one year

Now that the parties have been partied, the gifts have been opened, the cake has been eaten looked at as if its an alien, it's official. Jude's birthday was Wednesday, November 11th, and I took the day off and spent the day cleaning, packing, and telling Jude his birth story while he completely ignored me.

That evening, my small group girls came over and we had a sweet little birthday party for Judeabug. Remember me telling you about my small group girls? Three of us have been their leaders/teachers/mentors...I'm not really sure what exactly the role is...since they were in 6th grade. Since they're now in 10th grade, we've known those sweet girls for 4 years. To announce to them that I was pregnant, we sent them on a scavenger hunt to look for baby related items. When I was on bedrest, they came to the house and threw me a surprise baby shower and gave us some of the most thoughtful gifts ever. During the summer, Brittany would come to the Pregnancy Center and watch Jude for a few hours so I could get work done, and Kayla, her brother, and her Mom have watched Jude on several of our date nights. So it seemed fitting to celebrate his 1st birthday with these girls, since they're such a big part of our lives.

I blew up some balloons to have around the house and realized - Jude has never seen a balloon. It's so fun to be able to introduce someone to something that seems mundane, but that actually blows them away. And thus a friendship was born. A friendship consisting of Jude pouncing on the balloon, and the balloon not popping. That might just have been Jude's favorite part of the entire party.

Then Jude opened up his gifts - and if you've ever been to a one year old's birthday party, then you know that means Mom and Dad opened gifts and exclaimed with loud excitement over each one. He got some blocks, a fun bongo that talks to you in English OR Spanish, a car that plays "Funky Town" (to which he dances a super cute dance), and an Indie Rock ABC book that I'm not cool enough to understand.

And then....it was cake time! Personally, I'm not a big fan of giving my one year old a sugar high at 8:00pm when he's already pretty riled up from those crazy balloons - but Shawn and I compromised and got him a little cake from Whole Foods ('cause the sugar high won't be as high if it's organic?! I know....). We asked them to write "Happy Birthday" on it, but the lady behind the counter was kind of grumpy, and it ended up looking like, "Happy Birafdadfasdf."

We put Jude in his highchair, lit a candle, sang Happy Birthday (or Happy Birafdadfasdf), set the cake in front of Jude to smash, consume, tear through, gobble up, and he....

...stared at it. Then he took his chubby pointer finger and poked at the flower on top. He then made a face as if to say, "oh chocolate covered sugar and egg mixture, you disgust me," and turned his head away.

Because an organic sugar high is just fine for Mommy and Daddy at 10:00pm, we definitely devoured it once Jude went to sleep.

Even though I pulled the camera out and set it on the kitchen table so I would take plenty of pictures, I got so wrapped up in the fun that I forgot to take pictures. Jill, however, did take a few with her camera phone - and like any good friend I'll steal them from her facebook.

A fun drum/musical kit Shawn's been eyeing for months now. Jude especially loves the drum sticks, and I think I'll leave teaching him how to drum up to Shawn.

Logan helping Jude open his present! Also, I have to confess something. When I went to wrap Jude's gifts, I realized I didn't have any non-Christmas paper left. My birthday is December 30th, so I have this weird thing about NOT wrapping birthday gifts in Christmas paper. SO...all I had was this plain brown paper. And to be perfectly honest, I didn't even have enough to cover the gifts entirely. Nonetheless - I wrapped them as best as I could, grabbed some crayons, and let Jude color for the first time. We wrote his name, we wrote out "love," and we practiced learning circles and stripes.

That's right. I pretended my pitiful wrapping job was on purpose and a moment of Mommy Genius Creativity.

A dump truck and blocks!

...and Jude's look of disgust at the cake. "You dare to place that non-nutritional waste of flour on my plate?"

Happy Birafdadfasdf Jude, Happy Birafdadfasdf.

pumpkin patch

Almost an entire month later....

pumpkin carving

I know, these aren't the promised birthday trip pictures - you can flog me later. I have some pictures of our fall festivities on my computer and it drives me nuts to post pictures in non-chronological order.

All of our supplies. Two gut scoopers. Two pumpkins. Sunday paper. Guts Bowl. Puffs. Shawn was spray painting his Wild Things ears and they were drying in that box - just in case you were wondering. :)

I made a pumpkin to look like Judeabug - slightly amused.

