Monday, December 24, 2007

Procrastionation - or Why You Should Never Speak In Front of a Toddler

Let me first address the beginning of this post's title: Procrastination. We are hosting two Christmas dinners back to back starting tonight. And Justin currently has the kids at work with him. Which means I should really be doing prep work in the kitchen or cleaning the living room or even something more self centered but nonetheless on my to-do list, such as straightening my hair.
I'm on the Internet.
Now to the second portion of the title. Jude has taken on the personality of a teenager. He's two. It started in the mornings. I would go in to wake the little guy up and Jude would roll around pulling the covers over his head, moaning, "Nooooo, sleeeeeeping." And then I would finally drag him out of bed and he would sulk around like a 15 year old who didn't study for a test that day.

But let me share little snippets of conversations actually taking place in the Donovan household on a now daily basis.
"Jude, it's time for bed." (For example, said by either myself or Justin).
"Sooooo?"
"So come put your jammies on."
"Nah," very dismissive, with a shrug of his little two year old shoulders.
"Um. Yeah. Come here, now. It's bed time." The parent starts to sound a little stern. A little exasperated, a little shocked to hear the previously sweet little boy being so disobedient.
"You're ridiculous!" Jude will yell, at which point Justin and I will turn to each other.
"Did he just call me 'ridiculous'?"
"Yes."

This little conversation might play out two or three times in a day. Always ending the same way - with Justin and I unable to stop smirking at the cheeky little monkey and probably a pretty good tickle session where we repeat over and over "Don't tell me I'm ridiculous, YOU'RE ridiculous. YOU'RE ridiculous!" while Jude screams with laughter.

I mean really, ridiculous? Where does he get this stuff from? It's ridiculous.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The Doctor is in

Jude started playing an adorable game of alter egos. He started pretending he was Major Bedhead one day and he's been a bunch of different names ever since. Some days he's Roger, other days he's Donald, our next door neighbour. Last Friday he up and decided that his new name is Doctor.
We know he's the Doctor when he walks around with a pencil in one hand and a stack of papers in the other. If you should dare call him "Jude" he will get a little belligerent, "No!" he'll yell, "Name Doctor! Name Doctor!" as he jabs his thumb into his little chest.
Sophie is sick today, she was awake at 5am, throwing up all over the place and she hasn't stopped since. I had her resting in the infant seat while I ran up to replace her "back-up" outfit for the third time that morning and when I came down, Doctor was leaning over her, pencil poised above his papers saying, "Matter, Bophie girl? Matter?" and then he gave her a little kiss.
What a sweet little doctor he is.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Quick update

Much too late I will inform you that Sophie is crawling. She is also cruising. At this stage, it's probably not that surprising, but she started this about a month ago (I believe it was the weekend of my mum's birthday). Also, she just started waving. And not the open hand close hand wave that most babies seem to do. Her wave is more adult like. And very friendly. Her wave makes you imagine she is very excited to see you! or perhaps she is very sorry to see you go! but she loves you so much that she is going to wave her little heart out!
She has 5 teeth and we are waiting the 6th to come in, to even things out a bit on the bottom. She is pulling herself up and cruising along the couch and from the small piano to the small rocking chair (that wasn't pretty, she had a black eye for a few days). She LOVES the song, "The Grand Old Duke of York" which is handy in situations where, say, she is crying uncontrollably in the car. However, then you have to sing "The Grand Old Duke of York" repeatedly for miles on end which can be a bit well, repetitive.
She is also the most beautiful baby in the world.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

A late post on Hallowe'en

So we (by "we" I guess I mean "I") went the cutesy route for Hallowe'en costumes this year. Jude was a chicken, Sophie a baby chick.
(This post just got a whole lot shorter, I'm typing one handed now)
Justin took the kids out trick or treatin' while I stayed home and handed out candy. Jude apparently caught on very quickly what was expected of him. Sophie was so cute people gave her candy too - all the more for Daddy- I mean Jude.
I think we're over the candy thing finally... in that he's given up the begging for "one piece? one piece?"
Typically, Jude seemed to have as much if not more fun giving out candy when he got home.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

