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. :)

Top 2 Tuesday!

We sometimes play a lot of games in my family, especially when we're all together around the holidays. Card games, board games, video games, word games, you name it. I'm not going to lie, I only know a few card games off hand but we have a plethora of board games in my basement. I should have a holiday party/game-night/awesome times. hmmm... But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked.

Top 2 Favorite Games!

1. Euchre. My family always plays euchre when we get together. After dinner you can always find 4 people sitting around the table enjoying dessert, coffee, and dealing out a hand of euchre. I didn't realize it until I went to school in Ohio, but apparently it's mostly a Michigan game. It's fairly simple, once you learn, but that learning process can be difficult and a lot of people I've tried teaching just give up. 

2. Rummikub. This is another one of those games that I love to play with my family, and we're almost always playing when we're together. My grandparents, sister, and I (and sometimes some other people like aunts and cousins) stay up late after the little kids go to bed and play when we're up north. 

Runners up: Scattegories, Boggle, Scrabble, Life, and Pay Day.

Post-Thanksgiving weekend

We had a busy weekend after Thanksgiving!
Friday
No crazy Black Friday fun-times. Just a trip out to Ferndale for lunch at the WAB and some Black Friday deals at No Pins Required. We picked up some bum cream, soap, holiday edition Rockin' Green detergent, and 3 diapers; a purple Fuzzibuns, a black Happy Heiny's and a robot Rump-a-rooz.

This print is so cute, it's the only reason I got the RaR, not going to lie.

The rest of the day was quite lazy and spent with catching up with laundry and fluffing it up since our dryer had been broken all week. Thanks to Ikea and our drying rack/hanging octopus thing! I also worked on my semi-top-secret Christmas crafts.

Octopus!

Saturday
My parents took Jude on errands for most of the day. I went to an open-interview for a new restaurant opening in a month. It went really well. They said they'd call within a week, so imagine my surprise when they called later that day and said they'd love to hire me! Luckily, I'll have time to finish up this semester without that added stress/time-eater. After that interview I napped and then Jude and I chilled, my dad & I went super-grocery shopping at Costco.

Sunday
My mum and I took Jude to get his Christmas portraits taken at JC Penney. He wasn't being very cooperative, until the very end and afterwards so they didn't all turn out as adorable as they normally do.

This was one of the few good ones, so naturally, we ordered a bunch of it!

We then continued on to Ikea for some Christmas presents for Jude and had some tasty meatballs for lunch.

This is his big present this year

Some things you may have learned from this post:
Jude is a punk. I have a real job starting next month. We love Ikea around here. I love cloth diapers.

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. 

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. 

Busy week

Where did I leave off last time? Ah, yes, a very incoherent rambling about nothing in particular. Let's do a real life update.

Wednesday, June 2:
- The dreaded paternity test... dun dun dunnnnnnnn. I tried not to be awkward arond Chris, I thought I did pretty well, but he was still awkward, but I reckon that's to be expected. He still won't have an adult convo with me, but whatevz. I'm sure he'll change his mind about that once he gets my lovely pre-recorded Maury "you ARE the father" message. The actual test itself was kind of gross. We go back into this dinky room in an office building and there are two "nurses." They asked the 3 of us to stand against the wall and snap a polaroid, in my head I was making jokes about it because I'm fairly certain it's the only "family" picture of the 3 of us that exists. Then, as the nurse was preparing to swab my mouth I asked if she would wash her hands before doing Jude's because of fear of him getting sick, surgery in a week, yaddayaddayadda. They both looked at me funny and said "We switch gloves between people." As she was saying this, the nurse that did me totally sniffled and wiped her hands on her pants after taking off her gloves. They then proceeded to tell me that the closest bathroom was on the other side of the building. I was like, "I don't care, please wash your hands." She did, it took her forever to go there and come back, the whole time I bit my tongue from complaining to the other nurse that was doing Chris about how they sit in this dinky room all day, swabbing mouths and all they do between people is switch gloves.  There wasn't even hand sanitizer in the room. I thought about calling human services or whoever and complaining, but then I got sidetracked by something shiny.

Friday, June 4: 
- Went out to the bar with Nicole, Jon (whom I met a few random times, years ago but this was the first time we actually hung out), and Mike that night because I was feeling cooped up and needed to surround myself with friends. Mission accomplished.

Saturday, June 5:
- Got lunch with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. My grandma got Jude a Saint Jude necklace for surgery. All my little cousins kissed Jude's foot (so they wouldn't spread germs to him) and wished him luck on his surgery as we left.

Sunday, June 6:
- Went to see my sister march in the local parade with the fam.
- Hosted the most badass last minute BBQ-on-a-mostly-rainy-day ever. Jon, Nicole, Dan, and his girlfriend Amanda came over. I really overdid myself, I grilled wings (hot and bbq), butternut squash, and supremely delicious hamburgers. I also sliced a watermelon, Nicole brought chips, Jon brought beer, I had my dad pick up baked beans, soda, and potato salad. Good times were had, we played Scattegories, I almost won but got distracted by a screaming baby and a father who failed at diaper changing and lost in the last round. Everyone but Jon left and he helped me clean up and we hung out for a while. It was an excellent night.

Monday, June 7, today:
- Stressed over packing, it's still not done because Jude keeps getting in the way or whining. My mum's mom came over for a visit. Went on a hospital tour with my mum. I keep freaking out so bad that I almost puke. One full day left before surgery. The lady leading the tour thought I was the one having surgery because I left Jude with my dad and I look like I'm 16.
- Jude said "kitty" to the cat while I was gone. 

So the theme of the weekend was pretty much "surrounding myself with family and friends to distract myself from freaking out." It worked, but now that that stall technique is out of the way, I got nothing. I'll get through this, somehow, I know I will.

