While I'm on vacation I am reposting some old posts. Some because I find them amusing and some because I like to look back and realize how my life has changed since I started this blog six years ago. This was posted in July of 2007.
Leo reminds me more and more of my father. Not just his grown up face with the big brown eyes but also his ability to lecture somewhat mind numbingly on his current interests. With my father it was Habeus Corpus and the Constitution….with Leo it is Lego sets, the current Lego sets available, the Lego sets that are STUPIDLY not available anymore and Lego sets that are going to be released in the future. And all the minute changes in the Lego figures and what year they were released. And what new Lego pieces there are in some of the new sets. And what the current Lego contest is and what the prizes are. And, and, and, and other things that I have probably not really heard but just responded, "oh really" to in an interested voice. Good thing I love that boy and oh, do I.
Leo also is developing the mind of a master negotiator. Somehow he developed a plan that if a holiday falls on allowance day then he and Owen should get double allowance. Well, as you know….the Fourth of July was on a Sunday (allowance day) this year. Sigh. He was so SURE of the rightness of his plan though that he eventually wore us down. I can't even BEGIN to describe to you how absolutely sure he was that this was the right plan. So somehow, we found ourselves willingly giving them double allowance. I swear I don't quite know how it happened.
Then when he and Owen were on a shopping trip to spend some of said money that they had saved up he actually pulled Owen to the side where Ernie couldn't hear them and lectured Owen, complete with waving hands and actually using his hands to force Owen to look directly into his eyes. And eventually when it was all over, Owen had given Leo his extra allowance money so that Leo could get a new Lego City truck. Owen seemed delighted with it all though and Leo was openly appreciative to Owen so I just shrugged my shoulders and admired the truck and Owen's plush Koopa.
None of Dad's daughters became lawyers although I always thought it might have suited Judi. Not me and Debbie though. But maybe, just maybe, he'll have a grandson follow in his footsteps.
Actually, I've thought that ever since at the age of 3, when after being told he had to share the sandbox with his brother Owen, he waited until I left and then calmly moved ALL the sand into his half of the sandbox, because after all….I hadn't said they had to share the SAND, had I?
When Leo really starts experiencing an independent life, I hope the world doesn't wear him down. What initiative! He won't suffer fools easily, however, and the world is chock-a-block with them…
I know you are all ready aware…but you are so very lucky. Your boys are a hoot and a half.
Leo's sandbox maneuver reminded me of a lawyer joke: two lawyers go into a bar, taking their brown-bag lunches. "Hey!" says the waiter, "You can't eat your lunches in here." The lawyers look at each other, shrug, and switch bags.
Leo is hard not to love. What a great story about the sandbox. He is a sharp one.