jude's favorites

here are some of jude's favorite things right now:

wrestle time with daddy before bedtime.



dancing.  he daily requests the "na-na" song about 30 times a day at least. as you might can guess - the "na-na" song is "hey jude."  he gets a REALLY big grin on his face in the part of the song where it goes "na, na, na, na na na na, na na na na, hey jude...."  for the first time, i think he realizes the song has his name and he thinks they are singing to him. :)  he loves to dance (he gets this from his mama)





and learning new words.... he thinks it's hilarious.

happy 2, jude wicker!

after bringing jude home from hospital

my precious little 7lb baby i brought home from the hospital on valentine's day 2 years ago, is now running around my house weighing in at 30 lbs.  the time really does fly.  last year, i could not believe how fast his first birthday seemed to come - knowing i would never have the baby days with him again.

jude's first birthday

he loves all things choo-choo trains, airplanes, trucks (any mode of transportation really), jumping on our bed, doing the laundry, holding his baby brother, laughing, eating hot dogs, wrestling with his daddy, playing outside, wearing his rain boots and tie (often together), dancing, and much more.  He is an amazing bundle of life and it really is hard to remember what life was like without him.

jude in said tie and rainboots

jude unloading the dishwasher in his hat and texas football jersey

my prayers for jude:
- that God will save jude at a very early age and that he won't remember a day when he didn't know the Lord.
- that God will use his laughter and joy to encourage and bless others
- that God will use Jude's strong will to make him steadfast, and unmoving in the Gospel rather than to rebel and pave his own way
- that God will use Jude's observant, serious and sensitive sides to include "the least of these" and be mindful of the needs of others around him.
- that God will use Jude's affectionate nature to love Christ with his entire life and to love others as himself.
- that God will use Jude in Crosby's life to strengthen and encourage him in the faith.

i love this little boy more than i ever thought possible.  i am so grateful to be his mother and i love sharing my days with him.  he truly is a gift from God.  happy birthday, sweet baby jude!  you are no longer a baby, but a precious little toddler full of life and exuberance!

cloth diapers begin

the day has finally come that i have run out of the free diapers i stocked up on for jude from before i was even pregnant :) until now.  i had to go to the store today and PAY (albeit half price) for diapers for jude.   i have a couple of months worth of crosby's size, and then i will be paying for diapers for 2 (as well as filling up landfills for 2).  i think it's time to start potty training.  i know that jude just turned 2 last week and admittedly, it is a little difficult to discern what jude means when he says pee-pee....it means a miscellany of things from pee, to pizza, to pirate, to please, etc. etc.  this can be confusing.  Poo-poo is a little more clear as it is only used for its intended meaning, but it's less of a warning call than it is a declaration of an existing diaper condition.  if i were really chinese, i would be potty training crosby as we speak with a nice little whistle in the ear - but who am i kidding; i can only pretend to be chinese for so long.

So, the timing of this great blessing could not have been better.

back in october, I applied for a cloth diaper grant from a company called cotton babies.  they have a grant program for families who are serving overseas.  I just heard back in january that we were awarded the grant, and i could not be more thankful and excited (greg is a little less excited about the idea).

so two weeks ago, we received a very exciting package in the mail - cotton babies sent us an entire bundle of bumGenius cloth diapers and everything we need to do cloth diapering.

 these diapers are incredible as they are adjustable and grow with the baby from 7-35+ lbs!  this was a wonderful gift and we are so thankful for this company and their generosity!  jude had a lot of fun helping me open the box and pulling everything out.  my living room now regularly looks like a laundromat with a clothesline and little diapers hanging on it.

we are currently on day 3 of cloth diapers.  advice from any moms on this topic would be greatly appreciated!  why does the bedroom smell like crosby's poop when I keep them zipped up in a wetbag?  and why didn't the poop stains come out when i washed first in cold, then hot and double rinse?

