Summer Vacation

We're on summer vacation and I somehow didn't have time to put together the Month Ten post. Here are a few snippets to keep our readers going.

Jude was teething a week ago and his fifth tooth is in! We saw it for the first time last Friday. This was the most painful one yet for him. He didn't sleep very well on the camping trip because of his tooth, and E Ben had to make a special "civilization" run to get some Infant's Tylenol, but once it poked though he seemed fully recovered.

Jude had his first airplane flight as a Real Boy and he did surprisingly well. On our first leg from PDX to Salt Lake City, we lucked out and had a whole row to ourselves. Jude had fun crawling back and forth between us for most of the trip. He only made one enemy: he couldn't resist pulling the long hair of the lady sitting in front of one of our seats. On the second flight (SLC to JFK), we managed to get him down for a nap for the first two hours. He was exhausted, but it was still a challenge because Jude is not at all used to napping anywhere but his crib or carseat. We breathed a sigh of relief when he finally closed his eyes. Once he woke up, he did really well but needed to be entertained constantly for the remaining three hours. We cycled through toys and books and luckily brought enough in the way of entertainment. I will never again say that plane travel alone is difficult. What a luxury to be able to read a book or close your eyes or watch a movie! At one point we gave Jude a Biscoff cookie and he gnawed on it until it was gone. Ten whole minutes of just sitting on my lap. We'll have to keep that trick in the bag.

We had a great weekend in NY. We were here for my cousin's wedding, which meant that Jude got to meet a lot of family members for the first time. He loved my cousin John Lawrence, giving him "Jude kisses" (which consist of an open mouth on your cheek or nose) every time he saw him. Jude also got to play with his second cousin Lukas, who is four days older. We're planning some Baby Olympic Games one of these days. So far the only event we've been able to agree upon is a race up a flight of stairs. Jude has been in training this week. Luckily, climbing stairs is pretty much his favorite thing to do, so it's not too hard on him.

Jude is also loving his "cousin" Maximus (my sister's Yorkie). It is so cute to watch the two of them playing together. Maximus swoops in and licks Jude on the face. Jude pushes Maximus away, and then chases after him and the cycle repeats.

Jude's communication skills have also been improving markedly in the past few weeks. He seems to understand more of what we say, and he is using a few baby signs. I wish he would learn the "all done" sign, because at this point when he's done eating a certain food he picks it up and throws it on the floor. Last night we were playing this hilarious game where I would hold Jude and E Ben would go into the other room. After a few seconds, Jude would make a little noise and E Ben would come running back into the room, and which point Jude would shriek and open his eyes wide as if he was really frightened. It's almost like he was pretending to be scared, but I don't know if his mind is developed enough to be that sophisticated. Then he would laugh histerically and want to play again. Every day we have new games; this age is a lot of fun.

Oma and G'Pa have been a lot of help and we've been able to get away a few evenings for walks around the golf course and games of backgammon. E Ben is playing in the Liberty Bell backgammon tournament this weekend and it's pretty much the highlight of his week.

That's about it for now. I'll post pictures when I get a chance, but it might not be until we're back home.