March Madness.

If you're wondering where I've been, you may remember this post from this same time last year. Enough said.

Anyway, seeing as how March will be over in a week, I thought it was high time I give you our number for the month! We will have a new number at the end of next week.

Our official number for March 1st is...

number 127! A number that is near and dear to my heart, I felt it appropriate to announce our new number with the soap logo created for me by my dear friend Buzzy of Buzzy Craftery : )

On another note, I had a personal achievement that is one for the record book. I ran in the "Run the Reagan" 5K once again this year, and I won 2nd place in my age group!!! I have since registered for the Peachtree Road Race and am waiting to find out if I'm in (it's on a lottery system). This means I'll be going from a 3.1 mile race to 6.2 miles. This is going to take some training : ). 

This past month, I also completed a new nursery painting. Here is a picture of the nursery bedding.

Cocalo Couture bedding

My client originally wanted a mural, so we made the painting large to cover a nice amount of wall space. The walls were painted a light blue, and the room had bright orange and blue accents. I think the painting tied it all together nicely...

my client was welcoming in her 2nd baby boy, so I painted the owls as "brothers"--notice the larger owl's wing around the smaller one? sweet brotherly love...

I am so happy with the way it all turned out, and I am already working on a new piece for another expectant mother! I will post pictures along with our new number next week.

Annnnd...my post just wouldn't be complete without updates on our sweet boy. He is currently VERY MUCH into dinosaurs, and I am blown away by his attention to detail. He loves to check out dinosaur books from the library. Not just cute little children's dinosaur books, but National Geographic books. He wants to know ALL the facts. Show him a dinosaur, and he can probably tell you the name, what they ate, and an interesting fact about them. 

When we visit the library, Jude loves to get on the "Kiddie Mac" computers and play the "Diego Dinosaur Rescue" game while I look for books. This is the only time he plays on the computer or uses a mouse (we don't use them at home--the mouse I mean), so I am always impressed by his ability to click and drag : ). Well, this past week I was sitting beside him reading a book, and he said, "look Mommy...I spell my name!" I looked up at and saw the letters "J-U-E-E" typed out across the computer screen. Well, he wasn't completely accurate, but close! He never ceases to amaze me...

Watch out lightning...here comes Thunder!

Jude and I had the best day yesterday. He made me laugh so many times, and all day long I was reminded of how thankful and lucky I am to be able to work part-time and spend so much time with my son. We started out the day visiting a client's home to talk about her ideas for some nursery art. This client just happened to be one of my best friends from high school, so the visit was extra special. Jude entertained himself by playing with my camera. Here are some of his abstract shots...

I don't know about you, but the artist in me says he may have an eye for composition : ). Well, if that wasn't artsy enough, later in the day he was "helping" me in the kitchen. We decided to pack a picnic for the park because the weather was so beautiful. Jude positioned himself between a kitchen drawer and the oven, and began opening and closing the drawer over and over, while simultaneously clicking the oven light on and off. Swoosh, swish, click, clack...swoosh, swish, click, clack... After watching him for a few minutes, I said, "Jude, what are you doing?" Without hesitation, he said, "I'm making music." Oh, I love this kid.

Before heading to the park, Jude grabbed his football and brought me two shirts from his drawer. I thought this was odd. He doesn't really have an opinion about what he wears yet. "Jude, you already have on a shirt. You are already dressed," I told him. "I put this OVER my shirt," he said. I giggled when I looked closely at the shirts in his hands. I told him to pick one. I think he was going for the athletic look. I present to you...Thunder.

We took the camera with us to the park and snapped these shots after our picnic dinner...

This one is a little scary, but it's worth sharing 

because of Jude's "silly face"

To close, I thought I'd post some pics of my most recent "creations" since I've been a little slack in sharing lately. 

First, here is the baby bedding from Sophia Bedding Co. that I was asked to coordinate with the artwork for baby E...

This one was fun because my client gave me a lot of freedom in the creative process. Her only request was that it coordinate with the bedding and the wall color and that it include the baby's name. Here is the final product...

My sweet husband actually purchased a website domain and designer for my Christmas gift this year! The website is in the works and still in the planning stages right now, but I am so excited to turn my hobby into a small business in the near future. It is such a passion for me, and I am thankful that my husband is so supportive and encouraging. Currently all of the profit from my paintings goes toward our baby girl fund, but my dream is to be able to give towards other's adoptions with each piece I sell. I will keep you posted on my progress! 

number 132.

