Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Georgia


Been a while, I know. What can I say, we have been relaxing in the lap of metro-Atlanta luxury with our families. They have heaped indulgence upon hand-and-foot-waiting indulgence upon us, and frankly, I'm not sure I'm ready to leave yet. I may have reverted back to my childhood ways a little and forgotten that I'm actually an adult now and needn't have mom or dad hand me my cereal bowl and orange juice every morning. But really, they have blessed us so much by giving us a place to recuperate and prepare for the next thing, which is Vermont in November.

The best thing about our 2 and a half months here is watching our families interact with Jude. It has been so sweet to see how they have literally changed from strangers to beloved in his eyes. He has grown so much in such a short time and has adapted quickly to his new house every couple of weeks. Here are some of the things that have broadened his little horizons.

On the way down from Jersey we spent a few days at a cabin in Tennessee.  Horses and fireplaces were what we were going for... check!

Jude and I spent a few days with my best friend Courtney and her family.  Here are some shots of Jude and Finn playing near each other.

Our first family visit was with Evelyn (Grandmom).  

She is such a teacher.  Here is a picture of the letters and numbers that she taped to her door for Jude to learn.  She went over them with him every day, as well as shapes, colors and his name.  


Grandmom brought Jude a Halloween card with a window sticker on it.  He loves getting cards!

Then we went to my dad's house, Mimi & Papa's.  An added bonus was having my cute Nanny in town from Texas for a couple of weeks.    

Jude played out in their courtyard a lot.  Give the kid a stick and a pot full of dirt and stand back.

Nanny watched his little baby videos with him trying to get a response out of him.  He is one tough nut to crack.

Jude did lots of new things--rode on Papa's boat, swam in the lake, and Papa taught him how to play golf with his very own little golf clubs.  Papa thinks Jude has real potential based on a fairly accurate swing with good followthrough that occurred one day in his office.  

Next we went to my mom's house, Oma and Opa's.  This is Jude with his cousin, Lyla, my brother's daughter.  Austin is in Germany about to be deployed to Afghanistan, so his wife and daughter will be joining him there shortly.  This wagon was a big hit with Jude, he begs to be wheeled around in it.  I do too, but with dramatically different results.

Another hit was the plastic bin full of sand.

And running like a madman around the yard.  Oma is tireless in her Jude-entertaining antics.

Jude and I went to Texas to visit my mom's side of the family.  Here is my Nanny, a four generation shot.  Jude loved playing out in their huge yard, stripped down to nothing and put in a bin of water.  They had a wagon as well and I think Opa gets the award for most vigorous and incessant wagon pulling. 

We didn't get any good pictures of Jude for Halloween unfortunately!  He was a chicken, wait, a duck.  Ok, we thought it was a chicken when we bought the costume only to be corrected on closer inspection of the beak.  It's not as funny being a duck.  I think Kevin had more fun than anyone taking him door to door.  For a kid who can't eat candy, he scored big time.  

As I mentioned, we will be heading up to Burlington in November. Kevin will drive our car up around the second week to hunt and kill an apartment for us. Then Jude and I will fly up the next week to move in. We have some dear friends from NJ that will drive up to help us move in. Thank you, thank you. My next post will come from the great state of Vermont!

Oh yes, one more thing to mention for those that haven't heard yet. We are happily pregnant with number two, due early May. Praise God for this great gift!

2 comments:

Lori said...

Woohoo!!! That's awesome that you're pregnant again! I wish we could have caught up with you while you were in TX. I'll be praying for y'all as I realized by now y'all are probably all in VT. God will continue to use your family in a mighty way, just as he did in NJ.

mtmashue said...

dearly love and seriously miss all of you! looking forward to the next time we see each other!