His Favorite

I've neglected to post about LB's other big obsession these days. Airplanes. He has always loved spotting airplanes in the sky and talking about how they go "up up up and down down down." When the plane is taxing down the runway he says it is "running fast." But lately this like for airplanes has grown into a love for airplanes. My mom got him a little airplane and so did my dad's stepsister. He carries those two planes almost everywhere. One for each hand. If we leave the house and forget his airplanes then it is not a pretty scene. He likes to have them just in case we see an airplane so that he can hold his little one up and say "two airplanes!" It's pretty darn cute. If we see anyone while we are out and he has his airplanes he will tell them "airplanes me's favorite." If you know him or you're a complete stranger, he will let you know that they're "me's favorite." We were at the park a few weeks ago and LB was making sure everyone around us knew about the airplane up in the sky. There happened to be a man walking by and he told me that I should take LB to the Ohio State airport. He said there was a restaurant, an observation tower and that you could pull right up to the runway and watch planes take off and land. I knew we had to do it. So the following Saturday we met friends there for breakfast and plane watching and LB was in heaven! Thank goodness for that stranger at the park. (Not a sentence I thought I would ever say.) We spent two and a half hours there that morning. A young man working there noticed LB and his buddy at the fence and would wave every time he drove by, which they loved. At one point he came over to the fence and let LB and his friend hold those orange sticks they use to guide the planes to the gate. He then took us into one of the hangars where they store a lot of planes and LB got to touch them and look inside at the cockpit. So amazing! When we had to leave the hangar, LB insisted on kissing one of the airplanes goodbye. So sweet. I think the guy who was working there saw himself in LB and really wanted to make it special.

I love that he is clinging to his airplane in this photo. It seems like such a quintessential boy moment. The only bummer of the morning is that he DID NOT want to leave. He basically sobbed the whole way home and kept saying, "one more time airplane" through his heaving sobs. It was heartbreaking. He finally stopped crying when we were about 5 minutes from home and exclaimed, "So fun. Airplanes me's favorite." Totally worth it.

I was telling my friend about this and that I wished he hadn't sobbed the whole way home because it made me nervous about taking him back. She then taught me one of the greatest parenting lines ever. I will now pass it along to you. "If you leave happy then we can come back." You are welcome. I have used this line on several occasions over the past few weeks and it works like a charm. We were leaving a park with a huge, awesome sandbox and LB didn't want to go home. He started to get whiny and I told him, "If we leave happy then we can come back again to play in the sand." He repeated back to me, "Leave happy. Come back." I affirmed that he was right and he stopped with the whining. It's like magic! 

This morning I thought it was the perfect day to go back to the OSU airport. The weather was in the 70s and it was sunny so I figured it would be ideal conditions for lots of airplane action. I told him we could go to the airport but he had to promise to leave happy. He got super excited because he has been begging to go back. Thankfully, I was right about the conditions and it was a steady stream of take offs and landings all morning. The second time around did not disappoint. And then it was time to go and I told him again that we needed to leave happy so we could come back. What did he do? He said, "Bye bye airplanes. See you later. Have a good sleep." And we left without a tear. Success.