Jude's Birthday Celebrations! (and one year stats)

To kick off Jude's Birthday celebrations, my mum and I gave him some gifts from us in the morning on his Birthday.

After his nap, we gave him a Ding Dong for a Birthday cake, complete with a candle.

We spent the day playing, and went to the fish store to buy snails. We had a late dinner with our family friend, Lisa because she was in town from Texas at the Timberwolf Tavern (Jude loves to flirt with the waitresses there). When we got home my mum gave him his big present, his drum! As soon as he had the mallets in his hand he held them properly and started playing the drum.

We had his birthday Party on Sunday, the 15th. I made the invitations, cake, cupcakes, and decorations myself. I also put out a scrapbook that I was working on all year that has a picture of Jude each week for the past year. 

Most of my family was there as well as my friend Amanda and my friend Kelsey (who I kidnapped for the weekend from BG and kept me sane). 

We had a taco bar, and everyone seemed to have a good time!

 For my favor buckets I ended up putting a stuffed clown fish, some fish stickers, bubbles, a punch ball, a small water toy, a packet of Goldfish, and a bag of gummy fish candy.

I filled the kiddy pool at the beginning of the day for Jude to splash in and we tossed him in it after he made a mess of his cake (which he didn't slam into as hard as most kids, he was very timid about it. I think he ate too much fruit beforehand) to clean him off.

One year stats:
-Weighs about 20 pounds.
-Eats normal people food.
-Nurses at night and first thing in the morning only.
-Drinks whole milk during the day.
-Sometimes sleeps through the night.
-Takes one 2 hour nap during the day.
-Loves to play drums, catch, and sit in his toy boxes.
-Says: Bubba, kitty, mmm for food, and mimics things like yeaah, hiii, and hmmm-mmm. (maybe more)
-Signs: more, food, all done.
-Climbs onto the couch.
-Loves to climb up and down steps when he's around them.
-Starting to throw toddler tantrums.
-Favorite song: "Single Ladies" by Beyonce.

Countdown!

6 days: Jude will be one! I got his 1 year portraits done on Friday, they're pretty cute, and the first portraits he's had done post-op.

10 days: Court hearing with Christopher about child support. This time I'm pretty sure there's no loopholes he can use to get out of it or postpone it any longer, I've also been brushing up on my knowledge of the custody, visitation, and child support laws to ease my anxiety.


12 days: Jude's first birthday party! It's going to be fun. I've been working on planning and getting everything ready, it would be much easier if I had a job and the money to fund it instead of relying on my parents because they like to put everything off to the last minute. Here's a preview of some of the stuff (table cloths, napkins, favor buckets stuffed fish favors, banner, and cupcake liners)

14 days: My Birthday. And a stupid WIC appointment.

21 days: Family vacay to California for 6 days for my mum's Birthday.

29 days: School starts. I can't express my excitement for this. 

Jude's Almost ONE!

That's right, in 2 and a half(ish) weeks Jude will be one! It's amazing how much personality he has and how much he has learned and grown over the past nearly a year.
He's still not walking or standing on his own, but that's groovy with me.
He's eating real people food. Often at meals he won't eat unless I feed him what I'm eating, which is really no big deal.

He has 7 teefers right now.
He stopped calling everything "Bubba" and now he calls everything "kitttty" except the t sound isn't fully there so it's more like "kiiii-ey." I think. I'll try to catch it on video and post it.

I have been working on things for his party. I started making a banner, I just need to go buy ribbon. My whale invitations turned out awesome. The whole family was invited and a handful of my friends. I think we're going to have a taco bar. Or pizza. I'm leaning towards taco bar. The cupcakes I'm going to make are going to look super cute. So is Jude's cake, I decided to do a regular shaped cake instead of a whale shaped cake, it takes less thought. I still need to figure out what to do for favors. My mum picked up some fish stuffed animals for them. I'll get some fish-like snacks and bubbles and who knows, I'm sure I'll find something. I'll probably put everything in buckets. Paint some names on said buckets. Or decoupage, just because decoupaging is fun.

And then there's the rest of my life... I put my cat down a few weeks ago. That was obviously sad, but it was for the best. I'm still unemployed and looking for a job. I want to leave this place and find something bigger and better for Jude and I because that's what we deserve. Chris still refuses to talk to me. I still haven't heard from the child support offices about a hearing.

We went to the cottage last weekend. I love it there. It's so peaceful. The weather was really nice, except for Sunday, but it was still a good, lazy day in the cottage. Jude LOVEDLOVEDLOVED the lake, even though it was pretty cold.
I have been reading a lot lately. I stormed through The Tao of Pooh in under 24 hours last week and plan to do the same with The Te of Piglet soon. I've also read a few other things, but those are the most exciting and noteworthy. Plus I highly recommend them. They explain Taoism through Winnie the Pooh (and vice versa). I read The Tao of Pooh as a kid when I was home schooled and learning about different religions and I understood it for the most part. Re-reading it now, it made even more sense and I was able to understand it better on a deeper level.

Rain, rain go away

The birthday party planning is coming along swimmingly (tehe). Hopefully I'll have the invitations finished before Wednesday, that would be convenient and ideal. I lost my basket o stamps once again though. I don't know how this thing always goes missing but it does. I wanted to see if I have an invitation stamp or if I have to do it all by hand, which I have no problem with, I just thought a stamp would look nice. I actually made progress on the invitations today... by printing a fail whale stencil, making modifications to it, cutting it out, and tracing it onto 15 pieces of cardstock. It's a step. I made a mock-up a few days ago that's super cute, but in all the wrong colors.

