Just a couple things that have made me smile during the past couple of days...
Our other car is a Jag...
Yesterday Elliott and I took a walk up to the new condo complex to check out the progress and ogle the diggers and dumpers. Lately, whenever Elliott sees any car that looks even remotely like one of our cars, he points and says, "DADDY!" over and over until I validate that yes, in fact, that could be Daddy's car. We passed a somewhat-greenish, vaguely sedan-shaped car and Elliott started in with "Daddy." I looked at the vehicle, smirked, and said something like, "Sure, Elliott, that's Daddy's car, except Daddy drives a Ford Taurus, not a great big JAG."
The guy standing in the yard of the house in front of which said Jag was parked laughed out loud.
What a well-mannered young man you have!"
Continuing on our walk, we ended up behind a couple of slow-moving women, possibly an older lady and her grown-up daughter. After a few seconds, they must have heard the stroller wheels, and they moved aside to let us pass. They both bent down toward Elliott and said how cute he is, what beautiful eyes, etc. As if on cue, Elliott reached up and grabbed his baseball cap off his head, sort of tipped it, and placed it in his lap. The older lady--in total seriousness--exclaimed, "What a well-mannered son you have! He knows to remove his hat in the presence of a lady!"
I laughed and told her he was most likely just trying to ditch his hat on the ground.
How to win friends and influence people
We escaped the house again this morning and walked up toward Brooks Pharmacy to check out the life-sized stuffed dogs (so that Elliott can bark at them and try to feed them Cheerios) and the larger-than-life inflatable bunny decoration that pops in and out of a giant egg. As we went in, Elliott saw a nicely-dressed middle-aged man step onto the sidewalk and drop a piece of a candy wrapper. Elliott loves to drop his milk cup and food off his high chair as he smiles and proclaims "UH-OH!" As soon as that candy wrapper hit the ground, the boysie started in with "Uh-oh, uh-oh!" then added, "Trash!" one of his brand-new words. The guy looked totally embarrased and chased his wrapper a few feet up the street. Heh.
As we were leaving the store, we crossed paths with several folks wearing hats. Elliott, of course, had to let each of them know that he was wearing a "HAT!" and to point it out to them. Luckily, they were friendly folks and didn't mind being singled-out for their hattedness.
I can only imagine what will happen when Elliott learns to say "zit" or "fat" or "bald" or something equally-potentially-discomfort-making and proceeds to matter-of-factly announce his observations.
Nieka







