The Boy was in Rare Form

When the Lotion Bandit struck again by 8:15am yesterday morning, I should have known it was going to be an interesting day.

While I was preparing breakfast, Isaac sauntered into the kitchen with a guilty expression on his face. He then looked down at his hands, attempting to feign complete shock in way only a two year old can, saying "Uh-Oh, look at my hands." Apparently he had discovered my face moisturizer and decided that his hands were on the dry side.

As I cleaned them off I was going on and on about how he is not allowed to play with lotion, blah, blah, blah.

He looked up at me during this diatribe and said, "But I lovs lotion."

***

A new battle we are experiencing at the table is everyone (Isaac and Evelyn) wanting to blow raspberries while eating. This is a normal developmental stage for Evelyn, however we discourage the spitting while she is eating to promote appropriate table manners later on (we had the same issue with Isaac as a baby). Isaac has quickly picked up on the blowing raspberries and is joining his sister in the spitting fun. He is only encouraged to blow harder and louder by Evelyn's infectious giggles over the act.

This leaves me as the bad guy, enforcing the "No Raspberry" rule at the table. Yesterday morning another Raspberry session was in full-swing when I proclaimed that if Isaac spat one more time, he was off to the time-out carpet. Of course he did spit one more time. As I got up to remove him from the booster seat and send him to Time Out, he quickly stuffed an entire piece of toast into his mouth as to not be hungry while enduring the torture of sitting on a small square of carpet in our hall.

**

Another area where Isaac has decided to mimic Evelyn's behavior is in removing shoes in the car. Evelyn has always been able to get her socks off her little feet and usually does so whenever given the opportunity (We believe she will be our "barefoot" child). Despite his sisters sockless feet, Isaac has been instructed to leave his shoes on while riding in the car.

Yesterday as we were returning from Barnes and Noble storytime, I noticed Isaac had removed a shoe. I then had to once again enter lecture-mode, telling him to put the shoe back on his foot and do not remove the other one or the Time-Out Carpet will once again be revisited. As we pulled into our driveway it was apparent that both shoes were off and Mr. Time-Out carpet was going to get a lot of use that day.

I removed Isaac from his carseat, instructing him to go inside and put up his shoes and coat. I told him he would have to sit on his time-out carpet as soon as I got inside with the diaper bag and Baby Evelyn. By the time I got through the door, Isaac had already put his belongings away, hauled out the carpet, and was sitting on it with the saddest pout ever on his face. I had to quickly retreat to the kitchen with Baby Evelyn to keep from laughing.

**

And so our day continued, with Isaac taking the world's shortest nap and then running around like a madman until we were finally blessed with the task of tucking him into bed for the evening. Everything he said was at an extremely loud volume and everything he did was accomplished at an enormous rate of speed. He squealed with absolute joy whenever Baby Evelyn was near in pitches only dogs can hear. He climbed, jumped, ran, and crawled all over everything. While I was bathing the two last night, I looked down to see him rapidly drinking cupfuls of bathwater.

I hope he slept peacefully last night and wakes up refreshed and calm for a productive day today. Otherwise I might take him to run laps at our local track until his little body is worn out.