I have a silent movie on in the background and each time I look up it gets stranger and stranger. "The Mysterious Island."  There are strange creatures with a battering ram undersea. I have no idea what's going on, I didn't even start it from the beginning.

It's storming, I hate storms, luckily the power didn't go out and it has mostly let up.

Jude is actually sleeping on his own right now! In his crib! Wooo! And when my parents get home from a graduation party I'm going to the bar to grab a drink with some friends! A girl needs a break... Jude has been restless today. He didn't sleep until midnight last night, woke up around 7-8, and then napped for only about 20 minutes total. Maybe this means that he'll sleep through the night and on his own? I doubt it, but it's nice to dream. So when I mentioned he was cutting a second tooth on the bottom... It's more like 3. He has the one on the top, and 3 on the bottom are working their way out and I think maybe another one or two on top. Just a few weeks ago he had none, now he's getting tons. That means as soon as we're back to semi-normal after his surgery I'll start him on meats (I refuse to give him the pureed meats, they gross me out) and more table foods! Yay!

My grandma's coming over tomorrow to give Jude a gift for his surgery. I love my grandma. My mum bought him a Rex (the T-Rex from "Toy Story") stuffy at Kohl's today. He's super cute. Jude was loving on the Lorax earlier too. He's so funny. OH! He pushed his walker-push toy... standing up! He only got one or two little steps, but it's still exciting even though I'm not ready for him to start walking anytime soon, he could hold off like 3 more months and that would be great.

I'm not sure this post had any real substance or point to it. Sometimes my brain just overflows and my fingers pour it out. I have to wash diapers. (Typing it out helps remind me so I don't forget :P)

Birthday Party brain vomit

Jude's turning one in 2 and a half months. I've been trying to figure out what to do for his birthday party. I've been googling themes and I keep finding great stuff. Like really awesome things and now I want his party to be perfect, I don't even believe in perfection, but his party has to be it. Just a warning, this post may or may not be coherent from a spectator's point of view, it's mostly to get my thoughts out of my brain so they don't get swallowed and lost in that vortex.
I definitely narrowed down the theme from several contenders to under the sea. I'm thinking for colors I want teals and blues and orange.
Maybe some greens for shiggles. Orange doesn't really belong below the sea perse but it looks really rad with teal. I figured it out! It's the fail whale's fault.

I'm debating between doing a tons-o-fish feel or narrowing it down to one main sea creature; either a whale or an octopus. The fail whale is mighty cute, but that might be sending the wrong message... Maybe I could use my master-genius to turn him into a not so fail whale just for Jude's party.
I definitely want to make most of the decorations and whatnot by hand.
- Banner. I have so much extra cardstock and scrapbook paper lying around.
- Cupcakes, because slicing cake at a party with my family is always a huge hassle. But, my grandma has been on an ice cream cake kick for everyone's birthday's this past year... and ice cream cake IS mighty tasty... NO. Cupcakes, and since my grandma loves me she'll probably bring an ice cream cake to the party for my birthday (a convenient 8 days after Jude's). Cupcake cake or individually decorated cupcakes? Cupcake toppers? Cake stand? I feel like I'm getting a little crazy, I never plan things this far in advance, I'm a very last minute, spontaneous person.
- Jude's cake needs to be adorable, and sea creature shaped.
- Invitations; do I make them on the computer and print them or do I work some paper magic like I did for my baby shower (which reminds me, Sydney's graduation announcements need finishing, good thing my parents aren't ready to mail them yet).
- Favors, to do or not to do? I'm leaning towards yes because everyone loves favors, and I have 10 freakin' little cousins for crying out loud, plus Jude's baby friends that come. That said, it really is going to be a small affair, just close family and friends but I have a lot of those.
- I'll leave the nom sitch up to someone else.
- Table decorations. Fishbowl ceneterpieces complete with real live fish that double as a party favor, anyone?
- Activities aren't really needed, he's only one and everyone can just enjoy everyone elses company, dammit.
-Oh, and of course, this will be as eco-friendly as possible. RRR, ftw.


In other, completely unrelated news:
- We went to the beach with Nicole, Carly & Kaleb on Thursday. My back is sunburnt and Jude wasn't digging the water but loved trying to eat the sand. I didn't take any pictures though.
- I'm pretty sure I have an ear infection, my ear has been hurting for days, and there was a pimple in there and it popped and it still hurts and my mastoid is swollen and PAIN OW OHMIGAWD. I'm pretty sure I'm going to urgent care after those hosers get home from the parade and I eat some lunch.
- Jude's cutting another tooth, this time on the bottom. Teething isn't as bad as I expected, he's just extra cranky and extra clingy. And he has a boogery nose.
- He plays the soooo big! game now. I tried to capture some video of my intelligent baby earlier but alas, my stupid video camera is dead even though it has hardly been used.
- I sneezed and Jude's toy cheered for me. I legit had something more important to put here but I can't remember, and yes, they do say I have A D somethi- can we have class outside?
- I like lists and I love lamp.

That is all. Have a wonderful long weekend! We're bbqing some ribs & chicken wings for dinner. omnomnomnom