He's so fancy

High fives all around

He likes pizza

Stuffies

Yep

Blaise's latest way to answer in the affirmative is "yep". It's cute but seems way too old for him! Stop growing up so fast, my baby!

Blaise speaks

Lately Blaise has been saying tons of words but he has his own adorable way of pronouncing them such as:

sanck for snack

nilk for milk

f*ck for truck (it's true)

Nono for Noah

Juuuu for Jude

Bay for Blaise

tan-too for thank you 

I'll add more as I remember.

Life quotes by Jude

When I picked Jude up this mornjng at the Y, "Miss Kathy" relayed a conversation she had with Jude earlier. 

"Jude is so cute. This morning there was a little girl who was convinced that Jude's craft was hers, despite his name being written on it. After she left, Jude looked at me and said, 'sometimes, life just isn't fair.'" 

What a guy!

Wiener talk

Jude is eating a pogo dog and bites through to corn bread part to reveal the hot dog inside. He looks up at me and smiles and says, 

"Look! I see his wiener!"

I couldn't not laugh. 

My cup overflows

Twice now I've heard from adults that Jude had reached out to a new kid in his class (once at the YMCA and once at church) and played with them and tried to help one in distress (at the Y) and there really aren't words to express how much love and joy floods my heart to know that my Jude who often struggles with kindness towards his younger brother (although he does love him) and who often is playing in his own world and often tunes me out and who had a fair bit of sass and attitude when he feels like it, is also a boy of compassion and mercy to those who feel alone and sad. This makes all the difficult times of parenting and discipline worth it and even beyond. It's grace for this tired Mama. And comfort. He (God) is faithful to use my meager offering of parenting to cause it to bloom and grow into something that honours Him. 

So beautiful!

Sentences

Because our car rides are usually a joy and a pleasure

I laughed so hard!

Saving chocolate and secret pockets

After Jude's spring/Easter party at school, Jude apparently tucked away and saved a Lindt truffle in his "secret pocket" which is really a small velcro'd pocket above his hoodie pocket. I didn't find out until later that evening when he walked up to me with a melty truffle wrapper saying, "it melted! I put it in my pocket, but it melted!" Poor guy was a little disappointed but I thought it was ridiculously sweet that he had saved it for later. 

World traveler

Little comedian

The other day we were coming home from somewhere and when I went around the car to get Blaise out and opened the door, he was fake sleeping with eyes closed and snoring and a faint smile on his face. What a kid! 19 months and acting already! 

Creepy things my kids say

Frozen

Snappy one liner

I had a friend over helping me with a sewing project and Jude was sitting beside me punching out scalloped circles with the shape puncher. 

He was doing some half circles and showing them to us and being his usual hilarious and animated self and so my friend said, "Oh yeah you can help us by doing them all round. We need them to be perfect." 

And Jude said, "lots of perfect circles, coming right up." 

Parent-Teacher interview

Today in an interview with Jude's teacher she recounted when she overheard the boys talking to each other about girlfriends and was just about to break it up when one boy asked if Jude had a girlfriend. He firmly said, "Yes! I do! My Mom is my girlfriend." 

So cute. Love him.

Also? I learned that he has never spoken like "J" from his class while at school. He is always talking like this particular boy in his class who talks a little babyish and with a much more pronounced speech impediment than Jude. When Mrs. F heard Jude say something to me in that voice and I said what I usually say, "I want to hear Jude's voice, not J's." And she was sincerely shocked that he does this; and so frequently! 

She got him to promise her to talk like himself when he's at home and I hope he does. But what a little stinker! 

An obsession with the WC

Playing with Siri

Today Jude was playing around with Jamie's iPad and I heard him activate Siri and say, "FaceTime Call Mama" and then he quickly changed it to "FaceTime call Vanessa Strickland." to which Siri replied that she couldn't make any calls for him on that device. 

After several more tries, Siri said, "I found that contact. Here is the information for Vanessa Strickland." 

And then I heard Jude say, "Which button do I press?!?" 

Eventually he realized he needed to drop the word "call" and then we had a little FaceTime chat from the kitchen to the living room. 

After I hung up with him, all of a sudden I heard the iPad calling someone on FaceTime and it wasn't me. Next I heard Jamie's dad's voice. Good thing it wasn't someone random.

Ah the Strickland boys do it again. 

British slang for the win

Smelly

Things you need to pay attention to before you absentmindedly say "sure."

Well I'm glad someone around here thinks so.