- Jude doesn't want to do anything without Graham coming along. If Graham is sleeping later in the morning, Jude will squirm away and wake up Graham the first time an opportunity arises. Jude refuses to take a bath unless his baby brother is also getting dunked. Jude is constantly saying in a high-pitched, cooing voice, "Hi Gam! Hi Baby Gam!!" He wants to help wipe his bum, put the binky in, etc. I always tell Jude if he thinks Graham is fun now, just wait. It'll be epic once Graham's a little older. And, of course, Graham just thinks Jude is the coolest one. He just grins at Jude and grabs at him if he's close enough.
- Jude is very into checking in on all his peeps. He wouldn't stop asking to play with his friend Oliver one day, and I knew Oli was unavailable. So finally I was tired of hearing, "Oliver?? Wa see Oliver!!" and having to respond with the ineffective "Not today, bud." and "Oli can't play today, maybe tomorrow." and so I fibbed and said, "Oli went night-night." It did the trick but now whenever we're within spitting distance of Oli's house, he reports to all within earshot that Oli went night night. He will announce "Lyla toots!" or "Baby Gam poop!" at various times throughout the day.
- Jude puts his cars to sleep. Sometimes they earn a blanket. We all must whisper during this time, so as not to disrupt their REM cycles.
- Jude loves to read Goodnight Moon at bedtime. He joins me for random lyrics when I sing I Love to See the Temple or Whenever I Hear the Song of a Bird, and just snuggles me when I sing In My Life by The Beatles. The bedtime routine still means the world to me, and I'm fairly certain it means the world to him too.
- His independence and bravery makes me smile and gives me an ulcer. I love that now we can go to a park and he will just run and play with other kids, go up and down the slide ad nauseum et infinitum, dig in the sand, etc. and return to me every so often to show me a treasure or give me a frantically enthusiastic report, etc. It used to be him whining a lot and I had to walk UUPP and DOWWWN every structure, encouraging him to try everything, basically the park used to be something he couldn't live with or without. Now it's all good. But back on track: he used to be a bit of a pansy with ladders of any kind and I was totally good with that. Those days are over. He will climb anything and everything, and while his coordination is revealing itself to be quite awesome, my mind goes wild thinking of all the ways he could fall and ruin his cute little face/teeth/body. I'm starting to see what my "Aunt Ruthie" (mother of 3 boys) was talking about when she said she'd see them coming home from playing and just scan their exterior for blood or limbs situated in the wrong way. I mean really, it seems like just a matter of time before we're setting bones, right?
- Because I'm Jude's mom, I'm getting very accustomed to being outside more than inside. I keep swim diapers in the car and stroller for impromptu water adventures. I have sunscreen in my purse at all times, and hats for everyone in the car. It took a while, but I have accepted the sweat that makes itself at home on my neck every day. Even though I keep covered, my dear Mother-in-Law took a picture of me and Graham about a month ago and when I saw it I gasped because MY FACE WAS TAN. My face hasn't been tan since like 1999.
- Jude throws back his head and howls with laughter. I love him for his premium exuberance.
- Jude throws back his head and howls with laughter even when he doesn't know what the heck is so funny (i.e. the adults in the room are laughing at something).
- With age he becomes so much more reasonable and easy to understand. That is not to say we're done with tantrums and hitting (in fact, he's taking the hitting up a notch lately), but as the days go by I see greater glimmers of rational thinking in his eyes, and it fills me with hope.
I love my scallywag.
Also I might have just done a stupid thing and watched about 10 videos of him in infancy. Don't even ask me how it's possible he was ever so small. He was still loud and rascally, but small with big baby cheeks and wispy hair. And Graham looks more like him than we think!
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