Jude: 10 things

1. Jude has decided that certain songs he likes are his "happy songs." When they come on the radio, he dances and sings along in his car seat. Sometimes he'll come to me and say "I'm just sad. I need my happy songs," and demand that I play his favorite songs. The list so far: "Happy," "What Makes You Beautiful," "Firework," "Drive By," and "Blank Space."

2. Jude is obsessed with hangers. Like the ones you put clothes on. He calls them his hooks, a la Peter Pan. I find them EVERYWHERE, and it's starting to drive me nuts.

always picking out mismatched pjs these days

3. I'm the mom that insists we at least attempt to make the sacrament at church reverent. When the sacrament starts, I have Jude put his toys or coloring away and I get out our gospel art book so we can look at the pictures of Christ together. I ask him, "what's Jesus doing in this picture?" Then, I tell him whatever story from the Savior's life the picture depicts. Now he can recite most of the stories to me. I wasn't sure how much he actually understood, until one day after nursery. His teacher told me that she held up of the picture of the ten lepers and asked if anyone knew what was going on. Jude apparently replied, "he's saying thank you!" Moments like this make me feel like I'm not a total failure of a mom.

4. And then there are other things that make me feel like a total loser. Jude has started kicking and hitting his sister. Like all the time, for no reason. He'll stand up and yell, "here comes the bullet train!" and then run full speed into Eleanor, knock her over, and keep running. I know it's totally normal for siblings to fight, but seriously, Jude is such a punk sometimes.

5. When talking to Jude, I frequently say "the answer is no!" Jude's started countering this with "the answer is yes!" (Of course.) Sometimes he'll start doing something he shouldn't and yell "the answer is yes," as if to assure himself it's okay.

the morning it "snowed" (according to this California boy)

6. Jude loves to line things up, especially his trains. He likes to line them up along the carpet edge or next to Ellie's dollhouse. But whatever do you, do not walk in front of his lined up trains because then you are "on the track" and "going to get run over."

playing pirates with the neighbors. no, the sweet ride isn't ours

7. After many months of the struggle, I think we can finally say that Jude is potty trained. He did great at first, but then completely regressed. And then, one day he woke up and just did it. All by himself. I'm so glad the worst (at least it seems) is over. Potty training is no joke.

8. Everyone was super sick at our house in January. Even though Jude has now fully recovered, he stills seems to think he's "sickies." Or at least whenever we talk about doing something he doesn't want to do. Last weekend, Peter went out of town, so I took the kids over to a friend's house so I could run 10 miles. Since Jude always feels nervous about going somewhere without me, he cried all morning, telling me he had a fever. "Sorry mom. I'm just sickies. I have a fever. I can't go. Sorry!"

9. Jude is really into the days of the week. We have this conversation at least 3 times a day:

"What day is today?"

"Tuesday."

"What day will it be tomorrow?"

"Wednesday."

"And what day will it be after Wednesday?"

And on and on and on. He's starting to understand the different things we usually do on different days, like gymnastics class on Tuesdays, but doesn't understand he can't just declare tomorrow to be Valentine's Day whenever he wants.

this is Jude's depiction of me crossing the finish line at a race

10. Too often I'll say, "I can't right now; I'm busy," when Jude is asking for something. Of course the little sponge has picked up on it too. I'll ask him to do something and he'll respond, "I can't, I'm busy! Sorry!" (Jude really into apologizing.)

making train tracks over mom's freshly vacuumed floor