Lisa

Sam (now age 3) met Lisa (20-something), when he was roughly 18 months old.

Lisa: vibrant, energetic, sweet, and most of all, outrageously wonderful with children.
Sam: outgoing, flirtatious, funny, engaging.


You would think this was a match made in heaven. You would be wrong. Sam went out of his way not to encounter Lisa at all, going so far as to make a gesture I’d seen before or since. He put his hand to his face, palm out, as if to shade himself from Lisa. As his mom, this was terribly embarrassing, not to mention I felt really bad for Lisa. All she hoped to do was to be his friend. This behavior went on and I wrote it off to the notion that he can’t love everyone, still secretly disappointed that it was Lisa he sent to the outer circle. Given the choice, I would have steered him away from a few other people!

Fast forward 18 months, give or take, and Sam is like the dog in the Beggin’ Strips commercial, who associates everything with bacon. You can mention people, things, events that he connected with Lisa and he’s a single-minded boy. You mention, “Mikey”, he says gleefully, “LISA”. You refer to Mary, he sings, “LISA”. You say, “party”, he shouts, “LISA”. You get the idea. Last night we were going out and Mary was babysitting. Occasionally, she’ll bring Lisa with her. I explained to Sam that he had to have a good nap or I’d tell Mary that there was no movie. He grabbed his blankets, launched onto the pillow and went on a diatribe about where Lisa would sit when they watched the Thomas movie and what would happen in the movie and what Lisa would think.

I had to fake-call Lisa, because half-way to my mom’s house to go for ice creamone night, after he said firmly, “Lisa can come with us and she will get an ice cream come and sit next to me.” How am I supposed to respond to this?! As I said, I fake called, complete with pauses, like I was on tv and then “hung up” and explained that Lisa had to go to work. This is, according to Sam, the only acceptable excuse for not complying with a request.

I am just happy to report that Sam understands that Lisa and Mikey "go together". So that when they get married - VERY SOON :-), he shouldn’t be crushed that he’s not (at least in the eyes of God and the law), her first choice.