About A Boy

It's been a while since Jude has made a blog appearance, so I think it's only appropriate to give him the cyber attention he deserves.  As most of you know, Jude is - hands down- the most creative kid I know.   As I've mentioned in previous posts, as long as there is paper in the house, the kid has no complaints.  He also has a very one-track mind, and works on something until it is finished.  He will then talk about his finished products for HOURS if allowed.

And over the past few years, Jude really hasn't changed much.  He asks me the same five questions every single day.

1.  Can I check the dragons? (It's this really odd ipad ap that Rob introduced the kids to.  You raise, breed, sell and fly dragons.  I don't get it at all, but JUDE IS OBSESSED.)

2.  Can I have a snack?

3.  Can I have a piece of paper?

4.  Can I get out the creating bin?

5.  Can I play the computer?

And that's my schedule with the boy.

Now, there are people who love Jude - and then there is my brother Dan and his wife Marissa.  I know they love all of my kids, but Jude's "creativity" really strikes a chord with them.  But in all seriousness, Dan asked a really good question last time he was in town.  Given the extent of his creative obsessions, Jude could be labeled as a lot of interesting things from his peers.  (I know at my age there would have been some giggling) so Dan asked how the kids reacted to Jude.

One of my biggest fears with raising a sweet and confident boy has always been that he would be seen by others as this kid:




Totally not the case.  Somehow Jude's confidence has the other kids admiring him, and his artwork is envied at school.  A few weeks ago, I went to pick up Jude from school and while all of the kids were running around outside screaming, Jude was silently standing next to the carpool lane just like this:

Except, replace the boom box with a three foot - made from paper - alligator.

He had realized the day before that he didn't have anything he wanted to take in for show and tell, so naturally, he made something.

I just smiled and thought, "That's my boy."

But as I got out of the car, I heard two different kids telling their parents that he was the kid with all of the cool inventions.  Then a super cute little girl yells, "Bye Jude, I hope you bring your alligator again!"

I'm pretty sure this kid was born a hipster.  His confidence, creativity, and all-around positivity have turned this kid into a kindergarten all star, and as his mom....I'm ridiculously proud.

So now, without further ado, I suppose I should get around to the main purpose of this post.  To share Jude's most recent creations.

(White paper) A one legged man that only stands on his tongue.

(Green paper) The alligator that I mentioned earlier.  The mouth opens and closes and is full of sharp teeth.

(In Jude's hands) A puppet version of the baby on the 90s show Dinosaurs.  Yes, I'm talking about the one that always yells, "Not the Momma."  (I think he found this on Youtube?)

(Behind him)  A map of treasures that he has hidden in his room.

(Yellow paper) a lion made from a paper plate.  There is a hole in the mouth where (paper) food goes in, and a hole in his rear end so that food can be properly expelled.  (Not pictured is the mass quantity of food that he made to feed the lion).

What else can I say?  The kid is obviously a freaking genius.

Time Flies When You're.....Um.....Huh.

Do you ever go through phases where you feel like life is flying past you, but oddly enough you haven't done a single thing?  It's strange because usually when you're feeling slower than usual (or more pregnant than usual in my case)  time just seems to drag on and on and on.  Yet somehow I'm stuck in a weird schedule of non-events that seems to occupy every minute of every single day.

It hit me pretty hard a few weeks ago when I realized that in December, the movie The Hobbit was released.  Rob and I are huge LOTR fans and in our normal life would have seen it opening night week (I have to be realistic here...we DO have kids!)  Now, it is four months later, we still haven't seen it, and it is probably already out of theaters.  Instead of being upset all I could think was, "huh..four months.  I wonder what I've been doing since then.."

FOUR MONTHS?!

This wasn't like, "Hmmmm, I can't really remember what I did on Saturday..."  This was, "Have I done anything since I found out I was pregnant, FOUR MONTHS AGO?!"

It reminds me of a time that I was driving in the car with my mom.  We had been sitting in silence for ten or so minutes when she said, "What?" All I could do was stare blankly at her and say, "Neither one of us has said anything for the past ten minutes.  What part of that did you not hear?"  She laughed and said, "I just checked out for a few and wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything."

"And you figured that by saying 'what' you would be able to catch up on ten minutes of conversation that you hadn't payed attention to?"

We laughed and kept on driving in silence.

Here are some of the things I know I have done in the past four months.

1.  Christmas.  Claire threw up, I stayed home, spent the day mostly alone.  It was a non-day.
2.  Valentines.  Rob and I went out to Ruth's Chris and had a delicious steak dinner.
3.  St. George vacation/work trip
4.  Dr. appointments
5.  Visits from my Johnny and Dan and Marissa.

 If anyone has a time-traveling Delorean they can lend me, please leave a comment below.

 I think the rest has just been filled with the following daily schedule:
wake up, breakfast and kids ready for school, gym, getting ready for the day, carpool, lunch, laundry/cleaning, naps, carpool, homework, dinner, kids ready for bed, unwind, bed.

Contrary to what you might think, I'm actually not complaining about this.  I know this schedule is required of me, and I'm happy to keep up the daily routine.  But perhaps it's also time to see a movie or two and make sure these next four months don't pass me by without a single memory!

Any suggestions on how to make these next four pre-baby months memorable?!