It's Dutch for "Poop"

My dad babysat Jude for an entire work day last Friday. A short scene:

[Me, calling home from work on lunch break]:

"Hi Dad. How has Jude been?"

Dad: "Oh, good. Getting to spend a whole day with him is different. He's just so... koosy."

Me: "I know. I wish I could be with him in the mornings. It's his best time of day."

Dad: "I've only had to change one poopy diaper, and that one just had a small, round little poopelcha in it."

Me: "Oh, really?"

Dad: "Yep. I brought the diaper to the toilet to shake it out, but when I opened it up the poopelcha was gone."

Me: [Silence] ..."The poop wasn't in the diaper?"

Dad: "No, it must've fallen out somewhere."

Me: [Silence] ..."So there's a piece of poop upstairs and you don't know where it is."

Dad: "I guess I'll have to go back up there and find it."

Me: "Yeah. Do that."

It was hiding in a crack on the changing table.

Ten (More) Things

I may make a habit out of this.

Ten Things:

1) This picture:


2) A garage that matches the house.

3) Week-nights dreaming on the front porch with Jono, candles lit, bug spray on, his nice-smelling cigar leaving a wispy trail in the air...

4) The pathetic and funny "mm, mm, mm" sound Jude makes as he tries to lift his leg over mine and get past me into the living room with his milk. Naughty.

5) His bedtime, when he lays on my chest and lets me sing to him. We blow each other kisses and wave through the crib bars as I leave the room. It's the best.

6) Heirloom tomatoes that ripen in spite of our shady yard. Also, in spite of its ultra-tiny-ness, our garden can still produce fresh greens and tomatoes that take me three seconds to turn into a salad for dinner.

7) Mulberry trees. Yum.

8) Brett moved back to Michigan!

9) Cool breeze on my mostly downhill (bike) ride to work this morning. And the other day, jumping in the kiddie pool in my underwear after a sweaty ride home. Baby napping, iced drink brought out by hubby. Oh yes.

10) Short work weeks. Yahoo.

Your turn.

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 :)