Nighttime

This is one of those nights. It is 9pm and Gil's meeting at Briar Cliff is just starting. He won't be home for another two hours. Luckily he only works a few hours on Fridays and even more luckily he likes his job a lot, making it much easier to be there (for him and me!). Jude's been in bed for two hours already sleeping soundly. I've done pilates and watched all the good Thursday night shows (The Office and 30 Rock). I even made rice crispy bars! Now it's the waiting time. Usually I fill this time by folding clothes, reading, or taking a warm bath. Tonight I feel like writing.

A few weeks ago I finished a book that Sr. Janet lent to me. It was called My Sister's Keeper. It has been made into a movie which I have still to see. But I really want to because I have heard it has a different ending than the book and I wonder what it could be. It sort of makes me mad that the ending is different because the author said in the interview in the back of the book that she felt it really could not end another way. As you may have guessed the ending is sad. But amazing too. This book had so many fascinating aspects. Each chapter was written in one of the many character's point of view, and it just switched from one to another all throughout the book. The father was a firefighter and had an astrology hobby so there were lots of interesting facts about fires and stars. There was a lawyer and doctors so info from them. The sister has cancer-leukemia-so lots of that stuff. There is a mother with really good mother insights I thought (you understand mothers so much better once you become one!). There were past secrets and present secrets and so many issues-really complex. The basic plot is that this couple had two children and the youngest was diagnosed with cancer when she was two. They then conceived a genetically engineered baby to be a perfect doner match for her sister. This third child does that all her life until she is 13 and then files a suite against her parents for medical emancipation-she doesn't want to donate her kidney. Everything that happens next will amaze you! It is a really good read that I definitely recommend!

Good news! Gil just called and is on his way home. He should be home by 10!!!

Jude's favorite hobbies

Here are a couple pics of some of Jude's favorite past-times...ripping paper (and playing with cords) and watching the pets out the sliding glass door.

Jude absolutely LOVES the bath. Even if he is tired and it is right before bed, he is happy in the water. He loves the faucet, the duckies, the soap, the washcloth, even me dumping water over his head. I think he's going to be a fish in the water. He's already "dunked" himself a few times and just has no fear. I hope that doesn't translate into everything in life!

Disappointment

So Gil and I have been looking forward to January 26th for a long time. Ever since the beginning of November when we went to see Michael Jackson's This Is It movie and had to leave early because the girls watching Jude at Briar Cliff only were available until 9. It was so hard to walk out of a movie we liked early. But we did it for the baby...just one of a million sacrifices parents make for their off-spring right?! Well it came out on DVD this past Tuesday. Gil bought it that day. We watched just the end last night because Gil was busy preparing for the class he is teaching tonight. I was really pumped because Billy Jean was left along with Man in the Mirror and the new song This Is It. But the end left more to be desired in my opinion. I don't know if it was because I had such high hopes and had to wait and anticipate so long to see it or what. Most of the songs were well-polished and concert-ready...these not so much. Just him singing alone on stage pretty much. And This Is It isn't even performed, just played during the rolling credits. That can't be how the real concert was going to end! Anyway, we are going to watch the entire thing again tomorrow night and I'm still looking forward to it, but just a little bummed. I think it's like a little kid who has to wait 'til all the cereal is gone to get the prize at the bottom and then it is cheap and plastic and breaks right away. Nevertheless, it is a really good movie and somehow Gil has succeeded in creating a Michael Jackson fan out of me. Wonder if I'll ever get him to become a Husker fan...I'll keep you posted on that one, but don't hold your breath, he doesn't know an awesome football team when he sees one!

By the way what I referred to in the previous post really probably wasn't as horrible as I made it sound. Just more snow, getting stuck in a blizzard, breaking my car, locking the keys inside, and getting snowed in...

:)

Since the end of my last post wondered what was going to happen next...and what did happen is too awful to even think about much less blog about I am going to change the subject.

Top 13 things that make Jude smile (and I LOVE his smile!)

1. Taking a picture of him (he's such a cheese!)

2. Saying hello when I answer the phone.

3. Showing him his picture that is the wall paper of my cell phone.

4. Showing himself or me in the mirror.

5. Pushing the elephant train toy that rolls across the room and plays music.

6. Whenever Babbs runs into the room.

7. Getting him out of the crib when he wakes up from a good nap or a good nights sleep (if it's a bad one he might not be smiling!).

