These Things Are Too Grumpy

Way past just the risk of everyone thinking we are overly amused by Leo's way with words, I still have to say how much I loved (and how accurate it felt for a kid over his head in weeds) the untainted description: grumpy.

Also, the Batman shirt was on for maybe 4 days in a row. Not all the time for all 4 days. But certainly part of the time all 4 days. Picking battles.

Further Fun With Words

This morning, first thing:

ME: Hey! You woke up! (Give or take an exclamation point. It was early, ok?)

LEO: Daddy, my hand...

ME: Yeah?

LEO: My hand is spicy.

(His hand had fallen asleep and was buzzing/fizzing or, more accurately, spicy.)

Instinctive Word Invention

(We interrupt this cliffhanger for a brief commercial break. I'm sure Holly will finish the story sometime sort of soon.Hey, don't kill the messenger.)

LEO: Daddy...

ME: Yeah?

LEO: My....my....(thinks about it for a pretty long time)...my knee pit is itchy.

Knee pit. That's way better than calling it "the back of my knee" like I've always done.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Leo!

Our little Leo just turned "fthfree". That chubby little guy that didn't bother crawling until 11 months.

Didn't bother walking until 14 months.

And is now running away from us as fast as his little legs will take him. Literally. He thinks it's pretty darn funny to run down the entire length of our street 5 or 6 times a day laughing and yelling, "mommy! mommy! catch me!" Hilarious.

And of course, he's usually wearing a cape.

Which is why we decided to embrace Leo's inner-Super and throw him a Superhero party.

If you know me well, you know that I get really great ideas the night before some big event, and I'm up until all hours of the night (let's be honest - morning) carrying out my spontaneous- albeit genius- plans. With Leo's party, I actually started an entire week before the big day. Unfortunately, with all that extra time I had, my plans got more and more involved each day. But man, was it worth it.

To see this:

And this:

And this:

We invited all of Leo's cousins that live in Salt Lake, and since there are only six, I decided to make capes for them and Paul made the masks.

We wanted to make sure Leo felt extra special, so Paul designed a Super Leo logo and I made him a birthday t-shirt. We were really pleased with the way it turned out, and more importantly, so was Leo.

I had a pretty good idea to set up a photo booth for the kids to show off their capes, and then Paul had the genius idea to turn my boring photo booth into the next-best-thing to Dave Eggers' flying booth at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store (for those of you who aren't familiar, you should really check it out next time you're in NYC. It'll be well worth your while).

Here are some scenes of the Little Supers making their flying debut:

After flying lessons, we headed upstairs to refuel on some sugar and snacks.

How else do you think Supers maintain such a high energy level??

Thanks to more-than-generous cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, Leo made out like a bandit with gifts. Unfortunately, once he got Thor from his grandma, he didn't really seem to notice any of the other gifts.

Correction: Anything else at all.

It was a great day. Leo was happy and so were we. Even Penny found a new favorite thing.

It's so much fun to celebrate our little ones in a big way. On the hard days, I have to remind myself that they won't be little forever, and I'll most likely miss it like crazy.

I'd be crazy not to.

Happy birthday, Leo. We love you, our funny little dude.

*Thanks to Grandpa Ted for taking all the birthday photos!

happy birthday to the zinho

(this photo courtesy of Rachel Romney Preslar, taken at last month's Firestorm Bike Ride up Emigration Canyon)

3 years old. What a fun kid, getting smarter every day, so interested in everything, so fun to be around. What a blessing Leo has been to us, every single day since we knew we were gonna have him. The best.

Holly put together some really wild superhero stuff for our cake/ice cream party with the family tonight, but I will let her post that. (This is Paul, by the way.)

Some photos, not of the festivities, though you can see the superhero shirt we created in one of them. The last is my favorite.

More Fall

We took a little walk/hike around East Canyon one late afternoon/early evening (you can see the light leaving us). Leo was snacking on some apple slices, if you're wondering what he's holding.

John & Blakely stopped by. One of them is in Leo's Top 3. We'll let them fight over which one.

Leo stopped moving just long enough to give his little sister a smooch.

Leo prepared to fit into the uber-precious indie rock scene. That or he was making fun of Sufjan Stevens. Not sure which.

And Leo took about a bazillion self portraits, preparing himself for a really well-curated Facebook page photo section.

Duh Nuh!

We have more photos of our little Batman. And Holly (braintrust and creative force behind the costume) should get to tell you all about it. But it seemed like there should be one photo just to complete the thought of the Superman post.

The Toddler of Steel

FOREVER AGO

Me: Leo, what do you want to be for Halloween?

Leo: Batman.

Me: (silence, sideways glance)

Leo: (not joking)

Me: (dubious glare)

Leo: (still not joking)

Me: You mean Superman. Right, bubs?

Leo: Batman.

Me: (silence)

LESS FOREVERY AGO

Me: Leo, what do you want to be for Halloween? SUPERMAN??! He flies! He runs way fast! He has a red cape!

Leo: Superman

Me: YES!

Leo: I mean Batman.

