L-man

When I was home with the kids earlier this week, I realized that my formerly-enjoyed midafternoon 'me time' is a thing of the past. Since about January, Liam has been skipping his afternoon nap on most days, but for a while there the novelty of being allowed to stay up was enough to make him happy and he would still disappear into his room for an hour or two of 'quiet time'. He never got into trouble during these unsupervised times. Number one, there's not a lot of dangerous stuff in his room, and number two, it's just not in his nature. Once he had a pair of scissors in there, and there was one day when I walked in to find a whole bunch of fluff trimmed off his stuffed animals... but even then, rather than taking hunks off of one or two animals, he had the sense to just take a few threads off of each one. Honestly, if I hadn't seen the hair on the floor I would never have known that any of these toys got a trim. And at least it wasn't his own hair!

Anyway, with Mallory down for her nap, Liam wanted to play with me this week, and how can you say no to a request like that? We had some fun together, me and the L-man. We baked a cake, we read some books, we watched some movies, and we played computer games (educational ones from a reputable site. I am trying to get him accustomed to using a mouse before he starts school... the whole hand-eye coordination thing takes some practise!) It was really a lot of fun, and reminded me of all the hours we used to spend in each other's company before his sister came along. These days it is often Liam and his dad versus me and Mallory. Somehow, the boys congregate together and the girls congregate together, and it doesn't often swing the other way.

In the fall, he will be off to school. I was just thinking about this the other day. There will be days when we are home from work - say, Mallory gets sick and I have to stay home with her, or when we are doing our summer hours with every other Friday off - and Liam will still be shipping off to school. The time I get to spend with Liam is about to take another cut. *sniff* So I will try to enjoy these afternoon playdates while they last, rather than lament the lost opportunity to get some chores done. It all goes by so, so quickly.

(PS - that's a DripStik he's holding his Fudgesicle in. They are genius! The end he has up has a slot to hold a popsicle stick, and if you flip the whole thing upside down there is an opening sized to hold an ice cream cone. They're dishwasher safe and soooo handy for keeping sticky drips off the floor in the summertime!!)