Jude, my 3 year old

This little hunk is going to be 3 tomorrow, and I don't really know what to do about that.

It just is crazy how much he's changed in the last year!  Not just with speech, but he's taller, toilet trained, his imagination is exploding, he's in a "big boy bed," not napping (humph!), eating almost anything, and just is so darn grown up.  I see how suddenly this growth means I must relinquish some amount of control.  I don't even want to think about the control withdrawals that await me in years to come!  (sob!)

He turns his giant bear into anything from a "boat in the ocean!" to a "wocketship" to a tent.  He sat in the laundry basket and it was a boat, and he took his nerf gun and made it a screw driver to fix a leak at the bottom of the vessel.  He will point to a crack in the sidewalk and tell me it looks like the letter Y.  He counts to 10, usually when he's letting me know how many M&Ms he wants as a reward for relieving himself in the potty.

Which brings me to: potty trained is AWESOME.  I was not looking forward to it because I was sure we'd be stopping every 20 minutes of life to go to the bathroom.  I also worried about it dragging on and on forever, and that he'd have accidents all the time.  I mean, he's so strong-willed!  Everyone kept telling me to wait until he was ready.  I wondered, "What if when he's 'ready' it happens to be when he's 5 years old?!"  Well once again all my concern was for naught, because the readiness dawned at 2.9ish years of age, and he has done an amazing job.  Only a handful of accidents, and I wouldn't even have minded keeping him in a pull-up at night, but he doesn't need one!  I'm so proud of him!  And buying diapers for 1 child is so very nice.  He's very proud of himself for #2 and will tell me all about just how he pulled off the job.  I also love having him potty trained because his little bum is so adorable without a thick wall of diaper covering it! 

Which brings me to: he's very into modesty lately.  What happened to the little boy who would do anything to run around in a loin cloth??  He freaks out if he doesn't have all his clothing on. 

Lately the things Jude says most frequently are:



• I wanna hold you. (The snuggle inclination is still at a steady incline.)
• I come with you?  (Which always makes me chuckle -- he ALWAYS comes with me.)
• Gammy, come pay wis me!
• I wanna bite it.  (This is referring to food.  He doesn't bite anyone, but he pinched Graham today.)
• I need Daniel Tiger.
• I need [insert food, blocks, candy in the grocery store check-out line, etc. etc. etc.].
• Mommy came back!
• It's DEEEEElicious!
• I love Grandma/Grandpa/Mimi/Papa/trucks/Gammy/Daddy -- I hope when I'm not around he's reporting to other people that he loves his dear old MOM!
• This is my Gammy.  (He loves to introduce his little brother.)

He said to me the other morning, arms outstretched, as he came over to my side of the bed upon waking up, "Welcome!"  Welcome, indeed!  He runs me ragged, makes me laugh, and I couldn't ever explain to him how much we love having him.  Happy bday, Juju!