First Person, Singular

For the past few months, Jude has been referring to himself as "Judey". "Judey wants some dinner". "Judey went to school today". "Judey has a double-ouchie". Recently, he seems to have discovered the first person. It's not exactly natural for him, and when he's in a hurry he's still "Judey". But occasionally, he'll very deliberately say "I am hungry" or "I need a new diaper". He watches closely for a reaction, to make sure he is doing it right.

This was one of the questions on the two-year-old developmental questionnaire (does your child refer to himself as "I"), one of the few to which we had to answer "no". I didn't even realize it was a developmental milestone, but now that it is on my radar, I'm very aware of his steps in that direction. Everything is a process, and it's incredible how everything with children is temporary.

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This morning, we were reading "Pat the Bunny" right after Jude woke up. If you're not familiar with the book, the two kids in the book are Paul and Judy. This was very puzzling for Jude. Why was I calling the little girl "Judy"? He corrected me: the boy was Judey and the girl was Ada. Once I started calling the kids the right names, he was a lot happier.