What haven't we been up to???

I must have some serious ADHD. We don't sit still long. We have been so busy with hikes and bike rides and trips to the zoo and Father's Day celebrations and parades and everything in the middle. Jude and I both had a little bug that slowed us down last week but not much and not for long. 

Cedar Hills does a darling little parade that we went to for the first time and Jude was beside himself with the endless downpour of candy being thrown out and the cute cheerleaders (that after they went by he politely asked for more cheerleaders) and marching bands (he was getting his groove on to the marching band music)

Putting his hand over his heart as the flag went by. Forgot the hat. OPS!

Later we busted out the slip'n slide to keep cool

Father's Day Hike. Jude is so lucky to have such a caring and involved dad. Jude if you ever read this someday like I imagine you will, I want you to know how much your daddy adores you. You are his whole world. He lights up when he sees you and you him. You are two nuts in a nut house. :) I love watching you two play together. You already share a special bond that cannot be replaced or replicated. Cherish your Daddy. Good ones aren't as easy to come by as you'd think. 

When I was sick Marc took Jude for a hike so I could just be sick. No one tells you when you become a mom that you need permission to be sick. :) 

Love my crazy boys

No stopping to eat. (don't mind my huge knuckles in this pic)

Took our first (okay my first) exhausting hike of the summer up to silver glance lake. Jude is always so good to chill out in his backpack and takes it all in. 

Pretending to be the amazing Messi

He is also so good for me to take him out in his stroller in the mornings and get a quick run in. I'd love to know what he's thinking about when he zones off. We always chill out after and let Jude get his morning wiggles out too. 

After so much playing it takes A LOT of bubbles to clean this kid up. Lately he wants to take a bath in our bath with the bubbles and jets. When I strip him down for the bath he takes off running to ours and says "Mom Mom bath." over and over. 

The Nursery

I have never blogged about Jude's nursery and it is probably for a number of reasons. I think that usually that blog post comes before the baby when you are anxiously awaiting the little bundle of joy to arrive, or when you have first brought baby home and are introducing it to their new territory. For us, it was different. I was in the hospital at thirty weeks pregnant and the preparation of nursery was priority numereo 157. Way down the list. We were able to get it painted before Jude came home from the hospital, but he came home to no crib, no rocking chair (we did borrow one from Grandma D), no changing table I think we might have had a lamp in there. But that room sure was filled with love and that was enough for our baby to sleep and sit on. :) Anyway, to make a long story longer, we have slowly been adding little touches to his room here and there. I am just only now feeling like it is getting to the point where I would have looked at it and thought, now I just need baby. Good thing he's only creeping up on two years now. But like I said, he may have lacked a little furniture and knickknacks but it most certainly had all the love a baby needs. Now to put the pictures where my mouth is. I took a ton of pics. I am having a hard time portraying it the way it looks and feels. But Jude LOVES his new book system and constantly wanting to read his books. 

This is what his room looked like when we brought him home.

Jude approves of all upgrades

Sundance approves as well

The full mural 

It's summer and no BUTTS about it. Pun intended. :)

This is Jude's new favorite position to sleep in. Legs tucked in and always crossed. I think it is so adorable. But I am Momma and I think about 99% of everything he does is cute. (Oh look. He's learned to hit. It'd'nt it cute???) Okay, not everything. :)

We are have a blast getting in to the swing of summer. We kicked it off with Marc's birthday. He is officially in his 30's. I told him my mom would watch Jude for us so we could go out for a romantic dinner and a movie. When we pulled into her neighborhood, a few friends and family were there to great him at the park for a party. It was so fun and we appreciated everyone's help and thoughtfulness to show up. Some had a good drive to pull it off. It was a ton of fun. Marc finally got his wish of getting our families together for a game of ultimate. Marc was able to do what he does best and talk A LOT of SMACK!! We ate yummy food. Jdawgs (thanks Marie) Homemade ice-cream (thanks Momma) Chips (thanks Ali and Kristyn)  It was a total success. I also had everyone email me a memory of Marc and I put them into envelopes and gave him 30 memories for his 30 years. (thanks everyone) P.S. I was so nervous I was going to give the surprise party away that I didn't bring my camera cause I never do and I thought he'd know something was up. So Thanks again Ali. You're the best. 

Jude is also talking more and more. He putting together more and more words. Today I had Marc's car and it really confused him. He kept asking "where Daddy go?" He is so into the water. Cannot get enough of it. I finally broke down and bought one of those little tables with water and he played in it for about three hours. He's a little prankster like his daddy. While he was busy playing in it I thought I would close my eyes and lay back in the cool grass, sun on my face. Next thing I knew I was being water boarded. Jude got his bucket and filled it up and dumped it on me. He thought it was hilarious. Later that day when we got the hose out to water the garden he quickly grabbed it and thought it was again so funny to try to spray us. He is crazy observant. When Marc took the spray nozzle off he saw Marc put his finger in front of the hose to make it spay harder. He did it for just a second and it was enough for Jude to take note and use that technique.  

I thought this looked like a capri sun commercial. Except for the part that we haven't left the garage yet. He is still loving him bike rides. 

This kid is all boy. He lives for the water. Will still spend as long as I am willing to let him sit in the sink. He Loves bugs. The other day he was making his super impressed sound "EEEWWWW" I kind of just ignored him for a minute and he kept doing it so I got curious. He was holding a bee. Luckily didn't get stung. He tries to go after whatever animal, bug or creature he sees. (snakes included, which is not good considering I have seen two rattlesnakes this year. Only one alive, but still. AHHHH!) And he loves Balls. He will hit his baseball with the bat. Go chase and throw it to me then put it on the stand again to hit it. Loves his soccer net and  ball too. Sometimes he finds it easier to just throw the ball in the net. 

I also want to quickly add how sweet he can be. As I have mentioned before. He loves his blankie. He wraps it around his fingers and rubs it on his checks and the inside of him palm. Sometimes he will do it to me too. Take my hand and rub my palm of rub my cheek. There was also a time when we were in Hawaii and we were shopping at costco Nyla was a little uspet and he tried to rub her cheek using the same technique and also offered her his boo (A.K.A binkie) I thought is was so darling he was trying to help when normally he is the one trying to take her down. 

And just one more silly pic. He loves to wear his rain boots and gets really goofy when he has them on. 

Here comes the sun

Loving this summer weather. We are flocking to water and going on lots of bike rides and getting a ton of yard work done. Jude's curiosity for animals is growing and growing. Especially with tigers and gorillas. He is so cute to mimic a gorilla beating on its chest. To this day I don't know where he learned that. We went to see the new addition at the Zoo this weekend and we got to see them feed a tiger from just a few steps away from us. It even growled. Jude was in shock the whole time. Total highlight of the weekend. 

                              Here is Jude playing at the riverwoods water feature. He loved it.  

I wish they had this in a bigger size I would have bought in a second. He loved looking like a tiger

Helped me make greek yogurt dipped frozen blue berries. It was all over the kitchen as much as it was on him, but it was fun to do together and see him actually eating is always nice.

Rode our bikes up to the cemetery and left flowers for Uncle Mikey

He always gets the best seat in the house. He loves to watch animals on the ipad and will climb all over you to get as close as possible and have a completely unobstructed view of the action.