Loving to dance

We had another wedding on Saturday. Julia loved that she got to go dancing. It was a struggle to keep her off the dance floor while they did the first dance as a married couple, father/daughter dance, etc.

After waiting and waiting, Julia finally was allowed to DANCE!


They did some line dances. Julia had never seen this before and was fascinated by it. She was really studying and watching the other people to figure it out. She actually started to get it!






Then she danced with her cousin Jenna. They are 7 months apart in age, but look at the height difference!





She had a blast and will be sad to know that we should be done with weddings for a bit now.

Obsessed with death

For the part two months, Julia has been obsessed with death. Talking about it, asking about it, thinking about it, etc.

We try to address her concerns. It is a fine line explaining about death without having her getting worried about people dying.

To make matters worse, I like to take the kids for a walk a couple times a week and there are usually some squished critters on the road. So then she has to ask about them. AND she does not forget about them. About three weeks ago, there was a squished turtle on the road. She has asked about this turtle EVERYDAY since!

I hope this phase passes quickly!

My little boy...

My baby boy is definitely no longer looking like a baby. He is looking more and more like a little boy each day.

These pictures taken on Father's Day just proves how he no longer looks like a baby. It also shows what a little flirt he is!!

Singing Pink

I like the song artist Pink. Her style is what I would call punk rock. Julia also really likes her music.

On Friday, Julia was getting dressed when I hear her start singing to herself. What I hear is "So what, I am a rock star.". A little later I hear her singing again, only this time she sings more of the song, "So what, I am a rock star. I got my rock moves.".

Those are the lyrics to Pink's song "So What". I was just laughing.

What a taste in music this little girl has. She sings Pink, The Beatles, the soundtrack to Juno, Green Day, and little kid songs.

Helping the "diggers"

Our neighbor had a water line break. Unfortunately, his water line runs right through our front yard and under our driveway. So, last week there was a crew digging up our yard. Luckily, they were able to mostly bore under the driveway, and only had to dig four holes in our yard. (One hole was pretty big, though.)

Julia was fascinated by all that was going on. I would go out a couple times a day to check the progress and see what they were all doing to my yard. Julia would come out with me and would follow the "diggers", as she called them, and constantly be asking questions. "Why are they doing that. mommy?", etc.. One of the workers said he had a daughter about Julia's age and thought it was cute. Actually all four of the workers thought it was cute and funny. You could see them chuckling at the constant stream of questions she asked me.

At one point she was following the guy who had the daughter Julia's age. Julia was a tail on this guy. No matter how many times I told her to stay back, she seemed to be a foot behind this guy, asking him what he was doing and if she could help. They were grading and seeding grass at that point, so the big equipment was gone and she was not in danger of getting hurt, just in danger of annoying the guy. He laughed at it and asked if she always asked so many questions.

I was very happy with the company. They left my yard in great shape. They filled in and seeded all the holes and tracks their equipment made. They even put gravel down in the spots in the driveway that got a little tore up. I was pleased that the neighbor hired a company that did such a good job making sure my yard was put back to normal. Now I just have to try to get grass to grow in the middle of the summer!

Silly, silly boy

Jude was crawling around the living room on Sunday. As I walk to the kitchen, I walked past the old baby swing we have taken apart, but have not found a home for yet. I glance over and see Jude sitting in it! He had climbed in it and was playing. By the time I got the camera, he was starting to crawl out of it so he could crawl after me.

Chasing the cats

Jude has discovered his love of cats.

He crawls all over chasing after them. When he finally gets one, he grabs it's fur with both hands and will bury his face in the cat's fur. He is giving them big, sloppy kisses. We really only have two cats that will sit and tolerate Jude loving on them; Scooter and Gavin. The other cats take off running when they see Jude crawling towards them! LOL

A few pictures

Julia got a new boat float just her size. She loves it.



My two babies in their boats swimming.

Sippy cup issues

Jude is struggling a bit with the sippy cup. He can drink out of it just fine as long as I do it for him. He just cannot figure out that he has to tip it back to get something out of it. At least he will hold it now.

I think this problem comes from him never being in childcare, so he rarely had bottles. Since he rarely drank out of a bottle, he never learned to hold one himself. So he never learned how to tip it back to get the milk out of it.

He is slowly getting it. He is already much better at it. I am sure he will have it figured out in a couple weeks.

Development explosion!

Jude has just EXPLODED these last two weeks developmentally.

