My son Dude

This picture of Eli was taken for my sisters and friends back in Chicago. So they can be close enough to smell his cuteness from here in LA.

Last week, Jude's teacher shared with me about a boy in Jude's class who can't pronounce "Jude" so he calls him "Dude". Good thing we didn't name our son Mork.

  

It was Kwang's first week at his new job and despite his long commute (we get excited when it's only one hour), we still make the effort to have dinner together every night. I imagine it will only get more difficult as the boys become older and dread eating with their "uncool" parents. But for now, Jude likes to be around us.

I usually have him fed before Kwang gets home, but sometimes Jude will eat again just to be with us. He doesn't have much interest in eating, but to him it's better than going to bed. Oh, the torture of having to sleep at night!! There may be nothing more painful for Jude than bedtime. Every night after his bedtime story, he looks up sweetly and asks, "Again?" If we let him have his way, we'd be reading book after book until the sun came up.

One night as we were all eating dinner last week, I was holding Eli in my lap. It was around 7pm so I asked him, "Eli, do you want to go night-night?" Night-night is my term for sleep and I asked this rhetorically, of course, since Eli can't understand me let alone respond. Well, Jude was sitting next to me at the table, busy eating his dinner and playing with a toy. But he overheard what I asked Eli and, without looking up, kindly informed me a few seconds later, "Eli says no."

So apparently, bedtime is disliked by all creatures under the age of three including those who can't even say they dislike it. If only I could be two years old again and be forced to get some yummy sleep.