18 Months

Height: 33.5" (74%)
Weight: 23 lbs. 3 oz. ((30%)


At 18 months Jude is doing just about everything to keep up with the crazy in this house.  He climbs, runs, climbs, hides, gets attitude when something doesn't go his way.  Jude is enjoying books more and more each day.  He uses several phrases and has a pretty extensive vocabulary.  Some of his most frequently used words are: all done, girls, outside, all done, no, please, night night (which is what he calls his milk), bath, nannie (for banana), and daddy.  Jude is able to communicate and make his point known.  My favorite thing is that he tells us when he has pooped by saying, "I poop."  He is also very good at following one step commands and remembering where he left important things like his milk or a favorite toy (foo foo, giraffy and yellow guy).  Pointing is his new favorite thing.  Jude loves to play hide and seek and chasing games.  He also loves balls and cars.  Jude knows the sounds certain animals make and can point out some of his body parts.  He takes turns and loves to be silly with the other kids.  Jude is probably our worst runner.  He never stays in one place.  He is constantly on the run and doesn't worry whether we will keep up with him or not.  He can't be trusted in public to stay nearby.  He makes outings a little stressful.

A few of my favorite Jude pics from the month:

18 Months

Jude is keeping up with the gang these days. I am keeping up with the challenges of an 18 month old now.  My biggest priority lately has been keeping Jude alive.  He is definitely true to the little boy ways.  Into everything, climbing on anything, attempting things that he is not capable of and making messes all along the way.  

Jude is starting to talk more and more. He has several distinct words that we can clearly understand.  He can mimic just about anything we ask him to.  His voice is just so cute.  

Favorite Words:

Happy, Outside, Shoe, Annie, Millie, Owen, Daddy, Mommy, Zoom, Bath, All done, Night-Night and Please

Jude loves to play hide and seek and chase.  I find him so frequently shut up in closets and cabinets unable to open the doors to let himself out.  He takes off running from us and laughs at himself.  Jude also likes to play on ride on toys.  He loves cars and trains, blocks and markers.  He also loves anything that he can dump out and leave for me to pick up. He enjoys being outside and playing in the basement.  He is fascinated with the vacuum for some reason.  

Jude sleeps 12 hours a night.  He goes to bed around 7:30 and is up around 7:30 the next morning.  He naps once a day around 1 and sleeps for about two hours.  

Vocabulary

16 months

Jude is becoming very vocal.  Its that time when toddlers string together gibberish in such an inflectional way that you can tell what he says has meaning to him.  He says things with such intent.  Although the majority of his vocalizations are incoherent to us, he does say several words that we understand constantly and signs a few words to communicate with us.

Jude's Vocabulary at 16/17 months:

Annie, ball, night-night, wow, whoa, all done, yeah, no no no, momma, da da, moo, baa, outside, bye bye, this, bath

Jude signs for:

all done, more, book, bath, airplane and please

11 Months Old

Oh boy!  This little one is growing up so so much.  

The biggest change physically this month has been his hair.  He's beginning to show signs of some curl and it is adorable! I am already getting pressure to cut it.  I will go down kicking and screaming before cutting it (just like I did with Owen's).  He has also gotten some new teeth on top.  One is completely through and visible and the other is just coming in.  I love his big top tooth that shows when he shoots us his big wide-mouthed grin.  It's his signature smile.  He'll drive girls crazy with that smile someday.  All of the kids inherited their dad's big happy smile!  Jude is comfortably wearing 12 month clothes but I am still squeezing him into some of my nine month favorites and pulling out some 18 month stuff as well.  I love the merry-go-round closet...revisiting old clothes worn by Owen (and others).  I especially love the old clothes that have been worn by all three of the kids.  

Jude is learning lots of new skills and making a place for himself among his big brother and sisters during play time.  The girls love including him as their little doll, caring for him and teaching him new things.  Just yesterday Annie took him for a stroll around the cul de sac in the wagon and he loved it.  Millie loves to carry him around the house.  Owen desperately wants him to be bigger and more sturdy than he actually is.  Jude is going to be one tough kid after surviving Owen and I know they will eventually love playing rough together.  

Jude isn't yet walking but is cruising around pretty steadily.  He crawls very quickly from place to place; over, around and through anything in his way.  He loves looking out the windows, especially the front door.  He pulls up on anything to stand.  One of his favorite hang outs is at the dishwasher when it is being loaded or unloaded.  For this reason we've snatched many sharp objects out of his hands causing terrible rage in him.  Jude also loves the vacuum.  Sometimes I sweep just to distract him from crying.  Toilets and trash cans seem to be a source of entertainment as well.