The other night I took Jude to Toys R Us to buy his birthday present. He's still young enough to buy presents in front of. I assume this will get harder as the months pass. We were driving home and Jude suddenly ran out of the candy that he got as a treat from the candy machine in front of the store - the very machines designed to ensure that children throw temper tantrums both going in to and coming out of the store.
Cue temper tantrum.
Unfortunately we were driving so there wasn't much I could do (Daddy and Sophie were at home). The only thing I could think of to end the needless misery happening in the backseat was distraction:
"Hey Jude!" I yelled over his hysterics. "What sound does a cat make?"
"Meow," came the sniffled reply.
"And what sound does a doggy make?"
"Meow," he said again with a little more enthusiasm.
"A doggy doesn't say 'meow'," I said to him, in a kindergarten teacher type voice. "What does a doggy say?"
"Woof! Woof!" He yells back.
"Right!" And so on we went for a while, I'd name an animal, he'd yell out what sound the animal makes and then we'd make that sound a few times until I moved on to the next one.
At this point we were stopped at a red light. I happened to look over and noticed the guy beside me was really belting out a song.
"What sound does a ... (grasp for animal that we hadn't covered yet) ... monkey make?" I unrolled my window a little bit out of curiosity to see if I could make out what song he was listening to - Nickelback, Rockstar.
Jude mumbled something that sounded distinctly like a falsetto "Hi-I'm-a-monkey" in response to my earlier question. I looked at Jude in the rear view mirror, he was smiling devilishly. I looked over at the Nickelback guy one more time and thought to myself, man that's an embarrassing song to get caught singing so passionately to - doesn't he realise people can see him? Then I turned back to Jude.
"No, silly! A monkey says, Oooo oooo oooo" I called over the back seat to him as I lifted my arm and scratched my arm pit. "Ooooo oooo ooo!"

Friday, October 19, 2007

Minding his Ps and Qs

So I've mentioned that Jude is very polite. He always says "thank you" he mostly says "please" (although sometimes it's in a whiny bratty kind of way, "Peeeeeeassssssssseeeeeeeeee") and recently he started to say "excuse me" when trying to get by other people or inanimate objects (it winds up sounding more like "soosfee" or something similar, but when you move and he gets by you, he always turns around and says "thank you").
Lately though, he's been taking it a bit far. Like the past few days, when he climbs up or down the stairs he's always careful to stop at the end and say, "Tank You! Tank You Stairs!"
Thank you stairs? Thanks for allowing me to move from one level of the house to the next with ease? Thanks for not making me trip and fall down? What a character.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

It's Sophie's Turn!

Finally, something about Sophie!

Sophie has been able to sit up unassisted for quite sometime now, as long as you put her down in a sitting position. Of course, inevitably she would reach out for something or someone and manage to work herself onto her stomach. She would roll around down there happily for a while until she realized that she couldn't get back up. Then the tears would come.
Over the weekend it occurred to me that even though she still sometimes cried on the floor, it was more because she noticed that everyone was in the kitchen and she was still in the living room. Or perhaps it was because her big brother yanked a toy away from her.
But yesterday while I was typing the goose post I sat her down in front of the mirror. And then I looked over at her and she was lying on her stomach trying to get a hold of the vacuum cleaner nozzle. And then I looked again and she was sitting up? What?
So I watched her like a hawk all day. And finally right before bed, she did it. She sat up all by herself! I am trying to remember how Jude did it, but I can't quite picture it. I think he went from his stomach and sort of rolled over into a sitting position. Sophie gets up on all fours rocks back and forth a bit and then just sits on her bum. Congratulations Sophie! October 15th is your official sitting up day!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Once bit



We like to go feed the ducks. Jude gets a kick out of it, and it's a nice family outing, an hour or two down by the lake. Unfortunately with the ducks also come the geese. And Canadian Geese are mean. Nevertheless we try to aim the bread over the geese and into the waiting beaks of the ducks. When we first started doing this, Jude would throw entire pieces of bread into the water. It didn't take him long to figure out that you were supposed to dole out smaller bite sized pieces.

Now neither of us actually saw it happen, but if I know Jude (and I'm pretty sure I do) he was handing out small little pieces, no bigger than a crumb. Anyway it was pretty cute, watching him stand there throwing the bread over to the ducks and so I was fiddling with my brand new camera phone so I could get a picture and holding Sophie at the same time. Justin was just behind Jude, but wasn't exactly looking at him.

And then we heard a shriek. And I pushed Sophie into Justin's arms and rushed over to see Jude. There was a possibly guilty looking goose right in front of where Jude had been standing. I picked him up and he held out his finger to me.

"Mummy! Goose! Bite! Finger!" Jude cried.

I hugged him and kissed it better and said, "Bad Goose!" in my stern-ist Mother Voice and at some point Justin and I traded kids back. After all there wasn't any broken skin, I couldn't even tell which finger had been bit and there was still some bread to hand out. Except by this time, the geese had gotten restless. We were standing there, with bread in our hands, and we weren't sharing.