We received the call Friday that it is official...all of our adoption paperwork has been approved and we are a "waiting family," sitting pretty at number 132. While this number may seem rather large, (and yes, it IS rather large), keep in mind that when we began the wait for Jude our position on the list was #98. It took us 363 days to move to the top of the list and receive the call that they had matched us with our beautiful boy. We know that this wait will be even longer, but we are are ready. And relieved that the mountain of paperwork is behind us : ). We will receive our updated "number" at the end of each month, and we will keep the wait fun by thinking of creative ways to show you. So today's number was brought to you by Jude : ).

Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year!

Since the last time I've written, we've experienced Halloween, Thanksgiving, Jude's 3rd birthday and Christmas. It seems I have a lot of catching up to do. Let's start with Halloween.

I first have to tell you that I absolutely love the fall because it marks the beginning of so many fun events and special times with family. I have never been one to get especially excited about Halloween in particular, but now that I am a mom, I look forward to sharing apple cider, hay rides and, most importantly, creating original costumes with my son. Let's take a trip down memory lane and look at Jude's Halloween costume from last year--his first Halloween in America...

Oh, it was cute, and every part handmade. His car was fashioned from a card board box and even his racing suit and hat was modified with homemade patches from his "sponsors." I was a proud mama. This year, I hit a low point. I was desperate. With time running out, I swallowed my pride and walked into a party supply store...and bought a store-bought costume. I was so embarrassed that, until now, I have not even shown anyone a picture from Halloween. So here goes...

Can you see Jude's distress over his store-bought costume?

Actually, it was really cute. I was just disappointed in myself because I take pride in being creative. So, for me, it felt like a mommy "fail." However, I do not judge anyone for buying their children's costumes, and I can definitely appreciate the convenience. 

Thanksgiving was full of joy and...thanks. Here are some great shots from our special Thanksgiving with our family. Jude adores his cousins and loves playing with them.

 Jude at the "kids table" with his cousins

 Jude serving tea at the party

 enjoying s'mores at our late night bonfire

enjoying his marshmallows a little too much : )

And now to recap Jude's 3rd birthday. He wanted a "race car" theme, so I began with (gasp!) store-bought "Cars" invitations. Once again, I was a little embarrassed that I did not make them, but Jude liked them and they were very inexpensive. For those of you who are Dave Ramsey fans, you'll appreciate the fact that I found myself asking, "what would Dave do?" as I chose the $4 pack of invitations over the cuter, $8 package : ). Plus, it was just our immediate family so I was not afraid they would judge me for the cheesy invites. I had a lot of fun with the decorations. I used the leftover black and white checkered fabric from his Halloween costume last year to make some "Jude #3"banners and little flags for his cup cakes. 

I don't know how I managed not to get a photo of the birthday banners I made, but you can trust me that they were cute : ). Now on to Christmas...

Because Jude's birthday is only a few short days before Christmas, the two are kind of meshed together for him, especially at this age. Although he does understand that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. During his bath one night, he sang, "Happy Birthday, dear Jesus. Happy Birthday, dear God." He is absolutely precious. Unfortunately, Santa Claus and Jesus became very confusing this year. We checked out a book from the library in which a little bird mistakes a little owl for Santa Claus. All throughout the book, the bird insists that the owl is Santa, and the owl insists that he is not. I overheard Jude narrating as he looked at the pictures in the story one night, "Yes, you are Jesus. Nooooo, I not Jesus! Yes, you are Jesus. Nooo, I not Jesus!" Oh. Three is so fun! 

So now I will leave you with some of my very favorite pictures from the end of 2011. I hope your New Year is off to a wonderful start. Ours certainly is, and I will post more about that next time.

this little train (a gift for Jude's bday) was a holiday favorite;

it brought me so much joy to watch him watch the train go around and around;

he would watch for hours...

and hours...how sweet is this?

 at what age do family photos actually work?

Happy New Year from the Pruitt family to yours!

happy camper

I have written so many blog posts in my head since the last time I posted on here. Every day there is something new that I want to share, and the next thing I know it's midnight and way past my bedtime, with still too many things left "to do" on my to-do list. So, I will do my best to remember the many amazing things I have tucked away away in my memory (and some jotted down) over the last few weeks. 

