Lots of beach pictures

Still trying to get through vacation photos. These are the non-swimming beach photos.

Julia's first experience at the ocean.


Her and Bapa burying her feet! (Which was her favorite activity on the beach!)


Buried up to her knees!


Checking out a tidal pool.


Running away from the scary waves...


Trying to bury her own feet.


Playing in a tidal pool. This was the closest she got to actually being in the ocean!!LOL


Walking around some sand art someone made.


After playing in the tidal pool and getting her dress wet, she had to take her dress off. So then she played on the beach in her underwear!


She just ran and ran and ran on the beach. If I only half that energy! Since she was terrified of the waves, I was not worried about her running into the ocean. On this morning, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, so I just let her run and did not worry to much about being right behind her.

Family pictures at the beach

These were our best attempts at family pictures.

Jude screaming and our hair blowing...


At least everyone is looking at the camera and no one is crying!!


I added this picture just because I really like it.

Virginia wildlife

Got to see some Virginia wildlife while on vacation.

A fisherman on the pier caught this and let us see it before throwing it back. Julia LOVED this!


A snake (a Northern Water Snake I think) that was sunning itself on a rock when we visited the Back Bay.


A sand crab (can you find it?)

A horseshoe crab.

Dance class

Today was Julia's very first dance class!

Since this class taught the beginning basics of ballet, they wanted the kids to wear ballet shoes. So yesterday I went to the dance store down the road and got Julia fitted for ballet shoes. Julia HATED them!! When I had her try them on last night so I could get a picture she kept saying "I don't like them.."

Proof that she really did NOT like them.


So all evening last night and all morning before the class I was talking to Julia about this dance class. I was telling her how she was going to take a dance class and those shoes were her special dancing shoes. I also explained how the other kids in her class would also be wearing them. Luckily, the talking and seeing the other kids wear them did the trick. She put them one at the start of her class without a fuss. Now she is constantly asking about her dancing shoes!

Julia did have fun during class. I was also impressed at how well she could do some of the moves! Maybe she will not be a klutz like her mom afterall!

Waiting her turn at class.


Dancing with a wand!


After class showing me how to do a ballet turn!!


I could not get any more pictures because I HAD TO PARTICIPATE!!! I must have missed that part in the description!! So with a fussy Jude on my hip, I took part in the class. Basically, I had to help show Julia what she should be doing and help keep her focused! Which is a really hard task considering she has the attention span of a gnat!!

Next week I will remember to bring one of my baby carriers to put Jude in so I have both hands free.

Jude on vacation

Let me start off by saying Jude was an AWESOME traveler!!! Slept most of the way! Stopped a few times to feed and change him and he was happy!! He took to all the changes well and was not too fussy.

Jude in his sun glasses. He was not impressed...



How Jude spend most of his vacation....

Either strapped to my chest (in my Beco carrier which I LOVE!)....


....or swaddled up sleeping in the vibrating/rocking chair .....


....or just hanging out in the vibrating/rocking chair.


He also got held A LOT!! Maybe that is why he is being so fussy this week, he misses all the attention and almost constant holding.

Big Boat!

Jerrod and his dad are all about things military. So considering we were so close to Norfolk while on vacation, we had to take a trip there to see some big boat. I think it was the U.S.S. Wisconsin, which is a decommissioned battleship. To me it was just a REALLY big boat with REALLY big guns on it!

It was just Jerrod, Jerry, Julia, Jude and I. I think Debbie and Jen had seen enough military stuff on family vacations of past.

They also had some sort of military boat museum there.

Julia next to an anchor.



The big boat!


The ammo that goes in the big guns!! (Notice how Jerrod is carrying the diaper bag. He is VERY thankful that it is blue this time!!)


Julia found this spot and thought it was a perfect seat made just for her!



Jude slept through most of the boat tour.......

Some beach pictures!

Julia really liked the beach, although she was terrified of the waves.




The rest of us enjoyed the ocean water though!

Jen riding a wave...


Jerry....


Jerrod...


And this is how Julia spent most of the week. Playing in the sand!






P.S. - Yes, I rode the waves too, but I always the one behind the camera. I did hand the camera to Jerry a few times to get family pictures though, so those will be coming soon.

Fussy days

I think Jude is missing the beach! He has been especially fussy since Sunday.

I am not sure what is making the colic worse right now. Maybe he is having a major growth spurt and it is hard on him. Maybe I need to up his probatics some.

