The Wild: The Le Le

When Oliver was born my mom knew what she did not want Oliver to call her, but she was unsure of what she would like to be called. My dad, on the other hand, had sent us an email several months before Oliver's arrival stating that he would like to be called Papa.

It quickly became apparent to us (Davis, Oliver, Papa, me...) that a lack of a name was a bit of a problem. We soon started to say things like "Papa and the lady who lives with him are coming to visit." Or, "We are going to visit Lily and Maddy (my parent's dogs) and Papa and the lady who lives at the house." After a bit of time we took to calling my mom "The Lady." "The Lady" was not a big fan of her chosen name but was still at a loss as to what she wanted to be called, so we, despite her objections, declared her "The Lady." Not long after my sister sent along a several You Tube clips from "Little Britain." (I'd post them here, but I know "The Lady" would not be thrilled - I'll say this much, there is a man, dressed as a woman, who keeps declaring himself "A Lady!!") Soon after "The Lady" had viewed the clips we received a call stating that the chosen name was "Noni." Well, by this point we'd all gotten pretty used to "The Lady" and Oliver was even making an attempt at saying "The Lady" (he was almost a year old by this point). We did make a go at honoring my mom's wishes (there are even a few posts where she is referred to as "Noni"), but Noni never took off.

As we were all struggling with adopting "Noni," Oliver's vocabulary was growing and soon Oliver was calling his grandmother "Le Le." It stuck.

The Le Le is one of Oliver's favorite people. She cooks him five (or more) course meals even though he generally eats one bite, she happily plays with him in the wee hours of the morning (when Davis and I are usually cursing playtime), and she loves to get him dirty.

The Le Le has saved us on a number of occasions when Davis and I've had to work and Jess has been out of town (mind you she has to take off work so we can work). About a month ago Le Le came down and spent a couple days with us. Oliver LOVED having two days with Le Le. He especially loved their field trip to Boston. Le Le and Oliver met Elizabeth in Boston and the three of them went to lunch, walked around the city, visited the ducks and went to the mall.

Rumor has it he was a model child at lunch (how come children are always model children for people other than their parents? I too would love a nice lunch out with Oliver - however, when we go out to lunch it usually involves some form of speed eating interspersed with sprints, and phrases such as the one Davis uttered today "We don't use a hammer on our milk."); perhaps it was because they took him to his favorite - Japanese. The little monster ate a bowl of miso soup and several rolls of sushi (apparently he loved the spicy tuna). he's getting increasingly better with the chopsticks, and loves to use them.