Judey Booty

Well hello there, handsome!

Jude is 3.5 years old now. He makes us laugh every day. Here's a quick look at his best dance moves to get you warmed up.



We made brownies with sprinkles for his half birthday, which is the best way to celebrate because he really loves to help me bake. It's almost a daily activity. He loves to make his own sandwiches (peanut butter/jelly/banana and grilled cheese), and gives me specific instructions for how to cut his food, what color to turn his yogurt, and what he wants mixed into his oatmeal or applesauce. Every meal ends with some kind of special concoction. If all goes well, he'll be making dinner for the family in no time!

He also likes to make 14-18 chicken nuggets for himself and try to convince me that he can eat all of them. He can't.

He loves to take showers. If I try to sneak into the shower while he's watching a show, he'll run in and get really mad at me for not waiting for him. Which he may be getting too old for because he's started noticing my "milk things". I mean, on the one hand, I'm glad his first lesson about breasts is that they are for feeding babies. And I don't want nudity to be a big shameful thing for him, buuuut...this is a tricky subject.

Power Ranger costume, Ninja Turtle staff, and a boxing glove. Sounds about right.

A weird fact about Jude:  he likes to eat hair. Hair, strings, whatever sticks to his sticky hands when he touches the carpet. Imagine something wet falling on the ground, like a grape. He'll pick it up, see that a long hair has stuck to it, pull it off, and deposit it (the hair, not the grape) right into his mouth to start chewing. It makes me gag. I'm pretty sure he'll be on the show "My Strange Addictions" someday along with the people who eat clay pots and cigarette butts.

This is kind of what his face looks like when he's caught in the act.

Jude is a total mamma's boy right now, and it's become worse since Adele was born. He follows me around everywhere, especially when Josh is gone. He won't even try to do certain things by himself anymore, and acts like he always needs my help. About 50% of the time, he is literally hanging on my leg or my arm, so that every step I take is almost on top of him or tripping over him, and I am NOT patient about it. Since I've recovered from Adele's birth, I'm stronger and more able to pick him up these days, but it's just getting to be ridiculous. So to get him back, I take pictures like this:

I guess I should mention that he loves his dad, too. Obviously. 

Thank goodness he started preschool so he can maybe learn a little more independence. He had been waiting for this day for many months, and it didn't even faze him when I dropped him off. He was so excited to wear his Spider Man jacket and Ninja Turtles backpack, and made sure to bring his umbrella just in case the sun went away.

But it is nice sometimes to have a little buddy wherever I go. He helps me pick green beans and tomatoes, and snip basil in the garden. He's learning how to do lots of chores because he insists on helping me. He's even learned a song on the piano already. He asks to put on my make up and nail polish, but at least he's never tried on my high heels like little Josh would.

I've got to teach him how to blend in that blush.

Adele had one color on her toes, so of course Jude needed TWO.

Jude is a very strong boy. When we went to the rock wall, he steadily climbed all the way to the top (saying "I'm too scared, I'm too scared" the whole way up because he heard Josh saying it).

The next week, he tried to climb this brick wall at the auto shop. A little overconfident, maybe?

He will burn a TON of energy during the day, but still refuses to take naps. So every few days, he ends up zonking out on the floor or in the car around 4:00.

This tree is in an empty lot by our house, and whenever we pass it, he says "That's a broken tree! That's the place I was born!" No idea where he got this idea. Maybe he's secretly been reading a weird fantasy series in which every time a child is born, a tree is struck by lightning 300 miles away.

Last but not least, Jude is obsessed with Adele. OBSESSED. When I'm holding her, he's running beside us trying to grab her legs and hang on them. When she's on the floor, he's "helping" her roll over. When she's babbling, he's forcing a binky into her mouth.  When I'm changing her diaper, he's blowing on her bare belly. At all other times, he is either poking her in the eyes, pinching her cheeks, slobbering all over her forehead, or punching her a little too hard in the body. He gets so excited to see her when she wakes up that he has to make up his own words to describe the feelings. Like, "Adele, you're so soggy boop! Hi sweet fongle! Hi tomadeechy dog! Thomas dunfonky! Adele fomadee domadee!" (That was a direct transcript from our car ride the other day.)

Speaking of riding in the car with Jude, it's always an experience -- one I'll leave with you in conclusion. Here's what it's like when he's excited to pick up Josh from school, pretty much every day.

Life with this boy is never boring.