Jude is saying so many new things every day. He is smart AND funny, which is a very entertaining combination in a two year old. So here are just a few things he is saying lately...

• Every measurement is "three." When he wakes up from a nap, he will tell you, "I slept three hours!" It doesn't matter if it has been an hour-long nap or if he has slept 10 hours through the night. After using his potty, he proudly announces (every time) that he has used the potty 3 times! This past weekend he was helping his daddy and "Pops" with the tape measure and asked to measure their height. He told each of them that they were "three hours tall." 
• He is obsessed with "family." He lines up his inflatable ball, soccer ball and football and says, "Mommy, Daddy and baby!" Should I be offended that I am the large red inflatable ball and Daddy is the slender football? Whenever he finds similar things in different sizes, he lines them up and says the same thing (Mommy Tow Mater and Baby Tow Mater, for example). The other day he was playing on his swings and he pulled the swings together and nested one inside the other and said, "Look, Mommy and Baby!" I wish I'd taken a picture. The swings are still like that, so I'll snap a pic and post next time.
• He is quick to apologize...for everything, guilty or not. As soon as he thinks he has done something he thinks he shouldn't, he tells on himself and says, "I sorry, Mommy. I didn't mean to. It just an accident." It has come in handy for cleaning up messes I might not have discovered until later--whether he has had a potty accident or spilled something on the floor. Richard and I are pretty low key and patient, so it's not that he's afraid he's going to get in serious trouble or anything. Recently he spilled some milk on the table and then spread it out and drew in it with his finger. I was doing some laundry and didn't realize it until he said, "I sorry. You mad?" Ha. I think he's testing me : ).
• He loves to sing. Whether he knows the words or not. He even sings along to Adele and just sort of holds the notes out really long to try and copy her. One of his current favorite songs is "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. I just checked out a "Bob Marley for Kids" CD at the library so I'm excited to hear him learn the lyrics and sing along : ) 
• He is sweet. Really sweet. He continues to be extremely affectionate, cuddly, and still asks to be carried several times a day...usually when he is tired. The other day our school hosted a staff kickball game and I brought Jude along. After running around for over an hour, it was time to go and he asked to be carried. He snuggled into my chest and curled himself up really small and said, "I still wittle...I baby." It's probably a good thing that the adoption process for baby girl will take a while. I don't think he's ready to give up his spot as the "baby" quite yet--and I think he's entitled to make up for some lost time for that first year of his life. Now I have a lump in my throat. Moving on...
• He loves to count, but when he gets to 13 he's not sure, so he says, "eleven, twelve, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen....twenty." 
• We had a great opportunity to get away for a weekend at a friend's cabin a couple of weeks ago. We pulled up to this beautiful mountain cabin and the first thing Jude asks is, "where my friends at?" We explained, "It's just the three of us this weekend...we're your friends!" He looked at us and said, "You not my friends. You my parents." Here are some pictures from that wonderful weekend free of internet and cell phone signal...

Richard carried Jude on his shoulders the entire hike up the mountain...

such a good daddy

the four wheeler wasn't working, but Jude sat on it and made racing

noises--he loved pretending

This next group of photos is from another exciting event in our lives...Jude's first trip to the Cumming Fair!

"Pops" got us all tickets to the fair...here, he and Jude are raising their

fries to the camera. Jude carried that fry around for 30 minutes and never ate it : )

This was the only ride Jude was tall enough for or even interested in...

except the train, for which he was 1/4 inch too small. He cried. Hard.

As it turns out, we should have saved our money for the overpriced games with prizes. We had exactly $2 left for Jude to play one game in which he won a tiny little elephant that he later name "Ellie." On our way to exit the fair, we passed at least 30 more of these brightly lit, prize packed booths full of games our son desperately wanted to play. I was so thankful that I snapped the next few shots with my camera, because the pictures are worth a thousand words.

Jude pulls his Daddy toward the games

Jude digs his heels in and pulls a little harder...you can see the desperation on his face

poor Daddy pulling out the car keys and lint from his pocket 

to show Jude that he has no money for the game

And last, but not least, I will leave you with a video of our tiny dancer. Who knew he had these moves? If you listen close enough, you can hear him saying, "Yeah. Yeah."