Jude Turns 1!

Well, it's been almost a year since I last posted.  It's been a wild ride that I'll save for another post.

This one... is dedicated to my sweet baby boy that has taken over our world in every way possible.

In his first year, Jude was suffered from annoying little things such as ear infections and acid reflux which made it difficult for him (and Mommy and Daddy) to get much sleep.  But with love and care, we could always coax that bright smile out of him!

At one year:

•  Jude is so very close to walking.  He's been wanting to do it for over a month now.  We are patiently waiting for his first steps!
• He is sleeping so much better through the night now.  In the last week, he's been waking up around 3am for a 4oz bottle and goes right back to sleep (in mom & dad's bed) and sleeps until 6:30am for another 6oz bottle.  Trust me.  This is a vast improvement.
• Although he does a TON of baby talk, he has only formed a handful of words.  "Dada" is his favorite.  Followed by "NoNoNO" and "Mama."  We think he's also saying "Juju," but this hasn't been confirmed.  Jude is a man of few words.
• Jude looks like he'll be a righty.  He holds writing utensils in his right hand, when he's not busy eating them. And on the rare occasion when he has an eating utensil, he also holds it in his right hand.
• Speaking of eating... He's a pretty solid eater.  He likes most things.  But when he's not interested in eating, that's it.  There's no coaxing him.  Even if it's something he usually loves.

The many faces of Jude:

•  Jude is TROUBLE!  He gets into everything.  He loves to grab and swipe at things.  He loves to climb onto and roll over things.  He's all boy in that respect
• Jude is a little peanut.  Throughout the last 12 months, he's consistently been in the bottom 5th percentile of his group.  At his 12 month checkup, he bounced up a bit!  Head: 46.5 cm (50%), Weight: 19 lbs 3.5 oz (5%), Height: 28.5 in (10%)
• He has 6 teeth that are fully in.  The 2 on the bottom were first, followed by the top 2 and then the 2 next to them on top.
• Jude is super active.  We can't even hold his attention long enough to read short stories
• But he LOVES to sing and clap.  Any time music comes on TV or someone starts singing, it catches his attention.  He knows to clap when he hears, "If you're happy and you know it"
• Pro: Jude does not suck his fingers nor does he use a pacifier.  Con: It has been a long rode since he never could figure out how to self soothe.
• Jude has been going to Montessori since he was 9 months old.  It was tough on everyone for the first month, but he's got a wonderful teacher now and the consistency has been great for him.  She really does love him!

Overall, Jude has been one of the happiest babies, when with/around his mommy.  He has been known to be very trying for everyone else.  He has no difficulty winning people over with this 2-teeth smile.

For a small treat at school, Jude shared fruit-o's with his classmates.  And his sister.  And her classmates.  They were all gone by the end of the day  =)

After school today, we knew he would be pretty tired so we had a small celebration.

First he opened presents

Sister Mia is having a tough time learning that it's not always all about her

Then it was finally time for Jude's first bite of cake!  It was a busy busy Wed. so Daddy stopped by a local cupcakery for birthday treats.  They were great!  The kids loved them.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet baby Jude!

Here's to many more...

*** Photo credit: Many thanks to my sweet and dear friend Kathie Quinn for the beautiful pictures of our baby boy.***

Birthday Dinner

Yesterday, Mark and Mia took me out for my birthday dinner. My favorite... Texan Cafe up in Hutto, TX. There's not much in Hutto to write home about, but the food at Texan, and more importantly, the pie selection, is enough to bring me back at least once a month. If you'll recall, that's where I had my last meal before Mia came into this world. It's also the first restaurant she went to after she was born. We've been here a few times =)

We introduced Mia to fried pickles... and she loved them! Kept wanting to dip them in ranch. They weren't quite sour enough for her taste so she followed them up by sucking on a lemon. She is Mark's daughter =/. I had my favorite meal: fried green tomato BLT with sweet potato fries. We ended the dinner with a slice of Almond Joy pie. That was a new one for me. It was great, but there are others I've had that still top the list.

Last night, we brought our camera along to keep her entertained until our food arrived, as well as take some shots of the belly since it was 24 weeks.

