i want to remember this forever

Last night was bath night, and since Shawn had a meeting, I was flying solo. Bath nights are fun in the Maurer household, as Jude loves the water and has recently perfected his splashing Mommy and Daddy skills. Like every other bathtime, Jude was holding his Ducky in one hand and the Squeezy Ball in the other (and yes, Squeezy Ball needs to be capitalized. It is indeed a proper noun in our household). And then my sweet Jude who is stillmybaby but growinguptoofastintotoddlerhood began a game with me. It went like this - Jude took the Squeezy Ball and splashed really hard for three or four splashes. Then he rested the Squeezy Ball on the side of the tub where I squeezed it to make farty noises a couple of times. Jude laughed. Mommy laughed. Then the Squeezy Ball went back into the tub with Jude where he splashed again. Then back on the side of the tub for the farty noises. Then Jude laughed. Then Mommy laughed.

This was his game. A game he started entirely by himself, by the way. We played this game for probably ten rounds, each of us laughing harder and harder each time. I was watching his sweet eyes - full of joy and trust, and looking at his eyelashes all wet and stuck together from his bath, and thought -

"I want to remember this forever."

I tried to soak up every last detail - Jude's chubby fingers gripping the Squeezy Ball, the smell of the baby shampoo, Jude's open mouth noiseless laugh, those crinkles around his eyes when he smiled, the softness of his baby skin, the sound of the water splashing, and most importantly - the feeling of being sure my heart couldn't handle anymore love and would surely burst right out of my chest.

I know it's not the same, but I wonder if this is what Mary was doing in Luke 2:19:

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

That simple game and Jude's boundless joy will be with me forever - a part of who I am, a part of who he is, and just a small, timeless piece of my ever-growing love for him. I'm so grateful to be a part of Jude's milestones - to see him crawling, laughing, talking, and walking for the first time. But maybe more importantly, though, I'm glad to be here for the mundane things in his life. Things like a simple game that has us both giggling and makes me say, "I want to remember this forever."

groceries and jumping

jude tames the lion

Apparently I'm all about taking and posting the videos lately! Please enjoy watching my rough and tumble son as he tames this ferocious lion. As you'll hear, he's taken to grunting and fake coughing to get attention and express himself. He was rolling over by four weeks, I think we can cut him some slack in the talking department.

Shawn and I had a lovely and much needed date night last week. Here's Jude after we got him ready to go hang out at Jenn's for the afternoon:

And then we headed to WalMart to stock up on contraband snacks.

Which we took with us to see "Up" in 3D. Very cute movie!


Then we went to Applebees' for some dinner and picked up the boy. We did our best to not talk about Jude, and actually did relatively well. Hopefully now that Jude's on a more consistent routine and is a little more easy going, we can make this date night thing a habit!

peek a boo

Yes, I know he spit up towards the end of the video and I did not, in fact, rush to clean it up. Such is life with a reflux kid. If I cleaned him up right away after every spit up, I wouldn't do anything else. It's best to wait and see if that's the end or if he's got more comin'. You'll be happy to know that I did pick him up right after I stopped videoing and cleaned him. :)

jude pulls up!

A couple of weeks ago, Jude learned how to pull up on his "Bumbo." He's all about it now - pulling up on anything and everything on which he can get his hands! A few disclaimers 1)in the second video, Jude biffs - twice- it's funnier the second time, keep watching 2) sorry 'bout the baby cleavage in the second one. the combination of his pacifier clip pulling the shirt down and his drool/spit up making the front of his shirt soggy means his shirts end up about halfway down his stomach most of the time.


I love how he acts so nonchalant...like he reaches huge milestones every day of the week.





Jude has been doing GREAT lately. He's so much fun as he's interacting more with us. Jude's continuing to sleep from about 8:00pm to about 7:00am every night and he's also continuing to get on a semi-predictable nap schedule. Around 9:00am he takes a nap that's usually 30 mins -60 mins, then around 12:30 he'll take a nap that's 1.5 hours - 2.5 hours (he only took a 2.5 hour nap once, but oh- it was glorious!), and then around 4:00 he'll take a nap that depends entirely on how he's slept throughout the day. If he didn't get a long nap in earlier, he'll take a long nap - if he did get a long nap in earlier, he'll take another 30 min nap.

