Claustrophobic Mona

On the drive home from camping in the Upper Peninsula...

I can't stop laughing.

A Sampling from the Peanut Gallery...

Quote-Unquote:


When it's raining: "It's waining."
When it's sunny: "It's sunning! It's sunning in my eyes!!"

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"Daddy is crunchy." (i.e. stubbly.)

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"Shall we go?"
(Repeated often while wiping away tears during our latest ER visit - asthma related - which of course included rectal temp-taking.)

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"Nice boobies, Mommy."
(Also, "Oooooo, boobies!!")

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"Oooo... I like your boots, Mommy. Do you like my boots?"
(Also, "Do you like pine needles? I like pine needles", etc.)

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"Don't touch my belly button!"

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After kicking Mona in the neck and getting reprimanded for it: "Can I say sorry to Mona?"
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"I want Larry the Cucumber." (asking for a cucumber slice)

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I'm a Wumor Weed! (yelled enthusiastically after Veggie Tales line, "I'm a Rumor Weed!)

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Pointing at his foot: "There's my tiny fweckle."

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"Daddy's big. Mommy's big. Jude is little."
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J: "I wanna play hhhing-hhhong."
M: "What's hing-hong?"
J: "A little ball."

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"I don't like my double chin. I wanna take it off." [pulls at chin]

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"I'm not a lumberjack. I'm Bob!"

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Okay then. I love you, Bob. Keep 'em coming.

Jude on Harmonica

This went on for about an hour. (Mona's like, "Heeeeyy yaaa'llll.)

Alfalfa

A Hike with Pops

That's his happy sound.

Our "No-TV Rule"

Ahem.

Jude was real crabby the other day, so we sat him down on the living room floor and put in a baby DVD. We've only done this once before when he was sick. (Generally he's not allowed to watch TV, but we made an exception because he was in the foulest of foul moods. Plus an age-appropriate DVD doesn't count as TV, does it? I'm saying it doesn't).

It definitely looks like we let him watch the Kardashians on a daily basis. But these were so stinkin' cute and he looks so tiny in them, I couldn't resist (with the necessary explanation, or course). Click to enlarge.

P.S. We try not to be totally anal about things. Once Jude has passed his major developmental milestones (around age 3 or so) we'll be a little more lax on the TV viewing. A little. As in Sesame Street. But not Barney. "But what if he likes it?" I don't care. He won't know whether he likes it or not. Because he'll NEVER SEE IT :)

Jumping

It took Jude awhile to get how this thing works, but at about 9 months he stopped fussing about it and started LOVING IT. We always have music on in the background while he's in there so he can "dance". (He is busting moves left and right these days, I'm serious.)

Notice the BFF action? Yeah. Except his new thing is to slap her in the face. We are starting to teach the concept of "gentle" but it hasn't set in yet ;)

BFFs IX

Just chillin' on the front porch. Mindin' our own business.

Where do I put this stuff?

At first this photo will not make sense in this post.

Things found on my (makeshift) pantry shelves:

• screws (assorted sizes)
  
• blocks of wood
• phone book
  
• plaster dust
• dog food
  
• pieces of wall
• paint rollers
• paint brushes
  
• bag of bread heels
• old kitchen hardware
• Mona's Christmas hat collection
  
• tape measure
• breast pump
• broken cutting board
• beer-making kit
• binoculars
  

Things I would like to have on my pantry shelves:

• cans of soup
• other non-perishable, edible items
  
• Mona's Christmas hat collection (there is simply no good place for this)

Jono is working really, really hard to finish our kitchen cupboards before he no longer has access to his crew's carpentry shop. He is gone all day and night.

The end is near...

The photo is of Mona as a puppy sporting her first "Christmas hat". She now has a green Santa hat (it says "spoiled"), a couple of pairs of reindeer antlers with bells, and a yellow beach visor. We did not buy her any of these items. Just FYI.

A Story, Just For You

I missed Friday's "discovery", so to make up for it I'll tell you a story. It's a true story about Mona and a cat.

The neighbor cat is really a kitten. His name is Tanner, and he is no more than a few months old. This kitten occasionally traipses up the steps and onto our front porch where we are sometimes hanging out, just the four of us.

When the kitten comes up the steps, this is what happens. Mona freezes in place. The kitten is curious and begins his approach.


