Playing in the Sun

Here is a little person, playing in the sun.

He is very spunky lately, and a motor-mouth. "Milk please" is his latest thing, and he tries to say "thank you" too. He just started saying his own name. "Who is that?" we'll say as we point to a picture of him. "Dude," he says.

We think he is beginning to soak up most of what we say. This is both unsettling and fun. Recently I've been talking to him with the assumption he knows what I'm talking about. He usually responds in a way that tells me he understands. I can almost pin-point the moment where I first realized this was happening, and it felt strange. This was the week where I started to think of us as three people, not two people and a baby.

He's been throwing what we call Fits lately - lots of them. We've just started making some rules for him, like he can't carry his sippy cup filled with milk around the house, leaving dried up drops on the couch for me to find later. Flouncing around the living room with the sippy is unfortunately one of Jude's Top Five Most Loved Activities, so there has been drama now that we're cutting him off from it.

We're also trying to teach him it isn't okay to throw food or drink across the room from his high chair in a rage once he feels he's done with it and we offend him by trying to offer it to him again. So far he has not been open to our ideas.

Jude is his own person now. Obviously he is dependent on us for almost everything, but he likes to think he could go pitch a tent somewhere and live off the land, rubbing two sticks together by himself. It's funny to watch this process unfold. He's still a sweet boy, just don't tell him what to do :)