Little Drummer Boy

I've always been partial to guitar, but who's to say he can't play both :)

Ashleigh and I spent a few days in Las Vegas this week to celebrate her 27th Birthday. It was fantastic (blog post to follow) and we had an amazing time catching up with friends, seeing the sites, etc. The only real souvenir we purchased while out there was a pair of drumsticks for Jude. He's been pounding on everything lately, and they had a Beatles logo on them, so why not!?

Well, he loves them.

Sunday Funday at Lincoln Park Zoo

Jude has been doing wonders with his animal sounds via Daddy's Ipad (which JBB calls the "grrrrrr") so we thought maybe a day at the zoo would be fun. The little man continues to surprise us. He pointed at the statue of wolves and made a howl sound. He growled when he saw the big cats. And of course he protested loudly when Daddy was eating all the Dipping Dots. Welcome to our first family outing at LPZ.

 Let's go Dad! (Nice jeans dude)

 92 degrees and sunny at LPZ...water, stat.

 Just getting my dapper dan changed so I'm dry for the Children's Museum.

 Wait! No one told me they had a splash park!

 Yes. Yes. Yes. Watch out girl, this is my playground.

 Beavers and Ducks!

 Mine.

 Please Dad. It's a monkey!

 You're right. I'd rather have ice cream instead.

 This doesn't look like ice cream.

 But it tastes like ice cream.

 I love this stuff!!!

 I know...it's amazing son!!!

 Giraffe's are interesting creatures.

 Hey you fish, hey you fish, hey you fish!

 Mom, these fish aren't like memaw's. I can't even turn the tank light on.

 So you're telling me that's a monkey?

 Ooh Ooh, Aah Aah! Hey Monkey.

 Dad, that monkey is awesome, but I'm exhausted.

Public Transportation at it's finest. Hand me a wet wipe would ya!

The Cutting of the Curls

As handsome as he is, and as charming as a curly, sandy brown fro can be, it was time to snip the ends of Jude's hair. As much as everyone loves a good mullett, it's just not as fun when it's your son rocking it. Translation; first haircut time.

It was a tough call; Ashleigh was all for it, but I (this is John) needed some convincing. I'm a little biased though, because my hair is on the way out, while his is only getting thicker. If i'm being honest, he was getting into that 'rat tail' territory where it wasn't so cute as much as white trashy.

In the end, Ash won out, and I must say he does look all the more handsome for it. It's a good thing he's got a good Mommy keeping things in order around here....

Here's a profile shot of the craziness. 

 "What's wrong, Dad? Ladies love my curls...."

 "Awww, snap. This is happening, isn't it!?"

 The rat must be snipped...

 Welcome to Mom's Barber Shop...Come on in, the water's fine....

Collateral Damage

And now the curly mullett is gone....but it WILL RETURN!!!

Ballin'

Look what mommy did!

Turns out we had an inflatable infant pool from last year we never opened up. Toss in a giant bag of colorful plastic balls and PRESTO!

It's not exactly an infinity pool, but when you see a smile like this, who cares?

As happy as a pig in.....well, you know

Jude's Pants Off Dance Off

Jude has the whole 'walking' thing down pretty well now. Naturally, the next step is to put those feet to work and cut a rug. After a couple of lessons from Mom and Dad, he found his groove and is now a master of the Dance.

He relies pretty heavily on the arm swings, but he occasionally sprinkles in a light foot stomp. He's also got a pretty nice little booty bounce thing that he does. He can thank his momma for that one.

Sometimes A Baby Needs A Break

I've taken a much needed break to regroup and collect my thoughts. After all, conquering walking to downright winning races like Usain Bolt (yeah, he thinks he's pretty fast), teething all day every day (these molars are outrageous) and figuring out how to break down my parents by the masterful arch-back tantrum takes a lot out of a little guy like me. So what's a guy to do?

I've been cheering on my favorite Chicago teams.

Resting. Anywhere. Everywhere. (Obviously I just dominated at basketball)

Quickly learned how to play an instrument. No big deal. Not sure why it's taken dad so long.

Checking Facebook.

Catching up on my favorite shows.

Deciding which sport scholarship I'll get when I got to college. Why not all of them?

Hanging low with the family. That's my cousin Dacian...and me humoring my mama.

Mastering plans that will eventually get me into trouble with friends...that's Jake the Snake Girdler.

And even giving my Dad and Mom "free time" that they so badly need. 

I'm not sure they use it wisely, but whatever.

So now you know how important my break was and you can obviously see (refer back to the above 2 pictures) why I needed it. It's almost summer time, so you know I'll be flexing my baby arms and no knees at the beach where the "rents" will be taking gobs of pictures. But for now, I have to fuel up on my milk protein and have a chat with plastic Donald Duck about his choice in women. 

Bath Time and Yogurt are HILARIOUS!

Still need to do a Costa Rica post, but in the meantime, here's some new home movies that we uploaded recently.

I've done this a hundred times, but for whatever reason, Jude got the giggles on this night. I was using his little ducky to spray a mist of water on his face and that was all he needed!

And on this night, I was feeding Jude a little snack, and he started doing this funny lip and tongue smacking thing. I grabbed the camera as soon as I could. I about peed my pants the first 5 times I watched this...

Happy (Belated) Valentines Day

Sometimes the simplest things can capture your attention, make you smile, then make you laugh, then make you grab the video camera. Our little man is becoming amazed by just about everything, and when he got a hold of the Valentines Day card that MeMaw got him, he was pretty darn impressed.

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite home movies.

All This....for Me???

Hey everybody, Jude here. Sorry it's taken so long to write this post, but lately I've been pretty busy working on the whole "one foot in front of the other" thing that Mom and Dad seem to be excited about. I guess "walking" is pretty OK, but if I knew they would get so excited about it, I'd have done it weeks ago!

Anyway...Mom and Dad threw me a great party for my first birthday. All my besties showed up. Jacob, Bella, Juliet, and even Mookie DeVries made an appearance. There was a Mickey Mouse cake and cupcakes and even a Mickey Mouse balloon that sings when I punch it!

I got some great stuff from everybody. Clothes, toys, hugs, kisses and some multi-colored sporks for learning to feed myself (thanks Jacob).

Here's some pics from my big day. Thanks for checking in on us, and I'll try to be better about updating you all on what my goof ball parents are up to.

Love, JBB

                                              Mmmmmmm. Mommy makes the best cakes.

            Dad spent all morning making a rainbow fruit tray, but all I cared about was the cake....

                                                                           BooYah.

                        Opening presents is my third favorite thing to do, after eating and pooping.

                                                     Mom and Dad got me a TUNNEL!!!

                                                Thanks for coming Williams' and Aunt Nessa!

                                       Thanks for coming DeVries' and Girdlers!

Thanks for Coming Manuels!