Not that you asked for those details about Jude's napping schedule, but I'm just SO pleased that he's stopped taking five 20-min naps a day!

Now that we're not worried about his weight, it's nice to focus on just loving Jude and taking care of him. Both of which are definitely our joy.

letter to jude

Dear Jude,



Today, sweet boy, you are eight months old. Daddy and and I can hardly believe how quickly you're growing! In the past month, you've learned how to crawl, how to pull up, how to stick your tongue out and blow raspberries, and how to prettymuch be the cutest boy in the world.



I asked Daddy if he wanted me to relay anything to you, and he wants to say, "You're my best buddy, Jude, and I really love hanging out with you." You definitely have turned from a non-responsive (adorable, but non-responsive) infant to a joyful, interactive toddler. I love watching your face light up when Mommy or Daddy come into the room, and it really is cool to see how much you smile (trying to show off those two impressive bottom teeth, I guess).



Just the other day, you were playing happily while I was cutting fabric. You had pulled up on this play piano toy and were having a blast playing the keys with your stomach and grabbing the toys on top. Out of the blue you stopped, turned to look at me, stuck your tongue out, and smiled. Your face broke out in a grin when I smiled back at you and said, "Hey baby," and then you went on your merry way, playing with your piano again.



In the past month, you've also continued to consistently sleep through the night, AND...you've started taking long naps! Instead of waking up crying, you're waking up and babbling or playing with your pacifier. Looks like we're all very happy with this long nap taking thing, huh?



Eight months ago, you changed our lives, Jude. You've stolen my heart, dear boy, and I pray you never give it back.

Serwa Chic

...I know that while many of you are excited about what I'm doing with Serwa Chic, not all of you check the Serwa Chic Blog often (totally understandable - especially if you're not particularly interested in cloth diapering). Still, this whole business thing is a big part of what's going on with our family, so I thought I'd update you on the happenings. Yes, I copied and pasted this from the Serwa Chic blog. I'm a busy gal, gimmie a break!

Oh my, have I been busy! You know, I never thought of my myself as an entrepreneur (and just in case you're wondering - yes, I did have to look up how to spell that word), but it turns out that I apparently had a latent businesswoman in there, just waitin' to bust out.Thanks to all of your blog comments, facebook comments, and emails - I now have a tagline! It looks like you guys were tied between: Super Chic. Super Cheap. Earth Friendly Diapering and ...for the earth loving, money saving hippie in us all, both of which were my favorites as well. After much thought, I ended up deciding on......

...for the earth loving, money saving hippie in us all

mostly because it makes me laugh. :) You all gave me such great ideas, and I really did have so much fun thinking through the possibilities.In other news, I also now have an official website! No longer do I need to direct people to a blog to get information (which can get confusing - having to scroll down and find the right entry to find info is a pain), I can now tell people to visit http://www.serwachic.com/! How cool is that?!

One of the reasons it took me so long to get a website up and running was because I wasn't sure how to allow people to order from the website. After looking at a ton of ecommerce solutions and packages, I decided to integrate my "Products" page with hyenacart. I figured it was silly to pay a ton of money (which would translate in having to charge more) for an ecommerce package when hyenacart works great, can be customized to fit in really well with the website, and has very low fees. With hyenacart, you can pay with PayPal, Credit Card, Bank Account, Check, or Money Order. So to order, check out the Products page of our new website, and if anything is a pain or confusing - please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it.

It might be hard to believe that news could get ANY more exciting than a new tagline and a new website, right? Oh, but that's where you'd be wrong, my friend. You see, Serwa Chic Fitted Diapers will soon be stocked at O Baby Organics in Winston-Salem, NC! Can you believe it?! I'm working my rear-end off at the moment to get the diapers made as quickly as possible and am really looking forward to seeing them stocked in a store. I would include lots of exclamation points at this point, but it would require at least two hundred to express my excitement, so we'll just suffice it to say that I'm SUPER excited! Hmmm...could I use a form of the word "excited" any more times in a paragraph?

4th of July

We had such a fantastic 4th of July this year! Shawn's Mom and Nan (Grandma) came down to stay with us for the weekend. We always love having family visit (yep, you can officially count that as a hint to all you Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandparents), and it was really nice to get to spend a holiday with family. Since none of us were really excited about braving the crowds to watch fireworks (and Jude goes down for the night around 8:30), we were happy to have a low-key cookout at the house and watch some fireworks on TV later that night.


