Posted in Baby on March 15, 2012
Jude’s going to be a big brother at the end of the summer and we’re all so very excited! We found out January 1st we are expecting and found out just last week that we’re having another boy. I’m going to be totally outnumbered but that’s okay with me. I love little boys and look forward to all the fun times getting dirty and playing with trains and cars with them both. We’re still trying to decide on little brother’s name. And convince Jude it’s a boy and not a girl. Ha! Most often he tells us he’s a girl and so is the baby. We got some family pics taken last month to share the big news. Here they are…
Jude and I spent our Valentine’s Day playing in the snow, if you can really call it that. It was the first sizable snow this winter. Only 1.5 inches but we were happy to have it. Jude and I were both getting over a cold but I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to play in the snow, especially not knowing if we were going to get another good snow this season. I bundled Jude up in about 3 layers of clothes which was the first meltdown creator of the day. Then we headed outside where he had a hard time moving in all the clothes and then kept getting snow packed on the bottom of his shoes so he couldn’t walk. I built a snowman and tried to get him interested but things spiraled downhill quickly. I ended up putting him inside and making several trips back to the snowman to finish him up. The pictures explain it all.
We ended the day on a much happier note and made cookies. Jude’s great at stirring but icing and sprinkles are still a little advanced. Well, that is when I don’t want to just turn him loose to smear icing and throw sprinkles everywhere. I got Jude a balloon and some gummies(his favorite) and Caleb bought me a dozen red roses and CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES(my favorite). It was another fun holiday with my two favorite boys!
Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year and this was one of the best yet. I love the season leading up to the holiday with decorations, traditions, and lots of time with family. And then the days around Christmas are filled with many gatherings with family where we love to give gifts. If only I had all the money in the world and could give even more amazing gifts to all my family members each year…that would be so great. I’ve already begun thinking about what to give everyone next year. This Christmas was suppose to be my first away from my family since I started my job in the ICU 3 years ago. We’re required to work every other Christmas and somehow I found someone who wanted to work mine the first year I was at my job. I had been dreading missing this holiday with my family all year long. When the schedule was published I was surprised to find out I only had to work the night of Christmas Eve because I had a little seniority and got pulled off the schedule the following night. And then a few weeks before Christmas someone who was celebrating the week before offered to work Christmas Eve for me. What a miracle…I didn’t have to work my favorite holiday again this year. I’m not sure I’m going to get this lucky every year but I will keep hoping.
our home
We put our tree up as early as possible this year and decorated the house as usual. It was beautiful! And Jude’s favorite part, THE TRAIN! We couldn’t keep him away from it. We decided early on it was much easier to let him play with it than get onto him every time he touched it. If we didn’t want him to touch it we were just going to have to put it away. So needless to say, we may be needing a new train next year. But he had a blast with it and is still loving and talking about trains.
jude & the train
My grandparents were in town from Florida the week before and Jude and I hung out with my grandma and his Aunt Hailey the few days before Christmas. We hung around the house, watched movies, cooked a little, and just spent time together. I always feel like my grandparents travel so far for the holidays to spend time with us and we’re so busy that we don’t get to see them much. This year, it was great to just spend a few afternoons doing nothing together.We also went to see A Christmas Carol at the Rep which is a wonderful show and done very well. I would love to make this a part of my holiday tradition every year.
On Christmas Eve, we went to Papa and Doris’ and then church for the Christmas Eve service. We opened gifts as a family during the day on Christmas Eve just because our Christmas day was going to be so packed and tiring. We got Jude a big slide and also a wooden train and a couple tractors. I got Caleb a new pair of running shoes, an egg poacher (weird I know, but he wanted it) and some cologne. I got a fabulous new camera from which you’re enjoying some great photos and a shirt he picked out himself.
Christmas day started bright and early opening our stockings.
We quickly headed to my parents’ house before 7am where we had a great time giving and receiving gifts with them also. They got Jude an old fashioned pedal tractor that he opened first and really wasn’t interested in opening anything else afterwards. My grandparents got him a wooden train set we keep in the basement set up on a table just his height. He loves this thing and still looks forward to playing with it everyday. He also got a sled, monkey sleeping bag, floor elmo puzzle, a new book recorded by his great-grandma, and I’m sure a few other things I’m forgetting.
We then traveled to the Markt grandparents for a delicious breakfast and more gift-giving and present-opening. One of Jude’s favorite gifts from here is a set of Elmo books with the buttons you push to make noises in the stories. He got another tractor and some cars too. We then went to church and on to Caleb’s parents. Jude was exhausted by this time(and so was I) so we settled down for a short nap while everyone else ate lunch. When we got up we opened more gifts. Here Jude received a tent that he loves, dinosaur house slippers, blocks, a hammer and peg set, a farm set, and a chiefs sweat outfit from Uncle Philip.
We were finally able to relax a little before heading back to my parents for dinner. The days that followed included more dinners and gifts with extended family.
