give that baby a hand

let's all pause and clap and cheer for jude! he clapped his hands for the first time in front of mommy today.

no autographs, please

tonight while eating dinner mister jude gave himself a round of applause.

why does this matter? apparently clapping is one of those baby milestones they look for.

congrats jude!

grandma carole gets married

Earlier this month Grandma Carole got married. She is very happy with her new husband, Chuck Miller. Which makes her Carole Miller... "wow that's my grandson's last name" as she told Chuck when they met.

the happy couple

The wedding gave Jude a chance to see his Uncle Todd for a few days, and also his cousins Roxanne and Cyler from Arizona. The wedding weekend also gave Greg a chance to play Mr. Mom as Kara was engaged with singing in the wedding, serving as a bridesmaid and giving a toast at the reception.

family

The wedding theme was black and white, allowing Uncle Todd and Kara to look spiffy in their black attire.

Uncle Todd & Kara

The rehearsal the night before was filled with a few laughs and a few serious moments as they practiced their vows. Sadly Jude was Mr. No Nap that afternoon. He missed rehearsal to get some sleep before the rehearsal dinner that evening.

almost Mr & Mrs

rehearsing the big event

practicing the slow walk & smile
with grandma carole

Uncle todd's silly face

Jude did just OK over the wedding weekend. We did manage to get him into a cute baby 'suit' complete with bow tie. Unfortunately the photo below with mom and dad had a sort of pleasant expression. But the formal photos where grandma tried to hold him are just a wreck.

our family

I'm sure we'll laugh in 20 years at his scared little face. Poor baby was just tired and overwhelmed i think. Jude looks forward to many future visits with grandma carole & chuck where we are sure he will have plenty of smiles for them.

movin on UP

jude has reached new heights. after a few weeks of being a mom quietly nervous about her child's development and therefore nervous about the rest of his future life, jude managed to pull up to standing, all on his own.

all by myself

kara cheered and clapped, then ran for the camera



Here's the 411: kara in the kitchen making dinner, jude is in his play yard. kara comes around the corner because baby is squealing. she finds jude standing up, holding onto his baby chair.
its the first time we've ever found jude standing where one of us didn't help him get there in some way.

And here's why kara is cheering: our boy has been army crawling for awhile and in the past week he has really started cruising around the furniture (that means walking while holding on to things for support). jude had not shown the skill of pulling himself up to a standing position, which many babies his age have achieved. its all part of the process of learning to walk. and when you're in the trenches of parenting, each milestone seems huge and insurmountable, but also really really important.
In addition, jude has been annoyed. he wants to walk and cruise a lot. but he cannot get up without crying for mom and dad.
jude is movin on up.

cartoon baby

jude's hair is becoming a funny attraction. first off, its red. why yes we know that! and no, it does not run clearly in our families. and wow, isn't it amazing. pardon the sarcasm, but it is a frequent question from strangers.

what's funny now are the tufts on the top of jude's head. I had a mom recently get emotional and tell me to keep them as long as I can. apparently for her its a reminder of how little her son used to be. I'm glad mine is still little and that he can have cute cartoonish baby hair for the time being.

hair do OR hair don't

oh the tufts!

The latest patient

We have a new medical patient in our home...Jude's buddy George. I just happened to snap some photos of them together at the beginning of last week.

summer in the backyard, ages 13 months & 8

everyone says they'll be buddies one day but for now George mainly sees jude as a food source. jude has a habit near the end of meals of simply chucking pieces of food over the side and giggling hysterically each time.

so back to george's injury... look closely at his eyes in the closeup picture below.

regular cute dog

somehow on wednesday he put a gash below his right eye. the vet's best guess is perhaps he ran into a bush. the 45 minute wait at the vet was a challenge for the baby and his mommy. fortunately a little surgical glue made the cut close and it should heal normally, but poor george must wear a cone for 10 days.

injured pup

this presents two challenges in the Miller house. first, we have to keep jude from grabbing the cone and shaking it around, as he has attempted. second, we were told we can remove the cone to let george eat. but he has gotten a few paws by his eye even as we watch him closely. it certainly adds another level of fun to breakfast and dinner around here.

ps We have not seen 'UP' the movie yet, but our neighbors tell us there are some great dogs-in-cones scenes. i think we'll have to try and figure out a way to check it out.

typical

Greg and Kara have quite a few unintentional adventures these days when they are distracted and tired from handling, listening too, and caring for Jude.

A recent example was our son's first birthday. The actual birthday was may 27th, a few days before his party. Kara had read about families that have birthday traditions where they always do the same special thing each year. She decided it would be neat to take a family photo each year at the exact time Jude was born.

jude turns ONE

It's hard after a long day with baby to get yourself looking nice. But we rushed around and were seated closed to 5:07. (we admit we moved the clock hands back a few minutes :-) )

It wasn't until a few days later Kara noticed the humorous part. You see Jude's hospital bracelet hangs above his changing table, along with a few notes and cards friends have sent. She saw that her child was actually born at 5:04.

After the photo we went to one of our new favorite 'neighborhood' places, THE DEPOT, an old fashioned diner on the chicago side of austin. Jude enjoyed celebrating with his friend joshua and Lynsey, who is expecting their second child in the fall.

birthday dinner

A good TIME was had by all, inspite of ourselves :-)

busy baby = busy mommy

little jude is quickly becoming a busy baby. when he is on the ground he seems to find the most efficient crawling trajectory towards the one or 2 items we least want him to grab. today it was the dog bone which greg had to reclaim for george. last week he made his first foray into opening the kitchen cabinets and helping empty them. kara feels constantly on-call, even more than in the past, because now jude is mobile.

he enjoys walking when we help hold him up. but jude has a few items to cross off on the checklist before he walks:

1) I cannot let go in mid-air and expect to stay standing when I still move like a drunken sailor
2) I cannot turn and grab the next item of furniture when it is farther than my arms will reach. If I do I will fall
3) I cannot expect to stand up if I don't like moving from crawling into a sitting position
4) If I drop the magazines I have just torn up on the ottoman I must bend my body when I decide I want to nosedive and continue playing with them on the floor.
4) Mommy is not ready for me to walk because at least with crawling she has a chance of catching me :-)

finally summer

Jude's second go round with summer has faced delay after delay. This has been one of the rainiest, coldest beginnings to summer we've seen in years.

warmer sunnier memories from last July

Today was our second opportunity to finally go to the pool based on good weather and an open day in the schedule...too bad Jude decided to be fussy and frustrated. We packed the diaper bag, found the towels and the sunscreen, but then decided to just go to the park instead.

A little park near us has a water play area with shooting geysers of water that turn on and off. We set Jude near a small spray and splashed around with him. And he took a high flying ride on the swings (note to self-- daddies push the baby much higher than mommies on the swing)

We finished up with a trip to the market for corn. And then held our first 'family' cookout with hotdogs, corn and roasted apples. yum. Jude tried the apples and a few bits of corn, but mostly enjoyed some fish and broccoli.

We have just put him down for the night (20 minutes earlier than normal-- thanks for the tip Dr. Weissbluth). Ahhhh. What a nice summer day.

our little guy in july of '08