Saturday, February 15, 2014

Month 14

Life got back to "normal" after the holidays, and with many cold/snowy days we spent most of the month taking it easy and enjoying each other.  I would have to say the theme for this month was independence for Jude.  He slowly emerged out of the attachment stage and has really been enjoying playing and discovering on his own.  After a few minutes, he'll come back to see what you are doing and play and bit, and then he's off to explore again.  He has also become obsessed with playing outside.  After we come in, he'll just stand at the door grabbing for the doorknob.  We found some great parks in the area that have toddler play areas, so he has really enjoyed going to play there with his friends.  I have a feeling we'll be outside a lot as soon as winter is over! I also started many learning activities with Jude.  This is easier said than done since sitting still and focusing on one thing is not his thing, but he is really starting to absorb a lot.  We practice counting to three all the time and he loves to throw his ball and say "Three".  We have also been working on the ABCs and he is really starting to catch on.  Being new parents we never realized all that they can learn and absorb at such a young age.  He is watching our every move whether we realize it or not!!  I feel like he has grown up and changed so much in just one short month.  My little baby is becoming in big boy!

Loves taking things out and putting them back in

Playing at the park

First Dallas Stars game

Taking a ride in his car.  We'll say, "do you want to go ride your car", and he'll run to the front door

Inside fun at the pet store on a snowy day

How do I look mommy?

Pure joy with daddy at the park

Vacuuming all those hard places to get!

Check out this stick I found!

Playing catch with Sam's cousin Austin.  He could do this for hours!

Looking for the birds with his PePaw

Slam dunk! 

More hats!

Where's Jude???

Helping mommy clean!  Least favorite job, so I will gladly allow him to do this!

Playing outside (he used to HATE the grass and now wants to be outside all day)

Making a business deal with Jacob

"Playing" pricesses with Landry (aka: taking the princesses away)

Hammering away with daddy

Not only did he get the sock off, but now he's eating it!

I won't tell daddy that you carried this purse around!!!

Using a spoon all by himself!

Taking a walk with daddy

Playing in the snow in his carhart pants!

Sliding with Jacob 
(please ignore the extremely short pants - tiny waist and long legs)

Riding the horsey

Jumping on the bridge


Stats:
- He did not get weighed this month, but I am hoping we have finally hit 20 pounds!!
-He had some pretty big changes in his eating this month.  We have started decreasing the pureed food, introduced cows milk (not going well), and he is almost fully weaned (his choice, not mine).  
- He has also started learning to use a spoon and fork.  He does really good, but then realizes that things are going too slow and just reverts back to using his fingers!
-Thanks to his Pops, he has started to say "ah" after each drink.  
-He has always fed himself primarily with his left hand, and has continued this with the spoon and fork.  He though primarily uses his right hand for most other things, including throwing the ball.  I guess we'll see where this leads us!
-Loves to take off his socks and thinks it is a pretty fun game.  The not so fun part is the amount of socks we have lost due to this!
-Favorite toys: Balls are still in first place, but close behind is his vacuum, blocks (he can stack up to 5 blocks on his own), hammering toy, and cars.  
- Can tell you where his tummy, eyes, ears, nose, and head are.  He also loves to find other people's belly buttons (awkward!) 
-Started blowing kisses.  This was the first "trick" I tried to teach him months and months ago.  I always knew he knew how, but randomly one day he just started doing it!
-Likes to help pick up trash and put it in the trash can.  He also likes to try to take things out of the trash can, which makes this a little less cute!
-He is OBSESSED with toothbrushes.  Although he has his own, more often than not he wants our toothbrushes.  We literally have to hide are toothbrushes!!
-He has also found a new love with our phones and gets mad when it turns itself off.  Sam found his original iphone, so we let him play with that.  Doesn't keep his interest too long though since it doesn't work!  I think we might have to break down soon and introduce the iphone and ipad.  
-We have said this since day one, but this kid is so observant.  When he wakes up from a nap and comes downstairs, in seconds he can find all the new things or anything that is out of place.  
-He likes to put his hats and suspenders on and go look at himself in the mirror (aka: the glass door).  Funny thing is, we never taught him to do this!  Cracks us up!
-It has been very interesting watching Jude play with friends these past few weeks.  He learns a lot from them, but also struggles with not understanding when someone wants to play with his toys.  A very hard lesson to teach a baby that doesn't understand!  It is sweet though to see him interacting with other babies his age.  He walked up to a friend at church the other day grabbed his hand and they went and climbed the stairs together!  
-The only new words for the month are cheese and boo (when playing peek-a-boo).  He though has started to say thank you with out any prompting.  Its so sweet!
- Still loves animals and gets so excited any time he sees a cat or dog either in person, on the tv, in a book, etc.  
-Still has 4 teeth on the top and 4 on the bottom.
-Wears size 3 diapers
-Wears 9-12 month clothes
-Most days takes 2 naps.
-I can honestly say that the tongue is in a bit more.  I think we might be turning the corner!
-We are back to needing another haircut. We are not ready to take on that experience again though, so we are just waiting at this point.


Saturday, January 11, 2014

13 Months

I have no idea how a month has already passed since Jude turned 1!!  I guess its due to the fact that we had such a fun and busy December! After the big birthday week things did NOT slow down.  The Christmas activities started, we traveled for a week, had New Years, and then got sick!!  Before I even knew what happened, my baby turned into a 13 month old toddler!  We try not to dwell on that fact though and simply concentrate on our active, adventurous, smart, loving little boy!
This was such a fun month of experiencing our favorite time of the year with our little guy.  He might not have understood all that was going on, but having him with us made it all so much more special.  He is the light of our lives and brings joy to so many others.  We treasure each moment we are given with him and pray that we would allow the Lord to guide our every step as we raise him.

