My gamer

Leif is very much a little gamer. He comes by it honestly really. Both AB and I enjoy board games and computer games. I vaguely remember a long distant past where I would sit for hours in front of the computer playing Diablo and Civilization. It is a vague memory that doesn't include little voices around me. As a kid I was much more intrigued by an afternoon in front of the Colecovision or my Commodore Vic 20 than going outside.

Leif inherited this unfortunate quality. I should probably apologize now to all his future girlfriends because he inherited this from both sides.

Today one of Leif's female friends - who isn't a gamer - came over for a play date. It didn't start out well when she went to play with Skadi's dollhouse and Leif had a despondent and somewhat desperate look on his face. We let this rest a little to see how long the doll thing would last.

It went on a little long for Leif (Skadi was thrilled) and so we released him to his DS for a bit.

After a little while I picked up the Wii Tangled game that she brought with. Leif siezed the opportunity to get the Wii remote in his hand by agreeing readily to being Flynn Rider.

"I have a sword!" he exclaimed.

Pretty soon they were playing away. But I loved the conversations during.

Leif: "I am going to get that guy!"

C: "No, you are supposed to ask him if he has the radish drink instead."

Leif: "Oh."

Few minutes pass...

Leif: "I am going to slice that bad guy in half!"

C: "That's not a bad guy, you have to see if he has a jewel."

Leif: "Oh."

Few minutes pass...

Leif: "Hi-YA! Let me go tackle that one and fight him C!"

C: "C, no Leif we just have to see if he has the answer."

Leif: "Oh."

I was impressed that despite there being no bashing or whacking or sword slicing that he hung in there. I was worried we would see tears, but no. And he didn't even make any requests for teaching C how to play "Lightsaber Duel".

I was impressed that he was just happy enough to be able to play Wii that he willingly and enthusiastically (mostly) played a "girls" game (dubbed so a little bit later because there "isn't enough attacking").

A day trip

On Saturday our friends invited us to join them on a trip up into the mountains for lunch and a hike. We always enjoy hiking with them and AB and I realized how nice it would be to get out of town for the day and into the mountains while it is cooling down and the leaves are changing. Plus, we were intrigued by the hike which is probably about 3 miles round trip to a cave (dubbed "the bat cave") at the end with the last part being a loop through the cave.

AB and I have always been a bit of cave buffs. We have done a little spelunking years ago in Wind Caves and Jewel Cave National Parks in South Dakota as well as some lava tube exploration at Lassen in California. Truly amazing.

We got Leif all psyched up for the trip and headed out Saturday after swimming. Skadi slept in the car for the about 1 hour 45 minute drive into the mountains. We met up with our friends, ate lunch (scared away the neighboring table with our rambunctous kids) and then headed to the trailhead with an anxious (getting old) dog.

Skadi walked the first quarter mile or so until we finally decided to get the show on the road and deposited her in the Kelty carrier. We finally made it to the cave and Leif was thrilled to go look for bats. I was amazed though how well he behaved and willingly shined his light where it was needed without having to ask twice.

Going into the cave.

Coming out - the dog was NONE too thrilled about the cave aspect.

The kids shared an apple on the way back and I loved these photos:

Now please excuse me while I go cry and wonder how we went from this:

to this:

all in the blink of an eye.

Love and marriage preschool style

So the little chicky who proposed to my son and is probably still waiting for his answer via phone call, latched onto me today. Ok, not latched. As a nursing mom, "latch" means something that I am not trying to convey here. I got a HUGE hug from her.

I hugged her back as icily as I could - in typical mother-in-law-in-practice fashion (though my MIL doesn't hug with ice, she is a good hugger). I wanted to whisper in little chicky's ear not to be expecting an answer from Leif anytime soon, he can't read and there is no democracy in our house, it is a dictatorship and I control what he reads. But I didn't. I just thanked her for the hug, but I see through her tactics...

Love and marriage is in the air at preschool though. One of the other moms who I am friends with told me her son was trying to decide which of two girls he was going to marry at recess tomorrow since she had told him he could not marry his sister.

And then the other day on the way home from school Leif blurted out that he was going to marry me. I was flattered, but told him I didn't think Daddy would like that too much since he is already married to me. He proposed a three-way marriage, but I reinforced the one man, one woman thing. (I accept homosexuality and I am pro gay marriage - but my three year old doesn't need to start thinking about that anytime in the near future.)

I told Leif that he was going to need to pick out someone else to marry, and he did. Our friend's daughter and not terribly surprising.

I want to think of Leif as being immune to the advances of girls everywhere - but I know him too well. Everyone gets a hug in our house, and kisses get doled out too and not just for the girls either.

He and one of his male friends always kiss as they depart from a playdate. Not surprising since on New Years Eve at their house I was kissed hello and goodbye by nearly everyone there and very few of them I had met previously. (A little weird... but whatever.) But at their house, Leif gloms onto this practice. Kisses all around!

