Judah By Proxy

Judah has an alter ego.  His name is Brian.

I kid you not.

It all started about 6 months ago.  I was trying to help Judah wind-down for his bedtime, giving him a bottle of milk in a darkened room (while cradling him in my arms because he HAS to be in that position) but the dude was squirmy as heck, playing with his bottle, dripping milk everywhere. 

Wracking my brain in frustration for a way to distract him and keep him calm, I hit upon the brilliant idea of...yes people, shocking patent-pending innovation...telling him a story!

I know that doesn't sound earth-shattering, but up until then I've only told him stories in books (which is really the only way to keep him from squirming for any meaningful length of time).  But I decided, hey, he understands a lot of words, maybe I can tell him a story without pictures!  Cognitive paradigm-shift for this little dude...maybe it blew his mind a little.

So I started making stuff up about a boy named Brian.  And because I was limited by the world that Judah knows, I pretty much made Brian do everything that Judah loves to do.

Brian went to the park (just like we had done that day).  Brian climbed up the ladder and went down the slide.  Brian played with his ball and threw it to mommy.  Brian had mashed potatos and mac n' cheese for dinner (and not-so-coincidentally so did Judah).

Judah was quiet and mesmerized.  It worked!  I gave myself a genius-mom award.

And then forevermore Judah asked for Brian stories everyday.  Multiple times a day.  I took back my genius award cause it's kind of annoying to constantly have to make up some story about Brian.  But on the other hand it's become quite a helfpul teaching tool.

Exploring the world, one Brian story at a time.

I now make Brian go through things that I want to prep Judah for.  Lately, half the Brian stories are about how Brian is using the potty and doesn't need diapers anymore.  He's a big boy!  To which Judah always pipes in, "I big boy! Grande! I no baby.  Baby diaper."  Yes, the goal is to potty-train Judah before baby #2 comes.  Eek.

The other half of the Brian stories is about him getting a new baby and how to handle a baby.  And moving to a new house.

For a while, Brian stories were about Brian doing bad things and getting time-outs.  And sometimes, right in the middle of a melt-down, a story about Brian melting down about the exact same thing will help Judah calm down and accept not getting what he wants.  Sometimes.

I wonder when Judah will finally catch on that Brian is Judah.  I kind of think he already knows.  It's just a little wierd when we actually meet people named Brian.  Judah gets a puzzled look on his face.

Ah, mysteries of the toddler mind.