Okay, Mommy, you're kind of fun.

We -- Jude and Mommy -- have been going through a rough stage lately.  I am usually the one to go into his bedroom first in the morning.  For the past several weeks, the first words out of his mouth have been "No No Mama."  If you don't speak Jude, this means "Who in the hell are you?   Bring me the other mom!"  Needless to say, it hasn't exactly warmed my maternal heart.  

This "No No Mama" has slowly been invading other parts of my relationship with Jude as well.  

"No No Mommy books:" he will only sit and read books if Mama was sitting down and he was in her lap.  

"No No Mommy sit:" he will only eat if Mama is sitting at the table with him.  Me, not so much.

So being the concerned parent that I am, I Googled it.  I believe that my exact words were "toddler parent rejection."  And my old friend, Berkeley Parents Network, popped right up.  Ah, I was immediately comforted that other over-bearing, over-educated, over-concerned parents from all of Northern California had similar experiences.  Most of them said that it started with their child around 20 months (wow) and I didn't really find a pattern in whether it was the biological mother or father that was being rejected (which was a relief, because my self-conscious was starting to think that the only way that I was going to get over this rejection was to get pregnant with the next one).

The wise posters on the Berkeley Parents Network suggested that I increase the amount of one on one time that I was spending with Jude.  Even if it was on boring things like trips to the grocery store, maybe Jude needed to learn that I a) could be fun (I try to explain to him how fun I used to be and he just looks confused) and b) was completely capable of taking care of him.  So on Friday after I picked him up from school early, we went to the park.

Side note: On the way to the park, I drove through Starbucks for a grande iced coffee with white mocha.  As I pulled up to the window, the woman handed me my frosty caffeinated beverage.  Jude exclaimed from the back seat "Mommy cold coffee!!"  He too seemed as thrilled about my iced coffee pick me up as I was.

We decided to go to a different park that our standard neighborhood haunt.  This is the park that we drive by every day on the way to day care and he says "bye bye slide" as we pass.  I think that if he was fully fluent, he would say "slide, maybe some day when my wench of a mom decides to be a little spontaneous, we'll stop so I can take you for a test ride."  Well, Jude, Friday was that day.

Jude was so excited about the tunnel that he could hardly stand it.  He is thrilled every time we go through a tunnel in the car (and that includes any freeway overpass) and he loudly exclaims "TUNNO" from the back seat.  Jude was overwhelmed with joy at his own personal tunnel.

He didn't go down any of the big slides, but I can't say that I blame him.  I know that there is this whole movement now about playgrounds being too safe, but those slides were really high!  And the twisty slide (which had 3 twists, I might add) didn't have very high sides.  I told you, over-bearing, over-educated, and over-protective.

I thought that we were heading home when Jude spotted the blue swing.  Now, you may remember that when Jude was an infant, we put him in the swing and he looked around trying to figure out what the big deal was.  Well, 20 month old Jude totally knows what the big deal is.  This kid loves a good swing, and he rode that ride for about 30 minutes.  

Jude also borrowed a soccer ball from a friend that he met at the park, Max.  Okay, actually, Max was not at all Jude's friend, but Max's babysitter thought Jude was really cute so she told Jude he could borrow the soccer ball.  He practiced kicking it around a few times, but mostly he just ran around like an imp.

So that was Friday.  Now it is Sunday.  Berkeley Parents Network, you were right.  Maybe Mommy and Jude date at the park was all we needed.  I have only heard "No No Mama" one time this weekend (hey, no relationship is perfect, right?).