First Haircut 
 Things started out ok, the cheerios were working!

 Then this happened

 Finally the finished product.  Lets just saw this wasn't the best haircut experience for many reasons (if you could see the sides and the back you would understand!!)

 Learning to rock a new hair style!


 Besides a day here and there, he was really good with not messing with the christmas tree!  Not this day!

 Mommy and her baby at our Christmas party

 Playing in his friend, Ethan's, new monster truck car

Laughing with daddy

- At his latest doctors appointment he weight 19 pounds 8 ounces (almost to 20 pounds!!)
- Continues to eat pretty much all the same food.  We are eating more finger foods and less puree food.  We haven't introduced milk yet, but are starting to think about it. 
- Not that we did not need to before, but we really have to keep an eye on this little guy!  He is starting to become our little climber!  Luckily so far he is pretty easy to redirect. He has also started to run a bit which tends to cause a few more falls!
-His favorite toys are still all of his many balls and throwing them, but he is really starting to become interested in his mega legos.  He likes to put them together and pull them apart, build towers (with our help), and of course knock the towers down.  He also loves carrying around a bag or bucket with balls or his "cell" phone in it. 
-New words for this month are ball, there it is, (although we might be the only ones that know what he is saying) and there he is.  
-When he comes into a room or sees something that excites him, he has started gasping and completely lights up.  Or he'll say ooooo when he really likes something. 
-His new favorite game is putting pillows on the floor and jumping and rolling on them. 
-He is obsessed with the vacuum.  Whether its the real one or the play one he got for Christmas.   
- Luckily we got through the Christmas holiday, but after New Years our little guy had his first fever.  He was still his happy self, but more cuddly and easily upset-able.  He was already going through a pretty strong attachment phase and being sick made things even worse!  He seems to be getting a bit better with this. 
-He will tell himself no when he knows that he is not supposed to touch something.  This though does not always detour him from not touching it! 
- Still loves animals and gets so excited any time he sees a cat or dog either in person, on the tv, in a book, etc.  
-Still has 4 teeth on the top and 4 on the bottom.
-Wears size 3 diapers
-Wears 9-12 month clothes, but can still wear some 6 month pants if they aren't too short. 
-Most days takes 2 naps.
-Tongue still out 24/7!
-His hair is starting to slowly grow back.  It may be quite awhile before we cut it again! For months he would play with his hair as he fell asleep.  We felt so bad for him when we cut it because we took away his comfort!  Its long enough again for him to play with it though!


Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Tis the Season

Jude had a great 2nd first Christmas!! Last year he was just a few weeks old, so it felt like this year was his first Christmas.  Although he had no idea what was really going on, he enjoyed being around friends and family and playing at all of the festivities!!  He was into present opening for the first few gifts and then just prefered playing with what he already opened or just the box!  If it was a box of clothes, he would instantly loose focus!!  We got to spend a full week at home in Amarillo, so we were able to get lots of family time in and even got to see a few friends!  The Lord has blessed us abundantly and although we tend of make this season of celebrating His son's birth about worldly things, He still chooses to bless us through it all.  May we never loose focus of what we are really celebrating.  I look forward to the coming years when Jude will be able to understand this joyous occasion a bit more.

Christmas card photos





 What he does the majority of every day - throw the ball

 Looking at the deer at Grancy and Pop's house

 Playing catch with PePaw

 Looking for the birds with MeMaw and PePaw

 Going for a ride on Meme's walker!

 Visiting Meme

 Touching snow for the first time (this did not last long!)

Christmas Eve
 Christmas Eve service - he might have only lasted for the first 10 min, but he loved it for a short time!

Grancy and Pops - Someone wasn't in the picture mood! 

 Just too much to look at to be taking pictures!

 He loved Grandma and Mel's dog, Cici.  
To bad the dog didn't much like him!!

Loved being the center of attention and watching everyone open gifts

 Playing with Grancy

Christmas Morning!!!

 Time to open the gifts!!

 He's working hard because the tongue is sticking out further and further

 He loved shaking daddy's M&Ms

 Putting on his new house shoes while playing with mommy's lotion

 Favorite gift - his vacuum!! He knew exactly what to do with it
since mommy always holds him when she vacuums.

 Still going!  Too bad this doesn't really pick stuff up!  

 All dressed up to head to Memaw and Pepaw's house

 Had to get one last vacuum in!

 Playing peek-a-boo

 Checking out the pretty tree with Memaw

Playing with his new ball from Aunt Sara 

 Helping daddy open his gifts

 Look what PePaw got at the gift exchange...looks like Jude actually won on this one!

 Playing the wind chimes with Pops

 Playing catch with Grancy
 Last pics before we leave - Grancy and Pops

 Memaw and PePaw

We also took some time to catch up with some of our closest friends that sadly we don't get to see very often.
 Playing the drums with RyRy!  They did this for quite awhile and he really started to get into it. 

 Playing with the Jackson crew!  

 Best friends - Ryan and Sam

 Graham giving Jude a sweet huge!

 Daddy's other childhood best friend, Josh, and his little boy Graham!

One of Mommy's best friends, Ashley and Hollis 
(the other three kids were too busy playing to take pics with us!)

Sam and Brad - Jude still looks confused and Hollis with her sweet smile!