Leif has an obsession. Band-Aids. Or what he calls, Dandies. He needs to have a Dandy on everyday, somewhere on his body, irregardless of the presence of an “owie”. If he bumps his head, he runs to our bathroom yelling “dandy!” And no matter what he insists, I will not stick a band-aid in his hair.
All last week Leif wore a Nemo band-aid on his shin. A place that band-aids NEVER fall off. Note to self, the knee is the best place to place a non-injury band-aid. That Nemo band-aid had seen better days after nearly a week, despite its apparent inability to remove itself.
This morning Leif happened to note an “owie” on AB’s foot. He told us about it a few times, each time suggesting that daddy needed a dandy. These requests went unacknowledged. Finally, Leif took matters into his own hands. He sat down on the floor and set to peeling off his beloved Nemo dandy from his shin. He finally got it off (those things stick!), then walked it over to AB’s foot and stuck it on. “Here daddy,” he said.
It sounds silly, but in my emotional state, I nearly cried. How generous! He took something that he loves, that sets him to a screaming and crying tantrum lest we suggest removing it from him, and offered it up to Daddy’s owie.
My little boy is thoughtful! *Sigh*
Leif isn’t a big fan of meat. Chicken, pork, beef and fish, he could really care less about. Now at daycare on the other hand, life is different and he will eat whatever is placed in front of him. At home we get a very polite (said tongue in cheek) “NO WAY!”
Yesterday AB stuck a chicken on his BBQ rotisserie. I make an effort to always offer Leif what we are having for dinner first before resorting to macaroni and cheese or other. In this case, chicken, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy. We had no actual hopes of him eating this except maybe the corn. But I figured I would cross that bridge when we got to it.
I stuck a chicken drumstick in front of him, his first ever, and he stared at it some. Then I showed him how to hold it by the “handle”, pick it up and bite it. It took some practice, but he got the hang of it. When nearly 1/3 of the drumstick was done, we marveled. AB asked me if I had been eating some of it. Umm no. At 2/3 gone, our jaws were dropping.
When we looked over and he was sucking the end of a bare bone we were mystified! New dinner item on the list… chicken drumsticks!
We had a busy weekend especially given we didn’t have anything planned really. Saturday we went to the park and played. AB enjoyed his iced cinnamon Americano, I shared an orange juice and pumpkin loaf with Leif. I only really intended on sharing the juice, but who could resist his open baby bird mouth. After nap we went to open swim at the municipal pool where we had a fantastic time. After an hour we needed to go and Leif cried and cried that we had to leave. He loved it and would have stayed until we were booted.
After swimming I was craving beef and we had pretty much none in our house, and especially none that was thawed. So we changed clothes really quick and decided to venture a try at Outback. I called ahead for seating (was told there was no wait, but opted to put our name down anyway, thankfully). We arrived there to a full waiting area. Leif being the entertainer decided to entertain the waiting area. I was somewhat pleased to see that the people who were most receptive to his entertainment tactics was none other than my lab director. I said hi to him and he seemed like he just might recognize me. Or he just figures that anyone who calls him by Dr. “last name” probably works somewhere under him.
Aside from dinner taking a year and a half to arrive after ordering, the meal was good. Leif was reasonably well behaved. (Thankfully we were sat across the restaurant from my lab director so when Leif started acting up, my horrified face wasn’t seared in his memory…)
Leif calmed down when the table next to us was brought a dessert with a candle. He then became obsessed with telling everyone “Happy Birthday!” The neighboring table had long since left when we were finishing up, our waitress came by to see if we needed anything else and Leif, much to my horror, announces to her “Happy Birthday!”
You see one thing I inherited from my mom is the loathing of having anyone acknowledge my birthday at a restaurant. The last thing I want is a bunch of strangers singing some stupid mixed up corporate version of Happy Birthday to me. And thank you I can pay for my own dessert in exchange. Thankfully AB agrees with me on this. No, it wasn’t my birthday, nor Leif’s, nor AB’s. But our waitress assumed that it MUST be someone’s birthday at the table and brought us an ice cream sundae. Ok, so it wasn’t that mortifying. There was no singing and there was a free dessert, even though I swore up and down there were no birthdays at our table. We stayed long enough to eat the dessert and watch Leif dance to Funky Town in the middle of the aisle, entertaining even more patrons. If you are a parent, it will come as no surprise to you that upon arriving home 15 minutes after bedtime routine starts, missing bath and having such an exciting evening at Outback Steakhouse, made for a misery of a bedtime. But bonus? He slept in until 7:15am. Bliss.
Sunday was swimming lessons. As Leif put it, “Swimming day AGAIN!” It was a nice last swimming class. Sitting in the cool water was a welcome relief to the 100F weather. This week is the county fair and we are anxious to take Leif to see the animals. He will be over the moon. It is also AB’s first week of back to classes, his last semester and he will have his Masters in Engineering. Many hopes that this might just yield him a job he is happy with and doesn’t set us on a hunt to find two new jobs in a new place to live.
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