Me: Superman

Leo: No, Batman.

Me: Bu..

Leo: BATMAN.

It's no secret that I love a good tradition. If I were a song in "Fiddler On The Roof", I would be "Tradition!" If I were a value, I would be a traditional value. If I were part of a secret covert ops group, my specialty would be exTRADITION. You get the idea.

When I was Leo's age, I wore a Halloween costume my mom made. This bright royal blue turtleneck with little ribs that are like the carbon dating of clothes from the 70s, more accurate than tree rings and sedimentary rock layers. A big red and yellow felt S sewed to the chest. A pair of tiny red shorts with a thick yellow waistband playing the role of "belt." And of course a red cape that has surely flown its share of skies. I worshipped that costume, as kids tend to do, overwearing them to the point of stink, shred, or all of the above.

Somehow, this particular costume made it through all of my brothers and started getting worn by my nieces and nephews. So, this year being the only year it could possibly fit my little bowling ball of a kid, I was hellbent, bending hell, helling bends. Leo was gonna be Superman. He was gonna be part of the Jacobsen Family Ribbed Turtleneck Homemade Superman chain. It would be momentous. It would be historic. It would be dripping with family tradition. It would bring a tear to your nostalgic eyes, all that tender-loving handstitching from the 70s holding together generations, this hero from a long-gone more innocent America. It was gonna be perfect.

Except for one tiny little thing.

"Batman, daddy."

Leo would even sing the song from the old show (duh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh nuh, duh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh....BATMAN!!!) which has to be at least in the running for the most adorable way to rip your father's heart from his chest.

Reverse psychology failing, negotiations proving useless and the purchase of a Superman action figure failing, I desperately opted to see what would happen if I went with the flow. You know, run with his Batman obsession, see if maybe I could help accelerate the Caped Crusader phase towards its end and maybe have him land back on Superman. It was a long shot. But I had to try.

(This might be a good time to note: this is not a Batman vs. Superman rant. Years ago, I was known to be resolutely on the Superman side, but Christopher Nolan and years of therapy have helped me come down on the side of Batman a little more. But, no, this is not about that. This? This is about Tradition vs. Costume Of The Week. Of course, there must be some of you who are decrying the way I'm bullying my child into the costume I want him to wear. To which I say, Yeah, Sort Of. There will never be another year that I will care what Leo is for Halloween. Just this one. And, in the future, he will be more apt to remember that his dad WOULDN'T let him be what he wanted to be. Trust me. It's just this year. It's history. It's family. It's tradition. Lay off, geeeez.)

But my efforts were in vain. Somewhere, the kid got a mind of his own. By the end, I had dejectedly settled on being content with just getting a photo of the kid in the costume. I was not happy about it, but - if that was the only way to be a link in the Jacobsen Family Ribbed Turtleneck Homemade Superman chain- it would have to do.

Holly, a more attuned-to-what-the-kid-actually-wants-in-the-real-world parent, was making an amazing Batman costume– homemade felt logos, a cape with the (scalloped) bottom edge, a yellow Bat utility belt, the works. (Fret not. Photos to come.)

Then, 15 minutes before Thursday's trunk-or-treat at the church, Leo suddenly flip-flopped, "Superman." Holly, having slaved over this new Batman cape/mask combo, was understandably a little perturbed. "No. Batman," she said to him in a way that should've been very familiar to him, the Michael Jordan of those two accursed words. "SUPERMAN," he fires back, "I don't like the new cape." He was wrong about the cape, but I was secretly stoked that Superman was finally back on the table. OK. Not so secretly.

We had no blue tights or even thermals. No shiny red boots. So I dug up some blue (navy, not royal) sweats, stuck 'em on under the red/yellow shorts, threw on his red/yellow Crocs* and off we went. Me, Superman, and Bat Baby.

He raised his arms victoriously towards the sky as if to fly away, mirroring my precise sentiments. "It's a bird! It's a airplane!" he chanted ecstatically. Which has to at least be in the running for the most adorable way to simultaneously melt your father's heart back into his chest and use shoddy toddler grammar.

Who was happier? Me or Leo? Hard to quantify. But look at these photos. And just know that I was EASILY as happy as him, even if my face doesn't sell it quite like his does.

I took him over to see my mom, maker of the suit. Just so that the circle of tradition could fully complete itself, like Rene Zellwegger completing Tom Cruise in that one movie. But minus the weird perpetual half-squinting face. It was historic. It was dripping with family tradition. It brought a tear to these nostalgic eyes, all that tender-loving handstitching from the 70s holding together generations. It was perfect.

Tradition, folks. Tradition.

THE NEXT DAY

Me: Leo, you were an amazing Superman! What do you wanna be for Halloween?

Leo: Batman.

Me: But you were such a great Superman, man!

Leo: Batman, daddy. Batman.

Me: (accepting moral victory) Yes, Leo. Batman.

* Yes, my kid wears Crocs. Well, fake Crocs. But still. Go bother somebody else with your toddler couture.

Oh yeah, this is Paul signed in as Holly. Again.