when daddy's away, mommy goes crazy

We all love Jude and can agree that he is a cute funny boy. But some of the very things that make him cute to neighbors and strangers can drive a mom crazy after a few days caring for him solo.

happy boy

Take for instance his bountiful vocabulary and strong desire to use it. This evening Jude asked over and over for mom to pick up daddy from the airport, to go get daddy, despite the fact that we have explained, hugged, and told him multiple times that daddy is in Dallas. (Greg left for a conference on Saturday and returns tomorrow night).
Jude loves trains so mom pointed out the EL train in the station near the diner where we ate dinner. Jude thought mom said 'owl'. He kept searching the trees for the owl. Later mom asked if owls come out during the day or at night. Jude said 'night' so mom explained that the owls were sleeping. Then he began to say 'maybe I go in the dark and see owl.' Another gem, 'maybe mommy wake up the owl.' These are the cute stories but they are tiring to hear over and over accompanied by frustrated cries or high pitched tones from Mr 2-year-old.

We also must acknowledge that the twos are in fact...kinda terrible. Jude has a passion about things he desires and he lacks the self control at this age to wait or understand why he's being told no. This leads to tantrums and tears. On Saturday we stopped at a railroad crossing on a busy six lane road. We started driving after the train passed. Jude asks mom to back up the car to go see the train again. The request turns to screaming when mom explains that there is traffic and they have to keep moving.


I hope that these stories can make you feel better about your own little ones or make you smile about mine. You can pray for patience for me as I navigate Jude's development and all of his words. I'm so glad the hubby comes home tomorrow.

my favorite, special thing

Mister Jude is experimenting with lots of new words. Right now he loves to use descriptive words. That's a BIG truck. George is a BIG dog. We laugh a lot listening to him point to random objects and say "That's mommy's favorite cup. That's daddy's special bag."

I'm a big special boy

Today I picked him up from preschool. The routine there is that all the kiddos wait in line to get their papers or art projects. On days with nothing to bring home, they receive a blank recycled quarter sheet of paper, to help reinforce the routine. Today Jude proudly handed me his blank orange paper and said "This is my special paper." What a cutie.

He also likes to tell us that "I am soooo happy." Followed soon after by "I am sooo sad."

What a cute time with words.

athlete in training

Little Jude is beginning his future Carolina basketball player training early. (what?) We just wrapped up his parent-tot sports class through the Park District. We spent 5 weeks kicking, tossing, and sometimes just ignoring instructions through soccer, basketball, football, t-ball, and hockey. Today Jude received a medal for finishing the class.

We love sports!

Coach Alex, the instructor, deserves a medal of his own. He had a great attitude in a gym full of two year olds who sometimes cared, and sometimes just wanted to hide in the hockey goals.

thanks coach alex

My favorite coach moment was the second class when I asked Jude to say hi to coach alex. Jude's two year old brain came up with "Hi Coach T-Rex", after the dinosaurs we play with in his puzzles.
Jude talked about soccer quite a bit after that week of class, but tonight he asked to sleep with his football. So who knows what sport might grab his attention in future years? It was certainly fun to be there at the beginning of his athletic adventures.

check me out

valentines is an afterthought?

Valentine's Day is an afterthought in the Miller household. Love is still in the air around here but the red heart holiday comes after a busy stretch of other celebrations. First we have 5 family birthdays in late November & December, Christmas, New Years, and most recently Kara & Greg's birthdays.
We did get some photos of the beautiful cake we picked up for Kara's birthday at a new Oak Park area bakery, Cake Bros. on North Avenue.

birthday cake? birthday cake?

When I came down the morning of my 37th birthday to a delicious breakfast and flowers, Greg turns to Jude and says 'what do you say to mommy?' Jude of course says...'Open Presents?'
He did manage to get a few happy birthdays in there later. After church and lunch with friends we stopped by the bakery for the cake. We had plans that night and thought perhaps we'd save the cake until then, unless Jude was interested. First thing he says after his nap is "birthday cake? birthday cake?" So we enjoyed a mid-afternoon birthday slice.

birthday mommy

After cake, it was on to important things, like building a chair fort!

Thanks for all for the nice birthday wishes and gifts.

I would love to end this post with photos from Greg's birthday. Unfortunately I can't. Right after my birthday was the Blizzard of 2011. Jude woke up the day after that with a stomach virus and no desire to eat for days. He passed it to mom over the weekend and Greg got it on his actual birthday. Poor Greg. Cake next year for him!

snow and sleeping

First up we have to share Jude's latest cute sayings about sleep. Last night we heard "Daddy come" at about 3am. Jude told dad that he wanted more blankets, that Pooh bear needed another blanket, and finally that "I sleeping." Tonight mommy was an enjoying an extra long hug before bed when Jude said "I lay down in my crib. I go sleep." We are glad this idea of sleeping is such a positive one for Jude. Now if he could just wait til morning to tell us about it.

You may have heard, we got a little snow here in Oak Park. Here is a photo to give you an idea of just how much. This is Jude's slide in the summer before we moved it across the yard.

summer slip sliding away

And here is Jude's slide today:

winter slip sliding away

We got about 20 inches I think. But the drifts in the backyard are much taller. I am so grateful they closed the city and that Greg closed his office today to stay around, snow blow and shovel, and finally play in the white stuff with Jude.

snow blower don't fail us

And here's a few more gratuitous snow pics from the Blizzard.

an attached garage would be nice about now

preparing to snow blow

We learned a few things in today's big snow. First, our dog will not go out into snow over his shoulders until the third try, even if he needs to use the bathroom. Second, two-year-old Jude does not like sledding, the idea of sledding, or even the sled itself. Glad we borrowed one from the neighbors before mommy went out and purchased one. And finally, we are grateful to live on a block of kind neighbors who help each other out in the snow, who laugh and who enjoy reconnecting after months inside our houses. I''ll take few more big snows to get more of that in these dreary winter months.