I tell you, this girl is a natural in front of the camera. You don't have to do anything, but let her do her thing and just snap away.

Here's my birthday evening in pictures:

Mama imitating Mia smelling flowers

Going for a stroll down Hutto main street

Found a place to park it

Trying out mama's shades

My 2 favorite people

Time to "eat FOOD!"

Mia's 1st Birthday Party

What a party it was. Like most first time Mom's, I've been thinking about my first child's birthday party ever since she turned 3 months old. Yes, January. In my defense, that was also when I returned to work so it was something pleasant for me to busy my mind with.


But the real party execution didn't go into effect until early September. Yes, about 2 months out, invitations were ordered so that I had to commit myself to this date. But even with all that planning and pre-planning, I still ended up staying up well past 2AM the night before the party putting finishing touches on the bigger stuff. And kept Ba (who usually goes to bed at 9PM) up with me!

Here we are decorating the cupcakes and party favor cookies

The theme as Rubber Ducky. As the invitations read, "Rubber Ducky, You're the 1... To Make Mia's 1st Birthday So Much FUN!"

Birthday Detail shots (thx Dean!)

We knew that there was no way Mia would sit through a long drawn out present opening period. So we just let her open them as she was in the mood. As it turns out, she is her mother's daughter. She LOVED presents!

Attacking the first batch

Hey! What's over there?

Yes, she is wearing double head accessories. Give the girl a break. Her birthday's a special occassion!

I think Mia's trying to trade her Papa a toy for some of his beer???

Explaining to her Godmother Terri how wonderful waffles are

Mia enjoying some time with her Papa!

The Party Girl indicating that it is time to open the food buffet!

some Birthday dinner

Her guests follow suite and enjoy some dinner and drinks

Round 2 of gift opening

I think of all the things she received that day, Mia's favorite was the card Uncle Tommy gave her. It played music.

Mia's Rubber Ducky themed party also highlighted a duck pond filled with balloons. She had a rockin time and so did her guests. Aunt Stephanie, especially!

Not too happy to be exiting the duck pond

Did you know that Mia has a big sister? She does! This is Nanny Michelle's daughter Jasmine. Mia's stand-in big sister.

It's cake time! Or rather, cupcakes.

Featuring... Mia's very own smash cake!

And here's how it all went down...

To the winner goes the spoils. Spoils. Not Spoiled.

One of my favorite snapshots of the day. Mia looks so surprised

Mia with Ong and Ba. Love the face she chose to display

Party favors for all our guests. Homemade, of course!

And, you know it's a good party when the guest of honor sheds her top and runs around the yard with her arms up in the air.

1st birthday party. Success.

Mia's 1st Birthday... Cont'd

Same day, 2nd entry. Apparently blogspot only allows one video per entry. Imagine that...

I believe we left off with the feeding the goats??

Farmer Mia driving her tractor

We found someone nice enough who wasn't corralling their children to take the one picture of the 3 of us.

After some pumpkin icecream and the hayride, which she really loved, we finally headed out and just in time for the 2nd nap of the day.

We went straight from Marble Falls to her 1-year well visit. So if you're wondering... here's what Mia's been up to:

