My sister and I are sitting in her kitchen casually chatting and sharing pictures. I have but 3 days left to spend with my family before I head back to the U.S and I’m trying to savor each second.
All of the sudden, my sister looks up smiling and utters, “It’s starting.” I follow her gaze towards the hallway and hear little footsteps carefully coming our way. Out of the corner of the hallway, appears the grinning face of my two-year-old nephew Alexi. Don’t let his age or the cute dimples on his face fool you, he’s a masterful escape artist and has been practicing the ritual of evading going to sleep on a nightly basis.
The first time he makes his entrance into the kitchen, he wears the mask of pure innocence as he shyly asks his mom for food, “momma, um um.” This cover doesn’t work seeing as we just had dinner an hour ago. Defeated, Lexi gets escorted back to his bedroom.
Several minutes later we turn our heads, and here comes Lexi pressing his body flat against the wall, taking tiny steps, hands spread out as if he’s trying to blend in with the wallpaper. Busted! “Lexi, we can see you, go to bed!” This time I go put him to bed and stay with him until his eyes close. I return with a triumphed look on my face, Lexi is asleep. Exactly 2 minutes pass and here comes Lexi in his pirate hat and a sword in hand. (He’s going through a serious pirate infatuation stage right now) I can’t hold it in anymore. I start laughing to the point where tears begin streaming down my face. My sister joins in as well. Lexi looks pleased with himself. The grownups are finally distracted and will let me stay, I just need to make them laugh a little long, is what he’s probably thinking because he joined in on the laughter.
Exhibit B
This kind of thing goes on practically every night of the week. It is now 12 am and we are still trying to get him to sleep. Some nights he gets really creative and brings an entire cartload of his toys out of the bedroom and spreads them out on the floor. Other nights he snuggles up to my sister who’s trying to do something on the computer in hopes that if he’s sweet enough she will not send him back to bed. I’m pretty sure that he has tried everything from asking to go to the bathroom, demanding food, dragging his mom to go play, to crying and throwing fits, running away and hiding under the table and even crawling in the fridge to pull out his baby food.
I have to give it to him, at the age of 2, Lexi has quite the collection of tricks up his sleeve. I can honestly say that I don’t think I was that creative in the art of trickery at his age. I can’t even get mad at him for not listening when we tell him to go to bed, because the excuses he comes up with every time are brilliant and the execution is impeccable!
