The Train Station

Well, that's what Jude calls the Chattanooga Choo Choo, anyway. It's really a hotel with some restaurants and shops, but there are train cars there that have also been converted into hotel rooms and a couple of restaurants.

I had to go out there the other day to pick up some items for a regional gift exchange with some ladies I've never met yet feel like I've known all my life. Jude was over the moon. I'm going to miss the days when he doesn't love going out to visit the Choo Choo.

This is the hotel from the back. It's really a HUGE hotel.

On the tracks

 
Jude and the caboose

By the wheels

On the play train. He only gets on if you promise not to put money in!

Oh, and I received my swap package today, too! All the way from Jo in Australia! That was an awesome surprise!

Hiding God's Word in His Heart

That's another thing Jude has been up to these days. So far he has:

Psalm 4:8

Genesis 1:1

Matthew 19:14

Psalm 23:1

and we're working on John 3:16. The video cuts off there because Jeff's iPod wouldn't send the whole thing and because he couldn't really say the whole thing, but rather announced that he had to go potty;-)

Necessity is the mother of invention

And Jude felt it necessary to have a cup holder and a footrest while watching Sonic the Hedgehog. That's a friend's PRINCESS lawn chair. Oh, and of course a fire engine for a footrest.

*** UPDATED about 15 minutes later ***

Well, it looks like he felt the need to upgrade to a REAL step-stool!

Three

Three is officially big boy. This week he decided he would use the potty for EVERYTHING as long as he's awake and that he wanted to move from the toddler bed to the "super big boy bed." (The old full from our guest room that we moved out when we got the king and put our queen into the guest room.)

This is three:


And 2. . .
And one and none. . .

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Well, just because:-)

What might be overheard at bathtime. . .

Boy: Wanna see my penis?

Mommy: No thank you. We do not show other people our penises. Sit back down in the water, please.

Boy: Oh. Ok.
*Sits back down and plays with trains.*

That would be this boy:



So penis obsession starts this early, huh? Welcome to the world of raising boys, I guess. . .

Oh, and overheard from another room in the house would be this boy's dad laughing at the conversation.

(P.S. I can only imagine what this is going to do to the search queries on my dashboard.)

It stuck with him

Wednesday night, Jude's second night in a big boy bed, he showed up in my room at 3am. I was like, "ok, here we go." and I brought him back to his room to nurse him and try to get him back to sleep. The room really stunk and all I could think was that he had a dirty diaper and since he could now get up and tell me, that's what was going on. But when I took his diaper off, it was just wet.

After he nursed, he begged to go in his crib. Shoot! We were failing at the big boy bed. I put him in there and grabbed the pillow off the toddler bed. It was soaking wet. At this point I turned the light on and saw where the smell was coming from. He had thrown up. But since the one and only other time he threw up he was only one, maybe one and a half, he didn't have a word for it and probably had no idea what was going on when it was happening.

When I got everything cleaned up with new sheets and a new pillow, he willingly went back to his "bo-boy bed" as he calls it. Well, maybe because in the mean time, he also threw up in the crib, so he made the connection that the bed had nothing to do with it?

Last night, Friday, we were reading Curious George books at bed time when he looked at me and said, "Judah cry." Of course I asked him, "Why did Judah cry?"

His response puzzled me: "Judah make mess." Well, we had just cleaned up, so I had no idea what he was talking about. "Where did Judah make a mess?" I asked.

"Judah spill. Judah spill mouth." (Well, actually he said "Judah pill mouff." but we'll not get into pronunciation now!)

Spill mouth? Ooooooooh! He was telling me about the night he threw up. Poor baby! If he was still talking about it three nights later, it really must have made an impression on him. He's destined to be like his mother, I'm afraid. I have a mortal fear of throwing up. And all the puking I did during pregnancy did nothing to "cure" that fear!

I am officially a blog slacker

Working half time has definitely eaten into my motivation to blog when I can just zing something up on Facebook in a second or two that I usually don't have to proof read! But this calls for a blog post:-)

I lost my camera for about a month (really, I didn't lose it. It was in my doula bag, but I just forgot it was there!) And for about the month before that, I didn't know where my USB cable was. So I hadn't posted photos of Jude in some time. When I finally got my act together, some of my Facebook friends mentioned how they couldn't believe the change Jude had made from baby to little boy in such a short period of time. And to be honest, neither can I!

