pink, brown, yellow, orange and blue, i love you: 10 months and a few days ago...

The Dude was born. What a crazy 10 months it's been. His official first word was "dada". His second word(s) is "a dog". It started out as "a doh" and he has now been able to say "a dog." He also replied "a yeah" once when I asked him if "a doh" means "a dog". He loves saying dog. In the morning, when I pull him into bed with us so we don't have to start the day right away, he will so dramatically throw himself back, arms out and just babble and say "a dog" 15 times in a row. Then he'll lay on John's back, put one arm firmly on him, look at me and say "dada?" Then he'll throw himself so his head touches the dogs, and repeat the dramatic layout while chanting "a dog."

We're in the process of redecorating the house. We're getting pretty much every square foot of floor redone (1450ish from a house that's 1600ish square feet). It's going to be beautiful, smooth, flat (but probably still slanted cause our house is 115 years old) laminate floors that look like wood. The nasty carpet will be gone. The uneven floors with screws popping up will be gone. We are also going to repaint pretty much every room, except for Jude's room. My inspiration came from http://blog.alicelanehome.com/uncategorized/inspiration-in-unusual-places-back-to-school-2/. That cerulean blue will be gracing our kitchen and back entryway's walls. That green will be gracing our front room. That salmon will be covering our formerly bright orange sitting room's walls. Our purple great room will be an "ancient pewter". The window seat will have the same cerulean blue with black accent. The boarded up fireplace will change to black. The mantle in the front room will have it's outdated stone painted white. We're getting rid of furniture and bringing awesome furniture in. I don't really know money-wise how we're going to pull this off, but it will be done by the end of 2012.

We took The Dude to St. James Art Fair and UnFair on Sunday, which was his 10 month celebration. At the last minute, I put his skunk hat on (part of his Halloween costume). I swear, the kid got 15 million comments. People stopped to take his picture. No joke. It probably helped that he is adorable anyway, and he was strapped to the most handsome dude there. Cute baby wearing a skunk hat, hanging off the chest of a stud. I'd stop and take a picture too. I was usually off shopping and buying art for the redecoration, so John had women (and gay men) flocking to him. I'm very grateful I have a husband who is so amazing and insists on carrying that kid everywhere in the Baby Bjorn. He loves it. And I love that he loves it.