Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Santa Claus came to visit Jude’s day care a few weeks before Christmas. Ms. Gina reported that Jude was a little reticent, but once he found put that Santa delivered presents, he was very excited to meet him. Jude asked Santa for dinosaurs.

Cousins

This Thanksgiving was the first time Jude and his two cousins on my side were all together for Thanksgiving. The girls were instant best friends and Jude wanted to do whatever they were doing. Of course, when it came to picture time, the girls loved having their picture taken, while Jude pouted.

Easter 2011

Pictures from Easter at our house and Mimi’s.

Nightmare After Christmas

The day after Christmas, we ended up in the emergency room in Waco. Jude got into my mom’s medication in her room while my mom was at church. We didn’t know what the drugs were or how many he took so poison control advised us to go the emergency room. When I found Jude, I tried to fish-hook one out of his mouth, but I may have pushed it back further. So, I knew he had at least one in his system.

We were finally able to figure out what type of drug he took (a muscle relaxer) but there was concern about the side effects. So, poor baby got charcoal. That was the worst part of the whole experience. Having to hold down my own child and while they forced him to drink it. The crying and the thrashing was enough to bring the tears. Once we successfully finished a whole syringe, Jude, of course vomited. Then the nurse informed us he had to take a whole half a cup, not just one syringe. After some crazy theories (putting it in milk or pudding) the doctor told us we didn’t have to force anymore because of the possibility of him aspirating the charcoal.

So, the compromise was that they needed to monitor him for the next three hours, in which the symptoms/side effects would peak. My child was in surprisingly good spirits. He watched Spongebob and we all entertained him with latex glove balloon animals. He finally crashed at the very end when it was time to go home. We were lucky…another child came in after consuming rat poison! We went back to mom’s to crash after the whole ordeal. Jude is fine and we are fine, but my dad said it wouldn’t be a Schier Christmas without some sort of disaster. About 6 years ago, I was in the same emergency room the day after Christmas to check on my brother who had a kidney stone.

Thank you to the friends and family that checked on us and prayed for Jude. It all worked out in the end.

Holiday Baking

My friend, Sarah, gave me a gingerbread cookbook last Christmas. I was so excited this year to use one of the recipes to make gingerbread men with Jude. The cookies turned out delicious and Jude was able to help me use the rolling pin and cookie cutters to make the cookies. We took them over to Joe’s aunt house so her boys could help us decorate them for Santa Claus…which basically means covering them in frosting and sprinkles.

Christmas Eve Bowling

We started a new tradition this year, Christmas Eve bowling. Joe’s aunts and cousins met us at the bowling alley for some 10-pin fun. You wouldn’t believe how much Jude loved it. He is still talking about going bowling. I hope we go again next year.

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

A certain cute little boy I know and his best dog put out their cookies for Santa Claus.

The Roaming Gnome

Fueled by lollipops in order to make his journey across the lawns.

     

    

How embarrassing! Someone else has on the same costume.

    

Posing with Joshua and Jason.

Making a Splash

On the 4th of July, we decided to take Jude to the splash pad at Ricky Guerrero Park in South Austin. What a cool little park! The splash pad was nice and shaded and had lots of different water features for Jude to play with. Too bad Joe and I didn’t pack our swimsuits, because we missed out on some fun. I am hoping that we can go back again this summer and all have a splash.

Easter 2010

We had a great Easter. Nice weather, quality family time, and candy for everyone. On Good Friday, we had our 2nd Annual Crawfish Boil with Joe’s family. I didn’t get any pictures with my camera, but believe me, this was an all-out, newspaper on the table, shrimp and crawfish boil.

Saturday morning we went to a community sponsored Easter egg hunt with Joe’s family. There were so many children, but thankfully they separated them by age. We practiced picking up eggs with Jude earlier in the week, but he still look suspicious when it was time to hunt. He also wasn’t too keen on visiting the Easter bunny, so they encouraged Joe to hold Jude while they took the picture. I don’t know if you can tell in the pictures, but Tia Nana bought Jude a baby guayabera (Mexican wedding shirt) that he is wearing. He looked so cool.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Waco to celebrate my mom’s birthday and Easter Sunday. Apparently after one egg hunt, Jude had  figured out that he liked candy and went wild when he saw a jar of jelly beans on Mimi’s table. The tantrum monster visited us first on Easter morning, so the Easter Bunny waited to come visit us later when the monster finally calmed down.

I dressed Jude in this nerdy little sailor outfit (I can say that because I am the mom) that my mom just thinks is adorable…which quite frankly, was pretty adorable. He wasn’t too happy about wearing the matching hat (my son hates hats!). By the time we went to Daddio’s, however,  Jude was wearing whatever was left in the suitcase, which didn’t quite match. I apparently left the matching shirt and shorts here at home.