Jude at 2 months old

Jude is 2 months old today!!! He had his well baby visit this morning and weighed in at a whopping 13 lbs 6 oz which is 90th percentile!!! I guessed he was under 12 and boy was I wrong. He's the largest of our three boys at this age. James was 12 lbs 6 oz and John was 12 lbs 0.5 oz. Jude is 24 inches long which is between the 75th and 90th percentiles so he's also a long baby. He did great with the three shots he had to get. He only cried for a minute or two.

Jude has grown and changed so much in the past month. He is all smiles and loves to "talk" and coo. He is also starting to voice his opinion. He'll fuss when he's tired of being in the swing or is sick of the same old song the bouncer plays. He also LOVES to stand up. He's got strong little legs already. He's also doing really well with holding up his head and doesn't mind tummy time. Jude still has beautiful blue eyes and a full head of dark hair. He really looks a lot like James did - pale with dark hair and blue eyes. Jude is eating about 5 oz per feeding and has slept through the night four or five times. He's also wearing 3-6 month sized clothes already. James and John are still in love with him. They both love that Jude now actually looks directly at them and will smile or talk to them. James talks about all the things he's going to teach Jude as he gets older. I can't wait to see all three of them grow up together.

From Baby Jude

From Baby Jude

Jude's Baptism

Jude was baptized at our church, Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church, yesterday afternoon. The ceremony was really nice and he slept through the entire thing. A big thank you to our friends and family who came to share the event with us. An even bigger thank you to Jay and Maureen Weatherwax for being Jude's Godparents. Here are some pictures from the church and of the yummy cake we had afterwards.

Our little fish

The boys have really come a long way with their swimming skills. John is finally venturing off the stairs and will swim on his own while wearing his life jacket. James is really working on holding his breath underwater. He's putting his face in the water as he swims now which is a major accomplishment for him. He'll also dive underwater to pick up his dive sticks. I have to stay right by him because he hasn't quite mastered getting himself back up to the surface yet. We hope to spend a lot more time at the pool this summer so the boys can keep working on the water skills. Here's some video from my parents' pool this weekend. One is John swimming on his own and the other is James swimming with his face in the water.

Kindergarten Playgroup

We were extremely lucky to find out about a playgroup for kids entering Kindergarten at Rylander Elementary earlier this summer. We've been getting together every Thursday morning to something fun. We've played at the school playground, done crafts and played at Chick-fil-a, met up at the Inflatable Zone and got wet at the local splash pad. James has met about 10 kids who will be starting Kinder at the end of August which is wonderful because he had a rough time at orientation back in April. He didn't know any of the kids and didn't want to leave me. I've also met several moms who already have kids at Rylander. They are all so friendly and have answered a lot of my questions. We still have five or six more play dates scheduled so there should be more videos to come. Here's one of James having fun at the splash pad.

Swim Lessons at the YMCA

The past two weeks have been filled with daily swim lessons at the YMCA. I was really worried because at first they put James and John in the same group. John, as you know, is only 3 and isn't great about following directions. The first two days were really rough. The instructor and James spent almost the whole time getting John to listen and settle down. Thankfully I talked to the coordinator and got John moved to the three year old group on the third day. After that he did wonderfully. Some days were better than others but all in all, he did really well. I only got a couple short clips on the third day before I was told we weren't allowed to take videos. James did a wonderful job in his class. He's getting a lot more comfortable about being in the water without his life jacket on and is even putting his face underwater.

Water fun!

The past several weeks have been ridiculously hot in Houston. Thankfully we were told about a local spash park with a covered playground right next to it. We've met up with our friends Mo, Keira, and Jay to play in the water. Here's a video of the kids running around enjoying the cool water. Even John was joining in the fun which is amazing because he hates to have water on his face.

Puzzles with Poppa

Here's a video I shot on Father's Day of John putting together a puzzle with Poppa (my dad). This is one activity they both share a love for. Enjoy!

Happy 7th Anniversary, Brian!

I can hardly believe that we've been married for 7 years. We've accomplished so much and had so many adventures in our first 7 years of marriage. We're in our third home together (and will be here for many, many years to come) and have taken many great trips together including living in Scotland for a year. Most of all, I'm proud of the family we've created together. Our children are by far our biggest adventure yet. I'm incredibly lucky to have married my best friend. There's not a day that goes by that I'm not thankful to spend my life with him. Thanks for seven wonderful years and many more to come.

4th of July and Jude's first road trip

We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend. I know we did!! We've been in Katy since Jude was born so I was itching to get out of town for a bit. We dropped Molly off at the Kennel Thursday morning and hit the road after Brian got out of work. We only had to stop to feed Jude once on our way to Georgetown which was nice.

We all got up early on Friday, loaded up the car and headed to visit Sally in Granbury (up near Ft. Worth). Again, Jude did well on the drive. We stopped in Lampassas to feed him and let the boys burn off some energy. We made it there right at lunch time. I finally got to see Sally and Jason's house and was very impressed. They've done a wonderful job on various home improvement projects and decorating. After relaxing and stretching our legs, we headed to the town square for lunch and Hank's. I also got to hit their quilting store which I love. I picked up a booklet for a new quilting project. After dropping Sally off, we headed back to Georgetown. We stopped in Lampassas again to feed Jude and let James and John run around. MaMaw treated them to an ice-cream cone to help them cool down.

Saturday was a pretty laid back day. Brian and I took James and John to the outlet mall in Round Rock for some shoes, REI for Nalgene sippy cups and JoAnn's for fabric. After that, we headed back to Georgetown for lunch and naps. We had a super yummy BBQ dinner and then let the boys play outside in the pool. They had Popsicles for dessert before heading back inside. They boys went to bed and we stayed up to watch the Boston Pops performance and fireworks on TV.

Sunday morning it was time to head home. We didn't time our departure very well and had to stop outside of Bastrop to feed Jude. By the time he finished, it was time for lunch so we stopped in Bastrop to eat. Then we made pretty good time and made it all the way to Columbus before having to stop for gas and to feed Jude. Unfortunately, that was the end of our good luck. We got stuck in horrible traffic on I-10 between Sealy and Brookshire. It took us about an hour to go 3 miles or so. Jude was so sick of being in his seat. Thankfully we were stopped or inching along so Brian took him out of his seat. Thankfully it cleared up eventually and we were able to get all the way home in about 30 minutes. All told, it took us 6 and a half hours to get home yesterday.

I'll add some pictures and video soon.

Here's a video of James and John playing in the pool.



Here's a video of the boys enjoying Popsicles after swimming.