There are just so many things. We had planned not to try potty training until after he turned three because I've heard so many parents of boys harping on how boys are ready later, no sense trying until three, yada yada. But he started showing interest on his own when he was less than two and a half two years, three months, and seven days to be precise). These days, at two years 7 months, and three weeks, he is completely day trained. He still wears a diaper to nap and to bed, and he always waits until he has that thing on to poop. Can't wait until he gets that down!

He sat for a hair cut last week without completely freaking out. I know the hair dresser being completely entertaining and also letting him wear these didn't hurt either:

Last night he slept the night through in a toddler bed without begging to go back into his crib.

But today was the real kicker. We went to the fountain to play in the water and another little boy came along about Jude's size, but obviously an older three year old. (My kid is the same size or taller than a lot of three year olds we know.) And instead of shying away from the other kid, Jude engaged in play with him. They splashed each other, sat by each other in the jets, and played more games of chase than I can count. I wish that I had gotten a photo of them together, but I didn't even think of it until the other boy had left. So this is all I got:
What can I say? My boy is growing up faster than I'm ready for, but on the other hand, this will make it easier as I contemplate going back into the classroom full time next year.

My child. What can I say? He loves to laugh. He loves to make people laugh. He loves to make himself laugh. So when I was trying to get him to sing his ABC (which to him apparently means A-B-C-H-Thomas. . .) why would this be any different.

If you watch the video, you'll notice the exact moment where he figures out where the little camera is built in to the computer and the effect that it has on the screen when he moves closer to it. Personally, I think he just likes looking at himself;-)

I have been singing this song to Jude at bedtime some nights for a while now, but it's only been the last few nights that he has seemed to take notice.

I'll get to the part "when I fall down You pick me up. When I am dry You fill my cup." and even though he is nursing, I can hear him smile. (If you've ever been a nursing mother, you know what I mean by hear!) then I get to the end and he stops what he's doing: "gin, mommy?" And every time with out fail, on the second go around, when I sing the part "fill my cup" he stops and repeats, "fill cup."

I love the legacy songs like this will speak into his life over the years and especially that he's picking up on them so early.

Undies

How do you celebrate your two year old making it to the potty to go peepee? Well, by letting him wear Thomas the Tank Engine undies, of course!



















































Although that was short lived and since it was bed time, he was back in a diaper after about 30 minutes. And we haven't gone on the potty, since. But hey. Small victories:-)

Ponies and Somersaults

Have I mentioned before that the folks that lived her before us left behind a whole bunch of stuff?Their movers really sucked, so they fired them midmove and just did the rest themselves. They asked if we minded them leaving some things and we were fine with that because we figured we'd just get rid of what we didn't want. (We really weren't anticipating them leaving that dog, though!)

We actually gained several pieces of furniture and kid's item this way. (Also some car ramps and about 15 gas cans?!?!) One of the great kid's items was one of those horses that is just the head on a stick which we recently rediscovered in the back of Jude's closet. He spent the better part of today running around with it calling it a camel. But once Jeff put new batteries in the thing, he figured it out.

Those somersaults are our most recent achievement. Last night he just started doing them in the hallway after bath time. I truly think they would be grand if he would figure out how to keep his hands on the floor as he goes. But who know? Maybe I have a future gymnast on my hands?

He gets it!

Dream no more, Bing. Your white Christmas has become a reality. Well, at least for those of us here in Northwest Georgia. . . Jude and I both experienced our first white Christmas together this morning. And as opposed to any of the snows we had last winter, Jude really seemed to know what to do with it this year!

He also seemed to understand some things about Christmas this year. When I told him we were going to go to grandma and grandpas and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, his face just light right up. Last night, at Christmas Eve service, he sat relatively attentive while Travis gave the children's sermon about persecuted Christians in Arab nations who were not able to safely celebrate Christmas like we could. And when he gave the little gift bags to the children, Jude came running back to me with his, excitedly exclaiming, "Tra-bis! Tra-bis!" He was so proud of that little gift from Travis.