I just hope it does not last....

Names in the sand

I thought it would be fun to write the kid's names in the sand on the beach. Something to remember the beach by. I also thought it might be a little artsy to take pictures of it.






Julia thought this was great fun and it thought it was her job to "scratch" the names back out when I finished taking the pictures!

She also thought it was really neat to have her name in the sand!!

Vacation and potty training

Julia is potty trained, but still has the occasional accident. She tends to have more accidents when she is out of the house having lots of fun. So I was concerned on how she would do on vacation. I figured it would be a total mess and we would just have one accident after another. I even seriously considered just putting her in pull-up for the whole trip, but that would only set her back and she had to learn to go while on vacation, right?

I was very proud of my big girl. Sure she had a few accidents, but for the most part, she did VERY well.

Back from vacation

We got back from vacation a day later then expected. We decided to split the drive home in two days, instead of doing it all in one day.

The trip was fun. Julia had a BLAST!!! Although she refused to step foot in the ocean, the waves scared her, she loved playing in the sand. She kept saying that "vacation is fun".

It was nice to relax and forget about things for awhile. AND the seafood was AWESOME!!!! I love seafood and being right on the ocean meant that the seafood was fresh and WONDERFUL. I had it about every night there!

I have LOTS of pictures to download. I will try to post some over the next coming days.

The Beach!

I think Julia is enjoying the vacation!

This morning she woke up, got her swimsuit, and said "Let's go to the beach!"

At the beach!!!

We made it to Virginia Beach Saturday evening. Jude was a WONDERFUL traveler!!!

Trying to relax......

Vacation

We leave for vacation in a few hours. I am scrambling to get everything ready and packed! Oh my, all the crap you have to pack when you have a toddler and a newborn!! Good thing our van has LOTS of storage room.

10 hours one-way with a toddler and a 6 week old baby..... Grant me patience!!

I will try to do a post or two while gone (Debbie is bringing her laptop), but if you don't hear from in for over a week, you will know why!

I am looking forward to relaxing on the beach with a good book!

Loves her brother

I really thought Julia would get bored with Jude after a week or two. That does not seem to be the case! She really loves her brother.

She is constantly wanting to touch him, hold him, kiss him, give him toys, etc... She is a big mother hen to him. I am glad she loves her brother, but geesh, it can be a bit much.

She wakes him up with kisses when I really just want him to nap. She is convinced that he needs a toy with him and tries to pry his hand open to get him to hold it. She has even tried to pull him out of the swing!!

Julia get very upset when Jude cries too. She just does not like it. When he does cry, she will try to give him a pacifier, sing to him, etc.. She will also tell me "Hold him mommy" or "Pick him up mommy".

I hope they grow up loving each other like this!!

Baby noises

Jerrod and I are just amazed at all the baby noises Jude makes. The cooing, "talking", grunting, etc.. We never really heard these with Julia because she was crying all the time!! We hear these sounds and just smile!

It makes me SOOOO happy to see Jude in such good moods. It is just heartbreaking listening to your child cry, and nothing you can do will make it better. That had to be the hardest part of Julia's colic. Jude still cries a LOT, but he also has a lot more happy times than Julia EVER did.

For now, I am trying to treasure all those little sounds!

First laugh

Jude has only really started smiling in the last week or so. So imagine my surprise when he LAUGHED at me today!! I had just finished feeding him and his was on my lap just a smiling and cooing (he is always happiest right after a meal). He then smiling at me and actually laughed!!! It just melted my heart!!

I am SOOOO glad to see that Jude can be happy. I called Jerrod to tell him and he was quite sad that he missed it. Money is tight now because I am unemployed and I really need to get a job soon, but I am REALLY loving the time I get to spend at home with my kids.

A family picture from Thomas

Here is the family picture we had taken at the "Day Out With Thomas". I don't know if it is really considered a family picture considering the only part of Jude you can see is a leg!

Colic update

I am happy to report that Jude's colic is MUCH better!!! It is still not completely gone, his is especially fussy during the "witching hours" (5-9pm), but it is much better than it was and Jude is actually happy quite a bit.

