Leifisms

I just got through reading one of Leif's favorite books to him, "Leif the Lucky". It is about the Vikings, Erik the Red, the colonization of Greenland and the Vikings arrival in North America. It amazes me this is one of his favorite books. (Snore...) You see Rockergirl for Christmas and Leif's birthday recently sent books with her boy's names in the titles. I thought it was a great idea, went searching for a book with Leif's name in the title and sure enough, found one (and only one). It is a fantastic book really. And he loves it. But wow is it long. (I am thinking we have a show and tell candidate for Thursday.)

Ok, now I have waken up I think. We have had a day of hilarity. Really, Leif keeps me in stitches.

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First we went for a walk tonight after dinner. It was a little cold. Skadi was bundled and cute, but I was getting cold and I feared the wind whipping in Skadi's little hood. AB told Leif we were going to turn around.

AB: "Mommy's cold and so is Skadi. Are you cold Leif?"

Leif: "Not so much Daddy."

He IS AB's mini-me. Leif has picked up AB's speech patterns freakishly well.

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Leif has had a thing with cleanliness since he was about one year old and entered his daycare where it is actually not only encouraged, but required that the kids clean up after themselves. Leif was obsessive about sweeping and wiping the counters off. Obsessive. His teachers used to joke that they wanted to see my house, I had to keep the cleanest house ever.

I don't.

I usually responded that Leif was going to be in therapy in 18 years saying, "my parent's house was so messy, I was forced to do the cleaning since I was one year old!"

Leif loves to vacuum. On days like today where there are bits and pieces on the floor, I give in and pull the vacuum out and hand him the wand.

We were all tired of the roar of the vacuum and Leif had gone over the kitchen floor twice. I turned it off and said, "that's enough".

Leif screams, NO! Then this came out of his mouth:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?"

I had to turn my head and laugh for about 30 seconds before I could look back at him and tell him that he was not allowed to yell at me and next offense was a time out.

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More vacuum stories?

AB was attempting to teach Leif the finer points of football the other night. For example, you hold the football and run while being chased through the house. I know, not safe... but it was funny watching him set off running squeal and ditch the football in less than three seconds.

In some attempt to teach his son football, AB stuck the football under his arm and told Leif to chase him. He did for about 30 seconds, before his little red pretend DustDevil vacuum caught his eye. Roar, the things came on and Leif is chasing AB with the vacuum.

"What?" AB yells, "There's no vacuuming in football!"

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Leif is at that age where playdates are the "in" thing. He decides who he is going to invite and we figure it out, most of the time with success. He hadn't quite gotten to the point that his friend, J, has though. J used to ask his mom if he could go to Leif's house, but was met with answers like, "it's 9pm Leif is in bed and you should be too" or "I will see if Leif's mommy wants to set something up".

J has resorted to cutting the middleman (or middlemommy) out of the loop and has started coming directly to me for the straight up answer. Certainly my answer will always be "yes", won't it? Unfortunately the answers he gets from me are a lot on the same lines, "well I will see what we can work out with your mommy or daddy" or "no Leif needs to go home and eat supper right now".

I guess I wasn't too surprised that Leif took the reigns then and tried to arrange his own playdate. Though I was a little surprised it was with another adult.

"What," I thought, "am I not fun enough for you?"

But only for a second. Because when the adult he invites also happens to drive the coolest bus with the zip line, the balance beams, spring board and mats in it, who can really blame him?

Coach informed me though that his answer to Leif was "oh that would be fun! You can call my mommy and see if she will let me".

Leif said he would, but Coach's mommy has yet to receive a call.