The New Dad Blog

From Florida to the Colorado Mountains

So we have all gone from the warm climate of Florida to the cold and snow of the Colorado mountains in just five days. We drove up Friday afternoon to our condo in Keystone for a long weekend here. Our good friends Francis and Melissa brought their daughter Anna (who is almost eight months old) along and we had my old mate the legendary skibum, Stephen Cassidy along as well.

It was a beautiful weekend in the mountains - it had snowed quite a bit during the week and we had warm sunny days while we were here. Steve and I went skiing both days for a few hours and the snow was awesome. Marcy entertained Jude by playing hide and seek at Border's books and taking him out in the jogging stroller to River Run where he got to walk around.

Jude added a few new words this week. After months of coaching he finally says "Mommy" now, although it comes out more like "Mmmmy." He now says "diaper," and "tractor," dropping the first sound of both words. He is understanding more as well. Tonight I was reading to him before bed and I asked him to point to several objects. He pointed correctly to a hat, tractor, balloon, ball, cupcake, grapes and his toes.

We drive home on Tuesday morning and we have eight days at home before we leave on our next trip to San Diego and Mexico.

Jude Visits Florida Again

Jude is becoming quite the seasoned traveler now with his second trip to Cocoa, Florida to visit Aunt Judy and Uncle Lynn. It was a real family affair as you can see in this photo above. We had Marcy's Uncle Don and Aunt Linda come to visit one day as well as a Marcy's cousin Kim (who is 15 weeks pregnant) and her husband Per. We snapped this photo with everyone on Lynn & Judy's wonderful balcony overlooking the water.

Jude was a real trooper handling the flight well and sleeping through the night while he was there (mostly). We went out for lunch every day and we were able to eat our entire meal while trading off caregiving duties. I took Jude for a walk every day after lunch and the photo here is of Jude walking down the ramp towards the wharf at the restaurant at Cape Canaveral. As you can see Jude enjoyed these after lunch walks.

We had Jude sleeping in their laundry room which worked out well because he had a room to himself that was dark and quiet. Our travel schedule still revolves around Jude's nap and meal needs and with two naps a day we didn't have any big outings. But Marcy and I were able to get out for a few walks. And most importantly all three of us were able to spend a lot of time with Lynn and Judy.

One thing that made this trip easier is that over the past couple of weeks we have been weaning Jude off the bottle. He is now on only one bottle of warm milk a day, the one right before bed. So we only had to bring along one bottle. But his calorie intake continues to increase, while in Florida Jude's appetite increased considerably. Some of his lunches were 50% bigger than they were just a week ago - we suspect he is going through another growth spurt.

We just arrived home three hours ago, and Jude seemed very happy to be home. It was a long day of travel and his first time away from home since his birthday two and a half months ago. On the drive back to Orlando airport Jude was so exhausted he fell asleep within five minutes of leaving their house (and Marcy snapped this photo below) - something he hasn't done in several months. Well, he is going to get plenty of practice at traveling again as we leave for San Diego and Mexico in just 17 days.

Jude Visits Lily in Des Moines

This was a big weekend for everyone. Thursday Marcy flew out with Jude to Des Moines - nothing new there. Then on Friday I flew out and met everyone for lunch at Marcy's parents house. Then the big event - Marcy and I left Jude with them and we flew out for a weekend with each other in Chicago.

The good news is that everything worked out great. Jude liked staying with his grandparents and visiting with his cousin Lily. And Marcy and I had a wonderful time in Chicago staying at the Drake Hotel. We were worried that Jude might not sleep well away from us but he slept like a baby the whole time. In fact he slept better in Des Moines than he does back home in Denver.

Thursday night was our first test night - Marcy went to stay with her sister Mandy's house. This was the first night Jude spent away from both of us, and we were concerned how it would go. We were both relieved when we found out the next morning that he slept all the way through the night and was happy to be having breakfast with Baba (grandma Connie). It allowed us to feel much more relaxed about our trip to Chicago.

Jude enjoyed hanging out with cousin Lily - they were inseparable this weekend. They enjoyed their trips to the store so they could ride in the sports car. And then uncle Nathan started giving piano lessons which seemed like they were a big hit. According to Baba, Jude is "just charming", and he was very well behaved all weekend.

Jude Visits the Pacific Northwest

We are just back from a 5-day trip to Port Angeles for the wedding of Marcy's good friends Amy & Tom. The photo above was taken just after the ceremony on the deck overlooking the ocean (with Canada in the background). Jude did great on this trip, much better than California. Last Wednesday we had a very long day, leaving home at 9:15am and arriving in Port Angeles some 11 hours later. And then he stayed up for a couple of hours while we visited with Amy & Tom. We put Jude to bed at 10pm and he slept straight through until after 7am the next morning.

We stayed at this wonderful B&B called Hidden Haven - it was outside of town on 20 acres and we had our own little cottage. Jude had his own "bedroom" which was actually the laundry that was off the main bedroom. We think this contributed to the good nights of sleep - he had his own room and it was very, very quiet there. Even though Jude had been teething, he only had one episode where he was up for more than a few minutes during the night.

Speaking of teething, Jude's first tooth is officially in and there is another one on the way. His beautiful toothless grin is about to be enhanced with teeth. His first tooth continues to push its way through and while it certainly caused Jude some discomfort it wasn't as bad as we both feared. The teeth are going to be coming in handy as Jude's appetite grows. This past week he developed more of an interest in food, eating more at each meal. He still doesn't like anything with chunks, and the broccoli & quinoa puree Marcy made tonight was not a hit at all.

As I said, Hidden Haven was a great place to stay. Set on 20 acres they had a several ponds stocked with fish, a short hiking trail, a field of wildflowers, and as you can see above, a deer herd. Jude was able to get his first look at some wildlife up close as Marcy fed the deer some bread that the owner provided. We had our own private cottage away from it all surrounded by towering trees and the typical lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest.