I have a boy. A typical dirt loving, car digging, engine roaring, messy, stinky, 2 year old boy. No way would I ever have seen myself with such a creature! But here I am the Mama to a smelly little boy who manages to get more food in his hair than he does in his mouth. He hits and tackles his sister all day long, spreads peanut butter on everything (including my couch and jeans), and he shouts out “Saw-wee Mama” every few minutes for good measure. Sometimes he’s done nothing wrong, but most of the time he has.
He wears his lovie “duck” as a cape. He’s Supa-Jude. Supa-Jude gets really tired, really often.
His energy is contagious. His smile is infectious. His ability to not care what anyone else thinks is admirable. He spends his time split between, rocket ship launches and time out. He’ll only wear clothes if they have a car, truck, rocket, or cowboy on them. If nothing is clean- he’ll wear his pajamas over his jeans.
I believe he’ll be living here forever, and the day he leaves will be the saddest day of my life, because even now when he’s away form me I feel a void. He is the only child I have ever prayed for bed time to come quicker with, and then I miss him instantly once he’s asleep. It’s the very same dynamic at nap time. He goes down with at least 3 trucks/cars in the crib and his pretend chatter doesn’t stop until suddenly it does, and I’m just left thinking thank God and I miss you all at once.
If his sister has my thoughts, he has my heart. He’s bounce of the walls excited about life. He wakes up shouting “It’s me JUDE! I in here MAMA!” When I open his door, the whole room smells like pee. He tells me that he wants “butter jelly” for breakfast, and George on the ipad. He is very attached to his routines.
Our relationship is difficult to define because he’s almost nothing like me and yet he’s everything to me. Unlike his sister who is a mini version of myself and her uncles, Jude is a tornado of everything you’d be if you knew nothing about societal norms. Fork? Who needs ’em! Rules? What for! Stand still? Why!?! Wipe my face? And loose all the flavor?
I love him for so many reasons but at the very very top has to be, that he is now exactly as he was in utero; sunny side up and full of beaming endless life. So infectious is his spirit that I’d sometimes laugh out loud to myself, for no reason at all while pregnant with him. I remember telling Matt, I just can’t stop smiling.
People ask me often why there aren’t as many pictures on this blog of Jude as there are of Gracie, and the reason is because he won’t sit still. But I don’t know, looking at these photos of him I’m glad to have them, because that’s exactly how he is. A hurricane of magic and wonder.