We were overwhelmed with toys and I spent quite some time trying to figure out where to store everything. I think I’m going to start putting away some of the toys and switching them out with others every couple months. It seems he can never get to the toys in the back of his closet to play with.
We all had a fabulous Christmas and I’m already looking forward to the holiday season next year. It’s so fun celebrating holidays with kids…it gives you an excuse to be a kid again and see it all with awe and wonder.
Below you will find some bonus pics of my family around Christmas I thought were good and wanted to include. Jude & I, Caleb, my grandpa Jerry, and my sister Hailey.
Posted in Jude on February 11, 2012
cool dude
and communicating like a pro. His big milestone since I’ve last blogged is talking, talking, and more talking. He started to talk a few months ago and I can truly say he’s learning new words every day. I tried to keep a running list of all his words when he first started talking but it got very overwhelming quickly. I could never keep my list up to date and I felt like I was always missing some. At his 18 month check-up I told our pediatrician he frequently used over 50 words and I think he thought I was one of those crazy moms who thinks their child is talking when really they’re just babbling. But really, he’s a talker. I bet his vocabulary includes 100-150 words these days. Today he was using the word “guacamole.” Where has my little baby gone? Some of my favorite things he says are, “I love you” and “I sit down” and “get the towel.” He definitely wants to make sure you understand what he wants.
We’ve celebrated a couple holidays since my last post, Halloween and Christmas. Christmas deserves it’s own entry but in short was wonderful. I was somehow lucky enough to get the holiday off when it was my scheduled holiday to work this year. Halloween isn’t a big deal in our house. I’m sure it will be much more fun when Jude is into trick-or-treating and likes candy. This year, we dressed him as a farmer and visited his grandparents. He wasn’t too excited about the costume and I actually chose something pretty similar to just an everyday outfit. He loved animals and tractors at the time so I thought it was a fitting Halloween costume choice.
In the last month we’ve just been trying to get back to normal. I know, it should be easy enough but seems to have taken a while. He has had chronic diarrhea since a year old so we’ve done a lot of testing and procedures only to find no real reason why. Since he’s so little we’ve also been trying to get him to eat and pack on the pounds. It has been a challenge but he’s at least looking healthy!
Once again, I end my blog with how wonderful it is being a mother to this wonderful little boy. He is perfect and I would take a handful just like him. I’m looking forward to all the wonderful holidays and milestones we get to enjoy together in the years to come.
fun with pudding
Last week we took our first mini family vacation, just the 3 of us. It was just 2 days but I think we all had a great time, especially Jude. We left at nap time on Sunday afternoon and drove to Council Bluffs, IA where we checked into a inexpensive little hotel. Jude slept until we pulled into the parking lot…how perfect. He’s not a fan of the car seat so we had to do our traveling during nap times. We were planning to go to the zoo on Monday but arrived in town Sunday afternoon about 3 so we had all evening. Caleb grabbed some brochures from the lobby and we started to look for a kid-friendly activity to do on a Sunday night. We weren’t hoping for much. We found a brochure for Vala’s Pumpkin Patch. We’ve been to the pumpkin patch multiple times this fall but this was no ordinary looking pumpkin patch. They advertised animals, pig races, trains, play areas, food and music. We called it a cross between Silver Dollar City and Red Barn Farm. It was fabulous! I might even venture to say it was better than the zoo that we made the trip for. Jude pet the animals, rode the train, and played on the playgrounds. We ate dinner there and left with kettle corn and caramels. I would love to make this a yearly family tradition. It turns out we stumbled upon the largest pumpkin patch in the world in the tiny town of Gretna, NE.
We went back to the hotel, got in our pjs, read multiple tractor books, and were planning for a long wakeful night with Jude who doesn’t sleep well away from his own bed. We put him in his pack n’ play next to our bed and turned off all the lights. We whined and cried for less that 5 minutes and then crashed and slept all night. What a treat. We woke about 8am, ate breakfast at our hotel and headed to the zoo.
I was a little disappointed with the zoo overall but I have very intense emotions about the respect and care of animals and am not sure I’m totally cool with the idea of zoos in general. I know and understand that education and preservation of the species is important but I still long for animals to be in their natural environments. And then I’d love to travel to those places to observe and learn about them there. But anyways, we still had a good time seeing the animals. They have many monkeys at the Omaha zoo which Jude is very into now. We saw the cats (lions and tigers), giraffes, hippos, bears, and various small animals and birds. The aquarium was closed for remodeling in addition to tons of construction taking place in and around various exhibits which was kind of a bummer. I think we just chose a time a little too late in the season although we almost had the place to ourselves and the weather was beautiful. We left the zoo at nap time, ate a quick lunch, and headed home. Jude slept all the way home.
It was a great mini-vacation!
I am Ashlie Zahnd, 26 years old, caring and adventurous. I became Ashlie Zahnd on January 1, 2005 when I married my best friend Caleb. 