...And our beautiful pumpkins on the front porch!

Because I'm all about being frugal and homemade now, I pureed the pumpkin guts to use for soup and maybe Jude (although he clamps his lips tightly and turns his head anytime I try to get near him with it). Then I took the seeds, sprinkled them with olive oil, dusted them with salt, baked them, and made one of the best snacks known to man. LOVE me some roasted pumpkin seeds.

Coming up next - pumpkin patch pictures!

Dang it. Do you know what that means? We wouldn't have pumpkins to carve if we hadn't gotten them from the pumpkin patch first.

Well, chronological schronological.

hey you

Listen up 'cause I got somethin' to say.

You listening good?

Good.

So you know my friend Jonah? He's not doin' so great right now. His Mom's also not doin' so great right now.

That makes my Mom sad, and do you know what happens when my Mommy is sad??












...It makes me very, very unhappy.

So what can you do?

Pray. Please pray a lot. And leave encouraging comments on Jonah's blog for his Mom 'cause that means a lot to her.

And then pray some more.

Got it?


Good.

on the homefront

Shawn, Jude, and I just got back in town from a whirlwind trip to Cincinnati! I'll post pictures later, but just wanted to say that we got back safe and soundly. This trip was by far the best Jude's ever done in the car, which was wonderful. He definitely got antsy, but he did great about falling asleep for his regular nap times and playing while being constrained in the car seat.

He seems to be a bit under the weather, and Shawn and I both have mountains of work on which to catch up -so please excuse the sparse posts for the next couple of days.

Before I forgot - just wanted to let you guys know that Patrice is giving away some awesome Serwa Chic products! Just comment to enter - CLICK HERE for Patrice's blog.

However, feel free to enjoy one of our sweet boy's first experiences with cartoons. I'm not much of a TV watcher - and since Jude's with me 85% of the time, neither is he. We pop in Baby Einstein a few nights a week, and I occasionally watch a bit of news during the day, but Jude hasn't ever really watched cartoons. Turns out he loves him some Sid the Science Kid!

a letter to jude

Dear Jude,

I'm kind of at a loss for where to start, sweetie. Today you are one whole entire year old. So much has changed in the past year, huh? You were born at 5:58am on November 11,2008 - so at this time last year, Mommy and Daddy were just being taken to Mommy's recovery room and you were being checked out in the nursery. I was in love. Head over heels in love in a way that I'd never known. Daddy and I were in a euphoric stupor, exchanging thoughts on who you looked more like, how sweet you were, how well the birth went, and how excited we were to see you again. You changed our lives, Judeabug.

You're a constant reminder of how much MommyDaddy love each other and of our partnership together, and you're a constant reminder of how unconditionally and almost giddy-like God loves us. You've made me into a less selfish person, my son, and because of you - Mommy and Daddy love each other in a way we'd never experienced. Your presence in my life has made me realize that I'm stronger than I thought, more protective than I thought, and more creative than I thought. Being your Mommy has been one of the greatest privileges of my life, and Daddy and I are so honored that God chose US to take care of you.

But enough of this MommyDaddy stuff, right? I can't really even start with all the things that have changed in the past year - you're so completely different from a year ago! Instead, I think I'd like to list a few of my favorite memories from the past 12 months.

-That time you spit up all over Daddy and pooped all over Mommy at the same time. It was so ridiculous that we couldn't help but just look at each other and laugh.
-Seeing your face for the first time. Knowing you as well as I do know, it was definitely your grumpy face. Daddy kept saying how much you looked like me, and my heart just melted when I finally saw that sweet face.
-Breastfeeding you. I know, I'm sorry - but it IS one of my favorite memories. I loved giving you the nourishment that you needed, and I loved taking a break from the busyness of my day to stop and spend time with you. I loved waking up with you in the mornings and talking to you or singing to you while you ate.
-Sleeping with you in that recliner. For about your first three weeks you spent every night sleeping on my chest in that recliner in your room. We did that so that Daddy could get his sleep and so that Mommy could feed you when you needed it and still fall asleep if I needed. At the time, I was exhausted beyond comprehension and couldn't wait for you to sleep in your own crib or the bassinet - but I can still feel your tiny little self cuddled up against my chest and I treasure that.
-Daddy doing the walk/bounce with you. I'll be reminding you of this for the rest of your life, but you were definitely a fussy baby (until we figured out you had reflux, then you got better), and Daddy did the magic walk/bounce with you that would almost always calm you. He loved to sing "Hey Jude," or "Baby Mine," or I'm sure at times some songs that we wouldn't necessarily admit to - but you'd just look at him like, "I'm so glad you're my Daddy. You make everything better."

