Ridenour Ranch: Jude the Dude...Number Nine

Our biggest boy turned 9 years old last week! He got a snow day and a Lego so he was pretty pleased with himself! Also that night grandma and grandpa Koester and the Hendrix family came and had some cheesecake (chocolate mousse! his choice for a birthday cake this year!). In fact, he had such a good day that the next day when things went back to normal he had the "after birthday blues." I get it son, I get it! But the partying wasn't over yet because on Friday grandma and grandpa Ridenour came up and we went to Pizza Hut that night. Then on Saturday we took three of his buddies swimming at the Y in South Sioux and to McDonald's AND Dairy Queen for a drive home ice-cream cone (that might have been my idea!).

Jude continues to be our extrovert-to-the-max guy. He loves a good party and DOING anything. Which usually means NOT being at home, or if we are then someone ELSE needs to come over. He LOVES reading and is really into comics or graphic novels: Dog Man, Captain Underpants, Nate, Amulet, and the newspaper funnies that grandma and grandpa collect for him. But he will read pretty much anything and therefore knows so many things. Whenever I ask him how he knew something it is either he read it in a book or he saw it on a PBS kids show! After Christmas he and I read the book WONDER together. It was so good. I may have cried on nearly every page much to Jude's wonderment and annoyance! I used to have a hard time reading aloud to my students, but reading aloud to my own children has proven even more difficult!

Jude also loves Legos. He is getting to be a "master builder." We are very into the Lego Batman series right now. And can all agree that the Lego Batman movie is up there with the best movies ever made! And it gets quoted quite often around here ("Stop! Who is laying down those funky beats?!"- Joker, "Look at my amazing abs"- Batman, etc...)

Jude played his first year of little league baseball last summer which was really fun to watch and played his first year of basketball under his dad's (and mom's!) coaching this winter. He has improved so much in hoops and loves to practice out on our new driveway and basket.

He and I attended our first 4-H meeting the other night so this will be the first summer of real 4-H! Ready or not here we come (NOT READY!). We will see how that adventure goes...

Jude, you are funny, smart, adventurous, sometimes challenging, competitive, and just an all-around wonderful kid. We are so thankful for you in our lives. We love you so so much!!!