Catching Up

Anansi stories

On February 27th, 2011 (yes, last weekend), my dad and I took Jude to the DIA to see an Anansi puppet show.

They were watching intently.

Sometimes, Anansi would suddenly pop out with his legs spread like this and it scared the crap out of Jude. It made me laugh because I'm mean, or something.

After the puppet show and browsing through the museum, we went to Niki's pizza and had Saganaki (flaming cheese, OPA!). It was Jude's first time having it, but he nomed on it like a little fiend. :)

Ferndale Holiday Ice Festival, Winter Fun, and a Christmas Tree!

Last Saturday, my mum and I took Jude to Downtown Ferndale for their Holiday Ice Festival. They had ice sculptures outside of the shops and there were Reindeer, ice carving demonstrations, a craft fair, and Santa was there!

I asked Jude, "Do you want to sit on Santa's lap?" He had such a serious face and replied with "no." 

The next day, we had a big snow storm, so naturally, I took Jude outside to play in the snow! We also bought our Christmas tree, but we didn't put it up and decorate it until Tuesday.

He loved riding around the yard in the sled! He kept yelling "more!"

He's such a good helper!

It's missing something...

Halloween 5k for Craniosynostosis

Over the weekend my parents, Jude, and I roadtripped from our humble abode in Metro-Detroit to Long Island for a 5k walk/run for craniosynostosis. We took off Friday night (I forgot to take epic roadtripping pictures to commemorate Jude's first roadtrip though :() and stopped in the middle of Pennsylvania the wee hours to get some rest in a motel room. Saturday morning, we wasted no time in getting out of there and back on the road and got to New York in the early afternoon. Before checking into the hotel we made a stop at Coney Island for lunch (coney's, naturally) and to go to the aquarium.

Jude was a shark!

He wanted to eat the penguins, because that's what sharks do. 

With his sharky brethren.

On the Coney Island boardwalk.

After we got to the hotel that night, Jude crawled and played around the room until eleven o'clock because he was so restless from being stuck in the car seat for so long, but he was so happy to be free.

Stretching before the race. My mum was a trooper and ran the 5K while the rest of us walked. She ran it in 33 minutes!

At the starting line!

Mile 2! Jude wanted a little break to stretch his legs.

He walked a little bit of it, with help from his Pop-Pop and I of course.

He crossed the finish line and got a medal for being so awesome.

We made a slight detour to have Halloween lunch in Sleepy Hollow... because we're that awesome nerdy. 

We all had matching capes that said Jude's Mama, PopPop, and Gran and also shirts that said "Going the distance for Jude Man" buttttt we didn't take pictures. I think we should take pictures sometime soon so we can have some. There were tons of people at the race, it was great to see all the people supporting the cause and we got to talk to a few. Jude played with a few kids afterwards too. 

The downfalls to the trip:

- No trick-or-treating for us.

- Jude became addicted to the tube because we had car DVD players and it was the only way to keep him calm. I didn't think that I would need more than 4 full movie and 1 Baby Einstein DVD's so we ended up watching "Alice In Wonderland" 4 times. I knew I should have followed my gut and grabbed more. 

Zoo Boo!

This past Friday night we went the Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo with my mum, her coworkers, and their daughters. It was a trick-or-treat through the zoo at night. They had lots of cool pumpkin displays, the reptile house was open, and there was a Zoo Boo Revue. We even saw the vultures sleeping on a log and a camel. Jude was a trooper and stayed awake through the whole thing, and of course loved the music and dancing in the Revue. He even had some candy and loved to play with the wrapped candy in his treat basket. On to the pictures!

I just had to include the polar bear pumpkins, for obvious reasons.

7 months!

Jude is 7 months now. It's hard to believe it's been that long since he's been born. I think it's actually just now fully sinking in what it all means - a lifetime of smiles, tears, and probably tons of mischief. He's a little trouble maker sometimes.

Quick stats:

- Still mostly breastfed.

- He's working on perfecting his sippy cup skillz.

- He loveloveloves smooshed veggies & fruits. This kid is going to be a foody, he hasn't spit out a single food I've fed him.

- He's getting ready to crawl. He can sort of get on his hands and knees, and he just kind of rocks when he does.

- He wiggles around the floor. Backwards and in circles. He usually scooches backwards until he gets stuck under something.

- He added "m" to his babbling so he sits there and goes "mamamam." I'm not sure he quite grasps the meaning and concept of it yet though.

- He has more than doubled his birth weight, he's almost 17 pounds!

- He's still a shorty, but he's always going to be a shorty.

- Everything still goes in his mouth.

- He still doesn't sleep through the night.

- He has started the ever exciting "I'm going to drop this" phase.

- He has also started the stranger and separation anxiety phases. He gets all shy and snuggly when we're around other people that he doesn't see on at least a weekly basis. He also cries when I leave the room.

Yesterday I took him to the zoo for the first time! We went and visited one of my best friends, Kelsey in Bowling Green and the 3 of us and our friend Adrian went to the Toledo zoo for a few hours. He had fun, strollering along and fell asleep eventually. A lot of the animals were out, lazing about. One of the hippo's was walking outside to his water hole and the giraffes were inside but the baby was licking the window right in front of us. It was a lot of fun, and of course really awesome to be able to spend time with my friends, even if Jude did cry most of the hour and a half drive home.