"Oh man, you guys are the funniest!"

Aunt Robin, Mamma, Shawn, Jude, Nan, and Jay
Mamma brought Jude back a cute little train from Disney World - Jude loves it!

..he shows his affection by trying to eat it.

...Jude certainly enjoyed "talking." :)

bath time giggles

There's no denying the "boy-ness" of our son. I was squeezing the nasal aspirator in the water, making "farty" noises...and this was the result.

rockin' the 1st percentile

We had a weight check this past Tuesday for Jude, and our little bug weighed in at 15lbs 7oz and 25.5 inches. He's still in the first percentile, but that's actually good news. Doc says that he's gaining weight, but since he's holding steady in the lower range, it probably means he's just a small baby. The fact that his growth curve is consistent and his head is growing just fine both indicate that we most likely are NOT dealing with a metabolic disorder. We had been holding back on the solid food in order to give him as much calorie rich milk as possible, but we now have permission to give him as many solids as he'll take. Bring on the carrots!

I'm sure you can imagine our relief at finally getting some good news after a weight check. Jude seems thoroughly unaffected by everything and is continuing to crawl, wiggle, pull up, and laugh as if nothin's going on.

Jude and I are both incredibly excited that Shawn's finally back from almost two weeks of youth trips. It's hard to describe without getting all mushy how much I missed him, so we'll just leave it with -I missed my best friend and partner. I do, however, have much respect for the single mothers of the world. Being by myself with Jude - sans family down here - was hard. I barely had time to eat most days, and did my best to cram all the work I needed to get done into the 3.5 hours between him going down for the night and me collapsing. I think the most difficult thing was not having someone to pass Jude off to when I found myself at the end of my rope. If we're having a tough day, I usually tell myself, "It's okay. Shawn will be home in five hours, and then you'll have a break. You can make five hours, you can totally do this," (counting down of course, each passing hour) and not having that option was tough. Nonetheless, Jude and I both survived, and I felt a little bit more confident in my mothering and coping skills at the end.

I've included some random pictures - nothing exciting - we were just outside to give Jude a change of pace, and I took advantage of the beautiful sunlight.

He's been sticking his tongue out and kind of covering his bottom two teeth with it. Shawn thinks he's feeling his two teeth with his tongue, I think he thinks he's sticking his tongue out like we do to him. Either way, it's pretty cute.

hi ho, hi ho, it's off to camp we go

This summer is the first summer since I was in 3rd grade that I did not attend or volunteer at camp. Go ahead and call me crazy, but I love me some camp. Even last year, when I was fairly rotund, I still managed to haul my baby carrying self to our church's Jr. High week of camp. I love camp. I love the bunks, I love the lack of technology, I love the time with God through nature, I love the food, I love not wearing make up, I love the zipline, I love being a team leader, I love teaching, I love seeing the same kids coming back year after year and watching them grow. I love me some camp.

This year, though, Jude and I stayed home during camp week and Shawn enjoyed a camp vacation filled with bug bites, sleepless nights, communal showering, and Jr. High kids who haven't quite figured out the wonders of deodorant yet. Jude and I have missed the mess out of Shawn (really, really, really missed him!), but we were able to visit Shawn at camp for the day - thanks to our friend Katie, who let us go with her. Even though it was Jude's first (I guess technically second) time at camp, he knew just what to do.

First things first. Staying hydrated at camp is very important. What Jude doesn't know is that bottle is actually chock full of caffeine. Lesson Number Two? Staying highly caffeinated at camp is also very, very important.

Once you're thoroughly hydrated, it's important that you socialize with other campers. A great way to do so is to play the ever popular game - carpetball.

To really get into the camp spirit, you can even sign your name on the carpetball table or the walls!

You can't forget the awesome teaching and worship times at camp. It's important to pay attention...and to not play with your shoe.

