baby can read.

i have been so inspired by jude's desire to learn! since we got "your baby can read" in the mail, i have been doing flashcards with him and today, in the car, he watched the accompanying dvd for the first time. he was absolutely mesmerized. and not the vegged-out kind of mesmerization, but the kind where you can tell his little gears are totally turning. his eyes follow relentlessly as the little arrow scrolls from left to right beneath each word, and he smiles in wonder as they show the picture/video clip associated with the word. since yesterday he has learned to not only point to the eyes on his crab toys but to the eyes on almost any animal toy. tonight, i got him to raise him arms by exclaiming "arms up!" (which was on the video). a baby's capacity for learning is simply incredible. my friend christine (and mommy to holden isaac, 2 months) is already doing both an english AND a spanish version of the "head, shoulders, knees, & toes" song. and holden already pays attention. i wish i would have realized sooner how much they absorb at that age!
in addition to a growing understanding, jude is beginning to really imitate language. he says, very clearly, "up" in regards to the light switch when we play the up/down game with it. moreover, tonight he actually tried to mimic me saying "arms up." he's getting pretty impressive at imitating sounds. my mom pointed out today that when she vacuums (even with the dust buster) he hums. and then today while visiting zach's cousins, after i introduced him to brandt, making sure to say his name slowly and clearly as well as pointing at him, jude reached out his arm and spoke (with his best effort) something quite similar. it's just so crazy how quickly this happens. and i am trying to do more everyday to encourage him.
i'm determined to start baby sign language this week, also. i've been telling myself i would for a couple of months now, but like i said, now i'm really inspired! and, don't mistake my intentions in any of this, by the way. i am not doing this to have the "smartest" baby or in order to brag. i am doing this for his stimulation and benefit (though i might brag a bit, lol). and the more articles i read, the more impressed i am by the benefits. babies actually enjoy learning at this stage in their life, so why not take full advantage of that?

and now for a little bit of today...





<3

friends with kids.

it's not even ten thirty yet and already i've been in bed for around two hours. and it's felt soooo good! i snuggled my little one to sleep and dozed off for a bit myself. what's even nicer is that daddy was going to play xbox and fell asleep on the couch instead so when i woke up i got to watch house on bravo AND blog surf without someone complaining that i'm unable to do both at once. whatev. as a woman, i am TOTALLY able to do both... easily. but i do want to point out that i believe this momma multi-tasking thing us girls are capable of is both a blessing AND a curse. you know what i mean. sure, we CAN do it all, but do we want to? heck no. but of course there are mornings like this morning when we've got somewhere to be and i literally have to nag zachary out of bed as jude is climbing over him in a desperate attempt to flee from its confines himself, and then i have to get up and think of everything to pack, pack it, think of more things i forgot, make jude breakfast, change jude's diaper, dress jude, pack even more things i forgot, etc... all while balancing a 24-lb baby (who really just wants down on the floor so he can get into everything i've packed) on my hip. i'm exhausted even remembering it. but thus goes our saturday mornings before kindermusik. which usually results in a fight en route to kindermusik about how i did everything while zachary took a nice, hot shower and brushed his teeth. but then sometime during kindermusik while watching zach hop and dance around the room with jude, i remember that he works hard all week so that i can stay home and i realize i am ok with taking care of his offspring. it's so hard to stay mad at him now that there is a little half-him, half-me crawling around on the floor between us... oh, parenthood.

and this morning was particularly exciting at kindermusik, so i had no time to be mad anyway. zach's friends (and now mine!) matt and emily

brought their 22 month old son, grayson to class. having someone there that we knew on a more personal level made class twice as fun, even though the instructor's four year old daughter was being an absolute nightmare. but i think (i hope!) grayson had a good time.









after class, we decided to take the kids to the park (omg i can't believe i can say things like that now). jude was totally whipped, so he napped on the way...


at the park...












and then we had mellow mushroom pizza... grayson watched a riveting episode of cartoons on his dvd player and jude pouted because he had to sit in the stroller for more than one minute...



and then he KO-ed on the way home...


what a GREAT GREAT GREAT day. i'm so thankful for the sunburn on my cheeks as well as new, interesting friends (with kids!!!)

surviving, somehow.

so i've been trying to update for days... literally. returning from spring break, i've had something major due like everyday. i am so glad this week is over. i will begin with the last draft i saved...

hello, engorgement, it's been awhile... (3.24.10)
apparently jude may be trying to wean himself. at least that's what the articles say. i've found a couple that mention biting in the context that he's been biting, but most are so nonchalant that it really pisses me off. they talk about teething babies biting when they get bored at the end of a feeding, sure. but biting just for the sake of biting? biting as well as starving themselves? not so much. and this momma is going crazy. today, he drew blood. and today, i almost weaned him. he won't nurse, he's barely interested in a bottle, i just can't figure him out. guess i will just have to wait it out...

and that's where that post ended.

now, it's two days later and i'm one much happier momma. miraculously, today he's stopped biting me. i cut his solids down a bit, so maybe that helped?? i'm not really sure to be honest, but i am relieved. nine months of nursing will surely toughen you up, but i am still recovering from the flesh wound, lol.
-i just want to interject here to say that at this moment, jude has rolled himself into such a position on the bed beside me that this is now my view:

i love those little feet...-

so anyway, where do i even begin?
yesterday the Baby Can Read package came in the mail!

because we went to the mall today, i didn't have a lot of time to sift through it but i did grab a few flashcards and went through them with jude a few times. the funny thing is how much attention he pays to them. i figured he wouldn't give me the time of day when it came to something as lame as flashcards with words printed on them, but voila! he loves them. but when he does get tired of playing, he still just wants to eat them...

oh, and we had such a fun time at the mall! he has finally reached the age where he can interact with a mall setting... grabbing clothes and pulling them off of shelves, staring at all the colorful lights and things, taking in all the sounds and smells, and flirting with every dark-haired girl we saw... he's such a ham. but i'm glad i can successfully take him to the mall.


we even made it through dinner at pf chang's, albeit i did have to give him a few morsels of brown rice to play with.

and this was his version of feeding himself. (don't worry, i wiped everything down with sanitizing wipes first! in fact, our waiter apologized for a dirty table before i had to assure him i was just a lunatic germaphobe)

meanwhile, i can't wait to get some pics up of jude's spring/summer wardrobe. what a snazzy kid. thank you, babyGAP and children's place for having such righteous duds.

on another note, jude tried peppers for the first time. it was a yellow, red, and green bell pepper mix, actually. and although i've realized he seems to have the same passive expression in every new food picture, i do think he liked the flavorful peppers.




and he's really digging his high chair...




it's so funny how children seem to make every thing their own. the uniqueness of jude is so amazing. i mean, the foot up on the bar and tray of his highchair? that's something i will still laugh about when he's my age, i'm sure. the way they choose to interact with their environment at this age is the beginning of a real, developing personality and i am having a blast figuring my baby out.
my mellow, man-baby...

who likes to nonchalantly climb on everything...


and pull on my hair/bangs to fall asleep...

and has total static-cling hair all the time...

who loves cords of all sorts...


"hey, do i have to do everything myself around here?!"


my bright and shining angel boy!


and now, i need to get some sleep so that i will make it at kindermusik tomorrow... hopefully i'll have something a little more substantial to say next post. :)