Owen: A Ladies-Man in Training

So we go to this little Mexican place we love last night (cheap and perfectly, wonderfully greasy) for dinner; we haven't been there in at least 6 months, so we were all glad to experience the BEST salsa in the world. Our favorite woman was working; she loves the little boys, Sam and Owen, and we have been going there fairly regularly since Sam was Owen's age so she always recognizes us.  They are a VERY family-friendly restaraunt, so after Owen was finished eating, he was kind of wandering around the table and a couple of other nearby tables (as an aside, his new "thing" is to very casually wave and say "Hi!" to anyone walking by, be it in the store or a restaraunt or the pancake dinner on Tuesday; it is hilarious).  This woman was walking by and she was suddenly possessed with the desire to kiss him, I guess; she stopped and grabbed his chubby little cheeks and just kiss kiss kiss; I couldn't see his face, but what I DID see was him look at her as she walked away and then go chasing after her at full speed.  Eli was laughing to beat the band, and said, "You should have seen his face!  He lit up like it was a movie star kissing him!"  After that, he was acting like a combination of a love-sick teen and a stalker; he would sort of furtively look for her, or sidle up to her and glance up like, "Oh, hey, yeah, just hanging out, came to say hi," at which point of course she would kiss him again.  Then, as we were getting ready to go, he ran across the room and sort of leapt into her arms to say good bye.  Believe me, this is NOT how he normally is.  He loves people in general, but he isn't nearly that effusive, and at this age certainly doesn't go willingly into the arms of virtual strangers.

But I have noticed some other similar tendencies lately: yesterday when I went to pick him of at daycare,  there was another mom there to pick up her boys, and she had with her two very beautiful sisters; I was holding Owen, and he smiled at them, batted his eyes, and puckered up.  And then when they didn't kiss him, gave all three of them a haughty look as if to say, "Well.  I was going to do you a FAVOR by LETTING you kiss me, but since you didn't WANT to..." and then kissed a picture on the wall instead.  Like hs is royalty, I swear.

He just cracks me up lately; in spite of the terrible moments and the inevitable frustration of toddlerhood, he is wonderful and funny and sure does keep us all entertained!