The J Team

Here's some more about my little mad scientists.

JUDE

Jude will be two next month. TWO! I can't even believe it. He has changed so much in the last few months. I feel like he's closer to becoming a real person every week.

He has strong preferences already. He still loves shoes and hats, and puts up a big fight if he doesn't get to choose. He lets you know what he wants, and if you don't understand at first, he doesn't give up. He pulls on your hand and says "I show you..." until you follow him.

He yells "Scu me mommy!" any time he wants my attention.  From his crib in the middle of the night, from the back seat in the car, whenever I start playing the piano (after he rips my hands away from the keys in a panic). He knows that polite words usually work, and what can I do about it?

Manners are how he gets out of eating things, too. Always when you offer a food he doesn't want, he says "ah-kick-yew". This means "no thank you", but it sounds so close to "I kick you" that I laugh every time.

I love to catch him doing funny things, like...

trying to shove a full-sized plastic hanger into his pants pocket,

carrying something heavy, saying "Ooh, iss heavy! I srong! I stuh-rong!"

or licking the frosting off a sugar cookie, while saying to himself, "Mmmm, buttah!"

He wants to say prayers every day. He just repeats what he's told with his eyes half open, and usually half his meal already in his mouth.

When he wants more than one of something, he holds up all his fingers and says "three!"

Everything all day is "I try! I try!" Like this morning, when he had a crying fit because I wouldn't let him "I try" to change his own diaper and put on his own clothes.

He pretends to pee in the toilet about five times a day, usually whenever he hears Josh go. He has never yet actually added anything to the bowl, but he stands there for a couple seconds saying "Psssssss" until he's "All done!" and flushes.

One of my favorites is this:  he calls me "Mommy Mom" when he's being really sweet. "I un candy, Mommy Mom." When I'm trying to nap on the couch, he pulls out his soft raspy voice and says, "Oh hiiii, Mommy Mom. I nuggle you!" It's very sweet. I love that my baby has a pet name for me already.

This is sort of a flashback by now. He learned to jump a few months ago, and is very proud. Since then, he's developed a really fast run. Too fast. For a while, his run was more like a series of leaps across the floor, on his toes, and in the air more than on the ground. But now he's got running down.

These boys LOVE playing with their Daddy. One of their favorite games is hide and seek. When they can't find Matt, he does this special whistle to give them a hint of where he's hiding. Because neither of them can actually whistle, they run around the house calling "wee-oo wee-oo WEEEE-oo!" until he answers them. Even Jude has the rhythm down. It's the cutest thing ever.

Here they've been trapped on top of the fridge.

JOSH

Josh loves "ninja practice" (a.k.a. gymnastics), and he's very good at it.  The main reason we've been putting him in activities like this is so he'll learn to follow directions from adults, and to become more outgoing. You wouldn't believe what a struggle it was just to get this shy boy to stand up on a mat and receive his medal! He wanted no attention of that sort!

His Lego obsession is still going strong. Jude gave him this dinosaur set for Christmas and Josh put it together all by himself. Piece of cake.

School pictures were taken in October, but they didn't get to the families until December. I was so happy to see that they got a smile out of my boy. I gave him a big pep talk on the way to school that day, and I'd like to think it worked.

Josh's friend Julia gave us a fun idea when she was over one day. She asked me to make a checklist for her on my clipboard, like a sort of scavenger hunt around the house. This is something I would have eaten up as a kid, so it was fun for me to watch Josh strut around the house feeling all important with his clipboard.

He wears this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt for 36 hours every time he finds it in his drawer. That's a day, a night, and the next day until I peel it off him for something dumb like baths. Then he immediately asks me if I have enough dirty laundry to wash his TMNT shirt the next day. If I say no, he goes around the house trying to find more slightly dirty laundry for me to make a full load. He's considerate like that.

He had a really good visit to the dentist in October. Previously, he wouldn't even sit in the chair without major coaxing. This time, he went so far as to let the hygenist polish his teeth. No x-rays yet to find out anything about his odd extra tooth, but maybe next time.

This is from firetruck day at preschool in the fall. He was so cute and brave to climb up into the cab. Just look at his proud face!

Some funny conversations we've had lately:

Me: What do you want for dinner?

Josh: I want pizza with grease on it!

The moon followed us home in the car one night. Josh was trying to keep track of it, but the trees kept getting in the way. 

Josh: "God shouldn't have made trees. They just get in the way of seeing things."  

Me: "But trees are good too. They make a home for birds"

Josh: "Yeah...but birds poop."

True.

Josh:  Can liquid defeat fire?

Me: Yeah, water puts out fires.

Josh:  Oooohhhh, so I know why Lincoln is bald. His hair caught on fire, and he was running around, and he had to stick his head in a toilet to put it out! That's how he lost all his hair!

Mimi:  Who told you that? Did Lincoln tell you that?

Josh:   No, Brooklyn did. (Linc's 7-year-old daughter) In the hotel in Chicago, where we swam in the pool and ate pizza that had pepperonis on the INSIDE of the cheese.

He has a very detailed memory, even when people tell him made-up stories.

And as always, he is probably the world's best big brother. He puts up with Jude following him around, demanding his toys, swiping his snacks, and getting in his space with great patience. They have their spats, and sometimes the wrestling gets a bit rough, but most of the time Josh is very kind to his brother. He teaches him so much, and he shows a genuine concern for Jude's feelings. I consider this to be one of the most important things to learn in life, and am so happy he has already figured it out and can set that tone for his younger siblings.