The Lion Sleeps Tonight

He went to the dentist’s office dressed like this. He insisted.

The kids re-discovered the dress up box last Sunday night. They kept coming up the stairs dressed as knights, princesses and super heroes. And yes, as a lion.

You may remember Luke is super into big cats right now. He roars constantly and it’s difficult for him to break character.

The other day he told me, “If only there were some way for us to get books about big cats!” (Had it really been that long since we went to the library? Had he never perused the kid’s non-fiction section before?) So off we went. We came home with 6 beautifully illustrated books on cheetahs, snow leopards and man eating tigers. It only fueled his obsession.

Now he can tell you which big cats can roar and which cannot. He can teach you all about retractable claws and how only the cheetah’s claws can’t retract because they act as running spikes when he sprints.

And when I clipped his fingernails, boy was he mad!

But this is the great thing about four year olds. They can pull off a bold look like this. He wore this fleecey lion suit for days straight (it’s in the washing machine right now.) He slept in it and everything. Shopping, dentist’s appointments, he was unabashed.

He was lion. Hear him roar! No, literally. He would roar. Loudly. Everywhere.

And with all that roaring and sprinting and scratching and meat eating, comes a tuckered out little cub around 7pm. That’s right, lions fall asleep all on their own around 7pm. I missed that little tidbit in the books, otherwise I would’ve brought out the lion suit earlier.

But now that it’s in the wash, he’s informed me that today he is a snow leopard. I don’t know a lot about snow leopards, but I hope they aren’t nocturnal.

Speaking of which, it’s time for Jane and I to take a little catnap together.

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