Big Brother Jude

The first month Benedict was with us, Jude did not quite know what to think of him. At first when we brought Benedict home, Jude called him "Baby Paul". To give him credit, I was taking care of 2 baby Pauls during the previous 4 months. But, soon, it became apparent when Jude realized that Benedict never left, he was intentionally calling Benedict 'Paul' out of a sort of denial. At one point, he called him Benedict by his proper name and then backtracked and said, "No, I want him to be Paul."

The next stage was when Jude stopped calling Benedict, 'Paul', but then he decided to just ignore him. We would ask Jude who the baby was, and Jude just acted like he was not there and would not even look at him. Often, he just turned his back on Benedict and looked at us with a blank stare.

This, however, only lasted a few weeks.

Jude started to warm up to his brother in February. First he started to call Benedict by his name and pointed to him. Next he became very concerned when Benedict would cry. He would exclaim, "Benedict! Help him Mom!" and point to his crying brother. Then when Mom and Dad were busy looking at a house, he crouched next to Benedict in his car seat and while putting his finger on his mouth whispered "ssshhhhh! It's okay Benedict!". This last week he has been getting new people's attention and pointing to his brother and introducing Benedict to people saying "This is Benedict!". Yesterday, he actually put Benedict's nuk in his mouth for him and was successful in quieting him (for a few moments!).

Also on the Jude front is that he cannot get enough of planes, trains, and automobiles. He talks about them all all all the time and he never tires of playing with any toys of that nature that we own. A friend gave him a blue metal airplane that he sleeps with and takes everywhere with us. He zooms it around for strangers saying, "Wook! Wook at my airplane!!" and he makes the 'vvvrrrroooooommmmm' sound with his lips. He is very excited about it.

Finally, the blanket that Grandma Lee made him was beginning to become shredded due to all the use it was getting. So, Jude's blanket also got a make-over. It literally gets taken everywhere and dragged on all sorts of floors. So, I made a new quilt top of cars, trucks, and airplanes (things which Jude is obsessed with) and I sewed it right on top of Jude's old blanket. So it still has the same soft familiar back and the older blanket from Grandma is still preserved inside. There was about half a day of transition, but Jude adjusted to the new look.