The Lingo

Before we get too far into this, I need to define a few key terms. My family makes up a lot of words that end up being used for decades - generations even. The made-up words that come out of our mouths are usually inspired by fat babies, hence the necessity for me to define them on this blog. Many of you have probably heard them before, and some of you have probably wondered what's wrong with the people who are using them :) The answer is nothing. We're just weird.

Here are a few:

1) Koosy (adj.): This one started on my dad's side - the Geertsmas, a family of 12 - and continues to be widely used by almost all of the ten kids (my aunts and uncles) and their kids (my 40+ cousins on that side). It has even spread to my mom's side of the family. My dad and his sibs are first-generation Americans, and supposedly "koosy" is from a Fries word. It means small, chubby, fuzzy, irresistable, so cute you can't stand it any more, or all of the above.

2) Koos (verb): You can also "koos" someone, meaning you smash your face and lips onto someone's cheeks, non-existent/copious neck, or fuzzy head. For me koosing also involves nibbling on said cheeks and taking a good whiff of koosy-baby scent while I'm at it. Mona gets koosed around here too, in which case we almost suffocate in her fuzzy neck folds. (Obsessed? Yes.)

3) Koosbomb (noun): Someone who is explosively koosy.

4) Boopus: This one came from my mom's dad, Grandpa Dieken. A boopus is a round baby tummy that extends well beyond the waistline.

5) Brutus: A mad baby. (From my dad).

6) Chunky Tuna: My dad used to call Tyler this name as a toddler. A Chunky Tuna is an unusually short, stocky child.

7) One-ton-son: My dad again. (He is prolific with the terminology.) This one means a rather substantial boy baby. Hopefully this isn't culturally inappropriate, but we say it with choppy, forceful syllables that make it sound like a karate move. We joke that it's Jude's "Asian name". (Okay, that's definitely culturally inappropriate.)

8) Fat Bracelet: I think this one originated with me, but I can't be sure. When a roll of chub forms on a baby's wrist, it's obviously a fat bracelet.

9) Pooker-snook: From my mom. It pops out of her mouth whenever she sees Jude, and I think she called Grant a pooker-snook for awhile too. It's just something she calls a baby she likes a lot.

10) Bunners: A baby's butt. I think this one is from my Aunt Marian.

11) Package: It's not what you think. A package is a small, compact baby, usually when dressed in a sleep sack that makes him/her look like "a sack of potatoes" (there's another term right there).

12) Diaper Butt: A butt that is significantly enlarged by the presence of a bulky diaper.

I'm sure there are more, and if you think of any to add to my list, send them please.

(No Aunt Bonita, I'm not going to add "reg" or "reeg" or whatever to this list. It's obscene ;)

Additions:

Uncle Fester - a baby with a fat face and very little hair.

Needs Johnson - a whiner.

Twinkle Toes - when a baby haltingly walks on his or her tip-toes.

(Dictionary pic from woodywoodcutter.wordpress.com)

It's Friiiiidaaaaayyy...

That's right, it's Jude in a Hat. In typical proud-mama style, I couldn't pick just one.

And then this super fat one:

Rachel Dieleman made this hat with her own two hands

The Adventures of a Chicken

I received a complaint on my last post that there was not enough about Jude on this blog. Are you serious?! So one post in 100 was about something other than the baby. (It was from a Grandpa...go figure.)

You people are insatiable.

Here's a little morsel to tide you over, if only for a few minutes. It's a short video of Jono reading Jude one of his favorite books.



There was a small interruption here... I turned the camera off because I didn't want to bore you. But then he decided to bust out the cute again. Someone has a short attention span:



Now let me live my life for a few hours!

(Just kidding Grandpa K -- it's my pleasure :)

New Ride

Oh yeah. Don't act like this isn't the coolest car you've ever seen.

It's a 2001 Subaru Forester, 93,000 miles. Which for a Subaru is like, 70,000 miles ;) Radio, tape deck, sunglasses holder...the works. Many a family vacay will be taken in this beauty. We could fit a carseat, booster seat, and ten-year-old in the back seat, along with camp gear and a husky in the wagon part.

No mini-van or SUV for us -- the wagon is back. Just roll with it.

Jude in a Hat (BOGO)

I went to the grocery store and found a two-for-one deal on pumpkins and tomatoes. Couldn't pass it up.

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P.S.

For Tyler

He loves the dog :)

Jude Gets Baptized

Spit-up

Sorry about the baby talk. It's how I get him to smile :)

Jude in a Hat

Here's your Friday "Jude in a Hat" fix. I'm so grateful to whoever invented balls on top of hats. Bon appetit my friends!

Renaissance Man

So lately Jude has been my little Renaissance Man. All you mamas probably know what I'm talking about here. One day your baby is lying there slobbering as usual and the next he's picked up ten new abilities. You're thinking "Where was I when this started happening?" I was talking to my neighbor yesterday about that and she said, "Yeah, three months is one of those times when that happens." Jude is kickin' into high gear development-wise, and it's fun to watch.

Here are a few of the new things he can do:

• Huuuuuge smiles. These days they look like giant slices of watermelon.