Naps are not Jude's strong suit, but that doesn't stop me from trying each day to get him to take two naps.  Usually he will sleep a combined two hours between them.  He is sleeping through the night consistently, going to bed at 7:30 and waking up around 7.   

Some of his favorite foods are blueberries, yogurt, cheese, grapes, teething biscuits (is that a food?), pretzels and macaroni.  He isn't very patient at mealtime.  He doesn't sit for long periods in his high chair and he doesn't enjoy being fed.  He grabs the spoon to feed himself, usually making a mess of everything within two feet.  He still takes a bottle about four or five times a day.  He hasn't figured out sippy cups yet.  He just is frustrated by them, despite knowing that they are supposed to do something.  

Jeremy and I finally feel like we can breath a bit now that we are out of the newborn/infant stage of patenting.  Now we are so busy keeping Jude safe from himself and the gang that I don't know which stage is more exhausting.  I guess its a different kind of exhausting.  I am enjoying watching Jude's personality take shape and seeing him find his place in all this craziness.  We are blessed beyond measure to be the parents of such amazing kids.

This picture cracks me up

10 Months Old

This month has been characterized by crashes and falls.  Jude has discovered that he can get around, pull up to stand, crawl under, over and through just about anything.  He has taken a lot of trauma to the head this month.  He has also tempted fate by attempting to ingest anything he finds lying around.
Jude has become much more interested in toys.  He loves balls and just about anything that he can chew on.  One of his favorite times of day is bath time.  He's chewed most of his bath toys to pieces.  He still has just three bottom teeth, all of which are completely in and have been for a while.  We did notice that his top right tooth is nearly pushing through, so that might explain the infatuation with chewing.
Jude is a very smiley kid. His smile lights up his face. All you have to do is look at him and he smiles.  He loves being sung to, read to, held and tickled.  He's not a big eater but some of his favorite foods are blueberries, cheese, graham crackers, grapes, pretzel rods and yogurt melts.  He dislikes all veggies.
His favorite pastime is getting into the garbage cans.  I have to empty them on a daily basis for fear that he will eat something dangerous like a diaper or paper with a staple in it.  He seems to love paper.  He tears up every magazine or kid's coloring page within his reach.  Although the kids love him more than anything, he's becoming a bit of a nuisance to them.  They ask me frequently, "can you put Jude to bed? He's wrecking our stuff."
Jude sleeps through the night inconsistently.  When he wakes up he is nearly impossible to get back to sleep without a bottle.  He goes to bed pretty easy around 7 and wakes up for the day around 7.  He is put down for two naps a day.  Somedays I am lucky and he will sleep for two hours at least once, other days he wakes up twenty minutes into his nap and won't go back down.  He's certainly not our best napper.  Its the inconsistency that drives me crazy.
Jude's a special little guy, with a personality all his own and it is fun to watch it take shape as he gets older.  We're pretty lucky.

9 Months

I like this picture because you can see his three bottom teeth.

