Baby Signs

Jude just started signing for milk! This is a motion where the fingers open and close...like you are milking a cow.

And this isn't random... he does actually want a cup of milk when he does this.

Yeah!  We have communication other than just crying!

Next one to master is either food or more.

Tamlin still signs please when he really wants something :-)

A Moment...

Currently, we have been eating dinner all together as a family when possible.  To do this and to accompany various work schedules and sleep schedules, we now eat about 4:30pm.  Many nights, Brian makes the meal, we eat, and then he has to skedaddle off to work.  This leaves me with the clean up and bed time rituals.

Between 5ish and 6ish, is my time with both boys, post food consumption and pre-sleep.   However, this is also my time to straighten the kitchen (at least, even if I can't get to cleaning any other room in the house).   Plus, now that Jude is mobile, he is NOT content to stay in his highchair unless food is available to him.  So what do we do?

By golly, I became Little Mrs. Betty Jo Homemaker.  I slap on an apron and get 'er done.   I now enlist Tam to pick all crumbs off the floor, mostly because he was the one to drop them there.   Once the floor is cleaned, Jude is plunked down at my feet. (Not before because Jude is secretly a hoover-vacuum and will eat anything that vaguely looks food-like off the floor).  Once demoted to the floor, I drop Jude some random kitchen gadget (whisk, cup, spatula, whatever) and start in on the dishes that need hand-wahsing.  Tamlin pulls up a hair next to me at the sink and proceeds to "help" by playing in the water and washing his cars.  I am then treated to a running commentary of what we are doing from Tam, and random squeals of delight from the peanut gallery on the floor.  Once dishes are done, Tam loses interest in helping and starts zooming around the kitchen with cars.  I tackle wiping down of counters.  Jude, by this time, has often ended up playing with his animal magnets on the fridge, and thinks Tam's antics are hilarious.  Jude's laugh is contagious, and often we all end up laughing at each other.

It is at these moments, I feel like a total mother...

And I think I enjoy it...

Sometimes it is even  ab ti like a Disney movie and we all break out in random song while we work...usually Beatles or nursery rhymes.

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me :-)

Don't ask me my age...it would require me to do too much math.

It is nice this year to have a birthday without being humungously pregnant with munchkin #2.   However, it is very odd to think that our wee Juddo is going to by 1 year old next week...

What am I hoping for today?
To sleep in...it's what I got last year for my birthday too and I loved it.

And Happy Mother's Day early.
Tam and his preschool class sang all of us mom's a special song on Thursday to celebrate the day.  It was so cute.  Tam even sang some of the words, but did all the gestures.  Oh, and I got a lovely decoupaged vase from the Taminator too...complete with a carnation flower that he insisted on me smelling immediately.  This beautiful item coming from the same kid who a day or so ago told me he made a huge poop in the potty just for me because he loves me.  Sigh...it is sometimes mind-boggling trying to figure out how the neurons of his little brain our firing.

 Supposedly, Tam's Sunday school class is singing a special song tomorrow too; I'll try to get a video of it for posterity.

And Jude?
Jude has given me lots of happy squeals of joy and lots of mamamamamama and lots of smiles when he sees me.  And waves.  And hugs.  He is definitely a hugger.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and my mom-in-law too.  Hope our cards arrived in time for you...the boys worked very hard on the pictures :-)

And Happy Birthday to my Step-Dad Dale too!

Jude's first trip to a playground since he's gone mobile

 It was a beautiful day yesterday, so grabbed the kids, grabbed some 55 cent wings from Buffalo Wild wings, grabbed some watermelon, and headed to a local park for a picnic and fun.
It was a great day to spend some time together as a family.

Who forgot to tell me that hot wings and cool watermelon go AWESOME together?

Even toothless Jude liked the feast.

And then we let the kids hit the little playground.  It was an older model...but still boasted two areas (for toddlers and bigger kids) and three slides.  This was a great chance to let Jude do some crawling around on this fun area...with our supervision, of course, and his big brother showing him how to do all the "tricks."

 The slide was a hit...

Jude isn't quite able to go down sitting up on his own yet...but I bet he's there by the end of summer!

We let both Jude and Tam play in the kiddy-cage contraption.

Check out these grins!  

Neither boy wanted to go home, even when they were so tired they could barely keep from rubbing their eyes.   Lucky us, this is a park that is only a mile or two from our house...for I think we'll visit again soon.

 

  

Bounce House

 

About ten days ago, we went to a local "Bounce House" called Jester's Court.  The only reason I even knew about this place was via a coupon on the Internet for a buy one / get one special.   It is a relatively new place, very clean, and nearly no one there on a weekday when grade school is still in session.

In a nutshell, this is a huge warehouse building that has been remodeled, with a little eating / cafe area, restrooms, and then ten(?)  big bounce thingies, a climbing playground, and a toddler play area. 

We got together with friends of ours so that everyone could play together.  Xander is nearly 5 years old and Jo is almost 3, which puts Tam in the middle at 3.5...and, of course, Jude at nearly 1year.  One of the great features of this venue is that they have space even for the wee ones, like Jude.  We three adults mostly let the older kids loose, they were watched by worker attendants manning each of the bouncers.

All the kids loved it and it was  great way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy morning. 



Jude wasn't too sure what was going on.  He liked playing in his toddler bouncer...which had inflated sea animals (alligator, dragon, snail).  Tam tried to show Jude how fun it was to jump around, but this just made Jude laugh at him.

Tam really loved climbing around among the huge bouncers and sliding down the slides.  He also really liked the jungle-gym, though he got stuck a few times.  Stuck... as in he was too scared to climb to the next level and couldn't figure out how to go back downward.  Mostly he got trapped not wanting to go across a rope bridge or in between giant squishy rollers.  Thankfully, his friend Xander came to his rescue...and the attendant.  (no photo of this).

At first Jude tried climbing around...
And then he tried gnoshing around...
And then he finally rolled around...

At first, Tam wasn't too sure about the huge squishy ladders or climbing walls...but he REALLY wanted to go down the slides, and those were the way to get to the top.  He eventually gave it a go, and was a pro by the second go around.  I was just amazed at how it was to quickly scale the climbing walls; he really is stronger than he looks in that scrawny body.


Oh yeah...the slides were a big hit.

Wordless Wednesday - Preparing for Mother's Day