Those damn geese started getting belligerent. They started honking. Justin tried yelling and stomping to get them to scatter. They just looked mildly amused and continued walking towards him.
We basically emptied out the bread and ran. Those geese are mean.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

When Sophie was born, Auntie Kate gave Jude his own baby to take care of - so that he had a new baby just like Mummy. Jude goes through ups and downs with Baby. There are entire weeks where Baby does not leave Jude's side and you better make sure you have Baby with you when you go out because when Jude realizes he left Baby at home, well, there's a major meltdown. Other times he can take or leave Baby. Like, he'll take Baby on a walk with us and then if Baby should happen to fall out of the stroller, oh well. Bye-bye Baby. Justin said one day Jude was at the park with Baby (who was waiting patiently in the stroller while Jude played at the park) and one of the neighbourhood kids (that is to say, someone we know - not some random kid who happened to be at the park) picked up Baby. Jude ran over, grabbed Baby and shoved the little boy, who despite being a bit bigger than Jude, fell down with a thud. Don't mess with Baby.

So today I was putting Jude down for a nap and Jude was dancing Baby along the bars of the crib, making Baby say, "Hi Mummy!" (in a monster voice, it was actually pretty cute) and so I reached out and I patted Baby on the head and said, "Hi, Baby."
Jude snatched Baby away from me and furrowed his brow, "Gentle, Mummy! Gentle!"
This coming from someone who doesn't think twice about running over to my baby and tackling her and then rolling over on top of her.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Thanks a lot

Like most people with kids (or I suppose people with pets?) our screen saver on our computer is a slide show of cute pictures of the Adorable Donovans. Jude likes to call out the names of the people in the pictures as they scroll by. "Bophie!" He'll screech. "Daddy!"




He was watching the show go by this afternoon and this picture appeared:





It was taken in Niagara Falls in the lobby of the Guinness World Records museum and it shows what Sophie would have looked like were she the world's fattest man. It's kind of hard to even see that it is Sophie, as the background is so busy and the stomach is so unbelievably huge. When this shot came up Jude pointed excitedly at the computer screen and yelled, "Mummy!"

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

edit

This post has been edited to add text. As requested.

Taking care of little sister

So unlike her brother, Buppy isn't such a fan of the cereal we've been feeding her. The first spoonful goes into her mouth with a big smile. The next one needs a bit of coaxing to get in there... All subsequent tries are met with resistance. Until Monday.

I set out Jude and Justin's dinner on the table. I went back to the kitchen and made Sophie's cereal and then brought that out to the table. I went back in the kitchen again to get my dinner and I hear Justin asking Jude where he's going. Jude says very matter of factly, "Bophie." He climbed off his chair, got Sophie's cereal and went back to his seat. Justin gave him a hand up and he sat and fed Sophie her dinner. And if Jude's aim was better, it probably would have been the most she had ever eaten. She opened her mouth wide at Jude's "Umm!" prompting and didn't even really get upset when the spoon slipped a little too far in the back of her mouth (Justin spent most of that meal saying, "Careful Jude! Not too far!").

The downside to this of course was that Jude didn't eat his own dinner. If we could only figure out how to get Buppy to feed Jude...

Saturday, September 22, 2007

I guess the other reason that it's hard to write these days is that I have two kids. One is slightly more mobile than she used to be, demanding more stimulation than a simple teether can offer. Right now in fact she is sitting in the computer room with me. I have her parked in front of the mirrored closet doors and she is shrieking with joy and camaraderie at the adorably charming gal she sees in front of her ("Oh you're just so cute!" I imagine she is saying, "I just LOVE your outfit!" As she yells and screeches away at her own reflection).

Oh. And the other other thing is that every time I sit down to write, I forget what it was I was going to write about.

But how's this?
Thursday I was reading a blog entry by another woman who was describing how her daughter (who is a month older than Jude) had just asked to sit on the potty and then proceeded to actually pee in it. Well, needless to say I was a bit jealous. I'd always heard that boys took longer and were harder to train than their female counterparts.

And then (was there something in the air?) a few hours after my reading that Jude suddenly wants his pants taken off. Um, okay. And then off with the shirt - the diaper came off next. Jude ran over to the bathroom door and yells, "Mummy! Door!" So to open the door I go. And Jude climbed up on the toilet and sat and strained and then stood up and waved his groin in the general area of the toilet (Justin assures me this is not how he pees) spit into the water and then flushed the toilet, waving, "Bye-bye poo-poo."