• Stats: Weight: 19 lbs 11 oz (30th percentile. my arms lied. they told me she was about 21 lbs!), Height: 29 inches (50th percentile. almost half Mommy's height of 61 inches... btw, that means she's grown 8 1/2 inches in one year! that's from Daddy), Head: 45.7 cm (70th percentile. I think she got that from Mommy)
• In 2 weeks, her walking has improved dramatically. She can walk across the room sometimes without falling. She can stop mid-walk if she's unstable and regain her balance and then keep going. She can also do a 180 and almost get back up from squatting position to standing. Her legs are so strong!
• Here are some words in her vocabulary: Mama, Dada, baba (bottle), bubble, balloon, ball, bow, more, this, peace (please), uppa (up), nigh nigh (sleep), hi, buh-bye, Ja-ja (Jasmine), Gigi (Chrissy), Nha Nha (Nanny Michelle), Manny (Male Nanny aka Kurt) and doggy. She can also tell you that doggies go "woe woe woe"
• She also does alot of motions and signing. She can wave high, give you a high-5, blow kissess and punch pow-pow-pow. She can sign "more", "eat", "milk" and her very own creation "waffle". She signs "waffle" by putting her hand to her mouth like "eat" but then she blows on her fingers like it's hot... cause that's what Gigi does when she feeds her waffles!
• She wears 12-18 month old clothing although some 12 months still fit. Her shoe size is 4! Her diaper size is still 3.
• Mia loves climbing. Stairs, chairs, Stoli, pumpkins, you name it, she wants to scale it.
• She's also really into kicking. Balls are fine. But she also likes to stomp on things that aren't neccessarily meant to be played with the feet. Like her tea set.
• When you give her a baby doll, she holds it over one shoulder and sways from side to side while patting it on the back.
• Mommy is still Mia's person of choice. Although she now likes Daddy pretty good. Unless Daddy is standing next to Mommy and then he gets the cold shoulder. She still has a preference of female over male so maybe Nanny is still one step above Daddy.
• Mia loves to read books. She loves turning the pages and pointing at things to show you. At bedtime, she has a preference for the books that play music. I have to sing them for her. Some reason she likes that... I have a terrible singing voice!
• Oh, and balloons popping don't phase her. Though they scare the bejebees out of Stoli.

After the doctor's visit, we came home and were greeted by Uncle Tommy and cousin Diesel. Shortly thereafter, Ong and Ba arrived from Houston and they all took Mia out for her birthday dinner. We went to Mangu's here in Pflugerville... a Carribean style restaurant where Mia dined on tostones and mofongo. She loved it. To entertain her before dinner arrived, Uncle Tommy treated her to a wedge of lime. Why is it always the Uncle???

Oh Uncle. This is why you are NOT my favorite

After dinner, it was FINALLY bedtime for Mia. Outside of her original BIRTHday. This might've been the longest funnest day of Mia's little life.

Tomorrow... the PARTY!!!

Happy Birthday Mia

What a huge-mung-ous weekend Mia had celebrating her 1st birthday. She started out the morning with a big morning welcome as her entire family entered her room... Mom, Dad & Stoli with cameras in hand.

After a little clowning around in the room, she quickly got dressed and went downstairs to take Stoli for a walk. As we walked out the door, Stoli and Dad (first outside) stopped dead in their tracks and said, "You've GOT to be kidding." Mom, still in the house was thinking, "Oh no! Is it raining???" Until she, too, stepped outside.

"AAACK! We've been BIRTHDAY WRAPPED!" But who could've done this? Mark was like, really?? Who else? Nanny Michelle. Oh yeah. Right. These birds gave it away

Turns out Nanny Michelle and Chrissy (AKA Gigi) snuck over to the house at 6:30AM to deck it out in BAlloons, streamers, birthday banners, signs and pink flamingos. What love! Mia had a ball laughing at it all. So did Mommy & Daddy.

So we changed the route of our walk to hike over to the Grady-Hausermann's to thank them for the lovely Pflugerville gesture. We had a good time hanging out and chatting in the front yard, but Mia was a bit confused when it came time to leave and we took her back home with us. She's use to staying with Nanny when we drop her off in the mornings.

After the walk, Daddy made homemade Belgian waffles for the entire family. Mia and Stoli gobbled them all up (so did Mommy *_*). And then after breakfast, it was finally time to load up and head out. By this time, it was high time for Mia's nap and she conked out within 10 minutes of getting in the car. Perfect. 1 1/2 hour drive out to the Sweet Berry farm which is just about the length of her nap.

When we finally got there, Mia was well rested and ready to go! And go she did. What a great place for her to burn lots and lots of energy. First, she discovered baby pumpkins and gourds... all of which she was a HUGE fan of. She carried baby pumpkins, she sorted baby pumpkins.

She walked from pumpkin patch to pumpkin patch, walk, crawling, walking, bear crawling. She climbed over, around and through giant pumpkins.

And when she was tired of pumpkins, she took a hay ride, fed goats and petted horsies.

To be continued...