Mona's next move is an interesting one, considering she is a full-grown husky who is often mistaken for a wolf, and Tanner is a tiny kitty with light-brown stripes and trembly white whiskers. Mona slinks underneath one of our chairs, lies down, and averts her eyes. She is terrified of that kitten. If the kitten attempts to come closer (he often does because he is a brave kitty) Mona looks at the ground and stops breathing until he moves on.

When the kitten takes his leave, Mona will eventually come out and sniff around the corners of the porch, but she will not set foot on the porch steps until she is DEAD SURE that cat is gone. Preferably in another solar system.

That is the story. Like I said, it's 100% true. I hope you enjoyed it. I know we did, as it happened.

BFFs VIII

My favorite part of this picture: Jude's hand disappearing into Mona's neck.

We Bust Out the Family Tent

This past weekend we took Jude on his first camping trip. We found a secluded place next to a small lake with lots of trees. Jude liked it. He loves to be outside. And Mona actually stuck around. We didn't even need to tie her up. Judging by her behavior around Jude at the site, we think it might be because of him. She was very protective and kept checking on him while he was napping, etc.

I rarely (okay, never) plug products on this blog, but KidCo Pea Pod tops my list of baby gear, especially if you like to haul your little one out into the woods and to the beach. We call it his "baby tent", and it comes with a tiny, thin blow-up mattress. Jono's step-mom found it for $5 at a garage sale. We just plopped it under a nearby tree and let him nap in it. Didn't have to worry about mosquitoes or ants, and it provided adequate shade for him without being too stuffy. He even spent half the night in it. (Yes, half. But we'll get to that later.)

Above: Mona is "guarding" Jude while he sleeps in his baby tent.

All was well until night fell. It was still hot as the dickens, so we stripped Jude down to a onesie and tried to put him down alone in the tent. He cried. It was too hot. There were a bunch of bullfrogs around making an ungodly racket. After about ten more tries in various settings, we gave up and I held him in my arms until he fell asleep. Jono said, "Camping isn't as relaxing as it used to be."

Fifteen minutes after we put Jude down again, Mona got up from her spot in the dirt, sidled up to the tent entrance and whined. Apparently she knew her pillow was in there and was begging to go to bed. We joked that we were putting our two kids down in the tent together while we stayed up by the fire. What a dog.

After we turned in, Jude lasted an hour or two longer in his baby tent, but then fussed and had to be put in my sleeping bag with me for the rest of the night since it had now become quite chilly. So we laid there and shivered, then eventually sweated, all the while listening to the frogs croak all night louder than I knew was possible. A restful evening was had by all.

The next morning we woke up and it was Father's Day. Happy first year of being a daddy Jono. You're about as good as it gets :)

Here are the rest of them, plus a video where Jude tells Mona "no":

P.S. If you click on the album, you can see the photos nice and big, with captions.

Earthy

Things are looking spic and span in our backyard these days. It's shady back there now that the leaves on our big oaks have come in, so we have lots of shade-friendly plants like hostas and ferns sprouting. For the same reason we planted most of our garden plants in pots so that we can move them around for maximum sun exposure if we need to.

If you look closely you can see a marked difference between our yard and the neighbor's on the other side of that chain-link fence. I only point this out because it is not my doing. Yard-puttering runs on the Klooster side.

In the pots we have four tomato plants and four bell pepper plants. In the raised bed we planted green beans, peas, carrots and onions from seed. I also have some herbs in pots on our back deck: thyme, peppermint and basil.

Clockwise from top left: Peas, Onion, Green Beans and the raised bed.

I'm growing the beans, peas and carrots for Jude because I don't feel like shelling out the dough for store-bought organic stuff, and pesticide residue is hard on baby tummies. If we get pests on our plants I'll pulverize them with a lethal mixture of veg oil, garlic and red pepper flakes (booo-ha ha ha haaa!). Recipe to follow if I run into this problem.

With all the food scares we're getting every year now (thanks for your good work FDA), we figure it's best to grow your own grub if you can. If the garden doesn't work out because of all the shade, we'll join a CSA next year. (If you live in our area, here's a good one.)

Speaking of organic and living on the cheap, I came across a list released by the Environmental Working Group of 12 fruits and veggies that are best to buy organic because of high pesticide use ("the dirty dozen"), and 15 fruits and veggies that you can get away with buying conventional without compromising your stomach lining ("the clean 15"). It's on my fridge, and I find it very handy. You can also print out a wallet-sized list from their site.