I think what helped the most was the combination of the probiotics and swaddling him. I tried probiotics with Julia without success. I tried the same type with Jude at first, also without success. But then the pediatrician had me switch to a much stronger type and at a higher dose. I think the probiotics are calming his digestive system down enough, where it does not bother him as much. When he does get unconsolable, which still happens a lot throughout the day, I just swaddle him up as tight as I can get him. That usually calms him down within a few minutes. I usually still have to walk and bounce him, but I can deal with that as long as he is not screaming. Oddly enough, he will calm down when Julia sings to him, but not when I sing to him. It is still rare that I can put him down awake (on the floor or in the swing), without him screaming shortly after. If he is in a really good mood, I might get away with it, but if he is in a fussy mood, it is not going to happen. He needs that lovin' from mommy to keep him settled.

Still, this is MILES better than Julia ever was. It is so much better than Julia was, that Jerrod and I are actually ENJOYING the baby stage. Sure, he still cries/fusses MUCH more than a typical baby, but compared to Julia, this is great!

Here is my fussy baby.....

Jude's tongue

Jude was pretty severely tongue-tied when it was discovered at 3 days old. He got it snipped at 5 days old. Even now, 1 month later, the tip of his tongue is still indented. It almost looks like the start of a forked tongue. The dentist that took care of the tongue-tie said that it might always be indented to some extent.

While trying to take a set of 1 month pictures last week, I happened to get one of him sticking his tongue out. It is hard to see, but if you look close, you can see how the tip is indented.

Thomas the Train

Today we took Julia to "A Day Out With Thomas". She really likes Thomas the train. This included a 30 minute train ride. Julia had a BLAST!!! Ever since we left she has been asking to "ride Thomas again"!!

In front of Thomas


Boarding Thomas


Loving the ride....





Getting off with the conductors helping.


How Jude spent the entire time, tucked into one of my baby carriers.

Sibling love.....

I LOVE this picture.....


Julia really LOVES her brother



Julia might not be smiling in this picture, but I love it because you can see Jude looking at his big sister with a half smile (he just started smiling this week!).

WOW! Off the charts!

Had Jude's one month check-up today. Holy Cow, he is going to be a big boy!! He gained 2 pounds, grew 1.5 inches and grew 2 inches around the head.

He weighed just slightly under 11 pounds. I think he would have been over 11 pounds if he did not puke up most of his last meal right before we left! His weight puts him in the 85th percentile. Jude was tall when he was born, but after growing 1.5 inches, he is now 23.5 inches long. That actually put him above the 97th percentile for length. It is literally off the chart! His head circumference is now 15.5 inches, which is in the 75th percentile.

I think Jude is definitely going to take after my family and be tall. It is hard to believe an 11 pound, one month old baby looks skinny, but he does because he is just so tall...

Everything else looked good and he got the Hep B vaccination. Usually babies get this in the hospital, but we turned it down then because some recent thinking believes that it might cause colic. Well, since Jude already has colic, there was no sense delaying it any further. He let out one scream when they gave it, but immediately stopped crying once I picked him up.

Smiling at daddy!

Jude gave his first purposeful smile last night, it was at Jerrod!!

Since Jude is sleeping in a co-sleeper attached to our bed, I was holding Jude on my lap right after I got done nursing him at bedtime. He is always his happiest right after he nurses. Jerrod slid over, got close to Jude's face and started making faces at him and talking to him. Wouldn't you know, Jude smiled at him!!!! I have been trying to get Jude to smile at me for awhile now!

Jude and Jerrod have really seemed to have bonded great. With Julia, that bond took quite awhile to form. It has nothing to do with gender either, I think it is just Jerrod being MUCH more comfortable this time around. I think Jude and his daddy are going to be great buds!!

Weight

According to the scale with morning, I am actually 1/2 pound BELOW my pre-pregnancy weight!! Woo-Hoo!!!

I may have kids with colic, but at least I don't hold onto the baby weight. I was a little more worried about it this time because I gained a little more weight with Jude then I did with Julia. But just as the case with Julia, I was back into my regular clothes within a week and almost back to pre-pregnancy weight shortly after that!

Now lets see if breastfeeding causes me to lose even more weight. (It did with Julia) I need all the help I can get!!

Hello

A quick peek over Mimi's shoulder this afternoon. An alert, non-screaming Jude, which don't happen much. You can also see the rash on his face a lot better too.

Purr-fect...

The latest in Julia's ballerina outfits! You can also see she is holding a purse. Such a little girl. She got her hair cut last week, but it is had to tell in this picture because he hair is wet from a bath. It was her first time actually getting a "style" haircut, instead of just the normal trim-up.