Judah's latest antics

Judah is nearing 2 1/2 years old, and his own little personality is coming out more and more. I wanted to share a few things about what he's been doing lately to make us smile (or furrow our brow!).

• He loves his bear stuffed animal, and treats it like a baby. He burps it on his shoulder and changes the diaper and puts clothes on it and gives tummy time, like Mommy does with Andrew. He also nurses the bear. I told him that only mommies get to nurse their babies. Daddies and brothers have to give a bottle... but that hasn't stopped him from nursing.
• He gives "communion" which consists of a frisbee with a bunch of outlet covers on it. He comes up to Mommy (or Daddy or Bear), holds up an outlet cover, and says "This is the true body of Christ"!! Never underestimate what those little children pick up in church. I think it helps that we sit closer to the front, because he can see exactly what his daddy is doing up front. And his daddy usually hands out the body of Christ. We asked Judah if he wanted to be a pastor like Daddy, to which he replied, "Yep."
• He calls a little jewelry case that looks like a laptop his "computer" and he checks his email on it. He likes to have Mommy check her email too. He also likes a framed picture of himself and Andrew, and he'll call that his computer too. He says he's downloading pictures when he uses the picture frame.
• We're teaching him the 10 commandments right now. We're up to the 5th. When he first heard it spoken to him "You shall not kill" all he said was "kill". "What is the fifth commandment, Judah?" "Kill!" I tried to hide my laugh as best I could.... He does pretty good with just a little bit of prompting on the first four commandments.
• We've been teaching him the common table prayer, Martin Luther's morning and evening prayers, the Lord's Prayer, and our bedtime prayer for a while now, and we're trying to get him to say it WITH us, instead of just repeating a line after us. He does pretty well, except when he either refuses to say it (he missed lunch at least once because of that), or when he shouts out the syllables. So it will sound like "Our! Fah! Ther!" through the entire prayer. If it gets too bad, we have to tell him to cool it.
• We have been singing hymns with him for a while now, as well. Sometimes we leave off the last word or syllable for him to fill in. But I think he really knows the entire songs that we sing the most. I was singing "I am Jesus' little lamb" to Andrew before a nap and Judah whispered the words of almost the entire song with me while he rocked his teddy bear.
• Judah is resourceful. He will move Andrew's playmat out of the way so he can push a chair up to the bookshelf so he can reach up as far as he can to get something that Mommy intended for him not to have.
• We're doing potty training now. One day in early January, Mommy suddenly decided to start, and we've been building up momentum, so it's hard to stop now. We've been having quite a few successes, just as long as Mommy and Daddy remember to put him on the potty. He doesn't quite get that you have to tell the parents BEFORE you go in your pants. He isn't always excited to sit on the potty, but when he goes, he gets this twinkle in his eye, and is excited to help dump out the pee and flush it "down the hole" as he puts it. Then we get to wear big boy underwear after he's had a successful potty experience. Which means parents need to be on their guard.
• Meal times are always like pulling teeth. I think he finds it more convenient to be spoon fed... I think it's just frustrating for him to try and get certain food on the utensil. So I have to step back and just let him fend for himself, otherwise he'll never learn. It takes practice! But as I've discovered, if he's hungry enough, he can figure out fast enough how to use his utensils.
• He always wants to be in the middle of whatever Mommy is doing. Whether it's washing clothes or dishes, cleaning out dirty diapers, making a cake, sitting at the computer, etc., he wants to be right there by my side. And he gets upset if he can't be a part of it.
• He will set the table, just not always willingly. But if you ask him if Bear wants to help, then he will help. He helps Bear hold the plates, forks and cups to bring to the table. Very cute. He also helps Bear use the potty.

I could probably go on and on, but those are the highlights for right now. Hope you had a chuckle or two!