I Need to Rent an Eight Year Old

Anyone got one? This weekend we had a visit from Bryan's Dad and Bryan's little sister, Lempi. Gabriel has never been happier. He had the best time. Not only did Lempi play with him every single available hour but she played according to his rules. He decided what they would play and how they would play it and she did as he instructed her. If she stopped running (his favorite game), he pulled her off the ottoman and she ran again. If she stopped building with the cardboard blocks, he pulled her hand out and handed her another block and she built again. If she stopped racing the cars, he pulled her hand out and handed her a car and motioned to the wheels and she raced again.

What a good sport she was. There was no whining, no complaining-by anyone. Oh, yeah, and he ate with her at the table. He demanded to sit on her lap and she held him up as long as she could. He is a skinny minnie but 25 pounds for a skinny eight year old is a lot. She only said a little "ick" when he wiped cheese sauce on her arm. She lifted him up on the bed when he demanded "up" (not my favorite since Gabriel falls off the bed, but he still thought it was great). Alas, she declined to dance with him when the Bee Gee's were on...maybe next time...always the dancing fool, he does not need a partner and he danced on without her. He hugged and kissed her and he will be very angry when he wakes up tomorrow without Lempi to play with.

He enjoyed her so much that I agreed that all of us would pile into the van to see them off at the Philadelphia train station. He loved it. (he was still napping when I started this post this afternoon, the poor guy had such an exciting weekend he just couldn't handle it)

Did I mention the best part was that he was really really tired?

Hmmm....Shame that eight year olds have to go to school during the day. Maybe if I rent one I can prevent the child from attending school to entertain Gabriel all day. I'll have to let you know if I can work that one out.
Building blocks. He decided to move the foundation to the floor so he could build it higher (and then knock it over)
I just thought this one was another good one of swimming.