It seems (to me) this month Jude went from little baby to nearly toddler.  His new little teeth (all three of them) are fully in, he's all over the place in a flash (army crawling along most of the time since it gets him from point A to point B much more quickly than crawling), he's feeding himself at mealtime, and his hair is growing and becoming much thicker.  He can take baths with all the other kids now without being drowned in their splashing.  He plays on the floor for longer periods without screaming for us.  He's become much more resilient to Owen's attempts at play.  He can hold his bottle himself, and the big one...he can find his pacifier when it falls out and put it back into his mouth on his own.
Just this week we lowered Jude's crib mattress since he's beginning to pull up to stand (infrequently, but he can do it).  That always seems like such a milestone to me for some reason. I guess it is just a sign that the baby is not going to be a baby much longer.  This time Jeremy commented, "this is the last time we will ever do this."  Wow!!! and Hallelujah!!!
Jude is enjoying books and beginning to turn pages.  He even attends to book features; lifting flaps, feeling textures, turning pages, etc.  He likes balls, cars, trains and trucks-just like a boy!  He loves to splash in the bathtub.  He lies on his back and kicks his legs until the water is crashing in waves over his head.  He has especially taken a liking to cords, trash cans and paper.  One day this week I think he consumed several calories worth of printer paper that he confiscated from the trash can.  He finds little pieces of food crumbs, bits of trash or anything else lying on the floor and it immediately goes into his mouth.  I've fished out candy wrappers, popcorn kernels and hair ties just to name a few.  One night this month Jeremy was feeding him a bottle and noticed he wasn't drinking well.  Upon closer inspection there was a plastic door stopper in the back of his throat just waiting to be removed using the Heimlich.
Jude likes to eat just about anything we offer him. He isn't a big eater but he is an adventurous eater.  The only thing I've seem him refuse after multiple attempts is eggs.  He likes to feed himself more than having it fed to him.  Pretzel rods, yogurt melts, graham crackers and blueberries are favorites of his.  He also enjoys just chewing on a spoon at mealtime.  He's gotten over his dislike for his highchair thankfully.
Jude's sleeping patterns are pretty good.  He goes to bed consistently between 6:30 and 7:30.  Most nights he wakes up at least once (and never goes back to bed without being fed).  He wakes up around 7 a.m.  Naps are pretty hit or miss.  On most days his naps only last an hour if I'm lucky.  That doesn't deter me from lying him down consistently at 10 and 2.
Jude is beginning to make babbling sounds and is pretty amused at himself.  He attempts Dada and Momma.  We are beginning to introduce signs to him.  He communicates in smiles, laughs and cries and certainly gets his point across.

8 Months

This hasn't been one of the easiest months for Jude.  He has been sick most of the month.  He's had just about every bug...one right on top of the other...stomach, cough, runny nose.  On top of all of that he has been teething.  His bottom two teeth came in right in the middle of all of this.  He has been eating and sleeping very poorly.  He's been a trooper despite being physically exhausted from his lack of sleep. 

Jude is on the verge of crawling.  He can get up onto his hands and knees and rock back and forth but his primary mode of movement is what I call the "stretch."  He stretches as far as his arm can reach in one direction, then stretches with his other arm until he slinks his way to where he wants to be.  He also rolls from place to place.  He is sitting up pretty well without support.  He wobbles and falls frequently knocking his head on the ground (which he hates).  He also has some help falling over on occasion from Owen, who takes it upon himself to see that Jude doesn't sit up for very long.  

Jude enjoys playing with toys.  He likes many of the other kid's favorite toys.  He plays well for short periods in his jumper.  This is how I get food on the table, Jude plays next to me in the kitchen while I prepare meals.

Jude is beginning to finger feed himself.  I am hoping this will help us at mealtime.  The only way we can get through meals with him in his high chair is to give him a pretzel rod to suck on.  Otherwise, he screams the entire meal.  Between meals Jude takes about 6 ounces from a bottle.  He gets a bottle when he wakes up, one between breakfast and lunch, one between lunch and dinner and another at bedtime.  Jude is no longer nursing.  He just refuses.  He screams and jerks his head away when I try.  So, I just gave up.  It was too stressful for us both.  He gave it up earlier than all the other kids.  

Jude loves attention.  He HATES being left to play alone on the floor.  He screams until he is picked up and immediately stops when we pick him up.  This is a sound you will hear very often in our house.  

Of all the kids, Jude is probably the worst napper.  I lay him down twice a day but he rarely sleeps more than 45 minutes at a time (at least this has been the pattern the past several weeks).  There are three good reasons for this... Annie, Millie and Owen.  I swear that they are amplified during nap time.  Typically Jude sleeps through the night from 7 to 7 but this month has been rough.  He has been waking up in the middle of the night at least once.  I can't tell if he has developed a bad pattern or if he genuinely is waking up from a cough, runny nose or teething pain.  Whatever it is, I wish it would end!  

I can't believe how much Jude has grown and all the new things he is doing.  He is finally past that infant stage of pure neediness and although I am glad, I am a little sad that I didn't take more time to enjoy it.  When we describe Jude, we describe him as simply the sweetest!  He loves to smile and be among others.

Foods Jude is eating:

Pureed squash, peas, carrots, green beans, corn, apples and pears.

Yogurt

Oatmeal

Cut up Blueberries, grapes and raspberries.

Toast

Cheerios, puffs, yogurt melts.

He LOVES pretzel rods and cut up fruit in the mesh bags.

Enjoys:

Bathtime

Being tickled

Books

Balls

Toys that light up 

Baby Einstein and Hoopla Baby

Dislikes:

Being alone

The highchair

Dropping something and not being able to get it

Favorite 6 Month Pictures