It's said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. I guess that makes our baby come first, and indeed he wouldn't have it any other way. At age 2 and 11 mos. this kid currently believes the universe revolves around him and I don't see his opinion changing on that any time in the near future. Speaking of opinions, being part of a big family can mean lots of them - and differing ones. What we call Cody falls into this category. His daddy calls him his given name, Dakota or Dakota Jack. His brothers call him Jack. His sister and I call him Cody. And now he has a name for himself: if asked he'll tell you his name is "Tody Dack Webb" or sometimes, "Baby Tody Dack Webb."
Coming last in our family of eight children - of which seven are boys - Cody can't help but resemble his brothers. As an infant we thought he looked the most like his oldest brother Jeffrey, who had just left for his 2-year mission to New York City a month before Cody's birth. Jeffrey didn't get to meet his little brother for two years and wrote us during the first year that he told others he figured the stories about Cody were all a big conspiracy to make him think he'd been replaced! Amused, we laughingly agreed with him. But as Cody has grown up his own face and personality have emerged, distinctive and utterly unique. His body may yet be small, but his presence in our family is huge.
One of the factors of having a child that comes so far after the other children (six years after Justice) is that while they may only be age 1 or 2 - they believe they are no different than the older ones. It's either that, or kids are just born technologically savvy these days...or both? Cody can operate the television, the wii, the computers, ipods, cameras, and cellphones all with a proficiency that frightens and amazes me at the same time. We can regularly find him sitting back on my bed playing with his daddy's ipod touch and doing things with it I don't even know how to do! He's reprogramed my camera to Chinese and sent several text messages to Darren from my cellphone. I don't even know how to do that!! Someone made the mistake of letting him play with a gameboy some time ago. We must have thought, "Oh, how cute!" - at the time. Now...it's a big problem. It doesn't matter how high or well hidden the boys Gameboy DS' are - Cody will find them and will cry if he's not allowed to play them. He even called himself Mario - Mario Party for awhile. Darren and I have tossed around the idea of getting him his own. I just couldn't see buying such an expensive toy for a (nearly) three year old. But Darren pointed out that doing so wouldn't really be an issue of spoiling him. Cody just sees the others have these things and he doesn't understand why he is the only one who doesn't have one. Actually - he calls Justice's DS "my DS." So for the sake of family peace, he may soon have to have his own DS too. I just can't believe myself for doing it...(if I do).
I think he's learning - slowly - that some things belong to others just as some things are his own. But he still believes everything we all have is there for his own use and pleasure, whether it be someone's hidden toy or snacks, or something out in the open. He's been potty training in the last few months. One day, noticing a dark stain I asked, "Cody, did you wet your pants?" His reply? "No, wet Justice pants. Uh huh." And he nodded. Sure enough, he was wearing Justice's undies!
Mealtimes are a sorta funny issue where he's concerned, because he has way more than the normal three meals a day. People in our home eat breakfast and lunch at different times throughout the day depending on when they get up, work schedule, and appetite of course. Cody believes he should get to eat whenever anyone else is eating, and gets a plate out, telling them "Baby likes sammich" or "I like eggs." He'll have 2-3 breakfasts and lunches in a day sometimes; often eating more meals (snacks) than I realize. A recent conversation with rest of the family revealed each of the many courses he had with each of them that day, so I no longer feel guilty if he falls asleep at night before he's had dinner. And heaven forbid if you don't serve him while feeding yourself (no matter if he's already had breakfast)! On more than one occasion when the older kids didn't give him a waffle (while they were feeding their own faces), I've come into the kitchen afterwards and found him in the midst of a huge powdery mess, bowel and wisk in hand. He's looked up with a smile on his face and told me, "Mommy, I making!" Yeah... he sure was.
His language abilities and vocabulary are still developing, but he's not unintelligible to someone that knows him (me) and so cute when he talks. And while his English isn't perfect yet, he might be picking up on some Spanish already. Or, at the least, there's a chance he could. Cody loves to watch "Dola" (Dora the Explorer) and "Ego" (Diego) and demands to watch them whether they're on or not. I got smart and recorded a few episodes on the DVR so he could watch them on demand. (Somehow he always got me to turn it on just as Dora ended!) I just found out one of the older (unhelpful) kids deleted them. (Thanks so much!)
Even after all the gameboy struggles and potty training problems and messy messes, this cute kid has carved an enormous part of our hearts out for himself. The best thing is when he comes and climbs on me in my chair, squeezes me, and tells me, "Mommy, I lub you!" Let me tell you...being lubbed by Cody is pretty wonderful.
