Another dose of big personality

I've written about Brenden's personality before, how he is super friendly and seems to get handed anything he wants. It still amazes me the things that he does. The past two days we have gone out to eat, once with Tim's mom to Mexicali and then today I went out with Sean and his mom Debbie to Red Lobster. Both times Brenden has eaten very well which made me very happy, especially after he stopped eating for a few days. (Although he is back to liking bananas...hurrah!) He had a great time dipping a chip in the salsa, which he loves (thank you grandpa Kelly!) and then at Red Lobster he ate an entire chicken breast, french fries, cheesy biscuits and some broccoli. However, at the end he got restless so we let him out of his chair. This is where the fun began.

At Mexicali he weaved his way through a some empty tables over to a couple of women having lunch. He leaned through a few chairs and squealed happily in their direction until they laughed at him. He then walked up and hugged one of the ladies, who seemed quite surprised, but happy to have a hug. Then he was off to squeal at some more people until he eventually made a full circle back to the same ladies. I think he ended up going over to them 4 times, much to their delight. I'm so happy when we meet kid-friendly people. The ones that glare at him hurt my heart. We eventually got him to sit down by bribing him with his Styrofoam cup of water. He sat in dad's chair like a big boy, held his cup on his own, and drank happily for a few minutes. And then...SPLAT! He squeezed on the cup hard enough to punch a hole in it and he was instantly soaked from the waist down. I have never seen him look more shocked and I'm sure he was uncomfortable. The loss of his cup didn't seem to make him feel any better. We took him home right away to change him into something dry and then had a great time walking Promenade Mall with his grandma.

Red Lobster seems to bring the same side out of him. After eating he walked around, first stopping to talk to a little girl much younger than him who was not at all impressed with his babbling. He then made his way over to a table full of women having lunch (see a pattern?) who he tap danced for, including shuffling. (I'll make him a tapper, yet!) He found the closest lady, hugged her quickly, said "thank you" and walked off. They thought he was a hoot, especially since the sign for "thank you" looks so much like him blowing a kiss. The next table he found he decided he was ready for another biscuit, so he patted the seat next to the woman and said "please." Of course she had no clue what my child wanted, but she thought he was funny so she didn't get upset. After explaining he was begging for food even though I'm sure he couldn't possibly stuff anything else in I directed him along. On the way back to our table he found a sweeper, almost ran into a bunch of college guys because he was looking back at another lady, and stopped to beg for more food. We eventually made it out of there, but not without a stop at the lobster tank, which I'm pretty sure he called "puppies."

Tonight we spent the evening with grandma and grandpa Kelly. We had some yummy steaks and Brenden ate special spaghetti, green beans, several cheese crackers, 2 servings of mandarin oranges, and a roll. I think he may have a hollow leg. He is fascinated by the different rocks and shells that they keep on their fireplace, along with the miniature beach chair they got on their cruise. He hadn't touched the chair much, only pointed at it, but tonight he grabbed it, placed it softly on the ground, and then proceeded to try to sit on it. When I say miniature, I mean tiny. As in the size of his foot. Connie and I were rolling on the floor with tears in our eyes from laughing so hard. Luckily Brenden repeated this move later on for his dad. I'm not sure how to explain that the chair is way too small since he's not really clear on the concept of big and small yet. I guess we'll have to hide it next time. Or maybe we'll bring it out to see if he'll try again, like a comedy performance. This boy is going to be the class clown...Lord help us.