Jude Lately

In a nutshell, Jude's crib became a thing of the past in October, and by the end of October naps pretty much also went the way of the world.  I am saying this at the beginning of this little session of recording Jude's latest stuff, because don't we all want bad news first?  Not that this is bad new for anyone but me….

He doesn't do quiet time, either.  I have no problem sleep training babies, but he looks so incredibly hurt and heartbroken when I try to put him in there, I know in my gut that it's not worth it.  Sometimes he'll fall asleep in the car, but he's on to me and if we happen to be driving around and I look back at him, sometimes he'll meet me glance and say, "I'm awake!!!" 

I won't mince words, it is extremely exhausting and hard to be ON 12 hours straight, every single day.  Like when I had a full time job outside the home I could reasonably expect to use the ladies' room and take a lunch break undisturbed, right?  That skips me over every single day!  Last week my brain and body were wiped out by about 2:30.  Graham was napping and I didn't know how I was going to last until bedtime.  I put on a show, set out his Duplos and coloring books and said, "I'm going to lie down for a little bit.  You can snuggle with me or play or watch a show if you want."  "Ok, mommy!"  But HRH Jude would just do a cannonball on me every few minutes.

We are working on a solution here….

Anyway, there's good news: Jude is turning GOLDEN.  I'd been looking forward to having a 3 year old, because Elizabeth's 3 year olds and some others I've known have just been wonderful.  Sweet, communicative, funny, clever little friends.  Then a few months ago a whole bunch of people on Instagram shut that down saying 2 year olds are the best and 3 year olds are terrible.  BUT: I can see it, he is going to be the good kind of 3 year old.  Jude rarely throws tantrums anymore.  He is the most enthusiastic and cheerful person.  He gives hugs and kisses all day long.  He says the funniest things, and the fact that he's saying things at all (even though it's part of why I miss the naps -- he jabbers my ear off!) is so fantastic.  He loves to color in his coloring books, draw on the back patio with chalk, play his "Letter School" game on the iPad, teach Graham the ways of the world, etc. etc. etc.

Time for some bullet points because I feel like it:

• He loves to help me make "pancaycaykes" (pancakes).
• He requests my banana bread, and it flatters me so I often oblige.
• He loves to say "I did it!" for anything and everything he was involved with.
• He gave me a flower from the back yard the other day and I was making a big deal about it and went to give the flower a kiss and he said urgently, "Don't eat it, mommy!"
• He no longer screams and tries to abandon ship when I pour water over his head in the bath.
• He's obsessed with day and night -- when we moved him to his big boy bed, he wanted to start the day anywhere from 4am on.  We had to explain to him ad nauseum that if it's dark outside, you can't get out of bed.  It really penetrated deep, because he talks about it ALL THE TIME.  
• We got his hair cut a couple of weeks ago because it was starting to look like Bozo the Clown.  Every previous haircut has been a real battle, but this time he sat there with a deer-in-headlights expression.  So cute.
• He's happy to sit in Sacrament Meeting during church, as long as he's got a coloring book and maybe some milk.  So now of course Graham has to kick it up a notch and yep, that's right, I'm clocking time in the hallway and foyer again.  Blech -- when will I be able to enjoy 3 hours of church again?
• He came up to me the other day with a toy wrench and started "fixing" my hair.

Other than getting possessive of his toys with Graham, like screaming when Graham even starts to head his direction because Graham is surely scheming to destroy his latest Duplos creation (when Graham could not have cared less), he's growing out of so much of his toddler angst, and is a happy, loving, devoted little boy.  He makes us laugh and fills up our little hearts.