Leif spent slept over for a few days last week; very festive indeed! He got to use his inflatable Batman “ready-bed” for the first time, so THAT was an occasion in and of itself. Other important activities included:
Catching up on World events and dogs wearing hats.

Perusing the Morning Paper

This was something of a surprise to my Mother and I, as Janet and Erik don’t take a daily paper, as far as we know, and perhaps more importantly, Leif cannot yet read. Nevertheless, while we were watching Robots, Leif excused himself and said he “needed to get something.” He came back in with the paper, sat down, opened it up and scanned it like an expert. After a while he offered sections to my Mom and myself, and also pointed out features he found especially interesting:
After showing us this picture he proceeded to 'read' the obituaries.

When You are Four and a Half, Upside-Down Works, too

When he was finished reading his morning paper, Leif watched some more of the movie, and abruptly declared at one point that “Aunt Fanny,” voiced by Jennifer Coolidge, “has a BIG booty.” This is, indeed, true, but we didn’t think it was vernacular with which Leif was familiar. And perhaps he is not entirely clear on the concept, because from his further explanation it seems he was might have been mixing up “boo boo” with “booty” – the character is always running into things with her super-size posterior. Who knows.

After playing with MY train, it was colouring and drawing time. There was a little fiasco involving my search for some of my drawing implements in one of the downstairs storage rooms and the hurling of a box (I was putting it AWAY) that knocked out a light bulb and I was barefoot and Leif had to rescue me by bringing me shoes so I could traverse what I thought would be an area strewn with glass shards – and what do you know – the bulb came out of its metal threading IN ONE WHOLE PIECE, but still sans the potato…

Anyhoo, this is when I got it straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth as to which crayon is, indeed, Nincompoop Green. I showed Leif the two main contenders, Asparagus and Olive Green:
This is Asparagus. AND This is Olive Green.

Without hesitation he chose the Olive Green crayon. Then (as I AM a scientist), I coloured two items next to each other, one with Asparagus and one with Olive Green. So there you have it, Nincompoop Green = Olive Green.

Then is was time for check-ups by Dr. Leif. He is very serious about this activity, following, the “check-up” check-list item by item and making a careful check-mark (in green – NOT Nincompoop Green, but green nonetheless) beside each item. Here he is making a very careful assessment of my Mother’s blood pressure:
The sad thing is the drape from this children's doctor kit is nicer and LARGER than the ones they give you at the REAL doctor.

“It’s good,” he said.

It's VERY serious work.

Take a look at the prescription and you’ll see he already has “Doctor Writing.”

I love that the stethoscope hits him almost at the ankle.

Eat your heart out Doogie!

Throughout his visit Dr. Leif gave a check-up to anyone who would hold relatively still long enough. I was not present, but rumour has it that Shirleen was a VERY uncooperative patient (medical residents actually take classes on such “Difficult Patients”). In exasperation, part way through her examination, Dr. Leif informed her, “You are SICK.” Even my Father, who evidently had no audible heart “beep” (couldn’t bear to “correct” that one – it’s too cute), was not “sick.” Very interesting.