Chocolate Rice Cream

So it wasn't really rice based ice cream it was rice that had been dumped into chocolate ice cream. Apparently it's delicious.

 

More please....

January Spring

The past few days have yielded unseasonably gorgeous weather. You might mistakenly think it's spring, unless you're Andrea. Nevertheless, we have been enjoying this brief stint of nice weather to the best of our abilities and that includes many walks to our beloved neighborhood park.

Jude knows the route well. In fact, the other day I decided to take a detour and passed the road the park was on and when I didn't turn right Jude noticed and started fussing and pointing in the direction of the park. By far his favorite thing at the park are the swings. He runs to them yelling, "wee! wee!" and continues to yell, "wee! wee!" well into the swinging. I'd have to say his second favorite thing about the park would be the other children... he loves watching them and chasing them around. He also likes the buses, trucks and motorcycles that drive by.

Watching Kids Play

Static

The Boy Can Eat

 

(After eating a purple sweet potato for dinner.)

Jude was a pretty big baby at birth but he didn't maintain that "big baby" status very long. According to the charts at our doctor's office at 6 months Jude was only in the 20th percentile for his weight. (But according to the WHO standards he's in approximately the 60th percentile.) You see, the standard charts at your pediatrician's office don't differentiate between formula and breastfed babies. Typically, breastfed babies grow in spurts whereas formula fed babies just constantly grow. Which is why so many formula babies are bigger. However, they all start to even out after they begin toddling around.

Well, then the doctor started raising concerns about Jude's weight and I got concerned that maybe he wasn't getting enough to eat. (Even though he wasn't exceptionally fussy and ate well when he was hungry) So we started giving him some solids. It started out small but quickly developed into a feeding frenzy. However, even with the addition of solids his stats weren't changing. So I decided to ignore the doctor and just go with my gut. Which was telling me everything was fine.

Now at 14 months old he's still pretty slender but eats like a horse. I attribute this to the fact that he's an active, growing boy. Not to mention his father is built the same way!

To prove that he can EAT I've recorded a sample of his daily menu. (All you moms of boys let me know if this is about average for a 14 mo old.)

Breakfast
1/4 cup of Cheerios
1 Whole Banana
1 Waffle

Nurse

Lunch
1/4 cup chicken
1/2 cup cut up grapes
1/4 cup avocado
1/4 cup pears
1 graham cracker

Nurse

Snack
1/4 cup Earth's Best Organic Banana Smiley Snacks

Dinner
1 Whole Baked Sweet Potato
1/4 cup chicken
1/2 cup strawberries
1 small yogurt for dessert

Nurse



In addition to all of this he usually ends up eating a few bites of whatever Joe and I are eating.  I am no longer concerned about his weight but I am concern about our grocery budget!!!!

Purple

Meal time is always a fun adventure around here. Jude eats pretty much everything we eat. I'm not about to cook a separate meal just for him. (Unless we're having something I know he can't eat. But usually there is some part of the meal he can enjoy.) Last night I made Chicken Piccata, Baked Purple Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans. Now Jude loves regular Sweet Potatoes but I'm pretty sure Purple Sweet Potatoes blew his mind.


He ate a whole sweet potato and loved every bite.


Now this baby can pack away the food. At this meal he ate some goldfish, some yogurt covered raisins, a few green beans, some chicken, a whole sweet potato, a few cookies, some bites of mommy's Klondike Bar and a whole strawberry.

Our Field Trip to Durham

Last Thursday Jude and I took a little field trip with our friends Kim and Jacob to the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham. We got a little lost on our way there and couldn't find a gas station anywhere in Durham on our way home but all the hassle was worth it! It's a little bit pricey (kids under 3 do get in free) but one day I might consider getting a membership. (For the 2 person membership you'd only have to go about 4 times a year to get your money's worth) Anyway it's a great place and we're hoping to go back in September when Joe's parents come to visit. There is a special exhibit we want to see; Heros, Villans and Special Effects!

We only stayed about 4 hours so we didn't get to see and do nearly everything but hopefully next time we'll be able to pick up where we left off. Jude really like the butterflies, there were so many of them flying around. We played instruments in Loblolly Park, danced in soundSpace, built towers to knock over, played in the toddler learning area, launched giant seeds, pumped water, laughed in the fog, steered a sailboat, and much more.

More Cow Bell!

He Walks

Happy Birthday Jude

What a Year it has been

Last year I was knee deep in labor, quite literally.
This year I'll be knee deep in party decorations and cupcakes.
This year sounds a bit more fun.
But last year I will always remember.

Thoughts on Stretch Marks

I think pregnant bellies are beautiful and up until the last 2 months of my pregnancy I was the proud owner of cute baby bump. However, I think some time during the last two months Jude hit a major growth spurt and my skin couldn't keep up. I applied all kinds of cocoa butter and salves but apparently some women are just gonna get stretch marks. Anyway, I'm learning to live with my new squiggly belly friends. Actually, while I was in the shower yesterday morning I was checking them out and thought... I know they will fade over time but they will probably always be there, what a neat little reminder of my pregnant months with Jude. It's kind of like nature's little tattoos, permanently marking a life changing event. So when I'm 50 and I look down and see the faded lines on my belly I'll think back to when my then 22 year old son was a tiny little babe in my belly.

