Another smartmouth comment by Joel

I know what he's being told at daycare, at least. I laid down with Joel for awhile last night and put my arm around him. He swatted my arm away and told me to "keep oo handth uh uhthelf". Thats 'keep your hands to yourself' for anyone who doesn't speak joelese.

Binkies

I took Joel's pacifier away when he was 15 months old. David gave it back to him when he was about 15.5 months old. And he's had it ever since. A 2.5 year old with a binkie isn't so horrible; a 2.5 year old who looks like a 4 year old is.

A few weeks ago I had an epiphany. We'd gotten back from camping and I was putting Joel to bed. I grabbed the binkies that we'd brought in from the motorhome and headed upstairs behind him. While he wasn't watching, I stuck them in the closet, and then when he asked for them, I said "Oh no!! We left them in the motorhome! I guess we'll have to wait until next weekend to get them." He wasn't too happy but we just kept telling him they were in the motorhome and we'd get them next weekend when we went camping. I did take the pacifiers and gave them to him while we were camping, but again 'forgot' to get them out when we unpacked the motorhome. This weekend I didn't take them, and he never has asked for them after that second weekend when we were back in the motorhome.

Last night I was entertaining Joel and asking him what certain animals said. He knew a bunch of them. He says 'poink poink' for pigs- it's so cute. But when I ran out of animals and asked him what a Joely says, he yelled "I want my binkie!!!".