crosby's baptism

crosby was baptized into the covenant community at our church, CityLife Presbyterian, on january 29th.  it was a really sweet morning with our church family here in boston and we are so thankful for our friends who essentially help us raise these precious children in the instruction of the Lord.  dr. lints, a professor and dear friend of mine and greg's, administered the sacrament and another dear friend, Kwang Chin Kim prayed for crosby and our family.  dr. lints' explanation of infant baptism is so clear and encouraging.  The video is below as well as a photo from the day.

some fun moments in january

jude loves holding crosby

new year's eve with our close friends in boston - jude's first time to sit at the big kids' table ... next to and across from the two loves in his life - nora and liana.

crosby is the sweetest, best baby.  he is so easy that it is often easy to forget that he's in the room when jude is around.  i am trying to snuggle with him as often as possible even though our schedule is so busy because i know these newborn days are fleeting.

i love these moments.  jude loves to crawl up on my legs on the glider as i'm feeding crosby, lean his head back on the boppy, prop up his leg and read with us.  

crosby at one month old

a quiet christmas

we had a quiet christmas just the four of us this year.  since crosby was only 2 weeks old and my recovery was going so slowly, we decided to cancel our flights to alabama and stay in boston.  it was a hard decision since this was our last christmas in america for a while.  but it ended up being a really sweet time to spend with our friends and church family here.

Jude "helped" me make Christmas cookies.  Half the flour ended up on us and the floor as his stirring is about the speed and vigor of a jet engine.

My first attempt at cooking after crosby's birth - i made beef bourguignon for christmas eve.  not only did i knock over my glass prep cups to see them shatter over half of the beef tenderloin and have to throw it out, but it also knocked over my soy sauce that spilled everywhere, but trying to get myself showered and dressed, crosby fed, jude dressed and dinner on the table in order to get to our christmas eve service at church, i forgot to reset my timer and i burned it as well as burning a nice layer onto the bottom of my le creuset.  in the famous words of my encouraging husband, "this is the best tasting burned dish i've ever had."  so there you go.

christmas morning was really special to celebrate as a family.  some friends of ours passed down a play kitchen and we gave it to jude for christmas (greg wondered why it wasn't a tool bench) - but jude LOVES it and loves cooking in it.  I often find his choo-choo trains in the microwave.

october and november in our home

october and november are two of my favorite months to live in new england.  we were busy this fall as i was tutoring quite a bit, had many visitors, and were preparing for crosby's arrival.  i took a bit of a break from blogging, but wanted to share a few of my favorite memories from this fall.

first up:  blake came up from houston to surprise Greg for his 30th birthday.  while it definitely was not the same without ryan and their kiddos, it seemed like the greatest gift in the world for both of these guys.  i am so thankful for blake and greg's friendship.  so this visit was one of the highlights of our fall.

one of the greatest joys of living in boston these past 5 years is being so close to my family that lives in new hampshire.  my mom's brother and his wife, as well as their two kids (my cousins) and their little ones all live about an hour and a half's drive from us.  while living in the south, i only got to see them every 2 years or so at our family get-togethers.  it has been such a blessing being able to drive up and spend weekends, birthdays, holidays, and such with them.  i love my family dearly and these past five years have just made me feel so close to them as we have shared all of the wonderful moments of our children being born with them.  here are some pictures of a walk jude and i took with my aunt and uncle on a weekend trip to see them back in october while greg was traveling.  they live on a beautiful lake and the trees were brilliant.

we went trick-or-treating with our good friends, mimi and kent and their little ones.  as i've previously posted, jude's favorite book was always moo, baa, la la la.  so it was only appropriate to dress him up as a sheep for halloween and let him go to the doors and say 'baaaaaaaaaaaa.'

we were not able to travel at thanksgiving since that was right around my due date.  but our good friends, paul and kate, invited us to spend thanksgiving with them here in boston.  jude was thrilled since their daughter, nora, is the love of his life.  here are some pictures from our really special thanksgiving here with the jin family.

and finally, we went to pick our our christmas tree the day after thanksgiving since little crosby (unnamed at the time) was due any day around that time....but then he took his time in coming. :)  this was the tree jude picked!