CRAZY.

At the appointment, the doctor was going through developmental milestones with us.  He said, "He should be starting to string a few words together."  He did that at about eighteen months.  At this point, he's really starting to understand pronouns and is consistently using 6-8 word sentences.  (For example, he said to my dad the other day, "Mommy's making mac and cheese for us.")  Some of his sentences blow me away, but I usually forget them before I get the chance to write them down.  He'll try to say just about any word.  He doesn't say "hippo" anymore.  He says "hippopawmus."  Another favorite of mine is how he pronounces silly: "si-wee."  So cute.

Judson loves to just stay home and play.  Cars, trucks, fire trucks, tractors, trains, and all sorts of other vehicles are one of his favorites.  We also spend hours building with his new Mega Bloks (birthday gift from my parents).  Today we built a structure his "monster truck" could drive over.  (As much fun as it is to play with him, I'm awfully excited that we now have a girl and someday we can play with dolls and have tea parties! :)  Finally, Judson loves to play with balls.  He can catch pretty well and is actually shooting his basketball into the basket now.  However, the basket is already almost too low for him.  Who knew he'd be so tall?!  :)

We've gone to parks as much as possible this fall.  He LOVES to play outside and I want him to get as much fresh air as possible.  These days, every time we get in the car, he says, "Go Crooked House Park!"  We've been going at least once a week.  We usually take lunch and go after Bible study.  Then he can just fall asleep in the car on the way home and I can transfer him to his crib.  Yeah, he's still in his crib and his high chair.  I'm enjoying it while I can.  I know Cooper probably won't be in either as long, since she'll want to keep up with her older brother.  He doesn't know any differently and we're not ready to clue him in.  :)

Okay, in the interest of getting this posted before he's two and a half, I'm switching to bullet points. Here are a few other tidbits about our guy.

• He can count to ten, though he will not do it on command and often leaves out a number.  Sometimes three, sometimes a different number.
• He's getting pretty good at the alphabet.
• His vocabulary constantly amazes us.
• He generally loves riding around in the car because there's so much to see.  When we're in the car, he has a running commentary going on the entire time.  Someday I may get tired of it, but right now I really love it.  I'd say the drive out to Stayton is one of his favorites around here - so many tractors and animals to see, plus a fire station in Turner.  :)
• He's fairly opinionated about what he wears.  I thought I'd have longer than two years to dress him cutely!  But no, he often insists on wearing a hand-me-down fire truck shirt or his new Thomas the Train shirt that Anna, Morgan, and Macy gave him for Christmas.  I could talk him out of it (and sometimes do), but usually I just let him wear them.
• I've mentioned it before, but he's such a hot body.  He would never wear clothes if it was an option.  (And he often doesn't at home.)  After months of shorts, it was nearly impossible to get him to wear pants again!

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but very few people have probably made it all the way through this anyway.  We are so thankful that God has entrusted Judson to us, and we're doing our best to enjoy every moment!