HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Jude turns ONE today

growing UP

Jude joined our world one year ago at 5:07 pm this evening. This past year has been happily marked by his sweet smiles, his easygoing nature and the amazing development from little mush baby to a curious growing little guy.

From Kara's perspective, being Jude's mom is more amazing and rewarding than she hoped. But in honest moments it is also lonelier, more challenging, and requires more patience and strength than she ever imagined. Her life has changed so much in the past year. Cutting back to one day at work and being a stay-at-home mom the rest of the week. And now there is news her NBC job is going away this summer. Requiring a new adjustment.

But also even on the stay-at-home days, here life is segmented into feeding and nap times for Baby Jude:

7am Wakeup & feed Jude

8am Jude's finger food breakfast

9am Jude's morning nap

11:00am Feed Jude

12pm Jude's finger food lunch

1 or 2pm Jude's afternoon nap

6pm Jude's finger food dinner

7pm Jude's bedtime feeding, read 2 books, and put this baby to bed!

8pm on-- recovery for mommy

For most of the past year, Kara's only time to easily run errands or leave the house was from 3:30 to 5pm. It was quite an adjustment to have only limited time to get plants for the garden or food for meals. Thank goodness for Peapod- online grocery delivery, Diapers.com, the internet, and her helpful husband.

Dinner for 3

Greg & Kara are still adjusting to the idea that evening meals will not be the same again for awhile. Jude is enjoying and eating almost everything we serve. But we have to struggle to get enough small pieces cut up quickly and on his tray. Once we get 'ahead' of his fast moving hands, we have a few moments to eat our own meals before he runs out and screams for more.
Fortunately in the busyness he is very cute. It makes the process much easier.

I didn't eat a thing, really!

We still keep a supply of baby food on hand for the nights when our dinner is chips & salsa and he needs to eat real food. You may not know but they have 'stages' in baby meals. Stage 1 is the really saucy basic items- sweet potatoes, pears, etc. Stage 2 provides combinations like Green Beans & Rice or Blueberries & Apples. Stage 3 moves on to chunkier food items.
So far Jude's favorites seem to be a Pumpkin Pie organic mixture (pumpkin, pear, spices) or Lentils & Rice. Having all these little jars has certainly exposed him to flavors mommy would not cook on a regular basis.

Is this what I'll look like with facial hair?

We also have an 'organic' baby. That is, most everything he eats is organic. We are not sticklers about this when we are out to eat (for instance I doubt the diner pancakes he loves are made with organic flour and eggs :-) ) but I figure the things we make at home can avoid as many chemicals and pesticides as possible. After all, he's going to be using these bones & organs for a long time.

Check back tomorrow for thoughts on Jude & Parenthood, ONE YEAR LATER

baby good, mommy blogger bad

Mister Jude is doing wonderfully these days. It is his mommy and daddy who have been bad bloggers. Our 11 month old bundle continues to charm all the girls and ladies in the nursery and of course his Friday babysitter Tara. He offers grins, giggles and is easily adaptable to all the teens who wait to hold him in the church nursery. We are fortunate.

As his one year birthday gets closer, Jude is starting to experience life as a Big Boy. First up is the departure of the sleepsack. The zip up wearable blankets were amazing for him from about 3 months until now. But now he's entering the wonderful world of Blankets in the crib.

letting sleeping baby lie

Jude napped for 3 hours this afternoon and he's been sleeping in a bit later as well. We think its because he can curl up or stretch as he pleases in the blanket.

Jude enjoying sleepsacks in the old days

Jude has decided he's not into crawling yet. But he is making progress. He no longer falls forward and smacks his forehead when he tries to reach things (poor guy!)

Jude's mom and dad have been very busy. We are re-doing our living room and attempting to have the majority of the project finished by the time we celebrate Jude's first birthday. And Jude's mom, Kara, is awaiting word about big changes at work. Jude has his fingers crossed for mommy!

Dump n' Play

Tonight we have rare time lapse footage of Baby Jude in action! Watch as the amazing baby dumps and then plays with his toys :-)
OK, its actually just a few quick snaps with our camera. But you can see how quickly Baby Jude dives in and plays with his toys...er.. plays with his toy box.

I begin with them all in a bin that mommy gives me

I dump them out!

I Spread them around to See What I've got

actually.. I think I'll just play with the empty bin

The Zoo is more of a walk outside

Jude visited our amazing local zoo, The Brookfield Zoo, in Brookfield, Illinois.

I'd be lion if I said I wasn't scared

Kara had picked up the free Zoo Admission card from our local library. Things were not looking promising as we pulled up and parked.

April showers

But the weather quickly cleared and it was a refreshing amazing 2 hours. Greg and Kara really enjoyed walking together and finding the animal habitats. But many of the animals weren't around for Baby Jude's big visit. They were off exhibit or simply not in town because of the cold weather.

But we still had fun. Jude took his turn trying on a shirt that would fit an adult male gorilla.

does this come in x-small?

please, please, no more pictures

Greg and Kara also posed for photos...

...and pointed out the animals to Jude. But he was either not interested or couldn't see them sleeping towards the back of their habitats. Jude was more into people watching. If he could talk we think he would describe his favorite zoo animal as 'the guy in the red hat and sunglasses'.

visting giraffes

We look forward to many future visits to our zoo. And hopefully as Jude gets a little older he will appreciate and enjoy the animals too!

You blog fans may remember that this is Jude's second trip here. He made the first visit as a young guy back on July 4th.

Jude & Grandma Carole

5 weeks old

spring baby

Since it is finally warming up outside and making our older home less 'chilly', we decided it was the perfect time for a few more chubby baby shots. Jude agreed and posed for us in his nursery.

Howdy from my room

It is ten times easier to transport, walk, and generally play with Jude when he only has to wear a onesie or a light outfit.
And we'd like to report that Jude is a 'green' baby. He believes in recycling, especially the packages of baby wipes from costco. Those crinkly blue packages are one of his favorite toys to crush and bite on.

excuse me while I bite this

You'll notice in this photo that Jude continues his reign as Michelin Baby-- copying the michelin man with the many folds and sections on his arms. Our boy is still chubby, chunky and cute. and we love it.
Here's a recent photo of his 'wardrobe change' during the photo shoot our friend Laura Birkey did for us at 8 1/2 months.

Does this outfit make me look fat?

sniffly boy

Jude is still recovering from his virus. The poor guy makes the cutest little coughs during the night. Its hard to hear him struggle. But it seems to be getting better.
We keep asking Jude if he has swine flu, but his only answer is 'rar rar rar rar'.

Jude is not crawling, but he somehow moves several feet from where you put him. This week Kara set him down with toys and came back to find him putting his hands in the VCR. Fortunately he didn't put anything else in there.

We are well and beginning preparations for Jude's First Birthday.