Tuesday Tid Bits 06.24.14

Every little boy needs overalls! 

Jude sporting a traditional Middle Eastern head piece. Not really, it's just part of his play mat. :)

- Jude gives little forehead bonks as a sign of affection. He tilts his head foreword until you’re eye to eye and looks up at you with a grin. And then you melt from overexposure to sheer cuteness.

- He has what we call his “angry words”. His usual babbling consists of lots of “mammas”, “daddas”, and other rounded vowel sounding words. However, when he becomes upset, his word choice becomes much more specific sounding and clearly exasperated. For example, “Mingey, ta, ta ta!” I am sorry to say that in those moments when his angry words come out we don’t take him nearly as serious as he probably would like us to because again, it’s too much cuteness for us to handle.

- Jude enjoys table food far better then baby food. He wants whatever the big people are eating. The past few days he has eaten red pepper, green pepper, onion, broccoli, corn, kidney beans, cucumber, tomato, carrots, potatoes, noodles, whole wheat chips and tortillas and lots, lots more.

Snackin' on some strawberries, chicken, and yellow pepper. 

- He is currently getting 4 teeth in that we can see the tips of and I am sure there are others working their way down and out. Poor bubba.

- I walked back into his room the other day after briefly leaving to use the restroom and could not see him. Then I noticed his little socked feet under the crib. The kid is starting to move really fast!

Can you spy Jude?

Here is a hint. :)

- I think he is deciding that tummy is the way to go when he sleeps. I checked in on him yesterday early morning and found him in stinkbug position. J

- Michael of coarse celebrated his first Father’s Day. Amongst other gifts and festivities of the day I awarded him with his first Father’s Day ties. We gave Grandpa Fender and Grandpa Mevs “Grandpa Brag Books”. They are little 2x3 books with pictures of their grandchild(ren) they can keep in their wallet and show off to the inevitably interested people they come in contact with. J

The "Grandpa Brag Books"

- We were both excited for the downtown farmers market to start. What a blast! So many fun things and people. We bought Jude a little sailboat that we can take to one of the many parks with ponds around us and sail with him when he is a bit older (for now it just looks darling in his room). Now we just need to adopt a mouse named Stewart and we are set. :) We were able to visit with a good friend who was selling his art there and look at all his beautiful things. I love farmer’s markets. My mother was in charge of this same one when I was a little girl and I have memories of helping her store things in an old storage unit across the street covered with a big mural. 

Of all the nice places my parent's home has to sit, for some reason this little section of carpet is always a favorite hang out spot. I have many memories spending time here with my brother and talking until really late after I got home from my high school social whatevers. 

- Uncle Henry turned Old Fart over the weekend (50:). He hates birthdays, doesn’t like the attention. He has always been a good uncle to me and would smash anyone into the ground (Polynesian style) if they messed with his family; I consider him a great asset to our family. ;) His mother actually died in childbirth with him in Samoa and his father I believe was sent away back to Tonga so his grandmother took him home from the hospital. He was premature so she carried him home in a shoebox and fed him chicken broth. What a story! 

Great Grandpa Judy

We are a happy bunch and getting excited for the return of our sister missionary, Samantha in two weeks (wish I could say the same for my baby brother). San Diego here we come! Everyone send me Good Mamma Vibes because traveling with a baby takes skill and good planning!

Tuesday Tid Bits 06.10.14

Jude

Please enjoy a selection of action clips and photos of Jude and his new tricks and quirks. :)

Already starting to go places. :)

Jude playing peek-a-boo. He instigated this all on his own.

Jude loves getting grandma and her hair.

Jude has been here! haha Grandma is a good sport to sacrifice her hair for Jude's enjoyment, that hair takes a long time to do, there is a lot of it! 

He's standing and good at it, even with those little chicken legs! 

Rolling, and rolling, and rolling some more just because we can. :) 

- Over the weekend we spent some time exploring the city we live in. We found an old bookstore that had been there for ages and will likely smell of books until the end of time (adore that). I fell in love with this old book entitled “Gnomes”. It included the history of the fantastical species, their remedies, dwellings, how to spot their trails, and more. The little girl inside of me wanted to take that book up the mountain and do some Gnome hunting right away!

- We tried a new restaurant called The Neapolitan. The atmosphere inside was fantastic and I was being a nerd over how much I loved all of their light fixtures. It had a re-purposed industrial design. Really cool. Even the bathroom was beautiful. We sat out on the street and enjoyed the summer day and I ordered a margherita pizza to see how it would compare with the one I had in the supposed birth place of the pizza, Naples, Italy. I haven’t had a pizza that came close since that trip and as I had my first bite I was immediately transported back to that warm, little fresco painted restaurant with lots of happy, drinking Italians eating yummy pizza. Success.

- We found a nature area in the middle of the city called Hidden Hollow. Tree fluff was falling from the sky and covering the ground, making it look like a snowy summer scene. Jude put his little toes in it.

- It was Grandpa Fender’s 47^th birthday this week. 47!? I guess he has been 43 in my head for the past 4 years because I was pretty surprised when I was told. Probably still younger and better looking than 99% of my friend’s dads so nobody can complain. ;) My sister made him a sea turtle birthday cake. Whenever dad swims off of the beaches of Hawaii the sea turtles show up and float with him. As a result he has developed a bond with them and it didn’t take more than one of those experiences for them to quickly become his favorite animal. 