So he didn't actually 'perform' on the toilet, but he sat there. And since Thursday we have repeated this scene about 5 times. Last night we went out and bought him a potty. He quite enjoyed sitting on it. And every time the urine deflector fell off (10 minutes into owning a potty and we're already thinking about getting a different one, one with a more sturdy urine deflector) I had to reach in and secure it back in to place or else put up with , "Mummy! Broken! Mummy! Broken!"

Well, Jude is awake now and Sophie has turned herself around so she is no longer amusing herself with that fascinating child in the mirror. Have a picture!
Clean clean clean!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007







I haven't written anything in a while, because I'm not sure what to write. I guess there are some new things: Sophie is getting not one, but two teeth (the two on the bottom). Sophie ate her first meal (not a huge fan, but we're pretty sure she's had more flavourful things pass her lips courtesy of her big brother). Jude is talking a lot. I asked the doctor at Sophie's 6 month check-up how many words he should have by now. She said she'd be happy with 50. Justin and I sat and ticked 100 off the tops of our heads one night in the span of a couple of minutes. Then we kept adding to the list as the night wore on, or as we heard Jude come out with something we hadn't previously listed. I figure he's easily in the 200 hundred range.
He recognizes things. When we pull into Grandma Noreen's driveway he yells, "Gan-ma!" When we pull into my parents' he yells, "Nan!" (and when we get inside Nan's house he walks over to the top of the stairs and yells down at my dad who is almost always there, watching tv, "Hi Gan-dad!" And is confused if Grandad isn't there, "Where Gan-dad?"
He points to pictures and tells us who he sees, "Kate! Bup! Matt!"
The other day we were out of the house for a good 12 hours. We had a play date and birthday party the same day. At one point, tired and faced with more strangers bending down yelling, "Hi Jude!" in his face, he turned to me and lifted his arms up to me, "Home?" he said. As a baby, he would cry and fuss when we were away from home for a long time. He missed the smell of home, the comfort, the familiarity. And I used to make that excuse for him, "He just misses home." Saturday my suspicions were confirmed. He does miss home when he's away for too long.
Sophie is sitting up on her own, moving around a bit (mostly backwards - but she does seem to scoot herself sideways while remaining in a sitting position).
I will leave you with a couple of pictures, cause those kids are so cute.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

One more example:


Of why I call my son a nutbar. I was cutting his fingernails the other day and he wasn't happy about it. He was screaming and crying and wriggling every which way. Finally, I finished and I stood him up and said, "All done!" And sent him on his way. He sniffled a couple of times and turned to me and said, "Thank you." And then ran off to play with his toys.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Let's Go To The Ex


Most of the rides at the CNE were either for kids a little older than Jude or had long prohibitive lines. We weren't prepared to wait in them with an infant and a toddler. The petting zoo on the other hand proved to be lots of fun for Jude. He got to feed the animals (though Justin thinks he got nipped at one point - he suddenly refused to feed the animals) and saw up close what Old MacDonald's farm animals looked like.



The Canadian Army had an area where you got to explore the inside of tanks and air crafts and various army vehicles. This is one of Justin's favourite shots of Jude. The tattoo was a nice touch. And apparently a prerequisite for being in the army.


The farm pavilion had a sort of scavenger hunt where kids were sent out with buckets and had to "plant seeds", "milk cows" "pick apples" and such before they were given a chance to ride in these neat tractors in order to take their treasures to the market. Jude had fun. Justin wished the tractors were made for people his size.


We got the CNE around 11:00 am. This picture was taken at about 6:00 pm. They were so exhausted they didn't even wake up when we took them out of the stroller and put them in the car seats.



Unfortunately, the catnap proved to be energizing for the kids. We on the other hand, were completely wiped out.