Crib Update

So I think we did pretty well for our fist attempt at crib sleeping.

Jude slept in his crib until about 2am when he got a bit fussy and Joe finally brought him in our room. When he laid Jude down next to me he was all cold. So I think one of our first steps is to move Jude's bed away from the window where it's a bit drafty.

After Jude moved to the bed with us he had a hard time sleeping. He kept waking up and fussing. I tried nursing and moving him around. I don't know if he had gas or was just uncomfortable but he was awake and fussy between the hours of 4-6am. Finally he fell back asleep and as of 9:55am he's still asleep.

I know he can sleep for long periods of time so I think if we keep letting him sleep in his crib eventually we'll get there.

Sleeping Evolves

Since Jude was born we've been a co-sleeping/bed-sharing family. It has it's pros and cons. The Pros being easy night nursing and cuddles. Cons being Jude is a bed hog.

Jude has a crib in the other room which is technically, "his room", but he's never slept there. He generally takes his naps in our bed and sleeps in our bed and occasionally moved to the play yard in the corner of our room. Well as of recently he really dislikes the play yard... I think he's a bit of a bed snob after sleeping in our comfy bed for so long. While he likes sleeping in our bed sometimes he has trouble falling asleep while we are next to him. He gets excited when he see us and then fussy because he's tired but wants to play.

So today for his afternoon nap I decided to test out his crib. He was pretty sleepy and we got a new diaper on, nursed and I laid him down in the bed. He looked up at me as I told him I loved him and I step out of site. He just laid there for a bit staring at the colorful dots on his bedding and over his crib. Within a few minutes he was sound asleep... no fuss. He slept for two hours and when he awoke I found him happy in his bed playing with his feet and singing his baby songs.

Tonight I decided to see if he wanted to sleep in his crib again. We got ready for bed as usual and I laid him down and again, no fuss just movement as he got comfortable. We'll see how things go tonight and I'll let you know in the morning.

I'm not a proponent of the Cry It Out method which is why I've been hesitant to move him to his own room but so far he seems to like his new space. Joe has already mentioned he's a little sad to see Jude move to his own room as family cuddles are nice. But I don't think we've seen the end of cuddles just yet!

Jude's BFF

Today Jude and I made a trip to Cary WakeMed to visit baby Oscar and his parents.

Cuddly and Cute

Mama and Oscar. skin to skin contact


Jude testing out Oscar's new monkey in the box toy.


Jerry in recovery.

Snow Day

Yesterday it snowed several inches in NC. Which is kind of a big deal since it snows in NC like once every few years. Normally, Joe would have to work despite the weather but fortunately he was off this Tuesday since he worked all weekend filling in for a co-worker that recently had surgery. So we enjoyed a nice relaxing day indoors doing laundry, watching the House marathon on USA and playing with Jude. We did venture out briefly into the snow to let Jude explore the fluffy white world outside. We walked to visit our neighbors, the Stevens, to see if they had any coffee. Sadly we were out of coffee and so were the Stevens. Jude didn't care much for the snow... he briefly touched it but quickly realized it was very cold and was ready to go back inside, snuggle up in his bed and take a nap. Once we returned home Joe ventured out to get coffee for our house and the Stevens. Our house was nice a toasty all day especially since Joe finally added the new weather stripping to our once drafty front door on Monday. Who knew I married such a handy man!The snow is melting now and Joe is back to work. It was fun if only for a day.

A new way to paci

Usually he only plays with his pacifier during the day but he still enjoys having it when he's sleeping.

However, recently he's decided he wants to change things up a bit.

The Big Lebowski Strikes Again

On our first date Joe and I watched The Big Lebowski. Now, I'd never seen this movie and at the time I didn't really care what movie we saw. I just wanted to get to know this hot guy. And to be honest I don't really remember too much about the movie. (I was a little distracted by the hand holding game that was going on ;)

Well, after Jude was born and we finally revealed his awesome name the nicknames started to develop. Obviously he got alot of, "Hey Jude" comments. Especially from my nieces and nephews who constantly watched the YouTube video of the little kid singing, "Hey Jude". They would sing to him and of course it was cute! Now my 2 year old niece, Ella probably influenced our nickname choice the most. Being two years old pronouncing Jude proved to be a bit of a challenge so she called him Dude! Which we thought was adorable, primarily because we'd never thought of it. So pretty much everyday since we've called him Dude. When I'm talking to others about Jude I usually refer to him as "Baby Dude" or "The Dude". Hopefully, he'll learn his proper name and not think that we named him after the movie we saw on our first date or even after a Beatles song. He was infact named after Jude the Apostle, you know the one in the Bible. And because the name Jude means "Praise". (The meaning was very important to us.)

A little bit of mommy and a dash of dad

Like Mommy....
...making music on his first piano. (Thanks Bonchaks!)

Like Daddy...

Enjoying a good book!


Wardrobe Remix
Onesie - Going Green Organic Arizona brand from JCPenny ($1)
Jeans - Talbots Kids ($3)
Socks - Blue and Brown "Give Me A Hug" H&M brand (gift from Sharon)