The New Dad Blog

Jude Settles in to His New Home

This week was focused on unpacking and settling in to our new home. Baba left on Tuesday (she was a godsend in helping us move and unpack) and Jude missed one of his favorite playmates. We have been making progress (when I say we, I really mean Marcy - she has done 95% of the work since Baba left) and on Friday we got the backyard setup for Jude. As you can see above we have the sandbox, Jude's playhouse, slide, tent and T-ball set all setup. We played in the backyard on Friday afternoon for the first time.

Jude is slowly making the transition to the "big boy" bed (a blow up mattress on the floor). The last two days he hasn't slept in his crib at all and I would say half the time this week he slept in his big boy bed. If we weren't going to Australia in 10 days we would probably disassemble the crib and just leave him the mattress but we know sleep will be challenging over the next month so we are leaving everything as is for now.

Jude hasn't been feeling well this week, he has had a runny nose and cough for a lot of the week. But he is still in good spirits most of the time, he just has a short fuse. When he gets upset he always asks for his mommy, he really appreciates and needs her love and support.

Blue Bear and Rhinoceros

Jude has become very attached to two of his stuffed animals lately. He doesn't have names for them, he just calls them "Blue Bear" and "Rhinoceros." But these days they go everywhere Jude does. Marcy snapped this picture on the couch earlier in the week with Jude cuddling up to them. It has taken a while for Jude to become really attached to his animals - he has gone through phases where he liked one or another but Blue Bear and Rhinoceros have been his constant companions for a while now.

The big news of the week was the move to our new house. Yesterday in the midst of a spring storm in Denver we move from Clarkson Street to our new place in Park Hill. Luckily we didn't get a huge amount of snow, it just rained all day. But it was a big day for everyone including Jude. Below is a photo I took as we were leaving the old house for the last time - you can see Jude has Blue Bear and Rhinoceros under each arm.

We didn't do the move with two young kids all alone thankfully. Baba came out from Des Moines to help, which has worked out wonderfully for everybody. Jude loves hanging out with Baba, so this helped him cope amid all the craziness. Below is a photo from this afternoon with Jude, Anna and Baba having some fun on the couch.  

Easter in Des Moines

We spent Easter weekend in Des Moines where, as you can see above, Jude and Lily dressed up as the Easter bunny and became smitten with each other. Ok, well we did encourage them to kiss, we thought it would make a great photo and I think we were right.

We arrived in Des Moines on Thursday and it was a full four days. We were staying at Marcy's parents house (Baba and Grandpa) and Jude had a blast. He loves playing with Lily and I noticed with this visit that they were really able to play well together a lot of the time. They would chase each other around the house, jump on the bed together, play in Lily's tent, and did lots of Easter related activities together. Jude had his first try at coloring Easter eggs (with Aunt Mandy) and as you can see below we stripped both Jude and Lily down so they wouldn't color their clothes, just the eggs.

Jude went on two different Easter egg hunts. Here is a video of Jude at the Easter egg hunt this morning at Lily's house. Yesterday we went on a big community Easter egg hunt with hundreds of kids. But the big highlight for Jude was the firetrucks that were there. They had four fire trucks, one with a big ladder, and Jude even got to try on fireman's boots for size (while he was dressed in his bunny outfit!).

One milestone of this trip is that Jude slept in a "big boy" bed for the first time. When we first got to Des Moines Jude wouldn't go down for his nap in the pack'n'play so Marcy had the idea of just lying next to him while he lay down in Lily's bed, which is a little blow-up bed on the floor. He fell asleep and slept there for a couple of hours. Then later that night we gave him the option of sleeping on Lily's bed again and he decided it was a good idea. All in all he slept in the "big boy" bed half the time we were there. When we move next weekend, we will definitely be setting up a bed like that in Jude's room so he can used to it and make the transition maybe over the next couple of months.

The Annual Trip to the Denver Car Show

Jude and I went to the car show this morning. We both had a blast. Jude loved seeing all the cars and trucks and he also received a special treat as you can see above. They had a big semi-trailer there and they were teaching people about driver safety but at the same time letting kids sit in the drivers seat of these big trucks. They also had a big inflatable fire truck with a slide for kids to go down that Jude loved - he cried when we had to leave that one. They had a section devoted to monster trucks and I snapped this photo below of Jude being dwarfed by the wheels on this big SUV.

Jude is very much a mommy's boy these days as he enters what has been called the Oedipal stage. From my understanding of childhood development this is where a child wants to show his love for the parent of the opposite sex and gets jealous if that parent shows love to someone else. We have seen this clearly with Jude lately. When Marcy and I hug in front of him he gets uncomfortable and says, "Bye Daddy." He definitely wants Marcy to himself. The last couple of weeks Marcy has done the bedtime routine every night with Jude, as we always give him a choice to do it with Mommy or Daddy. He hasn't chosen me for some time now.

The funny thing is when Marcy is not around he is just as loving towards me as ever. We have a lot of fun and he often asks for hugs and kisses from me. And if Marcy goes out he is happy to do the bedtime routine with me. It is just if she is around he prefers to spend time with her. I know this is a temporary phase and I have some understanding what is going on which helps, but sometimes it is not easy to see Jude's obvious preference for Marcy these days.

We have always known Jude is a very affectionate boy. He is showing his affection more and more with Anna these days. Every day he wants to kiss her and give her hugs. Yesterday he tried to give her a big body hug by climbing on top of her and Marcy snapped this great photo. Luckily Anna seems to quite enjoy the attention.