BFFs VII

Tree Hugger

I don't know about you, but our weekend was fantastic.

On Saturday we went to the farmer's market for opening day of the season. Jude wore his spiffy knit mukluks (Thanks Aunt Jessie ;) The Schnitz Deli is on our way over there, and there was a couple sitting at a table out on the sidewalk. As we passed the guy said, "Look at that." His girlfriend said, "Oh my gosh." Then they both started laughing. We have to be careful. He may cause car accidents in these.

We went for our first Spring hike together on Sunday. We even skipped church to do it (shhh). I promise you we did not brain wash him into this, but it's official: Jude is a tree hugger. Now that he can face forward in his baby carrier, his new thing on walks is to reach for everything we pass and try to grab it.

He also has taken to sputtering with delight on every walk. It's hard to describe what sputtering is, but he gets so excited that he starts making a "pbbthhhht" sound with his lips. Spit starts flying everywhere, the droplets airborne and glistening in the sunlight. After a good sputter he gets a sloppy grin on his face. You can hear him doing it for a second in Part I of the video footage (below).

Here are a few pics of our tromp through the woods at Seidman Park.

See that green stuff? What is that?

Jude is looking in the river.

Tromp tromp tromp...

Tromp tromp tromp...

See, I told you!

I took some video footage out there too. You can probably guess what my subject was.

Hike Part I:

Hike Part II:

Hike Part III:
(Turn up the volume on this one.)

BFFs VI

Perfect

This and That (but Mostly Poo)

We went for a little walk this morning so that Mona would poo. I needed a stool sample for her vet appointment. She didn't provide, so after the walk I puttered around the backyard for awhile looking for a sufficiently fresh-looking deposit. Hers isn't the only poo I must look at on a daily basis. My life revolves around poo, it would seem.

We enjoyed being outdoors anyway even though the weather continues to be total crap. Jude went face-forward in the baby carrier for the first time and looked pretty hilarious, so of course I had to capture the moment. (We needed to wait until he could hold his head up well to do this.)

Mona gets excited when we go to the vet because she gets treats from the receptionist in the lobby. However, during her shots today she needed three people to hold her down and me to stand by her head speaking to her in soothing tones. She threw a big fit about it and wasted one of the shots by smacking it out of the vet's hand. She also made a huge racket with her husky "yowls", and the vet said, "Huskies are wimpy." (Exact words.)

"Get away...."

Anyway, she's all caught up on her shots now and was quite pleased with herself on the car ride home. She continues to maintain her weight of 43.5 pounds, which is almost exactly how much she has weighed since we got her over four years ago. It's like she's counting calories or something. It would seem so: her habit is to take a few pieces out of her bowl at a time and move them to a different location in the house where she chews each piece individually. It takes her about 30 minutes to finish a bowl. We're constantly stepping on pieces of dog food that she left in the kitchen, on the living room rug, in the entryway, EVERYWHERE - where they turn to dust and grind themselves into a powdery mess. Super annoying.

In other news, Jude rolled over last week at four months. I didn't even see it the first time. I was sitting on the floor next to him while he was having tummy time, but I was talking to Jono instead of looking down at him. While I was in mid-sentence, the top of his down-covered head brushed against my wrist. When I looked down he was on his back with a surprised look on his face. He did it again a few minutes later. Very impressive :)

I haven't spoken of this much on the blog, but I've been back to work part-time since Jude was about 2.5 months old. I get to work from home, which is pretty ideal, except it's all I can do to find more than 15 minutes straight in which to work uninterrupted. However, I'm very spoiled on certain days when our dear, dear Aunt Kathy (that's great aunt to Jude) takes him every Monday for at least three hours. We love love love her. Jono's mom Jan comes most Fridays for awhile, and Jono's step-mom Jan plans to come every other Tuesday now to watch him all day while I log some hours. These people are true blessings and I can't thank them enough. XOXO. You're saving me some serious headaches (and now we can go on vacation sometime with my earnings - woot!) My mom feels bad she can't come more often, but she works 50+ hours a week and still manages to spend time with Jude on weekends so that I can catch a break (thanks Mom ;)

I felt it was time for a quick update that wasn't just photos of Jude, so there you are. More photos of Jude will ensue.

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.

Lickety Splickety