Jude had no interest in carving the pumpkin. Liam, however, was mildly interested.

I made Jude an owl costume.

Spread your wings and fly little owl.

Jude with Jason and Joshua getting ready to go trick-or-treating.

Daddy takes Jude to the door.

Jason and Jude

Halloween sure was fun this year!

This was Jude’s first trip to the pumpkin patch at Sweetberry Farms. We drove out there with our friends Aron and Sarah and met up with Joe’s aunts and his little cousins. Jude was hesitant at first and only wanted us to hold him. But, he soon warmed up and did his best to try to pick up pumpkins that were almost as heavy as he is. We enjoyed some tasty pumpkin ice cream (surprisingly good) and strawberry popsicles. Joshua and Jason wanted to do the corn maze, but since Jude is just a little guy, he was content to pick out a pumpkin and look around. It was a great trip and now we just need to carve our gourd.

Picking a pumpkin.

With Joshua and Jason.

I like his little expression.

Scarecrow Jude.

“No more pictures!”

Nah, but I can drive a tractor.

My sweet husband knew how much I wanted to see this movie. So he planned a date night for us. He had one of his aunts to watch Jude for us so we could see Where the Wild Things Are at the Alamo Drafthouse.

We have not been back (as a couple) to the drafthouse since the “Baby Day Debacle” right before Christmas. We enjoyed some pizza and popcorn (and beverages for Joe) while we watched the movie.

I thought it was great. I loved the visuals, the music, and the emotionality of the story. I told Joe I thought it was the best movie I have seen thus year…granted I rarely go to the movies since Jude was born. I even cried a little. It also made me think about the little boy that Jude is growing into.

So I highly recommend it. I also enjoyed people watching at the drafthouse and getting to have a grown-ups night out with Joe.

Jude is officially 15 months old. It’s so amazing to me how quickly he is learning. He has a set of nesting cups that he plays with in the bathtub, and he can stack them on top of each other or nest them inside one another.  He can do star, circle, and square on his shape sorter. He is understanding mimicry much better; the other day I showed him how to blow kisses and he was able to copy my behavior rather quickly.  He is even able to recall behaviors that we haven’t practiced in a long time. A few days ago, we told him to give us a high five (which we haven’t done in about a month) and he knew what we were asking for.

Jude loves when I spin him in circles (although I did it too many times today and it made my stomach hurt). He has a new electric train that he can ride on and after a few tries, he feels confident about making it go when he wants to. We also like to make Liam ride the train…just for kicks.  He’s very quick to take his diaper off or crawl onto things…those two things happen in the blink of an eye around here. He’s taken a few headers off the furniture, so he’s had a goose egg on his forehead for the past week.

Here are some pictures of my number one boy showing off his many moods…while shirtless. What a little hunk!

Mischievous

Shy

Happy

Curious

Determined

Indecisive

Destructive

Here are some pictures of Jude the last time we went to visit my mom. He had so much fun going up and down the stairs and didn’t want me to help him walk down the driveway, even though the incline made it hard to keep his balance. He started to run away from me down the sidewalk and his sandal fell off…but he just kept on going.

So, in case you don’t know, I have H1N1. Yep…it sucks! Actually, I’m starting to feel better, but I am on doctor’s orders to stay home until Monday.

It started with a cough and a terrible headache. I rarely get headaches…honest…I usually don’t even have headache medicine in the house because they are so rare. Well, I got this terrible sharp headache that was so bad it actually made me wince every time it proceeded to stab my brain from the inside. But, I didn’t have a fever and I didn’t feel fatigued. I mean, I was hot and cold, but I didn’t find that too out of the ordinary considering the weather, humidity, and the crazy cold air conditioning at work.

But, Joe, in a moment of intense insight, reminded me that it was in our child’s best interest for me to at least go to the doctor to find out what was wrong. Well, they swabbed my nose and confirmed I have flu A, which the doctor told me multiple times “Yep, you have swine flu.” I asked if I should still get my flu shot next Tuesday, to which she replied, “Yeah, that’s the seasonal flu shot. Go ahead and get that. You have swine flu.”

So, to cheer myself up, I made candied salted bacon from this recipe. There’s gotta be a silver lining to having this stupid illness. I mean, I’ve been wearing a hospital mask during the hours that Jude is awake, which has led Joe to call me “Jacko” (which I guess, makes Jude “Blanket”).

I’m actually on the mend. The headache hasn’t gotten any better, but the achiness has gone away and I am not sweating as much. I’m looking forward to being over all of this.

In case you have been missing your regular dose of Jude, here is a quick shot to get you through the week. We went to look at the puppies at Petco and jude just laughed the whole time and tried to pet them through the gate.

If that is what you want to call it.

Brush Jude’s teeth

Read a book

Kisses good-night

Turn out the lights

Turn on the Spooka nightlight and Baby Beatles cd

Just in case you were wondering, here’s the new car. Joe likes to point out that my hair looks crazy. But, in my defense, it was that Saturday that it rained like crazy, so I take no responsibility for what humidity does to my hair.