A few pictures from our trip to the CNE on Friday.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Yesterday I cleaned the spare room/office. It was long overdue and I didn't just tidy, I washed windows, curtains, baseboards etc. I called Justin to come up and take a look when I was done and of course Jude raced to see what was happening. Jude stepped into the room, looked around and yelled, "Oh! Clean!"
This room was so messy that a 21 month old noticed a difference. While Justin admired my handiwork, Jude and I Windexed the mirrored closet doors. Probably the biggest disappointment in this boy's life occurred during this process. When I squirted the Windex and handed him a paper towel, he happily went to cleaning the door. It wasn't until all the Windex was wiped away and I refused him the bottle that he collapsed in a heap on the floor, crying, sobbing, "Clean, clean, clean" through his tears.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Colour Your World

I bought Jude a few colouring books to go along with the crayons he is no longer eating. We sit at the table, pull Sophie's high chair up close and load it up with toys and colour colour colour. I'm not sure I ever enjoyed colouring as much as I have this past week. In fact between you and me, I colour when the kids are sleeping.
Jude can be a bit trying at times to colour with. He's a bit of a crayon Nazi. He hands out the crayons one by one and I have to hand back the one I've finished with before he gives me a new one. And he likes to re-colour the pages I've already coloured. Which honestly, I don't mind. He looks so proud when he's doing it. And he holds up the book, still clutching the crayon in his hand and yells, "Mama! Look!" I mean, how sweet is that? I just wish he'd wait until I'm done.
I introduced pencil crayons into the mix yesterday (I was colouring a page that was a bit more intricate than the others, okay?) and apparently the pencil crayons have a drug problem. They have to keep running off to the washroom (okay, it's to be sharpened). The last thing a crayon Nazi needs is a sharpener, you know?

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Play me a song

A few years ago there was supposed to be a concert in Toronto featuring Elton John and Billy Joel. The show ended up being cancelled before the tickets went on sale even (I think - at least, we hadn't bought our tickets yet) but man, were we ever looking forward to that show.




And then last night, an impromtu gig with two of my most favourite people in the world. Sorry Elton and Billy, but these two rocked.









Wednesday, August 15, 2007

ch-ch-ch-changes




One of the things on my Things To Do List is to get a bunch of pictures printed of both of the kids for their own respective baby albums. Of course Jude has changed - you'd expect him to as he is almost 2 years older than he was when he was... ahem... born.


But Sophie!


Man, has she ever changed.

Take a look here at pictures of her when she was about three weeks old.




And now look at her, 4 months later.




I wonder what the next 4 months will bring...






pictures at last


Hanging out, watching tv


"The gang" - Jude, Sophie, Hannah and Marcus


My son is a lunatic



Pretty girl

Not enough for their own post

A few anecdotes:

On Saturday we had some business to attend to in America and got stuck waiting at the border. We had left fairly early (so before breakfast) hoping that the kids would sleep in the car until we could get across and get something to eat... But we brought emergency supplies just in case. Jude and Sophie slept right up to the Queenston/Lewiston bridge and then woke up. Jude hammed it up for people in the cars around us (I kept seeing people drive past us smiling and waving at my backseat and hearing Jude yelling, "Hi!"). Sophie woke up and started crying and it was like, suddenly, she stopped. I turned around to make sure she was still breathing and I noticed that Jude was holding her hand. What a nice brother. And then I noticed all the cheerios on Sophie's lap. And that he wasn't holding her hand; he was passing her a cheerio. (Sophie is still strictly breast milk).

We are trying to give Sophie more tummy time, to get her ready for crawling. She doesn't like it so much. Especially when a certain older brother climbs on her back and yells, "Horsey!"

In this heat I am always afraid that Jude isn't drinking enough water. Especially since we are reluctant to give him a sippy cup and let him carry it around with him. He has a habit of shaking the water out into the least desirable places like the telephone charger, the hardwood floors, his books etc. I've started giving him half an inch or so of water at a time in a big plastic cup that he can drink like a big boy, and that I can make him drink in front of me. Yesterday I was drinking water from one of those cups and Jude came over for a sip. It was probably about half full and Jude took a sip or two of his own and then wandered over to where Sophie was sitting in the exersaucer. And he gave her a sip. And the water splashed all down the front of her shirt. The cold cold water fresh from the Brita jug. And she screamed bloody murder. Jude panicked and I grabbed the water before he could drop it and he started banging poor Sophie on the back saying, "O-kay! O-Kay! O-kay!"

I guess I have new pictures on the camera, but then I would have to go all the way downstairs to get the card. So maybe later today or tomorrow I will do a picture post.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Is the honeymoon over?

I couldn't believe it. This afternoon we were watching 4 Square and I was singing along to the French Canadian dance troupe and Jude shushed me. I looked over at him in astonishment, like, he just shushed me? And because I couldn't believe that my loving son, the very same boy who came down from a bath with his father and immediately climbed into my arms and kissed me about a thousand times while his father told me that he kept asking for me when they were upstairs, the little boy who called "Night night, honey," to me when he went to sleep last night, could be that very same boy to actually shush his own mother - well, I kept singing.
That's when he started shaking his head sternly, "No no no!"
So I stopped. And I sat there on the couch, holding my other baby, the one who likes my singing and sang quietly, defiantly, into her ear. And she smiled.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Then again...

