Our boy, ALL boy

Here is our Jude. And, this picture may be a little scary, but we also thought it was pretty funny.

This little boy is hilarious. Really, he is quite amusing. He is a charmer and very soon upon acquaintance, people are attracted to him. However he does it, he seems to strike the right note with people. The other day he ran up to an older man in a wheelchair who had gnarled hands, missing teeth, and a cigarette in his hand. Jude ran up to him, squatted in front of him smiled and said hi and then ran away. The man started laughing and said, "This guy is all boy. Come here and give me five." Jude ran back and grunted while giving him a boisterous high five.

He runs around grunting and galloping (like the men pretending to ride horses in "Mighty Python"), stops right in front of you, squats, looks at you, laughs and then tackles you. This is what he does for 90% of his existence. He is a goof ball. He loves every kind of ball and throws it to anyone around him. Yet, he still is gentle with people and loves to gives hugs, he is very affectionate (especially with his father!). He is usually a little bit more reserved around new people, yet, when he is around people for long enough his personality slowly shows itself. He is saying more and more words and it starting to get into books a bit more. Our little guy is growing up.

On Monday we had a long appt. at Childrens Hospital testig to see how his kidneys are doing. They are doing 'okay', but not 'great'. They are functioning better than they were before he had his surgery in July 2010, but there is still reflux in his left kidney. We'll wait another 6 months to see how he grows and how his kidneys are functioning at that point.