It's Good to be King

Today, L is four. I let him be King for a Day, which to this four year old means not having to wear shoes to the store, eating too many donuts for breakfast, and having a Wonder Pets marathon.

{Also, crawling all over the sofa. When I asked him to sit down nicely, he replied, "It's my bird-day, I do whatever I want. Right ?"}

We call L our Negotiator. If I ask him to put on his pants, he says, "My shirt first." If I tell him he can have a cookie, he quickly retorts, "I eat two cookies." He's relentless and firm, too often getting what he wants simply because he wears us down. He would make a great lawyer someday.

He's also remarkably good with numbers. He counts and recognizes numbers up to 100, and can do simple arithmetic.

He's a chatterbox. He talks ALL. THE. TIME. Last summer when he got sick and slept for three days straight, it was so eerily quiet that my mom said it reminded her of Tiny Tim's crutch in the corner-- too much a taste of what life would be like without L's constant dialogue.

He's a night owl, like his Daddy. We can often hear him singing in his bed long after the other kids have gone to sleep. It isn't unusual to find him crashed out on the floor after quietly {or not so quietly} playing with toys late into the night.

He's our Pokey Little Puppy. He takes for. ev.er. to get anything done. If he goes upstairs to fetch his coat, he invariably will get distracted by a piece of fuzz on the carpet or a toy car in the bathroom and wander off into his own little world.

He is ALWAYS hungry, eating three times as much as his older brother E and just as much as his Daddy or I. He never says no to a snack. A few months ago, he found the stash of ring pops I was going to put in the kids stockings for Christmas. He locked himself in the laundry room with the baby and ate them all. We found him sticky, blue-mouthed and surrounded by wrappers.

He's still my little, cuddly boy. He's quick to give a hug, flash his million-watt smile and say, "I lub you, Mommy."

Happy birthday, L. I lub you, too.