On each month of your birthday, I've begun the tradition of telling you your birth story. And well, since it IS your one year birthday you get the story today....with pictures. Luck you, eh?

Alright, kiddo. We have to start with November 10th. I went to the doctor's because I thought you might be on your way. You had been "on your way" for almost three months by that point, but the nurse told me that you weren't ready quite yet...but that it'd be any day now. Daddy and I went to Mario's to get pizza, and then stopped by Target because I had it in my head that we needed baby Qtips before you got here.

That night, we ate our pizza and were hanging out watching TV when I started to feel contractions again. I really wanted you to come, so I started bouncing on a birthing ball (i.e. Jill's exercise ball), hoping all that bouncing would make you say, "Get me outta here!!" However, the contractions stopped, so Daddy and I went to sleep.

But THEN...I woke up at midnight with a very painful contraction! When I got up to use the restroom, my water broke (which meant you were definitely coming). I let Daddy sleep while I went out to the living room to time my contractions. Around 2:00am, I realized this was the real deal ('cause apparently my water breaking wasn't enough to send us into the hospital), so I woke up Daddy. I remember doubling over the bathroom sink while I was trying to brush my teeth because of a strong contraction. Daddy drove Mommy to the hospital, which was so very painful. It was tough to sit still in that car when it hurt so much. Mommy and Daddy got to the hospital and got checked in. Not to make you feel badly or anything, but I was in so much pain that I was actually vomiting. You know...not that you owe your very life to the pain I went through...just sayin'.

While they were checking me out, our dear friend Rhonda arrived. Do you remember her? She helped calm me and Daddy down, and once she saw how much pain I was in, helped us get rushed through to be checked. Once they checked me, they realized that you were VERY much on your way - so into the birthing room we went!

Now sweet boy, I loved giving birth to you, but I have to admit that this is my least favorite part of this story. I was in SO much pain that I was crying and vomiting - trying every position I could think of to get comfortable. I had read that if you wait to get an epidural until you're five centimeters dilated that the effects on the baby of the medicine are greatly diminished. Apparently I was literally crying for drugs, but I really wanted to make sure I was five centimeters first. When the nurse checked me and saw that I was eight centimeters, I do remember begging for an epidural. I wasn't sure how I would handle the pain, and I think it surprised both Daddy and I that I coped with it by screaming. I'm not normally a screamer - or even a yeller - so it's kind of funny to look back at how loud I was being!

We don't have any pre-epidural pictures because we were a little occupied, but I'm so glad that Rhonda was able to get what are some of my favorite pictures in the world. Speaking of Rhonda:

She took such great care of us!

Mommy and Daddy were both so much more happy once that epidural kicked in!


Once they started having me push, your little heartbeat was going down. I had to wear an oxygen mask for a little bit, but eventually your heartbeat went back to normal and we could take it off.

I was in labor with you from midnight until 5:58 - a total of six hours. That's actually pretty quick!

Did I mention that we fell in love?

...Madly in love

I say it every month, Jude, but I just want to make sure you know it. I love you and Daddy loves you. We love you with an indescribable depth and intensity. We know that God has a plan for you. We've seen His hand on your life and His love for you this past year, and we can't wait to see how His plan unfolds in the coming years. He's placed in your heart a sweetness and tenderness - balanced by a spirit that is determined - and we're looking forward to seeing how God uses that. God gave you to us for a purpose, Jude. We love you more than you could possibly imagine.

From your head down to your toes. You're not much, goodness knows. But you're so precious to me. Sweet as can be. Baby of mine.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

364 days old

I don't know if you guys realize this, but Jude is 364 days today. Tomorrow. TOMORROW! He'll be one year old. One. ONE! One?!

I'm excited and a little weirded out at the same time. I have an abnormal affinity for lists, so let me list for you my points in both the excitement and weirded out categories so we can determine whether I'm more excited or more weirded out.

