My boy

I didn't know nothin' about no boys until I gave birth to one. Okay, so I wished I was one when I was growing up. As the third girl in a family of four girls, I was the tomboy of the bunch. I did like playing "dallies". Cindy tells me that's what I called playing with dolls.

My real desire was to play with stuff like guns, cars, horses and to play sports. In other words - boy stuff. That was before girls were really allowed to "cross over" to such things. Thank goodness Tommy Buck lived close by - I was able to play with his little green army men. He even gave me my very own baseball cap. Eventually I grew out of that "I wish I were a boy" stage - mostly. They did seem to have life pretty damn easy compared to girls. (And they get paid more...)

That's me - the boyish kid on the left

Dad was around (weekends, since he traveled Monday through Friday for his job marketing lingerie around the state of Iowa) - and he was a guy. He could fart with the best of them and walked about in his boxers when heading from the shower to his room. I was my grandpa Bubba's fave grandchild if I do say so myself). Still - the male species seemed pretty mysterious to me.

Dad and Bub (with my senior pic photo bombing)

Skip to Paul Goldsmith. A man who became my best friend and the love of my life. When we got married I found out what it was like to live with a guy full time - toilet seats, hunting, sports craziness and all. It was...different. In a good way. After a couple years, we had our first child - Amy. A girl.

Then 25 years ago today I had another baby - and imagine my surprise when Dr. Young exclaimed, "It's a boy!" I was shocked. Our family didn't do boys. Since my dad had been born in 1928, we'd had a run of girls - lots of girls. The four Bullock girls, my niece Leslie, daughter Amy and niece Jordan. That's how Jud ended up with his name - Judson David. Dad's name was David Judson. (Really - it had nothing to do with our great dog named Jud, whom I grew up with like a brother).


Yes - he may have a bit of a mullet haircut here, but he's adorable

Four months later Cindy and Bolder had their baby boy Colby Breton Lefebvre. The tide had turned and Betso and Wayne popped out a slew of boys (4), I had Patrick. Sarah Kohan has been the only girl born in our fam since Jud.

I had a lot to learn about raising a boy. First lesson - they can really pee on their own faces when they are a week old, and when they first pee outside when they're just getting potty trained. When their daddy isn't there too, um direct their actions.

Our boy was much more "physical" than Amy at an earlier age. He pulled the vent out of the floor when he was still just crawling. Jud was strong and had scary tantrums. When angry he was known to stop breathing - until he went limp when caused him to start breathing again. His gag reflex was legendary - we became adept at running for a pan for him to upchuck in. One time Paul grabbed the colander by mistake...what are we straining it this time?

Jud idolized his sis and was very enthusiastic about any "let's pretend" idea she came up with. It was like she was director Martin Scorsese and he was actor Leo DeCaprio. The drama they could come up with - the pillows were land - carpet, water. The stairs were mountains to climb. Jud was a bit of a sleep walker too - that could be scary.


While Amy was a bit (lot) wimpy when ill, Jud was a tough little nugget. He'd just grit his teeth - it was sometimes hard to tell when he was sick. Medicines that were supposed to knock him out would instead jack him up! He had a number of throat infections, so the doc said his tonsils should come out when he was in Kindergarten. When he was still recovering, he was in terrible pain. Later, he puked blood on the couch and had to have his throat cauterized. Before long - he was playing soccer, because he loved that sport and wouldn't miss it. My couch was never the same...

We were glad to find Mexican Donald at Epcot

Jud stopped napping at age 2 - though I'd put him in bed anyway, because I needed one. He peeled his wallpaper border off and got into other mischief. If he did take a nap, the kid wasn't tired until 11 p.m. or later - way past my bedtime! Night owl - that never changed. He's still like that.

Jud always had a head for stats and sports information (but not Spanish...). Like his daddy he loved sports from the time he was a wee boy. Paul tried to interest him in his beloved Packers, but Jud says the star on the Cowboys helmets won him over. At least he became a fan of the right college team!

I can't believe it's been 25 years since Jud was born - just after 11:30 PM. I'm glad I had the opportunity to raise a boy - my Jud. He's a special guy and I'm so proud to be his mom.