Great Lake Swimmers

We saw these guys (and a girl) play last night at the Ladies Literary Club. It's not just for ladies any more.

I bought their first album a few years ago after hearing it at a friend's house. It made me feel all whispy and haunted and melancholy and good. They're from Toronto, they were captivating live, and I'm getting more of their albums STAT.

Listen here. If you want.

A Hike with Pops

That's his happy sound.

11 Months!

I'm a little late on a 10-month update for Jude, so here's one for 11 months instead.

New Stuff:

• Creeping (aka "army crawl' on his tummy)
• Tooth Sprouting (he now has 1.25 toofers)
• Garbled Word-Saying (he said "uh-oh" the other day after I said it, with the exact same inflection; "momo" when Mona came into the room; "ba ba ba" for bye-bye)
• Move Busting (the kid loves to dance)
• Yelling (at the top of his lungs, for fun)
• "Contributing to the Conversation" (he randomly says some sort of nonsense while we're talking amongst ourselves and acts like it was a normal part of the discussion)

I can't believe he'll be ONE in a month. Little Man.

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 :)

Smear Campaign

He pretty much smeared it everywhere.

Giant Pumpkins, $35

Throw in a small child for $5. Yellow hood and stripey socks are extra.

It's Jude's first Fall on this earth so we're doing our best to make it AWESOME. I love October in Michigan.

Mostly I hate how quickly Fall goes though. It's my favorite season, but as soon as I've taken note of the first bright red leaf there's snow on the ground and the Michigan deep-freeze that is guaranteed to last the next six months has begun. I love it here three seasons out of four, but honestly. In March and April I usually want to pitch myself off a very tall building.

Anywho...we went to Robinette's a few days ago, an orchard just outside of town that has hiking trails and sells apples, cider, pumpkins, weird warty gords and all that. Oh, and we must also mention: freshly-made doughnuts and hot cider. Jono's Grandma Klooster came too. This is us about to do orchard stuff:

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Pickles

Jude hearts pickles. Dill ones. When he sees a pickle, he'll grab it and gnaw on it frantically until there's nothing left but the skin.

Here he is eating one in Chicago where we went to see my aunt and cousin run the marathon last weekend. (They did great, but most of you are here for the pickle. I'll cut to the chase.)

I'm getting heckled about how much this blog sucks lately. There. Stick a pickle in it.

P.S. Tyler, pics 3 and 4 blow up when you click on them.