Monday, May 28, 2007

The Hardest Working One Year Old

Jude is what you might call busy. And you would say it like that, you would be able to hear the italics in your voice. His days are busy, his evenings are busy, his weekends are busy. He has so much to do he barely has the time to play...


Things Jude must do:

  • Empty the cupboards of all their contents - distribute canned goods throughout the living room
  • Empty the silverware drawer of all it's spoons - all sizes must be accounted for - carry spoons throughout house, leaving them in creative places
  • Remove each diaper wipe from container and use to wipe nose, wipe coffee table, wipe floor
  • Sweep, mop, and vacuum floor - poorly - leave broom, mop and vacuum hose lying around in places mummy can trip


  • Water the carpet using sippy cup as watering can
  • Transport all sand from sandbox into house using a variety of sandbox toys, making sure to leave sandbox toys in the living room
  • Climb up onto kitchen counter and make personal/professional phone calls - hang up with a shriek when mummy asks who's on the phone
  • Ensure baby sister does not fall asleep *very important*


  • Empty clothes from all dresser drawers within reach
  • Empty garbage cans piece by piece
  • Throw self on mummy's back whenever she crouches down to pick something up
  • Smile adorably and offer hugs and kisses randomly

And these are just things he has to do around our house... We were at Nan's on the long weekend, and that was a whole other story... Poor Jude had to wash the car, sweep the driveway, sweep the back patio, fill the watering can with stones.... his list just goes on and on.



At least he's got something to look forward to at the end of the day:

Saturday, May 26, 2007

And here's poor Sophie

Who isn't poor at all, she's adorable. She laughs a lot more than I remember Jude laughing at that age.

She has the most beautiful smile. Her eyes crinkle and if you smile back at her, you're pretty much guaranteed a little giggle.


She loves her big brother and he loves her sooo much, one of our calming techniques for Jude is to get him to kiss her when he's crying. Of course he loves to kiss her anytime, so she almost always has a big slimy wet spot on her head.
She's a chubby little thing, so round and cute. I call her my little chub monster, but in a loving way.
When we lie in bed Sophie and I, she looks up at me and I look down at her and smile and she smiles and scrunches up her shoulders, like she's shy, but she also looks absolutely delighted to be there smiling up at me.
She loves to be sung to. And she's not discriminating about talent either. She gets just as much joy from hearing Nan sing Chuck Berry (is that right, Nan?) as she does hearing Daddy sing one of his many made-up songs (So-phie and Dad-dy, best friends forev-er) or Mummy singing Backyardigans songs.
She also loves her stuffed animals. I guess it's because they're all so soft, but she is so happy to just sit with a few animals and relax.
So there's a little bit about Sophie. My baby girl.

The changes a year brings...

This is Jude, last year, eating watermelon:


A little barbaric, a little unsophisticated, a little messy.



This is our first whole watermelon of the season:

See how much has changed over the past year? His bib, it's actually covering his body, instead of being ripped off angrily the second I put it on. Also, he's eating the correct end of the watermelon. Mmmm, flavour!

And what you can just catch the slightest glimpse of in this picture, is Jude delicately swirling the watermelon juices around in the bowl. He's using a toy spatula. That he had been keeping in the sandbox. Mmmmm, gritty!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Long Weekend Update

Auntie Kate was in town for a few days so we got to spend some time with her... One of the cutest/saddest things I've seen in awhile was Jude saying goodbye to Kate. Justin and I had both just finished giving her nice long hugs, and Jude, who had already said bye, and was standing by the door, decided his original goodbye wasn't emotional enough. He ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her legs and held on tight for a minute or so. Very cute.




While Katie was here we also had some of the family by to so they could catch up with Kate... Here are a couple of pictures from that evening...


In this picture Kate looks shifty and Mary looks very amused, possibly because Jude is putting his feet up on her lap like a slimey used car salesman would on his desk.

Uncle Dan always brings his camera when he comes by and here he's showing Jude the picture he just took. Jude looks happy, not because he likes the shot, but because he thinks he can snatch that wonderful piece of equipment from Dan's hands.




Jude had his first ice cream truck ice cream cone... Grandad bought it for him, and while that was very nice of Grandad, I don't remember him rushing down to the ice cream truck when we were kids... In fact I think we had to beg and promise to wash the car...







We went to a BBQ on Sunday and Jude was treated to his first bonfire. And his first fireworks display. We weren't sure how the fireworks were going to go, but he seemed to enjoy them and he kept walking around the fire saying, "Hot, hot."



There was a pretty big crowd watching the fireworks and Justin had Jude up on his shoulders. Justin says that Jude kept petting his cheek and kissing his head, throughout the show. I sat away from the crowd with Sophie and Carolyn and Marcus and every so often, we could hear Jude in the distance saying, "Oh wow!" as the fireworks lit up the sky.







On Monday we went to High Park and fed the chipmunks. This is something Justin and I used to do before we were married with kids, and we thought that Jude would get a kick out of it. He was excited at first, but once the chipmunks realized that we were giving them all the food they wanted, they just scurried right up to us and it eliminated the need for Jude to chase them around yelling, "Wuirrel! Wuirrel!" (Which means "squirrel" and the reason he was calling chipmunks squirrels is because when we first got there, the chipmunks were hiding and we fed the squirrels, who aren't as cute, but are less shy).

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Happy Mother's Day

While his cooking can only be described as questionable, at best, I will give him an "A" for effort. Especially since he is a baby.
This is Jude making what I can only imagine is a potato smoothie.

And this is how he presented it to me.


Then he marched around the kitchen banging on his drum, singing, "Mama mama mama mama."

All in all, it was a pretty good day.


Friday, May 4, 2007

Jude's Babies



Jude saw Sophie fussing and ran to get his other baby to give to his sister. As you can see, it really cheered her up.