The New Dad Blog

Puddles and Fountains

It has been well documented on this blog about Jude's love of water. After mowing the lawn this afternoon Jude decided he wanted to go and play in the puddle in the alley behind our house. He was running and jumping and I snapped that photo above just as he landed a big jump.

On Tuesday afternoon I got home early from work because Marcy wanted to meet a friend in Boulder and I took this opportunity to take Jude and Anna to the museum which is now less than a mile away from where we live. Unfortunately we were only there 15 minutes before it closed but I was able to avoid any problems with Jude by promising some time in the fountains that they have outside. He jumped at the chance and he had a ball playing in all the water. I hadn't planned for this and had no towel or change of clothes but it was a warm day and Jude was fine taking the sort ride home in wet shorts.

One funny thing happened yesterday with Jude. Before he could talk we taught Jude some rudimentary sign language, for words such as milk, more, please and all done. He was having some cereal yesterday and he spontaneously did the sign for more. Since he learned language so early we haven't done sign language in well over a year. We then asked him if he remembered any other signs and he new the sign for all done. Funny the things that stick in the brain.

Jude is very excited tonight because he knows tomorrow he gets to go on an "airplane ride" as he calls them. Marcy is taking Jude and Anna to Des Moines to spend some time with her family and I will join them on Friday. This is first time they have been away since Anna was born and I will miss them all terribly. But it will also be nice to have some quiet time to myself, something I have not had in a long time.

Jude Picks up a New Sport

Marcy had Ridhwan this weekend so I had Jude and Anna all to myself Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday. So I thought I would introduce Jude to our pool table. The beautiful pool table came with our house and is in fantastic condition. Needless to say, I didn't actually let Jude use the cue - that was just for the photo op. But he had a blast standing on his stairs and just rolling the balls into the pockets. We played "pool" for over an hour.

One other thing I hadn't done before this weekend was take Jude and Anna on a wagon ride. We have this great little wagon with a top hood to protect from the sun. I took Jude and Anna for a wagon ride up to the playground. They both have to wear seat belts so they can't move around too much and it is really an easy way to get them places around home. And they look so darn cute sitting there.

Spending so much time this weekend I was struck by how his language keeps developing. He can communicate very well with 10-15 word sentences quite common these days. I also noticed how his eating habits have changed a bit. His meals (for the most part) are bigger and he mostly goes without a snack these days between meals. His favorite food is still "rice & beans & guacamole (& cheese)" at Chipotle, which he has 2-3 times a week. These meals are a lot of food for an adult and sometimes he can almost finish it. Here he is on Friday evening when we went out and he finished about 90% of his dinner.

I am not sure if I have mentioned on the blog yet Jude's obsession with car washes. He loves to go to the car wash and often he will build a car wash out of his blocks and pretend to send all kinds of vehicles through there. Also, during story time many times he will want to hear a story about car washes and all the crazy vehicles (such as rocket ships, diggers, cranes and fire trucks) that go through them. This afternoon we went to the car wash to clean my car and when we got home Jude started pretending to send all his toys through the car wash. Here he is using his tape measure as a vacuum cleaner as he is about to send his green garbage truck through the car wash.

Popsicles and Playing in the Water

Jude was introduced to these huge popsicles they had at the Keystone store in River Run and he really enjoyed it. Baba (Connie - Jude's grandma) captured this great video of Jude and Lily telling us they liked their popsicles.

Jude and Lily were inseparable most of the week (much to Lily's dismay sometimes). They played together all the time with Jude being old enough now that they could do many of the same things together. Both Jude and Lily love the water and there was plenty of it around our place in Keystone. The snow melt had a channel right in front of our place that was blocked up and made a fun little "pool" for Jude and Lily to play in.

The week went by fast and by Friday morning it was time to go home. We were curious to see if Jude would continue his morning routine of climbing into our bed at daybreak like he did every morning in Keystone. Sharing the same bedroom seemed to be the impetus for that - because in the two mornings since we have been back he simply calls us in when he is ready to get up, just like he did before.

These days we can't leave Jude and Anna alone at all. While Jude is very loving to Anna some of the time he can also be quite aggressive, sitting on her, pushing her over and even occasionally banging her head on the floor. If we are home when they are both awake much of the time is spent doing an intervention between the two of them. Sometimes I think Jude just wants to play but he doesn't realize he is being rough, then other times I think he is frustrated with Anna and is actually trying to hurt her. Then there are times like this afternoon when Marcy caught this great moment of Jude leaning over to kiss Anna on the swing on our deck.

Jude Gets a Visit From Lily and the Des Moines Family

Jude's fondness for his cousin Lily was evident from the moment they arrived from Des Moines. They held hands virtually nonstop for the first hour they were together. And now after a couple of days they sometimes get sick of each other but there is still a lot of hugging and playing together. The above photo is a still from a quick video I did of them hugging - and here is a video of them dancing in the rain together.

Jude was really getting into his finger painting tonight as you can see above. We had green paint everywhere including his face, arms and hair, and there was some on the paper. Lily and Jude have been playing together constantly since we arrived in Keystone. Below is a photo of them playing Connect4 together yesterday.