Christmas Day 2013

Of course, every single one of the pictures I took was of Judah... ha.

Actually, this was Christmas Eve... we showed him how to open a present, so he would be all excited to open the rest in the morning!

He loved the chunky animal puzzle pieces :)

The next morning he was indeed excited, but he only wanted to open one present at a time and then play with it for a long while! We spent a good portion of the day Skyping with our families and just hanging  out. I didn't take pictures of everything but I got the camera out a few times during the day. It took until bedtime for Judah to open all of his presents!

His very own watch (he has been obsessed with clocks/watches since he was a baby)

An airplane from Uncle James!

First glance at his big present (train table)...

... and he was completely absorbed!

"choo choo!"

Oh look! I did take a picture that didn't involve Judah. Our Christmas roast lamb feast, with perfectly roasted potatoes (if I do say so myself), roasted butternut squash with red onions and garlic, roasted brussel sprouts, and steamed broccoli, with plenty of gravy and fresh mint sauce for the lamb.

And back to the train table.

Underneath the Christmas tree...

Christmas is magical all over again when you have kids!

currently {01.31.2013}

Eating: We've started using the Fresh 20 meal planning service - it's wonderful! Each week you get a grocery list of 20 fresh ingredients that make 5 dinners. {They also have a list of 20 pantry basics to keep stocked up on... pasta, rice, spices etc.] The recipes make enough for 4 adults so it's plenty of food for dinners and lunches for the whole week for us. The food is absolutely delicious... we've had blackened salmon tacos, thai-style tilapia, steak fajitas, southwest bean chili, chicken mac n cheese, quinoa minestrone etc. The recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, but since I'm not really a recipe-follower I tend to tweak them a lot. We were on the Classic plan which does four meat meals and one vegetarian meal a week, but that was too much meat for us (we usually only eat meat 1-2 times a week) so this week we have switched to the Vegetarian plan, which is easy to add meat in if you want too. If you do the suggested "make-ahead" prep work (chopping veggies, pre-cooking and freezing meat etc.) each week, which takes about an hour, the meals are SUPER easy and fast to throw together each night. I was in a bit of a "rut" with meal planning, and this has just made life so much simpler.

Looking forward to: Judah's Uncle James is coming to visit next week, unexpectedly! James is Thomas's second youngest brother. He is coming over from Kenya for a scholarship competition at Letourneau University, which is only 2 hours from here. We only get to see him for one night before and one night after the competition since he has to fly back to Kenya for school, but we are so excited that we get to see him at all! Judah has never met his Uncle James! It just so happens that Uncle James will be here for Judah's little first birthday party, which is another fun thing I'm looking forward to :)

Listening to: Lately we've been listening to a lot of Pentatonix... they're pretty amazing, and Judah LOVES them. He gets so excited when he hears them.

Watching: A lot of Pingu, haha. These days we can't say the word "Pingu" in front of Judah because he'll get super excited and then mad if we don't put it on! We have resorted to the age-old parental tradition of spelling out words so he doesn't know what we're talking about. Thomas and I don't currently have a show that we're watching, which is unusual. Thomas has been so busy with work and grad school, and we've been so exhausted from Judah's frequent night wakings that we just haven't watched anything lately.

Loving: Central Market's Organic Chocolate Truffles... seriously. Cannot get enough of them. Thomas loves them too, which is saying a lot since he doesn't even really like chocolate.

Reading: Sadly, I haven't read a book in a long while. I need to remedy that because I really truly love to read and I want Judah to grow up in a house where books & reading are a big part of everyone's life. Most of my reading these days involves researching things like "how to get your almost-one-year-old to sleep through the night" on Dr. Google.

Thinking about: I've been thinking about my baby turning one so very soon... I can't believe how fast this year has gone. It's a strange feeling - a mix of so much happiness at watching him grow into each new stage and a little tug of sadness at kissing the little baby stages goodbye. I've also been thinking about what kinds of educational playtime activities I should be doing with him and how to best teach him his letters and colors and numbers etc. through play. He is such little sponge at the moment, absorbing information at top speed, and I want to make the most of it and somehow make sure he's getting enough [but not too much] stimulation. Just today he added the baby sign for "light" to his repertoire and now he runs around the house pointing at the lights and making the sign with his little hand.

Sleeping: Ha! Barely. Poor Judah is teething and his poor parents are exhausted. Turns out, having an uncomfortable teething thrashing 24 lb baby in your bed = no sleep.

Good thing he's cute.

life with a little Jude...

I can't believe my little newborn is almost 6 weeks old... and not so little anymore at 11lbs 11oz! The pediatrician took one look at him and said to me "What do you put in your milk?!"... haha. He is 100% healthy and growing and we are so thankful for that.

When Judah was 3 weeks old, two of his uncles came to visit... Thomas's brothers Robert and Stephen.

We all went out for Ethiopian food... with Stephen Whitson too!

The food was amazing... we ate every last bit!

Hanging out with Uncle Stephen.

And Uncle Robert.

Some Congdon men!

Last day with Nana :(

Jude decided to wear a super cute outfit just for her.

Saying goodbye at the airport.

Sad day :(

Candid shots of the past few weeks:

Staring up at daddy.

Jude loves his bouncy seat. We call it the "magic chair" because it puts him right to sleep. 

Resting on mommy.

Super baby! Look at that squishy face... adorableness.

Outing to Target. We go there a lot just to wander around.

(OK, and for mom to get Starbucks!)

My little snuggle bug.

We like to go for walks around the country club of our apartment complex.

Daddy says Jude looks like a little prison inmate in his jumpsuit.

... and mommy is bananas over Judah!

Looking grown up in big boy pajamas, hanging out in his crib with Gentle Giraffe (which makes sleeping sounds!)

Talking to momma.

I can honestly say I've loved every minute of Judah's 5 and 1/2 weeks of life. The only hard part is keeping up with things like laundry and dishes and trying to keep the house presentable, when all I want to do is snuggle and stare at him. It helps that he's such an easy baby - he eats well and sleeps well. He usually only wakes once a night to eat and stays awake for about an hour. I thought I would be way more sleep deprived... but I feel quite rested most of the time. Thomas gets a little more sleep deprived because he has to get up and go to work early, and he doesn't get to nap during the day when Jude naps like I do.

Motherhood is definitely my favorite stage of life so far!

Life is getting back to normal... well a "new" normal anyways. I still love cooking and coming up with new things. The other day I made a mushroom-asparagus-proscuitto saute with yummy things like garlic and red wine. I ate it on toast with some feta cheese and fresh basil... it would have been even better with goat's cheese, I think.

We also had a delicious fondue dinner with Andrew and Janelle!

So life with a little Jude, in short, is wonderful :)