Excitement:
-We can turn the carseat around - wooHOO!
-No more bottles and formula. Sippy cups and whole milk - here we COME!
-Walking should be right around the corner, and as I mentioned before Jude gets more content as he gets more independent. Plus, I think he'll have a cute little toddle/waddle/walk thing going.
-He has survived his first year and is alive and well. When I look back over this year, I'm a little amazed and a lot proud at how Shawn and I handled the new state of our lives.
-No more talking about Jude in months. Shawn has laid down the law that we will not say that Jude is 17 months, or 22 months - or however old he is. He claims that takes too much thinking on the part of the questioner, so to make it easy for everyone we'll say, "one year," and then, "a year and a half," and then, "almost two years." It's not really an issue that gooses my gander, but I'll gladly comply.
-In the last month we've seen a jump in our ability to have a real relationship with Jude. He knows who we are, can say our names, and looks for us. He smiles at us, and Shawn and I each have little inside jokes with him. He's starting to point and make sounds as to his like or dislike of something, and we're both excited to see that kind of interaction continue!

Weirded Out:
-I have a one year old! I no longer have an infant or a baby, but a full fledged, independent, temper throwing, mischievous toddler.
-I've only lost 1/3 of the baby weight from my pregnancy. You know, that time I was pregnant an entire year ago. Geez.
-I pulled out a pair of Jude's newborn shoes the other day and was amazed at how tiny they were. Shawn and I watched a video we have of Jude when he was less than two weeks old, and were fascinated by his little face, his tiny hands, and his little sweet cry. Was he EVER that young?!
-People are starting to ask about "the next one." This isn't a question I mind from friends and family who are asking out of genuine care for our family. But this IS a question that does indeed goose my gander when people say in passing, "It's time to start havin' another one!" How do I answer that? What should I reply? "Actually, maim, we had a tough time conceiving Jude, I had a dramatic pregnancy, and then I went through postpartum depression, so we think it's wise to give ourselves a bit of a break before having another." Or...what I really want to say is, "Ummm...excuse me? I don't tell you when to have unprotected sex, so I'd appreciate you not bossing me around."

Too much?

Instead, I just smile and keep walking.

So I have six in the "excited" category and four in the "weirded out" category. Just as I expected - more excited. :)

I found a video of Jude from several months ago that I never had the chance to post. Please enjoy Daddy's and Jude's "Dancey Dance" time (and Jude's bald head- in comparison, he has a ridiculous amount of hair now!):

skeptical

...of what, I'm not sure. Life in general, most likely.

on the homefront

The Maurer household has been bustling lately! Jude and I are continuing to feel better, and it looks like we're both back to our normal-ish selves. Jude has at least two more teeth starting to come through - equaling a grand total of six! He's chewing on things (notice I said "things," and not "food." He's not very discriminating about what he decides to chew on) like an old pro and is eating cinnamon/flax seed waffles as I type. It's actually getting to be a bit of a struggle to get him to eat off of a spoon because he'd much rather just feed himself.

He's also taken two steps by himself when walking from Mommy to Daddy! He's such a good (and fast) crawler, though, so I have a feeling it'll still be a little bit before he finds the need to walk. We're finding that the more independent he gets - the more content he gets. Don't get me wrong, he's already learning the art of the temper tantrum, but it's almost like he's always been an independent little toddler trapped in a baby's body. Now that he can cruise around and get where he wants to go - he's pretty much a happy kid!

Jude's starting to extend his naptimes (praise GOD!). Previously, he was taking 3-4 naps of 30-45 minutes each. Just long enough for me to just get into whatever work I needed to get done. Once we switched him from (4) 6oz bottles to (3) 8 oz bottles, he started taking one nap in the morning of about 1.5 hour, and one nap in the afternoon of about an hour. I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is to have longer breaks to get work accomplished!

I've read that Mommy and Daddy attachment usually peaks between 12-18 months, and it looks like we're full on into that stage. He still does pretty well when I drop him off at the nursery or when we leave him with a sitter, but he's not a big fan of me leaving the room or getting up to do something else when I was playing with him. And some days he'll be playing just fine by himself, but as soon as he hears the sewing machine, his whining kicks into overdrive. I can almost hear him saying, "What?! You're doing work?? Mommy! You're supposed to be playing with me!" I pray this is just a phase, but as long as I'm able to get work done while he's napping and for the spurts that he's content to play by himself, I think we'll be just fine.

