Figuring it all out

 L and B love these silky scarves that Sister Levanion left us with everything else awesome in the house.  They make great capes.

 L was very brave and got his flu shot.  He was mystified, as all children are, that the nurses said it wouldn't hurt, but it did.

 L likes to put the raisins on his ants on a log.  I call it Infestation on a log.  That's a lot of ants.  Yum!

 L had a great time playing at the park and after apologizing for hitting another small child, he did share his cars with that child.

We're nebulizing L in the hopes of keeping a cough from settling in his lungs.  'Tis the season.

gold bug and climbing bug

 L loves animals.  He loves to go play with these kittens every week while lP and B are at piano. 

 I cleaned up these books and tucked them away thinking nobody needed them since they were all on the floor.  Within 10 minutes he had them pulled out so he could search for gold bug.  L needs these books.  That's ok.

 The library has some awesome little kid toys.  I'm very grateful for the wonderful programs and friends of the library organization.

L climbs.  I try and stay calm.  He pushes my ability though.  I don't have any pictures of how high he can get in the verbina tree at this park.  I don't want to do anything to make him not focus on holding on and remaining aware of his situation when he's 20 feet high on spindly branches.  But he is easily the best climber in a family of climbers.  It's hard to stay calm.  I just say "Oh good!  Now show me you can get down.  Good!  I knew you could!"

So stinking cute

L pooped his pants twice today.  It is horrible of me to document this.  But look at this kid.  He is so ridiculously charismatic.  I love him to pieces.  He does not love the cold shower he has to get to clean off after these accidents.  Sorry bud.  You gotta stop.

Panda Express

We went to Panda Express yesterday and L was in a mood.  "I don't like Pandas!" he exclaimed as we pulled into the parking lot.  M calmed him with "We're not going to eat Pandas." Then came his bewildered reply "Oh, we're not?"  I love this funny boy.

While we were evacuated we went swimming at a pool.  L loves the pool and the next day when he threw up, it seemed he liked the pool too much.  He spent about 4 hours with clear spew-age and lethargic.  But it was good excuse to buy a new portable DVD player.  When the kids are sick we like to isolate them in the tub with a DVD player on the counter, out of spew range.

L was adorable and sweet.  He was really good at throwing up on the towel and not all over his clothes.  Win!  He told me "Sorry about throwing up!" 

2 weeks

L has been using the toilet for #2 for 2 weeks.  This is a pretty big deal because he's our youngest and latest to do so. 

He does things like make a mess, then when he is caught he starts to bawl and say "But I said I'm SORRY!" 

He likes to sneak food and is often in trouble for eating half an apple that he didn't ask for and leaving it on the floor.  He says things like "That is good.  Yum!  Delicious!"

I think he just wants to make sure we appreciate him growing up and never feel like we could handle more. 

Then he comes up and says "I just need to hug and kiss you because I love you."

Joys and Birthday fun

 Watermelon on the back porch.  So good.

 Playing with the dog that M and G are pet sitting.  As we leave L will exclaim that he wants to see Luke (the dog) twenty, ninety, sixteen, twenty five more times.

 We took family to the museum,

 butterfly garden, and

Splash park fun.  And now he is 4.

growing

L is so cute.  He screams a lot and we're trying to get him to stop being upset about everything.  He is cut from a similar cloth as lP which is creative and sometimes exhausting.  But they have an insight that surprises.

Play so hard

 L wandered outside around 2pm and fell asleep on the spider swing.  Life's busy like that.

 Here is L signing "I love you".

More often than not he holds up his best assortment of 3 fingers and says softly "This means I love you."  Yes.   It does.

little things

L has picked up some phrases that are strange to me.
"I forgive you."  "I promise."  I'm not sure if B is teaching him that or what.  I don't make promises except covenants.  We do forgive though.

He's trying to learn the ILY and I'm often amused at what he comes up with.  He'll hold up some combination of 3 fingers and say "This means I love you!"  He's awesome like that.

L loves to use his finger as an avatar.  We hug our index fingers together.  They talk, play tag, and hide and seek.  He's very into that sort of play.

Yesterday he was eating a popcickle and lP said "Popcicle, go into the cave (l's mouth) to which L replied "It's dangerous!"

I love his imagination.  He has a real friend in lP and B for all the imaginative play a kid needs.

Spider man

L is 3 for a few more months.  He likes to milk his place as the youngest in the family.  He is pretty awesome.  He learned the word grip recently and P loved to have L show him his grip, extending his hand and having L squeeze it tight.  L loves to explain and define.  He tells us what we're "'sposed to" do, like "You're 'sposed to sleep with me." and he often tells us "I thought I wanted to have milk and signing time." when he really just wants those things. 

L likes to show expressions.  When he's deciding he puts his finger to his lips and says "Hmmmm".
I love how he shows happy and sad just for the fun of it.
Here he is trying to wink.

We put the training wheels back on the little red bike that B just barely graduated from and now L is racing around on it.

Growing

 We went to the audiologist and G requested that we ride to the 11th floor to look out over campus.  L said "Mom!  Where did you come from?!" Like I had been gone but just showed up.  He has so many funny phrases.  "Are you kidding me?" is one he uses a lot when he doesn't like what he was told, like it's time for bed.

L has been interested in riding the bike.  P and G have pushed him along on this good old red bike.  So I put the training wheels on and he's having a great time.  He can peddle around up and down the drive way.  We took it to visit Grandma and G shepherded him across the parking lot so he could ride along the sidewalks.  He's very confident about it.  Just one more way that he reminds us of G at this age.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

We finally went to Ikea up in Jtown.  lP and B were the right size to go into the play place.  M was too big and L is not yet potty trained.  The lady signing the kids into the play place gave M and L coupons for free ice cream cones.  L has never had such a large ice cream cone.  He did pretty good.  He liked to lick it in the usual non productive messy way.  But often enough he would say "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" and take a slurp.

Monkey bars and monkey behavior

L succeeded in doing the monkey bars today.  He's been working on it for a while.  Later he tried to climb to the turret that is 20 feet in the air.  That was when I got a hold of him and we left the park.

mannerisms

L delights us and frustrates us.  He loves to tap his lip as he thinks about what it is he wants.  He prays that the sun will come up again.  He sings songs, including singing the tag of a song lP or B have taught him to sing.  He's also quick to scream if someone else sings his part.

This morning he came in and said "Mom, you're supposed to be sleeping with me!"  I did sleep with him last night, or tried to.  He moves around so much.

L is getting potty trained and he really wants a lollipop.  When I tell him he need to go potty before having a treat he says "I went potty already!"  Once a day is all he would prefer to do. 

We're grateful for his cheeks and sweet little personality.