La, la luh la, la, lah, laaaaaa

Future in opera? 

I have no idea what was going on when this photo was taken, but I know I was looking for it for "Faces of Jude" and couldn't find it. So, it gets it's own post;-)

Mutant Veggie

I've been all over my garden harvesting zucchini and cucumbers, and pulling weeds, and watering, and adding fertilizer every couple of weeks. But, well, let's just say, I missed one. 

Mmm, hmm. See this guy? Two pounds!

And here he is next to one of his plantmates of normal size. This other fellow is an average half pound zucchini. 

Oops!

All Done

It's pretty common knowledge that Jude has his own way of doing things. So why should baby signing be any different? He got the first sign down just the way it was taught to him. That was the sign for "milk" which we use to mean nurse.

"All done" on the other hand, well that's a different story: 

Can I do It? Yes, I Can

(Well, I guess you can tell what Jude's new favorite show is by my title!)

For about a month now, I have been working on the Couch to 5K program. This is a program that is supposed to help a pretty sedentary person build up to running a 5K over the course of 9 weeks. Before I got pregnant with Jude, accompanied with the flu about the same time, I used to run 5K 3 days a week. But after that came the horrendous morning sickness that kept me down for the better part of 4 months and that was that. 

Last year, I attempted to pick up again, but since Jude was little I had to stay close to home so I was running on the pavement at the cemetery across the street from our house. But every time I would get good and going, I would get stress fractures in my foot. 

Now that Jude is older, I can drive over to the gravel track which is a mile if you run both loops and is much nicer on my feet. 

Since I was a runner previously, I modified the program a little bit. The first week I started out running a minute and walking a minute and a half for the first 3o minutes and walked the remainder of the time until I reached 4 miles. The next week I bumped my running up to a minute and a half and alternated that with the minute and a half walk breaks for 30 minutes, but then before walking the remainder I did a longer running stretch about 30 seconds longer each day. For the third week, I would run two minutes and walk a minute for 30 minutes and walk whatever was left of the 4 miles. 

Then there was this week. Week 4. I had a plan in my head to continue the 2 minute run/1 minute walk pattern and then try the long stretch again at the end. The first day, I was interrupted in my run when I bumped into an old friend I used to work out with at The City Club, but hadn't seen in more than two years (because I had to drop my gym membership as part of our plan for me to be a stay at home mom). We talked for over ten minutes so in order to make up for lost time I though, well, maybe I can run a whole mile without any walk breaks. And do you know what? I could! I did!

So the next day I was determined to do that again. I felt really good at the end of that first mile, so I decided to see if I could try for two. And do you know what? I could. I did!

Skip a day (because I can't run when Jeff's at work) to today. At the end of two miles, I kind of felt like crap, but I thought, "I wonder if I could run three miles with no walk breaks. . . ?" And, well, you've probably guessed it. I could. I did! And then walked two miles after that for a total of 5 miles. 

So now my new goal is to get the time down on those first three miles and to continue walking the other two. When I get the time down to something more acceptable than 39 minutes, then I think I'll work on running miles 4 and 5. 

Oh, yeah! I'm a running machine. Well, not really. But I could be. . .

Um, and that clip art at the top there of the jogger? Yeah, that's totally me. All geeky with my iPod and my crazy hair. 

The snack bar is open

It's no secret that my 20 month old likes, nae, LOVES to nurse. This kid still nurses about 6 times a day. We don't nurse in public any more, mainly because he tries to push my shirt up further like that's going to make the milk come faster. But, he doesn't NEED to nurse in public since I make sure we're home at nap time and bed time and mostly he nurses before and after going to sleep. 

BUT, if we're just sitting around at home, or even if we're out and I'm just sitting down, he asks anyway. Mainly I think that's his "bored" response. So when Jeff brought home this comic strip from last Sunday's AJC, I thought that surely the author MUST know Jude: 

(you can click here to see it bigger)

Sorry that it won't post bigger. I can't figure that out. But if you look at the pictures, I'll narrate. Basically, she is reading him a story. The last frame, where he had gotten himself under her shirt he says "thwup, thwup, thwup" (that's the nursing sound) and she replies, "here's a great story going on out here and all you're interested in is the snack bar!" 

Yep. Totally Jude. 

The Faces of Jude

One day when I was dropping Jude off in the church nursery, one of the workers said something to her daughter in Spanish (because she speaks little English) and her daughter translated it to me: "He cries with much emotion!" 

Well, if you know Jude, you know that he does EVERYTHING with much emotion. Even the faces he makes for the camera express a lot of emotion. I do not know where this kid gets these faces from. 

I DID IT!!!

It is no secret that I kill plants. I was even able to kill a cactus eventually. It always starts out good. The cactus, I was able to keep alive for 2 years. I even kept an Africal Violet alive for about 4 years. But eventually, I end up killing them. 

So, last year when some friends wanted to go in on a group garden, I was game, as long as someone told me exactly.what.to.do! 

The day after we got all the plants in the ground, the hail storm took care of that garden. Big disappointment to drive all that way just to have it knocked down by chunks of ice. 

So this year, I purposed in my heart to attempt a garden in my yard. I didn't want to commit to tearing up my lawn if this proved to be another unsuccessful venture, so I bought some plastic kiddie pools. 

The plants came up and kept getting bigger! Then one day, I came out to see this: 

Oh, yeah! That's a flower baby! (Two to be precise!) And flowers mean fruit! (Or in this case, veggies!) There's the first one: 

And again after harvest: 

And we've brought in 4 others to date with two more about ready to come off. 

The only mishap we've had is that I was sure I planted one container of zucchini and one of yellow squash, but it turns out it's all zucchini. 

I've also got some lettuce about ready to come in and some carrots and cucumbers that will be ready in the next several weeks. Still waiting to see what's going to happen with my tomatoes and peppers. . . But it's success enough to make me want to till a spot in the yard for next year!

A little Jude fix!

I'm trying to get back to better blogging. If I could keep up with my camera cord, I think that could happen. 

In the mean time, here's a little something for the relatives to keep them going;-)

He sure does love his fire trucks!

But, he's thinking something is missing. . .

Whew! Now he's got it under control!!!

Well, kind of. . .

And for the first time ever, he has enough hair to wake up with bed head. 

What are YOU looking at?!