We also got to eat lunch with Daddy and the kids, where Jude was introduced to the fun table games we play at camp during mealtimes. We had a lot of fun, and it was really nice to see Shawn for a little bit. This one wasn't taken at camp, but I just couldn't resist including his cute kissable cheeks -

If you have a free minute, head over the Serwa Chic blog and help me pick a tagline for the business. I'm terribly stuck and indecisive about this - I've been waffling back and forth for days. I'd love to know your opinion : help me pick a serwa chic tagline.

i love saving

You may remember that from 29 weeks on, I was put on modified bed rest when I was pregnant with Jude (a little firecracker even in the womb). After watching a ridiculous amount of Gilmore Girls and catching up on every email I'd ever been sent, I set to work putting our family on a strict budget. We had tried to budget before, but had never been able to really flesh it out and stick to it. Dave Ramsey says that most couples have a "nerd" who loves spreadsheets and numbers and a "free spirit" who hates being told what to do. You should see my Excel files for our personal home budget and for my Serwa Chic expenditures and profits. It's a thing of organized beauty. I won't go into the details of describing the piles of random receipts on Shawn's dresser (that I think makes sense to him), but suffice it to say that I am 100% the nerd, and Shawn definitely qualifies as the free spirit. The difference between this time we tried a budget and the last few times were many: 1)I did it all. We had always tried to do it together before, and we always put it off or did it halfway because we were avoiding the inevitable heated discussion. We were trying to do what every marriage counselor says to do and split the financial record keeping, but it turns out that just doesn't work for us. I keep up with the budget, and every couple of days or so when I'm entering in the numbers and seeing where we are with line items, I email or text Shawn to let him know how much money we have in each category 2)The fears of all of the forthcoming pre-term labor bills scared the pants off of both of us - so we had a very tangible reason to save our butts off 3)I suddenly had a ton of time to track every penny we spent, to put all of our bills on automatic withdrawal, to make a spreadsheet for every month of the next year and half, and to not only put us on a budget, but to look at our account every day, track our spending, and keep us on that budget. I obviously have much less time now, but I've found that I did all the hard work in the beginning - now it's just a matter of keeping us on track and running the numbers a couple of times a week.

Our goal since beginning this budget was to get ourselves so that we can live solely off of Shawn's income. This proved to be harder than we thought, so we're still working on that, but we're getting closer. In the meantime, we're using my income to pay down student loan debt, and save. One of our main goals for savings are our many home improvement projects. You see, we bought our house before the market really crashed when young naive couples everywhere were buying well above their actual price range. By the grace of God, we had the wherewithall to buy a house much below the loan amount for which we were approved, and much below what we could afford with our two incomes. We knew I'd eventually want to stay home with whatever kiddos we'd eventually have, and while we didn't know what exactly that would mean for us financially, we knew it would require a modest monthly mortgage payment and a small, fixer-upper home.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I'm excited. After months of doing our best to stick to a budget, we were finally able to build our savings to a place to actually fix up our fixer upper. Don't get me wrong - there's still plenty of work to be done (the bathrooms and landscaping are the next step, I think), but it's been such a great feeling to see such improvement. Even better is knowing that we're able to pay cash for these improvement - knowing that we worked hard to be disciplined and are now able to see the dividends of that.

I'm not bragging - trust me, we have a loooong way to go before we're financially savvy AND before our home is anywhere near where we'd like it to be - I'm just really, genuinely excited and want to share.

I mentioned in a previous post that we were able to replace our old, very unsafe windows this spring, and our next project was to get a patio built off of the back of our home. Here is the only picture I could find of the back of our house pre-patio. Snow is a big deal in North Carolina, so yes - it warranted a photo:


And here's our new patio! This is the view of our backyard from the door (someday that corner in the top left will be a stellar vegetable garden):
Looking left from the back door:

Looking right from the back door:

And our brand new patio in all its glory (without landscaping - which is our goal for the late fall):

We were so excited, we grilled out the first night it was finished:

In case you're bored with this post (I wouldn't blame you), here's our sweet Judeabug at bath time. We use the nasal aspirator as a toy - it's perfect for shooting water under his neck crevices (which hides all manner of pea flavored spit up, lint, milk, and who knows what other grossness), and he loves holding it. It's a tough life having to choose between the ducky and the "squeezy ball" as we call it:

Daddy's getting ready to suction the nose!

Go ahead - try to resist the baby talk. I dare ya.

