thoughts on sleep.

i miss it.

since we moved the summer before last, jude has been on a baaaad sleeping track. from what i can remember, he slept ok in Virginia. once we started the moving process last summer, he started waking in the middle of the night. that became a habit all summer long that took until october of last year.

however, he never has slept as late as he used to. i am afraid he is just one of those people that doesn't need a ton of sleep. philip is sort of like that. i happen to be one of those people that prefers a lot of sleep. i am not exactly a night or morning person, but i just like to have enough sleep.

right now our schedule has been:  bed time around 7-7:30pm. jude used to sleep until 6am (which was still a struggle for me), but despite it getting darker in the mornings and black out curtains AND blinds (!), jude has been waking at 5am. argggg. plus even if we just let him cry it out or give him his pacifier, he is too noisy for us to continue to sleep and i know he can get out of crib, which is somewhat terrifying.

so, please, anyone out there have any sleep tips for two-year-olds?

we love having the evenings that philip is actually home to ourselves, but i desperately miss sleeping past 5-6am. we also have never noticed a difference with his sleep no matter what time he goes to bed. homeboy has not slept in since i do not know when.

oh, also to cope, we have taken turns getting up with Jude. i do not know how we would make it otherwise. oh and coffee. and jesus.

source // 

*is this post too dramatic? i'm sorry. 

jude is two!

how fitting that we celebrated at saranac, our second home? with our crazy fall schedule - my sister emily gets married in early november plus the normal crazy fall Young Life schedule, we decided just to keep it simple and celebrate at camp since we were going to be there on Jude's actual birthday. our 30 leaders and leaders in training helped sing to Judah and I made oatmeal cookies and put mini reeses in them. i also made one of my fall favorites a pumpkin spice latte. 

we seem to have hit the terrible twos early, but jude seems to be turning a corner and is more and more fun and lovable every day. 

a few words about judah at two

+ loves to play with trucks, trains, anything that pushes

+ is saying more and more every day, but is still not a big talker

+ favorite word: no (this can be frustrating at times...) & truck

+ favorite book: oddly enough, a book that my parents had made about me when I was baby seems to be one of his faves

+ sleeps through the night 7ish pm - 6ish am, but we still wish he was a little later of a sleeper

+ loves thomas the train & anything on trucks

+ still loves the nursery or any opportunity to play with other kids & new toys

+ when we say i love you, he will come and give us a kiss 

here is a quick video from camp of the north shore leaders singing to jude (sorry the quality is being funny)

baby man play room

another work in progress. 

here is the other side of the craft room. this is the baby man side of the room.

rug from grandma's attic

quilt from grandma's attic

pottery barn anywhere chair

table (c/o side of the road)

here's some details. 

virginia printable

fruits of the spirit printable

what do you think? I am looking forward to when Jude will play with some of my favorite toys...namely crayons and playdoh. right now we just occasionally play up there because he tends to find something on my side of the room to mess with. 

first birthday

one of the things that i was most sad about when considering moving to massachusetts last year was that we would have no one to celebrate jude's birthday with. i am so grateful that that was not true and we celebrated jude's first birthday with a group of family and new friends and even some old friends.

the decor was pretty simple. i like pinterest and i all, but i wasn't going to go nuts. plus we are on a tight budget.

i printed the invites on cardstock on our own printer. and used fun dowloaded fonts and washi tape to decorate them.

banner i purchased for a craft show.

lots of pictures everywhere

made the garland following this same idea // washi taped pictures on the picture frames

homemade smash cake // idea credit // washi tape flags

homemade pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting with washi flags

got in his stride...

 opening gifts.


bebe + pops!

happy birthday little j // love you so

i am that desperate.

alright peoples.

this is a desperate plea. i am almost sure it is hopeless, but i am still going for it.

i entered jude in this sort of ridiculous contest. that would be nice to win. $10,000 toward college.

so might as well try, right?

look at this little face with this half bald head.

i have to admit i did not choose the best photo of him, but i was too lazy to upload a new one. but if you are so inclined. vote here.

prepare your hearts.

for some cuteness.

our new and dear friend jon zander snapped some photos of us and jude a few weeks ago at saranac. we are so grateful for jon taking some time with us and for his friendship. 

enjoy! 

this face is so him...

i like this one because it looks like, ugh, mom and dad...

we were the stripe family...didn't plan ahead to well...

mr. almost-walking-baby

now every staff family is going to be on you to get photos of them at saranac...sorry jon... :)

happy saturday!

merry christmas to me

This was Philip and Judah's Christmas present to me this year. It is the best. So I thought I would share. It's kind of long - almost 15 minutes, but it documents the first few months of Jude's life. Mainly the first few days while at the hospital.

I requested a personal gift for Christmas this past year and this was perfect.
 

our life in a few snapshots.

i hate rubbing it in that i love my iphone, but i am loving snapping shots of our little mcnugget (i have approximately 100 nicknames for him) and now 1000 pictures in the matter of weeks. 

here are a few pics (insgrams) of the last few weeks. they have been great. not sure if it's the mild winter or the sweet baby, but i am usually not this happy this time of year...

let's recap. 

{ disney. }

magic kingdom is not quite what i remembered. it's different when you are a kid, but it was still great to get to go with our little family (& some of our best friends)

{ running. }

trying to run again. starting with 10 min jogs. bonus is i have a jogging stroller and little jbird can come along for the ride!

{ j's first swim! }

 pretty sure jude was thinking...what's the big deal. it's like a lukewarm bath. 

{ been making lots of earrings. }

(new favorite item - vingo bingo! earrings)

{ knitting. }

i have a secret goal to actually use crafting supplies i buy without continuing to by new ones. (anyone else have this problem?) i made an infinity scarf that has been keeping me warm and happy lately. 

 { pants on the ground...pants on the ground... }

actually pants on the head, but still so cute. 

{ lucy + jude }

lucy has taken quite a liking for little j. she lets him grab her and i snap a pic of her resting her head on him. this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

happy thursday ya'll.

4 week update (almost 1 month!)

I don't know that I'll really do a full on update every week, but I will try to post his picture at least.

He is a big little guy. We go for a doctors appt on Friday, but I feel like he has packed on some pounds. He is officially out of his newborn clothes and mostly wears 0-3, sometimes 3 months & occasionally a 6 month if it is big.

Life is great right now. Still having some hard nights, like last night, where he was up from 1:30-3am. We still have him in the room with us...which I really love. Love love love. I just like knowing he is nearby and when he sounds like he spit up I can grab him and burp him again. Or if he drops the pacifier I can pop it in his mouth, but I understand there could be some negative consequences of this.

Did you co-sleep? Or have the baby in the room? When did you change it up?

We are starting Babywise. I'll try to do a longer post on its progress and some early thoughts, but I'd love any feedback from moms that have done the same.

I can hardly believe its almost been a month. Life moves fast.

the first few weeks...

The first week I couldn't decide what kind of weekly picture to take...so it is super lame, but I think I will probably try to take a picture of Jude in his cloth diaper every week. I don't know if this is something I can maintain, but it is worth a shot & should be fun to see him grow! He already looks so big to me...