A boy and his Oats

The keyword being his. Kaiden has decided that he should be able to feed himself his breakfast. He gets so excited when I hand him the spoon, then does everything in his power (and arm reach) to keep the spoon from getting back into my hand. If handing him the spoon with food already in it is exciting, handing him the bowl to dip the spoon in himself actually gets a squeal of sheer delight! Yes, baths have become more frequent in the Dean household...not to mention floor sweeping and mopping.

Back off buddy...this one's MINE!

If only I had been holding a camera, but I wasn't, so picture this:
A bbq with friends last night. I look behind my shoulder to see Kaiden crying madly at 2 yr. old Josey as he holds his hands out following her around and trying to steal the cheeto from her left hand. Josey, a very unhappy look on her face, keeps it out of reach and behind herself. With her other hand, and pointed threateningly at Kaiden, she holds an empty water gun, finger on the trigger.

These are a few...

of my favorite things:

11. My little boom box. I carry it around everywhere I go and as soon as the music stops, I slap the front until I hit the correct button and it starts up again. Please don’t teach me which button is the correct one to press…slapping stuff is much more fun.

10. Attention. Especially when mama takes me shopping. She lets me stand in the cart and I bop up and down and sing at the top of my lungs—staring at people while I do so until they talk back. It’s working out pretty well for me.

9. My cool ball-blowing machine from miss Becky. People think I’m pretty smart because I have it all figured out. I know what button to press to get it to start blowing, then I walk around and collect the balls and put them back into the machine all by myself so that they can blow out again.
   

8. Jewelry. Sorry daddy, but it’s just so darn pretty! I’m learning to be gentle when I reach up and touch mama’s earrings…but when I saw grandma last I accidentally got a little too excited and ripped the earring almost completely out of her ear.

7. Balloons! Mind-boggling fun.

6. Playing in the cupboards…or should I say wonderlands.

5. Clapping. Just say “Yay” (or “bravo” if you speak Spanish like a lot of my neighbor friends) and I’ll give you a show and a half. In fact, if I am playing with my toys and I hear applause on the tv, I’ll join in right away. Such fun!

4. Bubble baths! As soon as the water starts running I try to get into the tub, my legs just aren’t quite long enough yet so as hard as I try mama has to eventually lift me over.

3. The vacuum cleaner. Call it that if you want to, but I know it’s really a monster. I get SO excited when I see mama bring it out. As soon as she turns it on I start running away usually falling over (like in a bad dream) cause I’m just running too quickly for my little legs. I come back to it every once and awhile to tease it to chase me again, then if it catches me I laugh. Too bad it has to spend most of the time in the closet.

2. Being Naked! Seriously, what more can I say.
   
   And coming in first place with a long lead…

1. Food! Wow. What can I say. It’s wonderful. Topping the charts is still mama milk, although I don’t eat too much of that these days and I hear that I am going to have to say bye-bye to that in a few weeks. Banana’s are amazing. I pretty much enjoy anything that anyone else is eating…after-all if they’re enjoying it so much it must be good. I’m known as the beggar at whatever social gathering in which food is present. Forget playing, I will grovel at the feet of anyone eating something…smacking and licking my lips until they share with me…for hours on end. I embarrassed mama at the park the other day because I kept going up to people we didn’t know and trying to take the food out of their hands.
   

Naked AND carrying around my boom box. Life is good, is it not!

My friend Josey and I both understand how wonderful food is. Here we are sharing a cookie while all the other kids are off playing with silly toys. Back and forth we handed it till every last crumb was devoured. Yum!

And here is the cool ball-blowing machine I told you about. This is my friend Asher and I playing with it. Did I mention that I LOVE bigger boys. Sometimes I pull their hair or do something that annoys them, but Asher especially is really nice to me.