Then there are the two girls we are closest friends with, it is hard to pull Leif off them... I have a Christmas eve picture I could post of a "Leif sandwich" with the two of them - it is apparent he was enjoying a little slice of heaven there... There are usually threats of dad's needing to become involved - though Leif doesn't pay them much heed. N has proved to be her own woman though as she puts up with his advances for about three seconds and then shoves him off saying, "no kissies Leif". C, on the other hand, eats it up and we have questions of "when do we force them to stop this" with regards to the present as well as future timeline with respect to age.

So while I want to think that my son is an innocent bystander not provoking any of this attention... I fear that he is an active participant in garnering this attention.

Leif, Leif and more Leif

This is a big week for Leif. He turns three on the 29th and has parties galore and presents arriving nearly daily in the mail. I am good at catching and hiding about 2/3 of the boxes so far. Yesterday however, he caught sight of the ones from my dad...

Leif: "Are those for my birthday? Can I open?"

You might think I am a pushover for letting him open them upon request, but I really am not. I would rather save it all since I am evil that way. But I also know Leif. He will be so overwhelmed. Just really better to roll things out over a few days.

My dad packaged the presents wrapped in garbage bags for padding within the box. I opened the box and let Leif go at it.

Leif: "WOW! Garbage!"

NM: "Leif I really think there is something inside these bags."

Leif: "WOW!"

He really is easy to please. His former daycare teacher asked me what she should buy him. I told her nothing and was completely serious. I told her previously not to get him anything, to just come to his party and that would be a huge present. (Can we say C-R-U-S-H?) She replied that of course she was getting him something, then said, "I bet he likes nearly anything".

See... he was even thrilled when he thought he was just getting garbage from grandpa!

Most days have been good lately. Sunday we were all sick with the stomach flu. But Leif rebounded amazingly quick and was an angel. I guess given the fact that he got movies all day may have lended to that just a little. But there are the flip days, when if I hear anymore whining I may scream. AB and I are working hard to curb that. He has had so many changes in his life in the last four months (a new sister, AB getting a job, moving to a new room for preschool), we try to cut him some slack, but at times it is hard. Particularly those days when AB works.

AB is working on a very, very large construction site that starts work at 6:30am promptly. It has been awhile since he has had to "punch the clock", but lateness isn't tolerated. Thankfully the term "late" doesn't come into play when we talk about where I work.

I have found the card I play with Leif to get him moving in the mornings, and after two weeks it is still working well. Helping. Leif will do nearly anything to get to help. I can use this two fold.

Example: "Leif if you help mommy by putting your shoes on, you can help me unload the dishwasher later!"

Leif: "YAY! Ok, I putting shoes on now!"

(Sucker.) And it is all in the tone.

We had a fascinating conversation this morning while I was trying to blow dry my hair.

NM: "Leif there is a spider on the wall, do you want to come see it?"

Leif: "YES!" (Jumps up off the couch and comes running.) "WOW, look at it."

NM: "Don't touch it remember."

Leif: "It has sticky fingers. He walks on the walls. It's a daddy spider."

NM: "Yeah." (I didn't check to see if it was actually a "daddy" spider...)

Leif: "Mommy, can I see his tongue?"

NM: (Perplexed... do spiders have tongues?) "Well you probably could if he opened his mouth for you, but I don't want you to get that close."

Leif: "STICK OUT YOUR TONGUE SPIDER!"

NM: "Shhh... don't wake your sister."

Leif: "stick out your tongue spider"

NM: "Much better."

Leif: "I have to potty mommy."

NM: "Then go."

Leif: "The spider won't let me by."

NM: "Are you done looking at the spider?" He nods and so I swat it with a magazine and deposit the body in the toilet while simultaneously thinking maybe that wasn't a great idea...

Leif: "I GET TO PEE ON THE SPIDER!"

Seriously the highlight of the morning. I heard for the next 30 minutes about peeing on the spider. And I am sure daycare has heard all about it too.

The funniest things catch his attention. One of Leif's favorite set of books is Toot and Puddle given to us by Rockergirrl and her family. In one book they are trying to cheer up Toot (a pig) who is moping. Puddle makes a five berry cobbler with whipped cream.

Leif: "Why didn't they make muffins?"

NM: "He made a cobbler because that's Toot's favorite."

Leif: "They should make muffins."

NM: "Ok, they should have made muffins."

Leif: "Read it they made muffins."

NM: "OK, so Puddle made muffins."

Leif: "With whipped cream."

NM: "with whipped cream."

The other day Leif got up from nap determined that he was going to call C. He has yet to actually make a phone call. Usually I call and he pipes up when he wants to talk. This time he held the phone and everything... his first phone call! It starts ringing...

Leif: "Hello, HELLO. You hear me? Hello? C?"

NM: "Leif I think they aren't home, the answering machine is going to come on."

Leif: "A machine? No, I call C, not a machine!"

NM: "Leave a message for C!"

C called back a little later and they had quite the conversation. C jabbered on and on while Leif listened (he has learned well from daddy), though he seemed to understand her plainly as he sat there nodding his head.

He has a joint party with C on Saturday with all their friends at their school. Then Sunday we will have a small celebration with an angel food cake... because you have to have angel food cake on your birthday. Monday his class will celebrate and I get to go watch!