The three of us are gearing up to take a trip to Cincinnati for Jude's first birthday! We're so excited to be able to see both families at the same time and are so looking forward to celebrate the birth of this kiddo.

This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Jude, but Shawn and I finally got a new (to us) dishwasher! Our old one turned on and made lots of diswashing-like noises...but alas didn't actually work. But now....NOW, my friends...

No more washing dishes by hand! No more ugly drainer on the sink! No more hand sanitizing bottles, sippy cups, and pacifiers! No more washing dishes three or four times a day! Oh the joy!

On a slightly less exciting note (and only slightly because I'm abnormally excited about this, too). I sewed a jacket! To understand how exciting this is to me, you need to know that the last time I attempted to sew clothes was in high school. I decided to make a pair of pajama pants. Except when I was finished - it only had one leg.

So I was really nervous to try another project like this, but I figured I'd been sewing for awhile now and had learned quite a bit along the way. A jacket was a lofty goal since it had darts, lining, gathering, buttonholes, collars, and lots of professional sounding stitches that it turns out I was already doing, but just didn't know the names of. Here's a very poor quality pic of how the jacket turned out:

Without my hand on my hip like that it's a little flufflier than I'd like, and the buttonholes are nothin' to write home about, but I did it! I made a jacket! And you know - it's actually pretty good. The sleeves are the same length, the lining (brown polka dotted) is in correctly, the darts are even, the collar lays flat - as I told my Small Group girls on Wednesday - it's a real LIVE jacket!


I kind of have this "thing" for jackets and coats and I usually buy one or two each season. How cool is it that not only can I make my own - but I can pick out my own fabrics/patterns and make it as funky/classy/trendy and I'd like!


Oh man. Go ahead. Just call me Martha Stewart. Without the whole jail thing, though.


And finally - to please the grandparents - Judeabug with some funky hair:

let the wild rumpus start!

So Shawn and I discovered a very important truth last Saturday - that holidays are twice as much fun when you have a kid - especially Halloween. In the past, we would usually go out to dinner, buy some candy, and then watch Charlie Brown's Halloween and call it a night. We had NO idea that we were missing out on so much.

There is an entire day dedicated to dressing your kid up in a silly costume (despite what its origins may have been)! For one day, you can put your kid in a ridiculous looking outfit and instead of being looked at strangely, people say, "how cute!" and give your kid candy! Awesome.

We spent Halloween with our friends Mike and Jill, and their son Logan. Even though Jude can't eat candy yet (despite Shawn's attempts to give him a nerd), and couldn't even hold his Trick or Treat bag, I'm so glad that we ended up deciding to take Jude Trick or Treating.

He was - as usual - thoroughly unimpressed. Nonetheless, he did amazingly well. I expected him to pull at his crown, his claws, or his tail, and to want to get down to crawl or maybe get scared with all the noise and costumes - but he didn't! He was so content to be held by Shawn or I and just looked around like he was just taking all the weirdness in.



Even pretend Wild Things have to have nourishment.



Shawn dressed up as the main Wild Thing monster (who was named Carol in the movie). I'm pretty sure I've never been more in love.

Logan, Jude and Shawn before we headed out. It's a good thing we had a GI Joe ninja to protect us!

Jude's modes of transportation - the stroller....

...and being carried by a Wild Thing.

It's pictures like these that make me think he's going to grow up to look like Shawn:

He was so sweet to gum this box open just so Mommy and Daddy could have some Milk Duds.

We tried to keep Jude up an hour late that night since it was daylight savings time in the hopes that he'd then sleep an hour later the next morning. Around 8:00 he started throwing a fit at Mike's and Jill's, so we headed home. Once we got home, however, Jude got a fresh wind of energy. Watching him push his lion around in his little costume was just too cute to NOT capture on camera.

