So, we’re at church last night, and the kids are upstairs with Grandma in Child Care where Orville is practicing his magic tricks for his up and coming birthday party. Meanwhile, Juss is trying to get me to pay attention to him instead of watching Orville and he’s doing this with Kiss Attack. (Sometimes, it’s just kissing. Sometimes, he’s the Pokemon Smoochum, and it is actually Kiss Attack.)
 
Well, if you’ve never been smothered with kissed by a boy whose trying to distract you, let me tell you, it’s annoying because you hate to discourage them from being affectionate – it seems like rejecting them – and yet the behavior is clearly out of place.

Finally, I feel that the time has come to put my foot down and explain to him what he is doing wrong. (He does this a lot.)
 
Mommy: “Juss, a little kissing is good. A lot of kissing is just a way of trying to get attention.”
 
Juss, standing on a chair and spreading out his arms, while smiling with glee, “I want attention!”
 
Mommy, after shaking her head and giving him a hug, says gently: “But it’s not right to seek attention for ourselves. We need to pay attention to others.”
 
Juss, with equal charm and glee, “I want you to pay attention to me!”

                                             ***

This morning, Orville’s birthday, the boys were playing with some little plastic mythical animals that Orville got from his paternal grandmother. John reported that they picked them up and repeated their names over and over again, as if they were Pokemon: “Griffin, Griffin!”  “Unicorn, Unicorn!”  “Naga, Naga.”