Jude, Lately

You know, just sunbathing in January with his friend Oliver.  No big deal.  

- We've finally got him folding his arms for at least a few seconds of our prayers, but he hasn't grasped the proper closing echo.  He usually says, with gusto, "ALL DONE!" when he hears "Amen."  :)

- He brings me piles of books throughout the day.  I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm so glad I don't have to twist his arm on this.  A favorite is Dr. Seuss' ABCs.  Totally random though, and I can't wait to hear the reason one day, when we get to the letter R, and "Rosy's red rhinoceros," he points and starts protesting, "No-no-no-no!"  So I cover it up and say, "That's right.  No!" because I'm just happy he loves books, and figure he's got a good enough reason (whatever it is).

- I think he might have a clue about the baby.  Maybe.  We've borrowed a swing from friends Lisa and Rodney (they are so awesome at sharing this thing; besides their daughter Lyla it's been used by 3 other friends' babies over the last 2 years!) and it's sitting in the nook until we bring the baby home.  The other day he went up to it, swung it a bit, pointed in the seat and said, "Baby."  We'll see!

- Sad: after he came up with his fifth ear ache in his 23 months of life, we are starting the ear tubes process.  He's seeing an ENT a week from Monday, and while I don't like the idea of my sweet boy having surgery, I love the idea of him not having more ear infections.  I realize this is fairly minor, I just also don't think any mother likes their child to be anything but 100% healthy (this is maybe a fib -- I loved it when he snuggled with me for hours at a time that one fever he had at 9 months.  That was the sweetest thing ever).

- If he's misbehaving I can give him a LOOK, and he stops what he's doing, and we have a short staring contest while he tries to gauge how mad I'd be if he continued with his original plan.  Then he either tickles me to break the ice/distract from his ever considering disobedience, or he just laughs.  And it cracks me up but I try not to laugh.  :)

- The closer I get to the baby, the more sentimental I get about how cute he is, how much GOOD he's brought into our family, and how he'll always be my first baby.  He's my little dream.

Checking Jeff's mouth for....who knows, but I'm just going to say cavities.