I couldn't let this momentous occasion pass by without noting some of Jude's latest accomplishments and reflecting on our past year together as a four-member family :-)
So what has Jude been doing lately?
Working on standing without support. His current "hang time" all by himself is about 5 seconds. However, hs has been trying to stand with only holding on to something or someone with only one hand. First steps will be coming soon!
Along with standing, he has been walking around while pushing items, like the play walker, the toy piano, and now the big red car and tricycle. Most of the time he can keep up...though sometimes, if he stops, and the toy keeps going due to momentum, he forgets to let go and ends up crashing to the floor. Tears are shed, but he tries again. He really likes it when he can cruise all the way across a room.
Jude has also been testing out gravity with his own little experiments. These have involved dropping objects from high places to see if they fall. He has two laboratories for this: the highchair and his crib. While in the crib, he likes to drop all of his toys and blankets and books outside the railing when he first wakes up and no one comes running immediately to see him. In the highchair, he has taken to dropping his sippy cup when he is done drinking and dropping his spoon when he is done eating. I've picked them up for him, to have him look me right in the eye and drop them down again (with a sly grin). Silly kid. Oh, and Jude hasn't figured out the coordination to actually use the spoon yet, he just likes to wave it around during mealtimes.
Speaking of highchair antics, our little Jude is definitely an eater! He loves solid food. He loves to eat. If he sees anyone else putting things in their mouth, he crawls right over to investigate and beg for a bite. He has enjoyed every food we have placed in front of him, including spicey chicken wing meat. He really likes being able to feed himself with the small bits of food and has even started rejecting (halfheartedly) the pre-made baby food mush that has to be fed to him. I can't wait until he gets some teeth and can try even more awesome food. Brian also loves that Jude tries everything he makes for us.
With Jude's increase in mobility and independence, he is exploring the house a ton. This meant that all of our baby-safety features are back out (like the outlet covers and the baby gates). When Jude crawls out of a room, we say that he is off on an adventure! With all of this exploring, we are tying not to keep telling him "No" all of time. This means that a few Jude rules have emerged:
"Hats stay on the head" - this one goes for Tamlin too, especially during the summertime sunshine.
"That's not a Jude toy" - Tam tries this one too when he doesn't want Jude to touch his stuff.
"That's not food!" - This one is utter far too frequently during the day, but Jude has started listening. If we catch him before the item in question has entered the mouth, Jude will usually put it back down. However, with his short attention span, he often re-discovers that the item is still in his hand and tries again to see if it is food.
And the sounds! Jude is a lively talker! He makes car motor-sounds when he's playing with the cars. He says mamamama, and sometimes it is even in reference to me. He says dadadadada too. He kinda says a prolong Hi when waving. And then there are lots of yayayaya, babababa, squeals, giggles, and yells. Even with the lack of words, there is a variey of pitch...especially when one of us is singing at him.
He's still taking 2 naps on most days and sleeps from 6:30 to 6:00am most nights. There are still rough nights where he doesn't want to sleep by himself. Jude is definitely a snuggler and loves to be with people. I think if he had his way, he would sleep in someone's arms every night instead of sleeping by himself in the crib. Brian coddles him with this desire. I tend to think that if it is bed time, he should be in the crib, even if he is crying (and I know nothing else is wrong). However, most nights we are all sleeping enough. It is cute to watch him sleep all curled up clutching the little monster I made him for Christmas and on top of a board book.
Still no teeth, but way less drool overall compared to Tamlin.
He drinks 18 to 24oz of formula a day from sippy cups. He hasn't figured out straws yet. We plan on switching to milk after our vacation in a few weeks.
He's eating 3 meals a day, and lots at each meal, the little food vacuum.
We still get spit-up from him, but not too much. He's been off the reflux medicine for months and seems fine.
Jude loves playing with Tam when he can; he loves books that have flaps to lift up; he loves making noise by banging objects together; he likes cars and animals...at least I think he does. It is so fun to watch his personality emerge with every new day!
Oh, I love my littlest man so much! He surely does make my heart feel super happy!
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