L was bored with the usual suspects (toys) yesterday, and was forbidden to jump on the couch or watch a movie (results of bad listening). He’s out on the balcony & sees some big kidz playing basketball etc.

Mama, I want to play wit dem! “Hello! Hello down dere!”

Sweetie, those are big kids, they might not want to play with you.

Yes they do! “Hey, whatcha doin down there?”

Ok, do you want to go ask them to play catch? And if they don’t want to play, Mama will play ball with you, ok?

Ok!

<tromp down the stairs>

<approaches big kids>

Excuse me?!?

<big kids stop what they’re doing and say “yes?” he ignores them, being distracted by a stick. I gently remind him that he asked for their attention…>

Will you play catch wit me?

At once, they say OK! And proceed to follow him to the other courtyard, where they circle around him and play catch with him for 5 whole minutes before he starts getting bossy and telling them who gets to catch and how to throw, etc.

L & neighborkids

He’s now stomping around the house, imitating Kungfupanda. He’s a cutie.

Fyi, he had a tantrum going into school today – but the great teachers quickly distracted him with some castle blocks and he jumped right in. He even told us when we picked him up that he’d had fun (on the way in, he informed me that “no one likes school… no one named L.”) I am suspecting that it was the absence of the perkier teacher (who was on vacation for 2 weeks but was there today). He really engaged with her. I think when he was telling us about “The Bad One” 2 weeks ago it wasn’t another kid but the nice/but quiet other teacher. Sigh. So now we need to find out if Ms. A is going to be teaching his class this fall! The good news is, he might be able to go 5 days/week (still just 3 hrs/day) if he likes it & the sked works out.

He’s still loving Pdx, he talks about “our new home” and is now Very Happy that his toys are here. The rotten news is that the Dino Bed won’t fit up the stairs, so we’ve put it on craigslist. Damn, I wanted to keep one familiar thing for him. Oh well!