Okay, so after the patio was finished, we had a little left over in savings to get me this really cool thing from World Market (that was on sale AND for which we were able to use a 10% off coupon). I have to admit that I don't actually know what it's called. Shawn's called it a buffet, a console, and a few other terms that I don't remember. I just know that I do most of my sewing on our kitchen table. Whereas before I had to pile all my junk into the corner when I was finished, I now have the perfect sewing stuff holder that not only looks lovely, but organizes everything perfectly (nerd alert! nerd alert!).

Those baskets are actually from Matt and Patrice's yard sale and are the PERFECT length to hold the fabric that was randomly piled up in our guest bedroom before:

I'm working on a project right now, so the sewing machine is on the dining room table, but trust me - it fits perfectly right here. And it looks like if we ever wanted to use it as an entertainment stand, we could (that thing at the bottom will eventually be a shelf. The shelf pins were missing in the package, so we're calling to get those sent to us):

And there are three drawers. Perfectly sized to hold: 1)Elastic, Velcro, etc. 2)Microfiber and PUL fabric, and 3)Patterns and thread.

So while the discipline of saying "no" to things is not ever always fun, it's an awesome feeling to be able to finally do some of the bigger projects we've been wanting to do! So please excuse my long winded, picture laden post - I'm just really excited. :)

jude jumps

Just in case you need some more Jude-goodness in your life (and really, don't we all?), feast your eyes on Jude's cuteness jumping in his Johnny jump up. Incidentally, this is about the only time he's been happy jumping in that thing:

Watching this video will be significantly funnier if you sing "Low Rider" to yourself as you're watching:

jude crawls

for evidence that Jude is, in fact, crawling (and that Shawn is the best dad in the world) check it out:

to jude's favorite daddy

I don't know what happened. I turned my back for two minutes, and Jude was typing a blog post on the computer. Crazy kid.

Let me tell you about my Daddy. See, I have the best Daddy in the world. He loves me a whole lot even when I'm being a cranky pants and doesn't ever get mad at me.

This Daddy of mine, we do all sorts of stuff together. He's not a Daddy who is always gone all the time, and I'm really glad for that. He's a Daddy who really likes to take care of me and spend time with me. And you know what? I really like to spend time with him, too. We do lots of stuff together. Daddy likes to read to me:

Sometimes he likes to give me rides on his shoulders, too! Daddy likes to throw me around a lot more than Mommy does, and I love it!




Every once in awhile Daddy will let me watch a game, The Muppet Show, or Yo Gabba Gabba with him! Daddy makes me smile when he gets really excited!

I especially love mornings with my Daddy. I laugh a lot when he peeks out of the covers at me, and we just like to chill together. Mommy is kind of crazy in the mornings, always zipping around and doing stuff. But my Daddy - he gets that sometimes you just gotta chill.

My favorite thing to do is to be held by my Daddy. I love to cuddle with him, and you know what? He makes me feel safe.
My Daddy also really likes to tell me about Jesus. I'm so lucky to have a Daddy who loves God so much.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning, okay? See, before I came along, it was just Mommy and Daddy. They tell me they got a lot of sleep back in those days, but I don't know why they were sleeping when there's so much cool stuff to do in this world! MommyDaddy decided to have me, and they say that they were really excited and a little bit nervous. Mommy tells me she was kind of a basket case (no surprise there), and that Daddy really helped her a lot. That sure does sound like the Daddy I know - strong, steady, and calm. He sure does take great care of Mommy and me.

I remember the first time I saw my Daddy. I knew right then and there that I would be well cared for. I could tell just by looking at him that he loved me a whole lot and would be the best Daddy that he knew how to be.

Yeah, me and Daddy have had a bond since the beginning. Sometimes I get tired of everyone else holding me, and I just want my Daddy. I sure hope I grow up to be like him.

Daddy, you're the best. I know you work hard, and I know you have a lot of expectations on you from other people. I know you are sometimes exhausted, and I'm amazed by how you do everything you do. It means a lot to me that you stay home with me on Mondays and take me into work with you on Fridays. I love spending time with you, Daddy, and I love watching you and learning from you. I love it when you spin me around, when you sing me silly songs, when you teach me stuff, when we have Dancey Dance time, when you make my legs kick back and forth, when you read books to me, and when you give me kisses. You're just about the best Daddy a Judeabug could ever wish for. Thank you, Daddy, for taking care of me and protecting me. I love you so much.