8. Looking at the kitties outside of the sliding glass door.

9. Picking up the remote and turning on the TV (he already gets how that works!).

10. Letting him turn off the light at the top of the stairs.

11. Making the tail of his pound puppy wag.

12. Giving him food (especially cheerios!).

13. Letting hims splash in the bathtub.

And here is the cute little smile I love to see! He is such a happy boy!

Black Out!

Hello world! How have you been? It has been a crazy week at the ranch. I subbed Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and in the midst of that we had no electricity Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or today! We've had it come on here or there for a few hours, but for the most part...nothing! This morning I noticed the ground line up the road ON the road, so who knows when we might be able to see in the dark, flush the toilet, take a shower, watch a movie, or cook dinner again! Luckily we have a woodburning stove and even more luckily we got a load of wood last Monday night so we do have heat. I am at my grandma Mary Lou's right now using the internet, watching TV, using the bathroom, and doing all of the other wonderful things you can do when you have electricity. It really is amazing how much we rely on it. And I was just saying earlier this year how primative power lines seem to be. I mean can't they come up with something better and more reliable than wires strug all over the country?!

This has been the worst winter I can remember. Three snow storms, ice, wind, fog, and now no power...we'll see what's next!

Ready or not here we go

Today is one of those days I just need to tell someone what is going on here at the Ridenour Ranch...and Gil is actually back to work, so here it goes...Oh my goodness! Jude started crawling last Wednesday. It was pretty wobbly at first and he still didn't get anywhere too quickly. Well today is Monday and I never knew how many cords, lamps, phones, papers, and other items we had that were prime bait for the beginning crawler who now feels unlimited in his movement capabilities! The first thing he decided to do this morning was crawl over to daddy's guitars and knock down the music stand (thank goodness it wasn't the guitar!). So I moved them upstairs to the spare room. The next adventure was to cross the room and go for the phone cords. We took down Christmas yesterday just in the nick of time and I bought the plastic thingys for the outlets, but I'm beginning to think that's not nearly enough! After the cords it was the bottom shelf of the DVDs (as pictured below). My solution was to move the chair in front of it and since this picture have also had to add one of our heavy duty couch pillows. After that it was a standing lamp that he has previously knocked down twice before. He got little lesson in the word "NO" that time and the lamp got moved behind the blockading chair. Next, it was his closet door he wanted to open. Then it was pulling the lamp cord from behind Gil's dresser out and crawling under my lamp stand to do the same, wanting to open our bedroom door and on and on. That has been my day. Wow, we need to do some major baby-proofing! Luckily he hasn't found the wood burning stove or much in the kitchen yet.

This would seem to be enough for one day (although it is early afternoon!), but probably one of the funniest moments I've had with Jude happened this morning as well. We have old vents in the floor that allow heat to go to the upstairs. Jude loves to crawl to these of course too and taste them (yuck!). So today he found the one in his room and I went downstairs in the kitchen right under it to wave to him and say hello. He smiled and thought it was pretty cool to see mommy through the floor. Well, as I'm standing directly under the vent down comes some wet chunky liquid...yes spit up! Somehow I barely managed to escape the puddle of puke that eventually found its way to the kitchen floor. Gross! But I'm glad I still have quick reflexes!

Finally, here is a video of Jude crawling this morning (if I can get it to load...otherwise it is still to come). At first we needed the phone or something really fun to entice him to crawl, but almost anything will do it now:) Here we go!

The DVDs...this spot does NOT look baby proofed!

The "fix"

The kitchen under the vent

Jude in his room through the vent

One of Jude's other past times, along with unplugging all cords is picking his nose. I actually find this one hilarious! Sometimes he eats it!

Blizzard...Again!

I just had to put a few more pictures of the January blizzard on too. These were taken last Thursday, the day of the wind, outside our front door. Gil is standing on the 14 ft or so high drift that was on the road in front of our house. Our lane was quite the scene too as you can see. After another three days of being snowed in we finally made it out Saturday and Gil is at work again today. I miss him! Yesterday we had operation find our mailbox. After digging in the massive continuous pile where we thought it might be and how far back we thought it might be and how far down in the snow we thought it might be for about an hour with no luck, Gil borrowed my dad's tractor with a loader and scooped it out. It is a little banged up, but we now know it is directly in front of the electric post...duh, what a genius place for it to be! Maybe we'll get mail today:)