The Third Man

I was struck this weekend by the fact that we have a third person living in our house. A person with his own agenda, likes, dislikes and favorite TV shows. Since Liam's vocabulary is expanding and he's able to talk in (somewhat) complete sentences, it's changing the dynamics in our house. No longer is he content to sit by while Dad watches football - nope, he wants to play Wii so move on over! If he's hungry, he'll march in the kitchen, open the pantry and rummage around until he finds something interesting. He'll get his own ice and water from the fridge. He'll turn lights off and on. He's an independent little person who likes to "do myself!"

Temperment

It's so facinating to watch Liam's personality develop, especially when I see other children around his age. Tonight, we went to a church fish fry and happened to meet up with another family with a son about Liam's age. After the boys ate, they both got down to explore. Liam ran right up to a group of other children (a girl about 10 and a boy about 3). The kids were all sitting on the steps to a short stage. Liam positioned himself on the steps right next to them and closely observed their interactions. He chased the 3 year old around the stage and gave the 10 year old girl a big hug, sitting himself on her lap. He then proceeded to make a circuit which entailed climbing the stairs and then hopping off the edge of the 1.5ft stage. At first he tried to step off of it (yikes!) but after a fall, he decided to scoot off on his rear. The 10 year old then invited another girl over and Liam positioned himself between the two of them, listening to their conversation and checking out their food. He also made sure to point out Momma and Dadda to them.

All this behavior I saw in contrast to the other almost-2 year old boy. He slowly approached the stage, careful to stick close to his mom. He eventually made it up on the stage but kept close to the wall, watching everyone carefully. He didn't stay up there long until he went to find his mom again.

All this just reinforced previous observations (my own as well as others, even complete strangers!) of Liam's outgoing, fearless, friendly, opinionated, curious, fun-loving personality.