The New Dad Blog

Wanna Have a Big Whack With Daddy

When Jude was just a baby he received a set of plastic golf clubs from his Baba and Grandpa in Des Moines. He has grown to really love playing with them. We have a bit of a routine these days. After I get home from work we have dinner and then Marcy puts Anna to bed and Jude and I go downstairs to "have a big whack." What this entails is hitting this orange ping pong ball (which is actually a cat toy) back and forth. Jude will always use the blue putter and I have to use the yellow golf club. Since we have been playing this almost every day now for weeks Jude has become quite good at it. The funny thing is that he plays left handed (even though these are right handed clubs), I have tried to show him the other way but he is not interested.

Tuesday of this past week was my birthday. So we had Summer our baby sitter come so Marcy and I could go out to dinner. When Marcy explained to Jude that he wouldn't see Daddy that night Jude was disappointed. He said, "Wanna have a big whack with Daddy." Made my heart melt.

We have been playing this counting game with Jude and he has now mastered counting to 20. A few weeks ago Jude started spontaneous saying, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7" and we would reply "8,9,10,11,12,13,14". Now, we will just say "One" and he will respond "two" and we will go back and forth all the way to 20. For the first time this week Jude counted to 20 all by himself.

With Easter just a couple of weeks away Marcy got out some Easter decorations. Jude helped put together a little Easter tree and he loved playing with his Easter eggs and the big Easter bunny.

One other development this week was around opening doors. For the first time Jude worked out how to turn the handles on the doors. He still can't do it consistently, but it was quite amusing earlier in the week when Marcy came downstairs, Jude had the back door wide open and said to Marcy, "Where did Lola go?" Lola had escaped but she didn't go far, just into the backyard.

We had a big snowstorm this week with over a foot of snow, the biggest of the season so far. Jude loves the snow, in particular he likes to get out his snow shovel and do some shoveling. He likes to move it from side of the path to the other.

Baba Comes to Visit

Baba (Jude's American grandma) spent last week with us much to the enjoyment of Jude. Of course, she came bearing gifts including this cool new giant firetruck jigsaw puzzle. Jude loved having Baba around, he would wake up every morning and ask "Where's Baba?" if he was up first. Jude spent several hours every day playing with Baba and he was certainly sad when she had to go home. The photo below is Jude looking at Baba as she was peeling him an orange.

It was a big week for Team Renton. We closed on a new house in Park Hill on Friday and with Baba here we were able to get a good head start on packing. We hope to move in about a month. This will certainly be an adventure for us with two young kids. We hope and expect this will be the house that Jude and Anna grow up in.

Back to Jude. The weather has been pretty nice this week. Baba took Jude and Anna out on some long walks and had some play time in the yard. Today was in the high 70's here and we took the kids to the zoo. Jude loves the animals and he is always talking about the zoo. He has so many books with animals it is good to get him out to see the real thing. Today we spent quite a bit of time looking at the monkeys - Jude thought they were hilarious as they swung through the trees.

Jude is really into "letters" these days. This is an activity that we have been doing probably since Jude was 12 months old. We go to the Starfall web site and do their ABC program. Lately Jude has become somewhat obsessed with it, wanting to do it every day. It takes almost an hour to go from A through Z, and we try to limit him to just one run through a day. Below is a photo of Jude doing letters on the couch with Marcy this afternoon.

Painting and a Parade

Marcy bought Jude some watercolor paints this week and he had a blast painting at his table. Our little Picasso created his first masterpiece with brushes. Marcy cleaned everything up and Jude then insisted on painting again, so out came the watercolors again for Jude to do some more painting.

The other big event for the week was the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Denver. Marcy came back from the gym on Saturday morning and seeing that Anna was up announced we were all going downtown to the parade. She had seen some people wearing green and that reminded her of the parade. The parade was in full swing when we arrived but with Jude sitting on my shoulders he had a pretty good view. Jude liked the horses and the blow up monkeys (courtesy of Grease Monkey), but he got bored with it after 15 minutes. We were situated right next to a construction site and that had more appeal for Jude than the parade. In the photo below you will see Jude with his beads and balloon, that he literally carried around all day.

