Andy & Jessica

Last Friday, Andy, Jude and I, along with my mom and Andy’s mom went on a short cruise in the Bahamas. Jude traveled great. It appears that he will be Daddy’s little co-pilot (Andy has a private pilot license). Jude is such a social butterfly. He loves seeing and charming new people. And, people love him. I love it when people love him. He’s my little “beauty king.”

Below is a summary of our trip:
Royal Caribbean cruise. This was the 2nd cruise Andy and I have been on. We liked NCL better. Royal Caribbean had lots of events on the ship, but they occurred well past our 9 p.m. bedtime or while we were out and about exploring the Bahamas.

Beautiful turquoise water in the Bahamas. Snorkeling was not good. Saw about 4-5 different kinds of fish. The snorkeling was nothing compared to the snorkeling in Cozumel or Hawaii.

The water was fairly cold. Nevertheless, Jude went “swim-swimming” for a short time.

Nassau (the capital city). Lots of pushy people trying to sell you their homemade goods or knock-off purses (insisting the purses were the real thing). I bought Jude a hand painted piggy bank with “Bahamas” on it, but nothing else.

The historical sites in Nassau were not as impressive as they sounded on the country’s official website. We went to Fort Charlotte, Fort Fincastle, the Queen’s Staircase and saw the Water Tower.
Overall, we had a good time and we all traveled well together. But, I would not go to the Bahamas again. Been there. Done that.

On another note, my brother Mike was supposed to come with us, but he has been afflicted with disabling shoulder pain for the past 2-1/2 weeks that has had him in and out of the ER and he even had to spend several days in the hospital. He is still on heavy pain killers. The doctors are not sure what is going on.

Around Christmas time, Jude was hanging out at his Grandma and Grandpa Olson’s house while Andy and I were working. His Grandpa Olson gave Jude his cell phone (that acts as his business telephone line) to play with. Jude managed to shut off the phone without his grandpa noticing. It was a “peaceful couple of hour” according to his grandpa, until he realized he had missed some work calls.

Yesterday Jude was more interested in sitting on his Baby Einstein DVD than watching it. He was at his Grandma Olson’s house while Andy and I were working. His grandma had him watching that DVD while she went out to the garage. When she came back, she found that Jude had removed the Baby Einstein DVD from the DVD player. She couldn’t find the DVD. She finally found it under Jude. He was sitting on it. I’m sure that by the time Jude is 2, he’ll know how to work the electronic things in our house better than me.

Jude’s 9-month check up was last Friday. Here are his statistics:

• Head size – 90th percentile
• Height (29 inches) – 75th percentile
• Weight (16 lbs, 6.5 oz.) – 45th percentile
• 2 bottom teeth

Jude is really getting arounds these days. He is a pretty fast crawler. Just last night I was walking after him down a hallway (slowly) and he was crawling away from me. He kept looking back at me and was really amused that I was behind him. I let him stay ahead of me until he reached the steps. Then I snatched him up. Jude seems to enjoy plunging off of beds, chairs and couches head first. I hold onto his ankles and let him drop so he doesn’t get hurt.

He still hasn’t slept through the night. I feed him at least 2 times during the night.

Our Thanksgiving weekend was jammed packed. On Thanksgiving Day, we spent the day with Andy’s mom’s side of the family. That night, we went to my parents’ house. Katie, Phil and Ivan were there, along with my brother. That weekend we celebrated Katie and Phil’s birthdays. Katie and Phil share the same birthday (November 27th). Phil turned 30 and Katie turned 29. Little Ivan must really adore me. He was sucking on my face and I thought it was so cute that I made everyone race to grab a camera. Well, I let the little guy suck on my face too long and ended up with a hickey. I never would have guessed that would have happened. Live and learn!

Before Jude came, I had very little experience with babies. I remember holding babies a few times. I remember that the babies would cry and I would have to pass them back to their moms. I remember thinking how fun it would be to be the mom that the baby was passed back to. My little Jude is helping me fulfill this fantasy. The little guy has bouts of separation anxiety. Even when I pass him to Andy, he will often cry. When I take him back, he is fine. Maybe it’s bad to admit, but I do get some satisfaction from this because it demonstrates that Jude prefers being with me over others. That’s my boy!

More pictures are up. You can view them here.

Yesterday was Andy’s 30th birthday. We celebrated on Sunday. We went to church and then Andy’s family came over. Andy’s brother and dad helped Andy rake the leaves (which is a fairly simple process considering that Andy’s parents have a lawn tractor that does most of the work). My mom also came over. We ate a delicious meal that was mostly cooked by Andy’s mom, although I did make the popovers. We ate Dairy Queen cake. And then we assembled some shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I have noticed an interesting pattern. I do not believe that Andy has ever waited until his birthday to get his main present from me. His main present this year was Leopard (some new operating system for one of his many computers). He convinced me to give it to him on Saturday morning so that he could install it then because he wouldn’t have time to do so on Sunday or Monday.