He is now shaking his head "no" a LOT. He will occasionally even say "no" while doing it. Unfortunately he has yet to figure out how to shake it "yes", so every question/comment is answered with a "no" head shake.

Jude figured out how to do the "So Big" by himself. For a couple of months I have been playing this with him, but I would always have to lift his arms up for him. In the last 2 months, he has been grabbing my hands and helping me lift his arms up, but would not do it on his own. Then one day last week, he just suddenly started doing it himself. Now he does it CONSTANTLY, and LOVES it! He just smiles and giggles.

He learned to clap quite awhile ago, but he is now clapping when playing Pat-a-cake.

Jude has also discovered his love of jumping and dancing. You should see him wiggle his butt while dancing while standing up.

He is still cruising furniture, but now he is starting to go from one piece of furniture to another.

HOWEVER, the BIGGEST development explosion in the last week has been verbal! Jude is now speaking complete simple sentences!! I can hardly believe it. If I did not hear it with my own ears MULTIPLE times, I wouldn't believe it. Now, when he occasionally figures out a toy or something, he will say "I did it!". He will also crawl up to Jerrod and say "Hi dad!". He is working on saying "cat", right now it is "at", but that is what Julia said too for a few months. I am working with him trying to teach him to say "Jude". He has done it a couple of times, but not much yet. So at 10.5 months old, Jude can say over a dozen words and is now saying simple sentences.

Sick, but still silly

Even though Jude was sick this week, he was still smiley and ornery!

One morning I strapped him in his bouncy seat and go to the kitchen for my cup of coffee. This is what I find when I came back.....


He was just a bouncing and hopping too! As you can see, the straps are snapped up and tightened down! I cannot strap him in any tighter. Yet, he seems to find a way to wiggle out!

He was so proud of himself and thought it was so funny. I was afraid the seat was going to flip and he would take a nose dive into the hardwood floor!

Weekend fun

The kids had fun last weekend. They had the wedding on Saturday and then they went swimming and had lunch at Mimi and Bapa's.

Julia all wrapped up taking a break from swimming.


Jude and Jerrod.


Jude with his Aunt Ninnie. He sure loves that boat float.


Aunt Ninnie's cat, Aby, came for a visit too.

Computer issues

I am having some major computer issues. I have several pictures and posts I want put up, but I can't until Jerrod fixes my computer.

Hopefully that will happen this weekend. Stay tuned!

Sick boy

My poor Jude is sick.

He started acting like he just did not feel up to par on Monday. My Tuesday afternoon he was running a temp of 102F. I could also tell on Tuesday that his throat was bothering him. On Wednesday I thought he was doing somewhat better, especially since his fever seemed to be gone. Jerrod's parent's watched him for a couple of hours so Jerrod, Julia and I could get our hair cut Wednesday evening. I guess he developed a temp again while there. On Thursday, he was not running a fever and was smiling more, but I could tell his throat still hurt and he was just not up to par. I was worried about him having strep throat, so I took him to the pedi late Thursday afternoon.

My normal pedi was out, but I saw the other one in the practice. I am really starting to like him. I did not really like him originally because he saw Julia once during a particular bad day(s) of colic to see if ANYTHING could help. He told me "it is just colic, she will eventually get over it". Not what I wanted to hear when trying to deal with a baby who screamed non-stop! But he is very friendly, efficient and good with the kids.

Anyway, the pedi looked Jude over. Ears, lungs, etc. were all clear. He saw Jude was currently getting FOUR teeth. He then looked at his throat. He said that Jude has blisters in his throat! BLISTERS!!! The pedi said that the teething lowered his immune system and he picked up some sort of bug. However, it is a viral bug, so we just have to wait it out.

Jude must be in some serious pain! But he is still smiling and generally loving life!

Jude is not really using a sippy cup yet, but I am trying to offer him cold liquids and lots of cold applesauce to help soothe his throat.

Fun at a wedding.

We had a wedding on Saturday. The kids did AWESOME during church! They had a blast during the reception.

All my blue-eyed sweeties! (Julia and Jude have Jerrod's blue eyes.)




Julia had a blast dancing!



She got daddy to dance with her too. (and mommy)



Dancing with Uncle Bruce.


Dancing with Uncle Bill


Uncle Bill gels up his hair, so it is really stiff. Julia LOVED the feel of it and kept rubbing her hands on his hair.


Jude hanging out with Grandma while Jerrod and I danced with Julia.



They had a live band which was pretty loud, so we left at about 9pm. Both kids fell asleep on the way home.