All Fired Up

Leo attended a fire-man themed 3rd birthday party for his friend Tucker last weekend. It was the coolest kid party that he (or I ) had ever seen! Ever since, he’s been obsessed with all things fireman-related. He made us call him “the fireman” all weekend and wanted to sleep with the hat, vest and Dalmatian he received there.

Three things to point out about the pictures:

1. I’m so sorry I don’t have any of Tucker, the guest of honor! He was busy working the crowd.

2. Look at the amazing cake that Tucker’s mom made herself!

3. Notice the last picture: it’s the next morning and he’s in his pajama top, a diaper and his fireman gear.

 

Labor-Free Weekend

 

Leo lives by the rule, “Work None, Play Hard.” This weekend he spent time with Tia Kristin, watched the horns at a bar (where he was the ONLY kid but still fit in just fine), played some basketball, wore matching Star Wars shirts with daddy, went to a festival, hung out on third base, danced with Tia, got a football painted on his face, ate a cookie, had a picnic, hiked to some waterfalls, went swimming with John and friends in the pool and finally, rode in a wagon with John to go get Fro Yo.

 

Wooh, being his mommy sure is work!!

 

 

 

Back to School

Leo starts “school” on Friday (which is really just one day of Creative Play and he did it this summer already). But he calls it school and he likes me to pretend that his little people are going to school.

But the real excitement around here is that real school is back in session and that means we get to watch the school bus come pick up the kid across the street every day! (I hope that kid doesn’t give us a restraining order.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Identity Crisis

 

His shirt may say Leo but that’s the last thing he wants to be called. For the last couple of weeks Leo has asked to be called several different “characters.”  So far he’s been:

The Goalie (that’s the most popular one)

Soccer Goalie (similar to The Goalie but don’t confuse the two)

Mr. Conductor

The Baby

Baby Ryan

The Pilot

The Doctor

Gordon (one of Thomas’ the Train’s friends)

The Football Player

The Basketball Player

The Fireman

 

It was cute at first. Downright amusing. But now it’s gotten out of control. His characters dominate our lives. When people call him Leo he stomps his feet, throws a full-on tantrum and screams, “NO I AM THE GOALIE!!”

I’ve been drilling it into his head to say “Please call me Goalie” and just today he’s starting to catch on. This is affecting his interactions with his friends, my friends, strangers we see at the grocery store. A lady asked him in the checkout line today if his name was Leo or if that was his sign (because of his shirt). Imagine what she must have thought when he screamed, “NO I AM THE GOALIE!” I knew it had all gone too far when yesterday, the people who work at the YMCA play center actually wrote “Baby Ryan” on his name tag since that’s who he wanted to be. And today, his babysitter Ms. Noel covered up “Leo” on his shirt with “The Goalie.”

 

Now I will answer some FAQs about Leo (I mean “Baby” which is who he is right now) and his many personalities:

 

1. Does he have a new one every day?

Actually, he changes them throughout the day. Often he’s up to five different people in one day.

 

2. How do you know when he changes into another one?

For most of them he will say, “Mama say ‘Hi, Baby” (or whichever character he’s turned into). For Mr. Conductor, though, he’ll just suddenly say, “Tickets, please!”

 

3. Why is everyone “The” except Mr. Conductor?

Mr. Conductor is how the dinosaurs on Dinosaur train refer to the conductor. I don’t know why everyone else is “The.” He’s actually somewhat flexible with “the.” We are allowed to just say “Goalie” or “Pilot.”

 

4. Does he act like these characters?

He doesn’t act like any of them except Baby and Baby Ryan. For those he crawls around, cries and says things like, “I can’t talk. I am a baby.”

 

5. Who is Baby Ryan?

My friend Chantal’s baby. When Leo assumes Baby Ryan’s identity, he says that Ryan is Baby Leo.