Here is our day so far:

Thomas shirt from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa















Thomas bath toys from Mommy and Daddy
















Thomas books from Mommy and Daddy
















Do you notice a trend yet?

And then there was. . .

Checking out the snow
















Eating the snow. . .

Jude Is All Boy!

My child can spend HOURS going down the same slide, climbing back up and going down again. This realization sent me scurrying to Craigslist to find a Little Tikes plastic slide for our house --so that I can get things done around here while he's occupied with that thing! Can't get house work done if I spend 2 hours at the park;-)

We went and picked up our $30 find tonight and I really thought Jude might just decide to forego bedtime because we put it (temporarily) in the living room until we can scout out a flat spot in the yard in the daylight.

Not only was he completely enthralled by the new slide, but also by the fact that he could see exactly what I was filming, since I used the iCam on my work MacBook. This video is a bit longer than I usually take (because my other camera will only film 3 minutes worth) but your patience will be rewarded at the end when Jude counts to 10. (With help!)

Thank you, LeapFrog!

Sometime before Jude was even old enough to know what TV even was, we got this LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD free in the mail. (I'm really good at finding freebies like that. I think I may have only actually paid for 2 of the DVDs he owns!) It came in handy for our road trips to Florida to pick Vickie up and bring her home back in July and August, since Jude doesn't have any sit in him. But until maybe 3 weeks ago, that was the last time I played it for him.

Then the whole Comcast debacle happened where our service went down one Saturday morning and they said they couldn't come to fix it until the following Tuesday (it was a holiday weekend) so out it came again. And out of nowhere, one day last week I realized he was singing the letter sounds. I totally blame it on this video because I certainly didn't teach him that yet.

So, with no further ado, I give you Jude and his letter sounds! (Yeah, I know it doesn't really mean anything to him at this age. But it is sure fun to watch!)

Through the years

October 3, 2008 and October 3, 2009

October 3, 2010

Jude spent his second birthday surrounded by love from family and friends from near and far. He played many hours on the play ground, ate lots of cookout food, but none of his own birthday cake, and didn't want to open any more presents once he opened the fire trucks from Mrs. Maggie and Libby Kate;-) 

As exhausting as parting hosting is for me (I am soooo not an extrovert!) watching my little man have so much fun makes it all worth it! 

Food

Jude really enjoys "wice" these days:-)

Now I Know My ABCs. . .

Jude identified his first letter early in July (late in June?) and we don't really know where he learned it from. He just pointed at an O on Grandpa Phil's shirt and kept saying, "Oh! Oooooh! oooOOOooh!"

So we decided to capitalize on that and start working on a few more. My grandmother didn't know this when she gave Jude a set of foam letters for the bath in mid-July. He took to those things right away. He would carry them from person to person asking them to tell him what letter he had. My grandfather was the most favored letter holder/reciter. What can I say? The kid definitely has a preference for men (except Mommy, of course!).

By the middle of August, when we returned to Florida to bring Aunt Vickie home, he knew all but maybe 5 or 6 of the letters. Now days, he can usually say all of them except V. In the videos below he blanked on H, too. No worries, though. He has plenty of time to get that down before he actually has to start learning what they mean.

This is broken up in two parts: A-L and M-Z. Mainly because Jude got distracted halfway through and wanted to play with the camera;-) If you're only going to watch one of the clips, it should definitely be the second one, because in that one he says W and that's the best! (bub-oh-woo!)

Yes, he definitely still calls the letter C "cookie" and yes, he is doing part of the little dance he does when we play the Cookie Monster song. So, even though we tell him repeatedly that it is C, it is probably our own fault that he still calls it "cookie."

So, please excuse a shameless brag from a proud mama. I really didn't expect him to learn his letters before he was 2. Maybe that's the normal age for that, but it was a surprise to me:-)

Of all the weirdness I could come up with?!?!

I was going through my photo files, kind of cleaning house and I came across this pic of me from January 2008. I was lying on the couch at our old house, working on school work. Apparently, this was a signal to the pets that mama wanted some luvin' because I promise, this was not staged. They just made themselves at home:

Now days, pets are  not allowed on the furniture. Actually, we got rid of el gato, because she could not (would not?) be trained to obey this rule. But, I usually find my self in similar situations: 

That's o.k. This one, we'll keep:-)

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;-)