I Like He

Guitar Hero

Lego Carousel

“Don’t go in there,” Sam said. “It’s messy.”

He was standing in the hallway in front of my bedroom in his alligator pajama top and his penguin pajama bottom. I had put him down for a nap in his own room half an hour before, and I had just awoken from 20 minutes of sleep on the couch, Eva snoozing on my chest.

I looked in my bedroom and it looked exactly as it had when I left it an hour ago.

“Not there,” he said. “There.”

He pointed to the sliding walk-in closet door, and I pushed it open.

What I found were dozens of important papers strewn about, the cardboard box that used to contain a small portable sewing machine torn to pieces, clothes throw all over the place (not all his fault), hundreds of little pieces of shredded Styrofoam, and the plastic parts and bobbins and other pieces that somehow fit together to work the sewing machine that I bought years ago and have never used.

I have to say this was perhaps the first time since I have become a parent that I was completely speechless. I had spent nearly an hour and a half patiently putting him back in to his bed when he fought his nap earlier in the day, telling him over and over again that if he didn’t lay down and nap we were not going to go to my friend’s house, my friend with the Legos.

“I guess we’ll have to stay home,” I had told him, knowing that I didn’t dare bring him to Dave and Stacy’s if he didn’t nap. That had finally worked and he had settled down to nap.

Or so I had thought.

As I stood there looking at the mess, I really didn’t know what to say. I took a deep breath.

“Sammy,” I said as I looked at him, my voice conveying my disappointment.

“It’s messy,” he said.

“That was naughty,” I said. And I calmly sent him to his room… where he stayed while I cleaned it all up cursing under my sleep-deprived breath.

Sam's Christmas Present

Considering that’s how the afternoon started, and considering Sam didn’t actually nap, it’s a wonder that our evening at The Lego Lair turned out to be so successful. I don’t know if Dave and Stacy enjoyed having us there, but Mommy enjoyed a break from the monotonous battle-with-a-three-year-old weekend, and Sammy found a new BFF. Legos. Trains. Nerf Guns. Guitar Hero. Fraggle Rock. Sponge Bob. What more could any 3-year-old ask for? My favorite moment was watching Sam sit behind Dave with his hands up over Dave’s shoulders as they watched Sponge Bob on the flat screen. I had a hard time getting Sam to leave. (I’m having a hard time getting Sam to do anything these days.)

Nerf Gun Heaven

In the end it was Dave that convinced Sam to get his coat and boots on so he could help take Ali (their dog) outside.

Sam's New BFF

“I like he,” Sam said after I had him buckled into his car seat and we were pulling out of the driveway. “Can we go there again?”

Oh Dave, if only you knew what you have done.

How Sam spent his Sunday morning, post visit