Disaster in motion.

Lewis is a walking disaster.  I swear.  Lately he is playing with showmanship so that means lots of grand, explosive entrances or the idea of showing off a trick.  Unfortunately, the trick has usually never been tried or even thunk up until the moment it is being done so it most often backfires either into a mess or a minor injury.  Just tonight he was eating his noodle soup and said, "Mama, look at this!" and while he tried to show me a big bite of noodles the entire mass, including lots of broth, slithered off his fork and on the floor.  Yesterday he was dancing around the baby room right up to the fan when I suddenly heard "prrrrrrup!" and he pulled his finger in with a sad face, quietly said, "Ow..." and left the room.  

Poor fellow.  He has so much loving energy he just can't contain it!  He will jump in front of a baby with a huge smile and shout, "Whaddaaaa!" and then poke the little girl's cheeks... which usually makes her cry.  I find myself constantly saying, "More gentle" or "More slowly" to Lewis in respect to babies.  His intentions are to throw all of his wonderful, joyful Three-Year-Old energy at that baby to get a joyful reaction, but a lot of the time it just doesn't work.

And he is filthy.  All the time.  Many times I have dressed him and sent him out to the backyard clean and had him return, literally moments later, muddied on arms legs and face.  He just puts his whole self into everything so there are a lot of casualities - clothes, household items, food and baby smiles...  I still want to bottle him, though.  This is a magical age and his innocence and lack of self-consciousness is slowly beginning to slip away.  If only we could all drink the purity that is a two- or three-year-old's approach to life each day.  We would be better for it.