(Warning: if you don't like germs, or dogs, or both-- find a different post of mine and read away to your heart's content. This one isn't for you.)
After dinner tonight, Elijah coerced Ina into letting him visit "for just five minutes," which as usual turned into twenty, so Rachel went over to rescue Ina from the clutches of the little imp. Ten minutes after that, I ran out of books to read to Judah (really, he ran out of patience with my reading style) and we headed over to collect them and ourselves got sucked in by the fun atmosphere and the cute (albeit drooling) pups.
I almost never get to visit Ina anymore, so I had forgotten just how much the boys love it there. Elijah ran around from chair to chair, pausing briefly to help Ina knit and scratch the dogs' backs (which led to some sloppy kisses in return), but the real highlight of the day was provided by Judah. Though he still says almost nothing, he has reached a point where no words are needed. Case in point: he came over to me and batted his big brown eyes and pointed ever so delicately to me while nodding his head, so I followed him into the kitchen. Once there, he grunted at the light switch and held out his arms for "up."
Thus satisfied, he maneuvered me over to the switch and flicked it off and on (does this remind you of anyone? Judah is truly the Great Imitator) until he had sucked all fun from that activity; then, quick as you please, tried to leap from my arms. Thankfully, I was up to the task, and back to the den we went.
That's where he amazed us. He pulled the same stunt in the den, turning the lights on and off, until I was reminded that Mr. Dick didn't really like changing the light switch every week, which is about how fast the boys blow it out with their little neurotic on/off game, so I removed Judah from the executive chair where he was switching it from. Undeterred, he climbed up on me, over my face and was about to start again when I killed the game by getting out of the chair and getting on the floor, apparently giving the dogs permission to lick any and all traces of dinner from me. This meant that Judah had no way onto the chair and no way to access the switch even if he did.
If you don't know something's impossible, you just might be able to do it. Judah, at least, might. He climbed up onto the chair by doing a two-hand pullup over the edge, which was pretty impressive all in its own right, but we've always known he was a little bit of a physical freak -- a little whiny from time to time, but a freak nonetheless :) The next next bit was what made Ina and I stare. He stood on his tippytoes and grabbed the top of the chair back with one hand and pulled himself up slowly while turning the light switch on with the other. Blew my mind. I actually started clapping; honestly, I didn't know what to do. Ina, Rachel and I just gazed in amazement for the first fifteen seconds as he clung there. If we could have seen his face, I'm sure he would have been grinning at us.
Finally, his strength gave out and he collapsed back to the chair seat... and tried to do it again. I couldn't have been more proud. Even Elijah looked up and pointed. "MamaDada look at Judah he's climbing the chair and turning the light on he's not allowed to." There really is no way to punctuate the LJ's sentences; maybe I'll try next year!
Have a wonderful night all!
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