 

6. Does he make kids and toddlers call him these names?
Yes. John is on board with it. All through sports class he called Leo "Goalie.” But everyone else is just confused. Bianca calls him “Ee-oh” and he freaks out on her. She’s just 21 months old!

 

7. What about if you’re just talking about him? Do you still have to use the character name?

Absolutely. He will catch you from the next room if you slip up. He even caught Bianca’s mom saying “Leo” and she was speaking Romanian!

 

8. At what point will you seek professional help?

I think if we’re moving him into his dorm room and he insists that the sign on his door says, “The Goalie,” then we’ll consider it.

 

 

 

Ya Gotta Have Friends

Leo has had built-in friends since he was born but just recently he’s really started to enjoy playing with other kids. He and John, especially, love being together. They both ask to go see the other one and when they see each other, it’s a love fest. “JOHN!!” “LEO!!” They exclaim. Then they chase each other in circles. Tomorrow they start sports class together so I’m sure we’ll have some good pictures and stories from that. Leo already pretends to play sports with John. He’ll hold a football and say in an almost announcer-like voice, “And then I THROW the ball to John and John catches the ball and then I tackle John.” He gets tackling and tickling mixed up so he actually means he’s going to tickle him :)

Last weekend Leo met a new friend—Celia. She’s our friends Courtney and John’s adorable one-year-old daughter. They came in town for a visit and we all went out to eat and to the Aquarium. As you can see, Leo thought Celia was pretty cool:

 

 

Celia wasn’t so sure. “Why won’t this dude let go of his train when he hugs me?”

 

 

On a date at Johnny Rockets. “So do you come here often?”

 

 

With Hunter and Olivia—all holding lovies and snack traps. I thought little Olivia was laughing but I think she might be screaming because Leo is stepping on her foot. Oh,well, they all had fun using bowling pins like bird wings and running around, flapping their arms.

 

 

Talking sports in the pool with Dawson and John. “Texas is totally gonna dominate this season, guys!” Dawson and John say, “This is Clemson’s year!”

 

 

Hand in hand with his bestie:

What the Sprinkler Guy Thinks of Us

I usually keep a clean house. People sometimes comment, “It doesn’t even look like a child lives here” (which I take as a compliment). I mean, I let Leo pull out toys and play but only so many at once and we always put them away before nap time and bed time.

But somehow yesterday, things got out of control. This was the scene at our house when the sprinkler guy showed up:

 

It looks like Cousin Eddie’s house in the “Vacation” movies!

And if you think the sprinkler guy just thought we were messy, you’re wrong. He also thought we were gross because we have a potty in the middle of the floor and my child has NO PANTS ON—not even a diaper!! (Now this is because I was half-heartedly trying this potty-training method where the kid runs around naked. More on that later.)

So to sum it up, here is what the Sprinkler Guy walked into:

• A living room with toys scattered everywhere
• A pile of trains, planes and cars in the foyer
• A plastic potty right in the middle of the floor
• A bottomless kid sitting on a chair, watching TV

It’s unfortunate because normally we are a clean-house, pants-wearing, potties-only-in-bathroom kind of family. But he’ll forever think otherwise.

Oh, and when I took this picture, my half-naked son said, “CHEESE! I’M WATCHING THOMAS!!”

NASCAR Leo

 

I like the name Leo because it’s sort of unusual. Not unusual weird but unusual unique. But then I saw it in the Pottery Barn Kids Catalog and I feared it was becoming trendy.

Now it’s gone from from trendy to trashy. My sister sent me this article about race car driver Jeff Gordon naming his son Leo. Now people will confuse my Leo with little NASCAR Leos.

“Is your Leo the one in the Polo shirt or the one in the wife beater?”

“Is your Leo the one with all his teeth or the one with just some teeth?”

“Does your Leo have a crew cut or a mullet?”

 

But it doesn’t really matter since he asks us to call him “The Goalie” or “The Conductor” most of the time anyway. And if he becomes a NASCAR fan, he’ll probably make us call him Dale.