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.

The water came out

Have to share the experience we had with spit ups and spills the last few days.
On Thursday Greg supervised Jude in the bath while I ran to check email. I hear Jude coughing followed by a "OH" sound. Our little guy swallowed bath water the wrong way, and then vomited on himself and into the tub. Yuck. Greg and I got him out and dried off our slightly scared two year old.

Our cute little nude guy loves to run around the corner into mommy and daddy's bathroom after his baths or anytime we are getting him ready for bed. We are still washing off his bath toys with the vomit when Jude makes his customary 10 second dash. This time though Jude runs back in and says "The Water Came Out! It came out."

I'm not sure what to think, but Greg says "Show daddy what water." We go around the corner to realize Jude has now also peed on our bathroom rug. Oh my. He didn't know how to say it or what it was, so his word choice was "The water came out". Hilarious.

talking two year old

So last night we had another experience at the dinner table. Greg and I are both tired of Jude's recent refusal to try bites of our meals. We both were calmly ready to stick to our guns last night. (Thanks Supernanny for the recent episode featuring a dinner table showdown with a 3 year old!) We told Jude he had to take two bits of bow tie pasta before he could leave the table. He passed on several chances before landing in Time Out. After Time Out he tried every game, moving the pasta, even pointing out other things in the room to discuss. Jude went back in Time Out, still no pasta in his mouth. Back at the table again, he puts the pasta in but proceeds to gag and vomit all over himself. Ick. Kara unfortunately recognizes this self-gagging, I-will-not-eat-this-food technique from herself as a kid. She knew Jude was OK when he calmly says "I all done?" Meaning, I'm done eating. So yes, he still has to eat one bite of pasta. This time...pasta in, with some encouragement from dad to break it into small pieces as he chews. Jude makes it through and gets plenty of cheers and high fives from mom and dad.

Let's hope we see less bodily fluids from our cute boy this week.

two and three quarters

When people ask how old Jude is I feel like I need to do the math and give a better answer than two. So my current answer is two and three quarters. Four months from today actually Mister Jude will turn three.

Our little guy is so interested in how things work and trying to connect things together. At dinner he took a paper towel tube and balanced it on his milk cup to make a ramp. He kept going into the living room to find various toys and see which could fit inside to slide on his impromptu toy ride. Unfortunately also learned today that he can balance his milk cup on the thin top edge of his kid chair. We're expecting this to end with a nice spill in the near future.

I've been dealing with a bad case of the winter blahs, so I decided to pull out summer pics for today's entry:

leaving on a jet plane

The first picture is Jude and Greg inside a jet airplane 'cockpit' at a downstate children's museum. Its fun to see how much his little face has grown up since this picture was taken.

I see...Daddy

And here is Captain Jude eyeing landlubbers from his slide and climbing toy. Speaking of eyes, we crack up at his two year old version of hiding. Jude simply closes his eyes tight and says "Where'd Jude go?" as if he is now missing. He will also cover only the eyeballs of characters in the children's books we read and ask where that character has gone.

Here's hoping I see the end of this snowy cold winter soon. Unfortunately covering my eyes

hasn't worked for me either.