- I, like every other normal person, think baby feet and hands are the sweetest. However, there is one thing that gets my need-to-squeeze-the-baby-hard really going and that is my child’s bum, or as we call them in our house, his pompies. So, in effort to always remember just how stinkin' cute those little pompies are, I created a very nontraditional keepsake that goes beyond the ink pad foot and hand print, a bum print! Haha It’s safe to say it was an exciting day in our kitchen but I am sure that it is not the most unusual thing that will take place there. Haha Here’s to the cutest little booty around! 

Because when you can get your photo taken with a giant dog and cat, why not?

Snuggles with our always freezing, even in June, grandma. 

The family dog, Emmett, is a very naughty and artistic doggy. He stole this off the table and left it looking like this, on standing on it's side. haha 

Tuesday Tid Bits 06.03.14

- We took our Sunday walk to Temple Square and explored the surrounding neighborhoods. We went on a hunt to find the burial place of Brigham Young (one of the LDS Church’s early prophets) and it took us a bit but we found it snuggled back in off of a main street. And wouldn’t you know it was his birthday that day! So we sang him happy birthday and thanked him for being so cool.

Brigham Young's Grave

LDS Conference Center

- Jude bounced his little diapered bum up and down as we watched my sister perform a hip hop dance in a concert this past Saturday. As I watched her I couldn't help but cat call and think, "Daaang girl." Miranda has always been groovy. As a little girl she would jam out to Disco’s Greatest Soul Hits in her room and in her dance class the teacher would ask what music they wanted to dance to and while the rest of the girls responded, “Hannah Montana!” she would exclaim, “Santana!” haha We’ve got our dad to blame/thank for that one. He has always said he was supposed to be a black man in the 60’s. haha Anyways, it was fun to see her get down, I mean real down, and her hip hop teacher (a cool black guy with sweet kicks and what Michael and I call “poopy pants” (low crotch pants)) refers to Miranda as “His girl”. Miranda Kate has never and will never be lacking in personality and is most definitely my soul sista. LOVE her.

- For family nights this month we are focusing on fitness. We’ve got some hikes planned and last night we took Jude swimming for the first time. Our community pool is really nice with lots of cool water features so Jude’s eyes were big the whole time as he took everything in. Michael and I took turns going down the water slide. Haha It had been awhile for both of us. It wasn’t until after we were changing Jude outside the pool that he decided it had been a fun experience and was all smiles and giggles. We will have to take him back soon now that he has concluded he likes it. J

- I am pretty sure the little guy is getting four more teeth, all at the same time and all on the bottom. My poor baby. It is safe to say that nobody is sleeping. It is likely he is going to have a nice row of 6 teeth on the bottom and a nice row of toothless gum on the top. Haha

- We went with a friend of ours on a hike last week and when we got to the top of the trail we chose a rock to sit on and sang some fun earthy nature songs. This friend home schools her two children and has attended home schooling conferences in Boulder, Colorado (hence the earthy nature songs). She is a free spirit and I adore that about her. I feel like in another life she and I run through the forest with flowers in our hair and sing Celtic songs to the fairies and forest spirits around trees. :) I’ve asked her for those songs we sang because they were gentle and beautiful and I get tired of singing the same songs to Jude over and over. I’ve included them below for other mammas that are looking to mix things up a bit. 

Good Morning Dear Earth

Good morning dear earth

Good morning dear sun.

Good morning to the trees.

And flowers every one.

Good morning to the beasts.

And the birds in the trees.

Good morning to you

And good morning to me.

5 Little Seeds

5 little seeds I planted in the ground 1 grew, 2 grew, they grew without a sound

They grew higher, higher, high

Until one day they touched the sky

In the heart of a seed,

Buried deep so deep,

A tiny plant

Lay fast asleep.

"Wake," said the sunshine,

"And creep to the light."

"Wake," said the voice

 Of the raindrops bright.

The little plant heard

And it rose to see,

What the wonderful,

Outside world might be.

A farmer once planted some seeds

He watered them gently and pulled out the weeds

The plants they grew tall in the sun,

With a push, push here and a push, push there

Their faces shone out with a hey diddle, diddle and their heads in the air

What do the plants need to grow?

You are my sunshine

What could be growing in Farmer Brown’s fields?

Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow,

Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow,

Can you or I or anyone know

How oats, peas, beans, and barley grow?

First the farmer sows his seed,

Then he stands and takes his ease,

 He stamps his foot and claps his hands,

Then he turns to view his lands.

Mother Earth

Mother Earth, Mother Earth

Take or seed, and give it birth

Father Sun, Gleam and Glow

Until the roots, begin to grow

Sister Rain, Sister Rain

Shed thy tears, to swell the grain

Brother Wind, Breathe and Blow

Then the blade, green will grow

Earth and Sun, wind and Rain

Turn to gold The living Grain

Lots of beautiful flowers at Temple Square. I wanted to remember these ones in particular for my future garden.