Perhaps the real reason I don't find it so hard having the two kids is because I have such a devoted husband, someone who spends all his free time with his children and never complains about dinner not being ready when he walks in the door or Jude's toys all over the floor.
Thank god he's good with kids.

part II

People often ask me what it's like with two kids. These are usually people who only have one and are thinking about a second. My standard response is that it isn't as hard as other people tell you it will be. Because I had a lot of people telling me two under a year and a half would be like trying to catch a chicken with one hand tied behind your back. It's not that bad.
It took me a while to get into the groove, but now I pretty much have my routine down. My one trouble time is breakfast. Both kids are hungry, both kids are looking for vastly different things in terms of breakfast and both want to eat NOW.
This morning was particularly stressful. Sophie was in the living room crying and Jude was in the kitchen with me pulling me in the direction of the fridge (eggs) and the cupboard (cheerios) and the counter (fruit) and getting upset each time I told him I had things under control (the egg was in the pan, the fruit was on the cutting board). I took a second to run in and offer a quick kiss to Sophie (which only ended up making her more upset when I rushed back out to check on the egg) and guess what I heard when I came into the kitchen.
Jude was sitting at the counter on one of the stools, wearing nothing but a diaper and a backwards baseball. He started banging on the counter with his fists.
"Service, please! Service please!" He was yelling at me.
Gee, I wonder where he got that one from.

bad influence



Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Sophie's Day*

*Edited to add actual text and pictures. Whoops.
So I haven't posted much lately, we've been busy getting ready for Sophie's christening. Which happened on Sunday. It was a perfect day, and Sophie behaved perfectly.

She looked like an absolute angel:



Sophie slept through the entire ceremony. I have to be honest, I was pretty surprised. I thought she would cry through it. Long church services are pretty boring for kids. Especially ones who need constant stimulation.


But back to Sophie. I still can't get over how beautiful she looked. I mean, she's always an adorable baby, but she looked ethereal on Sunday. Maybe it was the dress, I don't know. She simply breathtaking.

Here's a picture of Sophie and her Godparents, Matt and Carolyn.



And here are some other random shots from that day. As you can see, after church no pictures were taken. This is because I was too busy feeding my daughter and family and Justin was too busy superhosting.
P.S.,
Some of these pictures were taken by my Aunt Colleen and others were taken by Carolyn, and the rest by either Justin or myself.


Reading the bible, what a good godfather. (It's actually a hymn book).


"What kind of fabric is this?"

Haley and Sophie - they look like Haley's to me...



Sophie and Mummy

And the group shot.

Friday, July 6, 2007

He's funny too...

Justin has this kind of annoying habit of continually asking Jude who his best friend is. He's teaching him by repetition:

"Who's your best friend?" And the answer is always, "Daddy."


The other night Justin was in the powder room washing Jude's hands and I heard Justin ask the same tired old question, which Jude has heard so many times, he knows what to say.


"Who's your best friend?" Justin asks.

"ELMO!" came the response (except Jude mispronounces it adorably, "AL-mo").
this picture was taken at Jude's first birthday

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Uh... gee...


This is embarrassing, but we seem to be wearing the same outfit.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

We're melting...

Uck. It's so hot. Sophie doesn't care for the heat. It makes her sweaty and sticky. Jude doesn't complain, but when you ask him if he wants to go outside and play on his new slide in the backyard and he runs and gets his shoes and then gets visibly annoyed with you when you have the gall to ask him to put his hat on and you finally let him out in the back and he runs excitedly towards the slide.... and then the heat hits him and he runs back and bangs on the door and then pushes you out of his way so he can get in - you know the heat is getting to him too.

This weekend was busy for us. On Saturday Nan and Sophie and I went to Buffalo to look for clothes for Sophie Girl. I bought a few things, but not much. Jude hung out with Daddy all day. I hear they went out for breakfast, then to visit Grandma and then they tried to get a free boat ride down by the lake, but over slept their nap and missed it.

On Sunday we went to the zoo with some friends. Jude seemed more excited by all the food then the actual animals themselves, but he's still young. I guess at his age a Lifesavers Popsicle is more thrilling than a giraffe.
This is Sophie shopping in America.
And this is Jude. In the jeep. Hmph.
The zoo. Jude is much more interested in the piece of corn in his hand than in whatever is swimming in that tank.