Baby on the way

Old news now....but we are having a baby!  Yay...due April 1.  Here he/she is.

Fun times with Waller

Jude and Waller are buddies. Now that Waller is walking, they have so much fun playing together.  Here they are being silly boys in Jude's crib.

Big man on campus.

A real smile

A happy, lotioned up boy.

Jude's First Movie

I love movies.  Back when I used to have oodles and oodles of time for myself, I was an avid netflix customer checking out ALL the Oscar nominated films and indie flicks, would visit the movie theater by myself and catch 2 movies for the price of one, and beg Lonnie to go see all the latest pictures with me.  Then I had Jude.  I've been to the theater less than half a dozen times since he's been born.  But, now that Jude is three, I am going to at least see lots of the latest and greatest G rated movies.  Joy!

Back in September when Jude was 2 1/2, we thought he might be old enough to enjoy his first movie in the theater.  He had watched a handful of movies at home, and paid attention to those, so we thought the experience in the theater would be super cool.  When Finding Nemo 3D came out in theaters, we decided to try it out.  He'd seen that one at home several times, and we knew he would watch it.  The 3D thing was a little too weird for him though.  He did not like wearing those glasses, so he watched without them...making for quite a blurry movie.  He did wander around the theater a bit, which was fine because there were only about 20 people in there.  And it wouldn't be a true Gardner movie experience without Daddy falling asleep...which he did, of course.

Getting ready to go in.

 Popcorn and candy.

I can't wait until he's a little older and we can see PG movies....yay!

Labor Day Fun

Worst Mom ever.

Last August, before the summer was over, I thought it would be fun for Lonnie and me to take Jude to Holiday World for one last hoorah before the pools closed.  I was so excited to take Jude there and play in the family friendly park with him.  BUT, that wasn't in the cards.  While we were waiting in line to go into the park, Jude had a major meltdown (about what I can't remember) and was wailing hysterically on the floor outside the park. I grabbed his left hand to pull him off the ground, and immediately I thought to myself, "What an idiot...you know that's his arm that had the nursemaid elbow, and you're supposed to be gentle with it."  Immediately following that pull, his wailing turned into bloody murder screams.  I thought he might be being dramatic, but my heart sank, thinking right away that his ligament had popped out again.  I tried to console him to no avail...Lonnie tried popping it back into place, but after 30 minutes of crying, we decided to head back to Louisville to the Kosair ER.  A complete bust to say the least.  When we arrived to the hospital, we were seen pretty quickly, and saw a great doctor that knew all about nursemaid from his children, and he tried popping it back into place.  This was NOT pleasant for Jude at all.  He was a mess.  We waited around to see if Jude would start using his arm now that we thought it had been popped back in...but he didn't.  Up next, x-rays.  Lonnie took that one.  We waited for the news, and finally after many many hours, the doctor told us he appeared to have a small fracture in his elbow.  Poor guy, no wonder all that yanking his arm around hurt...he had a broken arm :(  Yep, I broke his arm somehow.  Now I felt really terrible and braced myself for child services to come get me.  They never did.  Jude got a splint and we went home knowing we'd need to follow up with a specialist in a few days.

 My poor baby at the hospital :(

Isn't he pathetic?

Feeling a little better.

When we followed up with a specialist a few days later, they said he would need a cast for 3 weeks (not too bad).  Jude wanted the Cardinal bird red color.

He adjusted to his cast rather quickly.  Going to the park and making friends.

And he doesn't hate me!  Sorry Jude!  We'll go to Holiday World next year and I promise not to break your arm.

Best 2 Year Old Meltdown

Random August shots.

Pretty in pink.

 Jude's first soccer practice.

 Visiting my grandparents' grave.  A lot of people think he looks a lot like Alta, my grandmother.  She was a hoot, and I wish she could have met my sweet Jude.

The state fair.

Twinsies!

Our dear friends, Laura and Brian, whom live in NYC, came to town in August to make a very exciting announcement...they are expecting twins!  Now of course I am 8 months behind on this blog, and the twins are already here, but I wanted to capture the celebration.  They had a lot of family and friends out to the Willett's to make their announcement, and everyone was shocked, excited, happy and couldn't wait to get their hands on Laura's belly.  

This handsome man came out with Kitty for the good news.  Isn't he a doll baby?  Just one week short of 1!

Jude is super excited about helping Waller learn to walk.

And some already existing twin girls in their family.  Jude was very into these little ladies...this was his first encounter with twins, and I'm sure he was wondering if he was seeing double.  But, he loved them.  And thanks to Laura's family for trucking them around!

And in classic Megan form, I didn't get any pictures of Laura and her belly, but we had a vacation together a couple months later and I got lots then.  More to come on those twinsies.

St. Joe's Picnic

 We won a bear!

 Liquid sugar.

 Cotton candy!