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.

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.