And PS - Shawn and I tried to teach Jude to howl like Max for a few days before Halloween. He never really did get it, but he thought it was funny when we did it - which would be why you hear Shawn howling in the background. Jude also lost a claw somewhere along the way - and yet still manages to be adorably terrifying.

real mom vs. super mom halloween costume

About six weeks ago, Shawn told me he wanted Jude to be "Max" from Where The Wild Things Are. The story is about a little boy who is just wild. He chases the dog around the house, and when his Mom says, "You're wild!" he tries to bite her. Max's Mom immediately sends him straight to bed without supper, and later that night, his entire bedroom turns into a forest. He sails over the ocean to land on an island full of Wild Things. When the Wild Things threaten to eat Max, he astounds them by staring into their eyes. Logically, the Wild Things then make Max their king, and he declares, "Let the wild rumpus start!" After the wild rumpus, Max realizes that he's lonely. He sails back over the sea, back to his bedroom, where his Mom has left his dinner on the nightstand.

It's really a sweet book about a boy just being a boy, and from what we've seen from his short life so far - is a pretty adequate description of what we're in for with Jude.




So I set to work to make a Max costume for Jude. Now, in just doing a quick search for Max Halloween costume, I saw some really amazing homemade outfits. I mean truly - there are some talented Mammas out there who must've spent FORever working on those things. Me? Well I just happen to not be supermom. I happen to be a very, very real mom. So I set out to make a costume that would be cute but that wouldn't take me more than a day or two to make.



So below is a real mom's guide to making a Max Halloween costume -


1. Wrap a foam ring in brown fabric, hot gluing as you go:


2. Take yellow foam board:

3. And cut it to resemble a crown. I made my crown pretty high because I was basing the costume off of the illustrations, and not the movie. Then hot glue the crown pieces together. I have a feeling there's a better way to make this part of the costume, but I couldn't think of anything else - so this is what Jude got!

4. Cut a piece of elastic and hot glue it on two of the inside edges. This was to hopefully help Jude keep the crown in place:

5. Try the crown on Jude, who is utterly embarrassed, it seems:

Now for the claws!

1. Cut 12 triangles from white fabric. Each "claw" uses two pieces of fabric, and I did three claws on each foot. In hindsight, I could've fit four, but I wasn't about to go back and do another two. Why not? Say it with me, friends - I'm not supermom.

2. Sew the triangles together:

3. Here are the "claws" all nice and sewn together. I don't have a picture of this part, but then take a Sharpie and mark little toenails.

4. Then stuff each claw with batting. If Shawn were here, he'd pick up the Soft n Crafty and say, "You dropped your name tag."

5. Then I hand sewed each claw onto a pair of white socks. The socks and claws were way too small for me to figure out how to machine sew this.

6. Then I tried the socks on Jude, who immediately pulled them off. My hopes for Halloween night were not high since he'd made it clear he wasn't a fan of either the crown OR the socks.

I found this adorable little outfit on eBay and got quite the adrenaline rush when I got in a bidding war during the last five minutes. But I won. Ha - take THAT! This outfit was perfect because it had big buttons, was white, and had an adorable hood.

I found some very tail-like material at JoAnn's (in the ribbon/sequin aisle. you have to have them cut the yardage you'd like) that was perfect. I just hot glued one of the ends onto the butt of the romper, and I was good to go! I will say that I thoroughly hot glued it - I had a feeling Jude would have fun trying to pull at it and didn't want it to fall off halfway through the night.

The ears to the costume were a bit more complicated, and unfortunately, I don't have pictures. Shawn found some zebra headband ears that we thought we could just bleach white. They were, however, impervious to our bleaching efforts, so our little Max just had some zebra ears. We put the headband on his head, cut two small slits in his hood, and pulled the ears through.

Even though I saw some pretty stinkin' amazing Max costumes online, I happen to think our own Max was the best. Maybe that had something to do with who was under the costume.

I'll try and put up pictures of Jude in the completed costume tomorrow - but make sure you bring along a mop before you log on to the blog. Your heart will probably melt all over the floor, and you'll need something with which to clean it up.

On a slightly different note, it turns out that Jude and I actually had the swine flu. I'm so grateful it didn't turn into anything more serious for Jude and am amazed that Shawn didn't get it. My sweet husband has been oinking at me everytime I cough or sneeze, though. I wasn't quite as lucky as Jude though, and ended up getting bronchitis right after the flu. Right now, it looks like everyone is healthy in the household - so keep ya germs to yo-self! We've had enough sickness up in here! So all of that to say that I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog, but rest assured that I have puh-lenty of pictures just waiting to be posted!