And The Award Goes To...

Elijah James Popotte, for best toddler in a faking an injury! Yup, you read correctly Elijah officially faked his first injury & here is the story. It was Wed July 16th & Cookie would be working late which always makes for a LONG LONG day for mom and the boys but as with anything I make the best of it. The day had been perfect almost too good to be true if I think back, the boys napped on schedule and at the same time, the house was clean, I had showered & been able to talk on the phone, and Elijah and I had even gotten some outside time while Samuel took an extra snooze. Then the witching hour hit six o'clock, I swear something goes off in Elijah's head and he turns crazy. He starts running around, yelling, chanting crazy things like I want ice cream and yelling all the shows he watches as if I might just like what he is saying and pick one and turn it on, and then all of the sudden he jumps from one place to another and falls to the ground screaming in pain. I of course was nursing Samuel so I encouraged Elijah to come to me & amazingly he listened and he did come to me SCREAMING and CRYING "my arm, my arm HURT" & he will not let me touch it & nor will he move it at all. At this point I do what any good mother would do and I put him up on the sofa and turn on a show ( I guess his chanting did work) and put some frozen peaches on it (we were all out of ice). An hour has passed at this point and I have willingly given him dinner on the sofa because his arm hurts, let him stay up past his bedtime, and let him watch too many shows but finally he is engrossed and tired enough I move in to assess. I touched his arm nothing no reaction, again I touch a different spot nothing no reaction, I move it & he does not even seemed phased & finally I straighten it out & he does nothing. This 2 1/2yr old has pulled a fast on one me & I don't really know if I am mad or impressed at his skills to do so. So off to the bath and bed where he still is milking "said" injury.

Finally some time after ten my hard working husband rushes in the house from a very long day at work and I inform him Elijah is fine and that he is faking. Of course he thinks I am crazy, Elijah would never do such a thing! Fast forward to this morning (Thursday) Cookie goes in to get Elijah and of course as the clever toddler he is he tells his father, "Daddy my arm hurt" followed by a gibberish story of nothing. Cookie and Elijah then climb into bed with Samuel and I, Elijah still milking the injured arm. Cookie has decided he needs to see the dr, ok well in an hour when they open I will call them.....well within the next 10 minutes Elijah proceeded to go into a full handstand on the bed and began his day as he always does running around our room and chasing poor Pugsley, I guess he forgot about his hurt arm because he never mentioned it again!