New hobbies, a dress, and puppy love

A few weeks ago we had Brooke's parents down for a quick visit to celebrate Jude's birthday. His mom brought her faincy new camera and got this fantastic portrait of Jude.I'm honestly a little obsessed with that photo. His fuzzy hair, his expression, those serious dark eyes... she really "captured" little Jude.




She also took this shot of Isobel participating in one of her new favorite activities: climbing. We have these decorative iron grates on either side of our side door that hold up a little roof. Isobel climbs them all the way to the top, until her feet are at my eye level. It makes me a little nervous, since she's surrounded by our concrete patio; I tend to hover. But she gets up and down just fine, and the girl seems to have no fear.

Apparently, little Brooke was a never-tiring ball of energy who used to climb the doorjams inside the house. Is the urge to climb things a hereditary trait?


And is loving to read hereditary? Because Jude has a new hobby, too! Books.







We've cultivated a pretty nice collection of children's books, and they're shelved on an Expedit bookcase in Isobel's room. Jude likes to take all of them (or as many as possible) off the shelves. Note his glee.

I usually let him get away with this, though, because it's a pretty safe and healthy thing for him to get into. And the best part is that he'll usually sit there and flip through the books, looking and pointing at pictures, for a few minutes all by himself. It is adorable. One of my biggest hopes is that my children will love reading as much as I do. And maybe someday they'll also learn to love the rather time-consuming task of putting away the books.




In other news, I finally bought a dress for the wedding Brooke and I will be attending next weekend! The original three contenders were all sold out in my size, but that's ok because I'm in love with the Ingrid dress from Shabby Apple. Hold up. Can I just say how much I HATE HATE HATE that brand name? HATE. It's so stupid, and it doesn't match the style of clothing at all. But obviously I got over my hatred to some degree, since I now own a dress (at left) with a tag that says Shabby Apple. Now if only I could resist rolling my eyes every time I read those words.

To answer the question everyone must be wondering, no I did not lose enough weight to justify this purchase. I ran out of time and so I just bought the dress I wanted. Cheating didn't really work out so well, though, because it fits like a glove. Like the glove O.J. Simpson tried on to prove he wasn't guilty. I'll definitely be more comfortable in it once I lose a few more pounds.



But enough about me. Let's talk about PUPPIES! We are getting one! In a few weeks! I can hardly wait! I grew up with dogs, and weaning Jude gave me puppy fever bad. I read about lots of different breeds, conferred with Brooke the small dog h8r, and settled on a Redbone Coonhound. Here are some photos- the first is of our puppy (or possibly her sister) from a few weeks ago. The second is a redbone at about 8 weeks- the age she'll be when we bring her home.















zOMG!!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I've been reading about puppies and puppy training nonstop. I haven't settled on a name, but I've narrowed it down quite a bit. Please help me out by voting in my poll (see top right of this page).

Oyvay, this post has gotten long. I think that's it for now.