a love swell

i am in a season of falling madly in love with my son again. uh-doy, i always love him, but the gushy, awesome, wonder that i am feeling right now kind of ebbs and flows for me as he goes through certain stages. if i am being honest, some weeks it feels like i am thinking of ways to get around having to integrate with him for longer than 10 minutes at a time, but this week has been one of those magical ones where i can't get enough of him, and he is probably like, "um, dad can i get a little wingman help over here? we got a stage 5 clinger."

he is learning and understanding so much and applying it all so hilariously and adorably and OBEDIENTLY (this is a shocker and it's kind of brand new) that my mom heart is about to explode. 

first off. i guess he didnt like the negative spin i put on his potty training efforts in this post because he has been a potty allstar the past 2 days. he had HORRENDOUS diarrhea all weekend which caused a ragingly violent diaper rash (think, open wounds). despite his bottom being so sore that he couldn't walk normally (he either shuffled or walked like he had just dismounted a horse), or even be carried on our hips (we had to carry him around bride-over-the-threshold style) he sat for 5 hours on our way home from tennessee without once complaining and had the BEST attitude ("i ha GUHT ah-tood!"). when we got home i tried to explain that if he went poop in the potty, then his bottom would be ouchie anymore. maybe he understood? 

well yesterday he rocked out a double whammy #1-2 punch right after his nap (a 3 hour one in which he woke up with a dry diaper = other bonus!). so i was thinking, "huge success. that is all he should poop today. we're in the clear. he can pee it up in his diaper because we caught the toxic poops." i cleaned him up, gave him his m&m reward, put on his clean diaper and put the clean froggy potty back on its shelf.

i was in the kitchen cooking a few hours later and he comes in chirping, "see?! see?! see?!" i look up and he is holding the inner bowl of the potty. this wasnt weird as he likes to use layla's bumbo as a stool to get things off the shelf and i thought he had done that and was just proud of his climbing and retrieving. then i look in it.

there was PEE in the bowl. and i quickly lift up the long t-shirt he is wearing and he is naked underneath!  what the what!?

he had recognized the need to pee, taken off his diaper (never seen him do that for himself before in a potty situation), got the potty down off the shelf, sat on it, delivered the goods, and then taken the bowl out and brought it in to me without spilling a drop anywhere.

"see!?! impressive, eh? eh?"

i teared up and started jumping around like a big freak. i think he actually got a little scared. but then i brought it down a few notches and he could see that it was a big happy deal. now i know the kid is smarter than he lets on. he's been sandbagging us this entire time!

aw, urine. we came close to a spill during this smile

he also is making some hilarious connections. lately, if he sees curious george doing or holding something in the show, he wants it too. it goes like this, "george ha bread, judah ha bread." and continues until i give him whatever george has or until i tell him we dont have a windmill or a cow.

so far this list of "george ha X; judah ha X" includes:

grapes

screwdriver

bread

cart (he uses our laundry basket with wheels)

juice

vacuum

watermelon

here's hoping george never develops a drug problem. monkey see, monkey do (lame. but i couldnt resist). 

this weekend after our 10k in franklin (more on that later, but pretty pictures here now), we went out for brunch. judah was being really awesome at the table and just coloring and playing by himself. all of a sudden in between bites of scrambled eggs, he starts fading. doing the hilarious kid thing where they've just hit a wall and start irretrievably nodding off, no matter the surroundings (in this case a loud, crowded j, christopher's restaurant). i was so mesmerized and tickled that i didnt video the fight to stay awake like i should have and instead just fashioned  him a little pillow of napkins on the table. blammo, he was out from then until 3 hours later on the way home. you would think that he ran 6.21 miles earlier that day.

and then he's just generally learning the cadence of conversation and manners and imagination and emotions (including out favorite fake cry/upset ploy). this is a video of him playing with woody and buzz in the car and being sassy and funny and polite and random. i am too lazy to clip out the down times, but it has a lot of cute and funny tidbits in it that i know we'll want to remember one day.

this kid slays me. i look forward to all of the seasons of growth and amazement and challenges and laughter. it's hard to imagine it getting any better than it is right now, but i know it will. and think of all the poops in potties that are yet to come. magical.