With his long, curly locks and oval visage, Jude is quickly transforming into a blond, nano-sized Ringo Star. His vocals aren’t so great but at least he’s got the look. As he inches closer and closer to his first birthday, I take note of his personality shining through with each passing day. For instance, on Sunday, Jude was in a cranky and irritable mood while eating dinner. We had to turn him around in his high-chair to face the sliding glass door leading to the balcony because each time we tried talking to him, Jude groaned, arched his spine and let out a banchee howl. Quickly, we discovered that Jude needed his alone time, away from our constant inquiries.

Another thing- he absolutely adores his daycare. Jude still clambers over his pals to reach me at the swinging door when I come for lunch, but the difference now is that if I stay to sing songs and play, Jude completely ignores me! The other babies toddle over to play catch or poke my face or just to sit in my lap, but Jude continues riding on the honk-honk car or on exploring the carpeted crawling area with a slide.

Jude still clings at times, especially when meeting older men with long, white beards and funny hats. Matt snapped a picture of me, Santa and Jude mid freak-out while on a Polar Express Holiday train; arms raised spastically, lips opened to expose 360 degrees of mouth, eyes crescent-shaped, cheeks rounded. Santa appears as jolly as can be, totally oblivious to the havoc his very presence caused. My arms are wrapped around Jude, as I try to temper my whooping laughter while other mothers looked on, likely condemning me for being the sadistic mother that I am.

On Saturday, OSMI offered $2 admissions, so I emailed a friend I’d met through a Portland new mom’s website. She arrived with her husband and baby boy. The only difference with this couple, or rather similarity to us, was that they were also just 25. It was comforting to be able to discuss upcoming concerts and teething in the same breath, without having to limit topics on either end due to either age differences or childless friends who can’t quite relate to having all the outlets in your apartment covered by plastic plugs or waking at 6 a.m. seven days a week.

We all seemed to get along well and with promises of going snowboarding soon and then camping excursions during the summer, we said goodnight after a few hours at the museum. I admired how they drove across the country with the baby and now she’s taking night classes to get a master’s degree, just how I will as of January. If anything, I hope we can build supportive friendships where we can genuinely say, “No, I really do know what you’re going through!”

Another reason why Portland is so great- there’s a smattering of fun activities to do that are relatively inexpensive on any given day! I always reference the free monthly Portland Metro Parent to scope out activities for the weekend. Falling short of scheduling every waking moment, we always do activities that we can all enjoy, but never get around to all the various opportunities. I’m always telling Matt that in my opinion, Portland is the ideal city to live if one doesn’t have a job. There’s just so much to do!

Tonight, we’re going to decorate our Christmas tree and hope that Jude doesn’t munch on any ornaments in the process. One year, I do recall my brother William devouring a plaster pretzel when thinking it was real!