The last week we have noticed Jude really trying to assert himself more. He can be very demanding and when he doesn't get what he wants he can have a major meltdown. We are still using the "quiet place" punishment when he gets like this but it seems to be losing a bit of its effectiveness because often he is very happy to spend time there. In coming weeks we will need to fine tune this strategy for when Jude gets really out of hand.

Jude, the Little Imitator

Jude and I had a big day today. Marcy took Anna to class with her for the day so I spent most of the day one on one with Jude. We had a blast. I asked Jude where he wanted to go and he said to the museum, so we went there first. Then after an hour or so, I asked Jude if he wanted to go to the zoo and he jumped at the chance (they are right next door to each other). The photo above was taken on the carousel ride at the zoo where Jude rode the elephant.

We spent a couple of hours at the zoo and then it was time for lunch so we went to Noodles. This was actually a bit of a milestone for me. While I have fed Jude by myself at home dozens of times this was the first time I had ever been out with him to eat. The meal went well and then we went back home. It was a four and a half hour long outing which I think also makes it the longest time I have been out with Jude. I am not sure who had the best time, he is so fun these days to take places.

I have noticed that Jude is imitating us more and more. This morning he picked up the phone in our bedroom, held it to his ear and said, "hello, this is Marcy." He also takes some floss now and pretends to floss his teeth. Before I take a shower I do some push ups and leg stretches while I wait for the water to warm up. Jude now gets right down with me and performs the exact same exercises now. And of course, he repeats just about everything we say.

As you can probably tell in the photo above Jude had a haircut again this week. Marcy took him and it went pretty well. He had his first sucker which helped keep him in his seat, and he liked it a lot. We think he now associates haircuts with suckers, we will see if he remembers when we take him again in a few months.

Last night Jude took it upon himself to build a tower of blocks. It was very impressive. We have 28 blocks and he managed to pile them all up into the biggest tower he has ever built with no help from us. The photo below is of him adding block number 24. Marcy had to boost him up so he could put the last couple on.

Jude Starts Playing Basketball

Yesterday Jude and I went to the playground and we ran into another father and his young son playing with a basketball. They invited Jude to join in and he had a blast. He would pass the ball to the other kid and sometimes he would just throw it in the opposite direction and run after it. He had such a great time that we decided to buy him his own basketball this morning. In the short time that we have had this ball Jude has learned how to catch it - if I stand close and ask him to hold his arms out he will hug the ball to his chest as he catches it. Marcy took this great shot below as Jude was running towards the camera as we were playing basketball this afternoon.

We have a bit of a routine these days after I get home from work. I usually try and get home by 5:30pm just as Anna is getting to bed. Then I will play with Jude in the basement until Marcy has dinner ready. Then we will go up and have dinner and then there is usually another 20-30 minutes before we have to start the bed time routine, so Jude and I will often head down to the basement again.

Lately, we have been playing lots of ball games. Jude will stand on the landing and throw balls down to me at the bottom of the stairs. He is getting better at throwing and I notice he always throws right handed, so it looks like he will be just like his mom and dad in this way. We just started playing this game this week that Jude loves where he stands on the bed and throws this big inflatable ball off the bed and I try and stop the ball hitting the ground. Jude got better at this game as we kept playing it this week and he even started to fake me out. He would look one way and throw the ball the other.

Jude has started eating some meals at his "special" table in the last couple of weeks. He looks adorable sitting in his little chair and table that are the perfect size for him. What is funny is that he will sometimes sit there but still want to be part of the conversation so he will try and join in from halfway across the room while Marcy and I are sitting at the dinner table. Often, he starts to feel left out, so then he decides to come across and join us and he climbs into his high chair.