• Laughing. When I nibble his cheeks and neck and make scary noises while I do it, Jude give me this frantic, out-of-breath giggle. He also does this when I squeeze his fat little legs.



• Reaching and grabbing. He did this for the first time this past weekend. We were at my parents' house and he was sitting on my mom's lap at the table. In extreme slow motion, he sloooooowly reached for and grabbed onto a ball of tin foil. The look of concentration on his face was hilarious.



• Putting things in his mouth. Now that he can grab things, they make a direct flight into his mouth so that he can find out more about them.



• He's been "standing" since he was three weeks old, but now he can stand up for a long time while holding on to two of our fingers. He looks like such a big boy when he does this, and I can hardly stand it.



• Feeling self conscious and being dramatic. He knows when we're looking at him and starts to act either bashful or needy once he realizes he's caught our attention. He'll also do a kind of fake cry that means he's not really upset... just bored.



• Pulling faces. He has all these new ones now, including one where he pooches out his lips, and another where he sticks his tongue way out so he can feel it on his chin, or catch any airborne lint that might be flying by.



• Playing by himself. He's getting better at this. Now I can leave him under his Baby Einstein play-gym thing, or even on a blanket on the floor, and he'll look around, suck on his fists, and entertain himself.



• Knowing where I am at all times. He follows my every move with his eyes, and will turn his head at impossible angles to keep track of me.



• Being propped. He can hold his head up well enough now that I can prop him in a sitting position. It's a new view of the world and he loves it.
  

Jude is acting so grown up lately that Mona jumped the gun on it a bit. When she wants to play, she'll bring one of us her stuffed weiner-dog toy so that we'll throw it for her. Well, the other day she actually brought it to Jude while he was sitting propped up in one of our chairs. I'm not kidding. She wanted Jude to throw it for her. Of course he just stared at her like, "Duh, I'm an infant."

Jono and I keep saying how we can't believe he's only been around for three months. It seems like he's always been with us now. But then I think about how there are things in my fridge older than he is (like soy sauce, not leftovers), and it seems weird.

Chi-town

We actually went on a trip last weekend: a trip out of Michigan. It's been a good long while with the move and the whole childbirth and newborn thing we've been engaging ourselves in lately. It was Jude's first time out of the state. We went to see our friend Sarah for her birthday (she turned 30, and I'm almost 29...whoa...) and our other friends Jan and Becky. I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few:

Rising, shining in Sarah's apartment...

I have no idea why this picture is popping in here upside down, but I'm posting it anyway because it's funny. Sarah's cat Bolyn was really into Jude. He sat right next to him and curled his skinny tail gently around Jude's ear.

This is me with Bolyn, sporting my new 'do. I tried cutting it myself to save money - it was a disaster - so I had it fixed at an actual hair place, which I would now recommend to any cheap Dutch person, regardless of how broke they are. Now I have bangs for the first time since 7th grade. (Here's a post about girls with bangs on one of my fave blogs, SWPL. It's funny.)

On Saturday we went to Heartland Cafe for breakfast. Great place, but it really should be called Heartland Cafe for Pinkos. A local radio station was interviewing this chick near our table who was talking about Bush and Obama being co-conspirators for The Empire. At the attached gift shop next door they were selling Che Guevara t-shirts for toddlers, and the tags had pictures of a two-year-old with his fist raised for revolution - ha ha! (Never mind that Che executed hundreds of people. Not to mention he was against selling t-shirts and other capitalist schemes- ha.) 

 

They were a little too uptight for the flavor of our morning -- a good friend, a cute baby, and a giant breakfast burrito :)

Jan and Becky took us to Fat Willie's, a great BBQ joint, where I had my first beer in over a year. Paaaaartyyyyy!!!! Don't get too excited: it was a Pabst Blue Ribbon for $1.50. But the brisket was divine.

Having a kiddie in tow kind of changes things -- you can still go out, but not as spontaneously, and when you do people have completely different reactions to your presence. As we went into the BBQ place, two burly guys in urban-chic graffiti t-shirts stumbled all over themselves to get the door for me, and then bashfully peeked into Jude's carseat to get a look at him. As we waited in line, two twenty-something girls slobbered over him and talked about being jealous of their brother's pregnant girlfriend. Anyone will talk to you when you have a baby, and it's kind of endearing.

So that was our trip. Many more of those to come I hope. I don't want to stop having adventures because of our new life with Jude...I want to continue doing most of the stuff we used to do with Jude included. It'll make for a better childhood anyway. Come on Spring :)

Lickety Splickety

Old Things

I like old things. For Jude's baptism I wanted him to wear something with history. When I was at my parents' place recently I found something perfect: an ancient onesie my Grandpa Dieken wore when he was a wee one in Iowa. It's cream colored with brown and yellow stitching around the collar, and there's a little precocious-looking squirrel on the front. My mom says that my great grandma stitched the squirrel, so that's Jude's great great grandma (we're reaching back as far as we can).

The squirrel:

I'm wrapping him in the blanket I was baptised in:

So Jude will be welcomed into the Kingdom in his mama's blanket and his great grandpa's clothes. I like that :)