ring leader

(david is showing me how to use my new camera phone)

pace is quite the ring leader.  he knows how to round up the masses and get them motivated.  he's so energetic, excited about what he wants to play, and is fun to follow.  (let's keep this harnessed for good things!)  

we went down to riverwoods last night to play in the splash pad and ride the carousel.  it got sort of windy and cloudy while we were there, and pace was sure a tornado was blowing in.  he got out his tornado telescope, then started rounding up the kids to play emergency tornado.  he was a little disappointed when his first 2-3 calls didn't produce the desired effect.  he came back to us saying, "but mommy, the kids aren't listening!"  i told him to keep trying.  sure enough, within 10 minutes, he had all the kids running around, pointing at the sky, shouting "tornado!"  he then grabbed two lucky kids as his crew and ran them around to check on everyone.   

two more examples:  

pace wanted to play emergency at a playground.  i don't know how he does what he does...one minute he's running around shouting, and the next all the kids are doing what he's doing, shouting "emergency!"  and making fire engine noises.  he showed everyone how to make rescues, how to fight bad guys, and how to call the emergency vehicles.

another time he wanted to play ghost in the treehouse at the mall.  there are a set of stairs inside the tree, and pace knew that was the best place for ghosty noises.  so he rounded everyone up.  after not seeing him for a little while, i tracked him down by following the spooky "woooo-ooooo" ghost noises to the little space under the stairs inside the tree.  he was in the middle of about 6-7 kids squished under there with him, grinning from ear to ear.