Tomorrow, my dad's taking Jude to the zoo while my mum, sister, and I get massages and lunch. RELAXATION... It will only last like 10 minutes though before I'm going crazy again.

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)

Quick update.

I'm short on time right now so I can't post an in depth update, but I probably will later today or tomorrow. Pictures included, I have tons to upload anyway.
-Jude started pointing the other day, Thursday I believe. He was asked where his mama was and he pointed at me. Aww. It was adorable. He also recognizes our dog, Bubba.
-Welcome to my new followers from the BG blog thread! I promise I'm a better blog-updater than this usually.
-My blog is slightly under construction, I changed the background and need to make a new header, I'm just struggling with it though and I might change my mind again.
-I'm in the process of getting Jude and I ready for his 4 pre-operation appointments at UM. Starting at 10 ending... I don't even know when it will end, we'll be at the hospital all day basically.
-But first, I sold my carseat on craigslist! I have to meet the woman to do that before the first appointment so I should really be more pro-active about getting ready.
-We went to a bonfire Friday night at a family friends house. It was a going away party for our good friend Lisa. She moved to Texas over the weekend with her husband who's a border patrol person. They'll be missed, but it's a pretty exciting adventure for them.
-Sunday we went to one of Sydney's parades, she's in the Plymouth Fife & Drum Corp. Jude loved it.
-Jude's cute and gets into trouble a lot.

I think that's all. More details later. Wish me luck, I'll need it to get through the day in one piece.

6 months!

Jude is 6 months today!

It's almost hard to believe it has been this long since he was born. He's so big now, and has tons of skillz.

Milestones this month:

- He's rolling like crazy.

- He prefers to be in his bouncy activity fun center of doom and excitement. He'll sit in that thing and bounce, play, laugh, and talk for hours.

- He isn't so cranky about being on his belly now that he can roll over.

- He sleeps better on his side/back.

- EVERYTHING he gets his hands on goes in his mouth and everything is targeted for him to get his hands on.

- He looks at me when I say his name.

- He gets excited and grabs my hands when I clap. He has even started kind of clapping the wrong way (I need to video-tape it, it's cute).

- He has tried 6 foods (rice cereal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, carrots, and green beans)

and has loved them all.

- He takes the spoon from me

and feeds himself, but he can't get food onto the spoon himself quite yet.

- He scooches on the floor a little.

- He loves the cat (not really a milestone, but his excitement and cat petting are adorable).

- He babbles on and on, usually in a "blahblahblah" manner, sometimes "dadadada" or "ooooh, aaah, gagaga" (another thing that needs to be video-taped).

- He can sit up without me holding him up, but he's still topples over from time to time.

- He's still extra clingy.

- He's starting to smack his lips.

- He makes pfffft noises a lot.

- He won't sleep on his own unless I'm babysitting at Lisa's house.

- He has no more stuffed animals he's super attached to because the jerk dog demolished them. :(

I'm supposed to try to find a job. I've looked and there's nothing around here, plus it doesn't help that I'm going to need weeks of time off within months of starting. I have humored my parents and applied to a few places, but I still don't see a point. :/

2 weeks ago we took him to a Detroit Red Wings game. It was tons of fun, and he

looked adorable in his jersey and skate booties he got for Christmas. Unfortunately, we lost

literally in the last minute of the game. He had fun and got excited when everyone cheered, after his initial shock from the loud noise of course.

It's so strange. Up until a few weeks ago, his surgery was going to be today. I didn't really think about it much until my mum talked about it yesterday and today and then it really hit me again. I think I've just been repressing the thought so I don't freak out about it. If I dwelled and freaked about it all the time, I'd get even less done, and that wouldn't be very good, now would it?

Jude's first trip to the cottage.

As you know from my last update, I took Jude up north to my grandparents cottage on Lake Huron, just north of Oscoda. The drive there would've went smoother if a) I had fed him right before getting on the road (I had to stop fairly soon after getting on the highway) and b) I hadn't missed the exit for US-23 and didn't realize it until I was almost in Lansing. I had to stop 4 times because of those. Twice to feed Jude, once for more gas, and once to figure out how to get to where I needed to be once I was lost (which was fruitless aside from the Coke & cookies I bought from the McD's I stopped at to pee and get directions). I should've arrived at 12 and instead arrived at 1, which isn't too bad considering we didn't leave until about 8:30.

My grandparents, aunt Kathy, uncle Jim & little cousins Nuala, Lena, and Eamon were also up there, and Jude loved the attention from the kids, they would play with him and he would laugh at their funny faces. He was a good, happy baby all weekend, and surprisingly not too clingy on me and he slept really well, I wish he would have kept sleeping that well when we got home, but oh well, I still love him.

Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

1) Grandma, Jude, Lena, & Eamon. 2) Jude laughing at Lena. 3) I put Jude in his port-a-crib, came back and found Sydney and Jude chilling in bed like this. 4) He's a pirate, fear him. 5) My aunt Julie made a quilt for my grandpa with everyone's hand prints so we added Jude's footprint to it and since there wasn't an extra empty square, we put him onto mine. 6) Eamon holding Jude. 7) Jude's 1st beach picture. It was about a quarter to seven and he didn't go back to sleep like normal so we took a walk down to the beach before sunrise, he was wrapped cozy and tight in 2 blankets and fell asleep, I got cold so we didn't stay to watch the sun rise. 8) He enjoyed Sydney's homework less than she did. 9) Us on the beach. 10) The kids.

Also, like my new layout. I made it purrty and made the banner myself. :D

Tomorrow night I start watching Haley for Lisa, a pretty awesome family friend. Since I can't get a job because of Jude's upcoming surgeries and her husband is in New Mexico for border patrol training we're helping each other out basically.