Big Boy, the wallflower -- yeah, right!

My mother-in-law and her husband came into town yesterday from Alaska. We don't get to see them as often as we like (no, I'm serious, I really like them both), and I was worried about Big Boy's reaction to them, since the last time he saw grandma was a year ago and a year's a long time in a two-year-old's life.

So I really talked up their visit in the days leading up to their arrival. Turns out I had no cause to worry. Right when they got to our house, he took grandma downstairs to show her the bed she'd be sleeping in. He told her she was tired, so she laid down and he covered her up.

Then last night at dinner, Big Boy finished eating before we did, so we let him down from his high chair and he decided he wanted some undies (long story short: he REALLY wanted pull-up diapers and we got them on the condition that he had to go potty in the big boy potty, which lasted about two days so we put him back in regular diapers). So we still had one pull-up diaper in the car in the diaper bag.

He ran out to the garage while all the adults were still eating, and ran back into the dining room, yanked his pants down, tore off the tabs on the diaper, and flung the diaper off. Then he ran around the house with just his shirt on, until he decided to put on his undies. Later, my niece was opening some birthday presents and he took a pack of hairties she'd gotten and started taking one off the package. MrDartt told him those were his cousin's, and he tossed them aside, grabbed a stuffed bunny and started hitting our eight-year-old nephew with it (they'd been wrestling all night, so I guess Big Boy was wound up). I got up to take the bunny from Big Boy, and he quickly stuffed it under his shirt. As grandma's husband pointed out, it's hard to discipline when everyone, including mom, is laughing. But I held it together and put the bunny in toy timeout with the fan Big Boy had used earlier to hit Little Boy in the head.

And to think I'd been worried that he'd turn into a wallflower and not want anything to do with anyone. Ha!

Throughout the night, Big Boy had been asking, "Should we have cake now?" FINALLY, after presents, Big Boy went to ask grandma and Papa R if we could have cake. They said okay, so he went to ask Aunt L and Uncle S. Uncle S said he had to have a hug first. Then grandma and Papa R said they needed hugs too. So then Big Boy ran over to Uncle B and said, "Should we have cake?" and flung his arms around him before planting a kiss on his lips -- kid learns fast, I guess. Or kid really wanted cake.

Anyway, it was a fun night. And grandma and Aunt L did the dishes. Awesome.