Testing The Limits

I have a almost 4-year-old nephew who is just the cutest and most hilarious kid you will ever meet. (Of course I think all five of my nieces and nephews are the cutest kids in the world.) Don't get me wrong, Holden can be a handful. Just ask anyone within a mile radius of Wal-mart the day I was there with him and he didn't stop screaming the ENTIRE TIME. It's funny because I always loathe when I hear kids screaming in the store. But when it is family you seem to have a totally different outlook on the situation. It is still annoying, but much more tolerable. Then there are also the looks that Holden can give. One day I told him he was putting his shoes on the wrong feet and boy was that the wrong thing to say. He gave me a look like he had laser beams in his eyes and he was piercing directly into my heart. It's almost funny because he does it so well but he does it so unexpectedly over innocent comments.

When Holden is in a good mood and not giving piercing looks, he does things like give nicknames to his entire family. One time his dad was "Spiderman" and all day he would say stuff like "Hey Spiderman, can I have a snack?" or "I love you Spiderman." Another time, Holden himself was Harry Potter because he was wearing some fake paper glasses and if you called him Holden he would say,"No! I Harry Water!" That is how he says "Harry Potter" and I almost bust up laughing every time he says it.

Lately, Holden has love/hate relationships with his toys. I was at a store with him and he had a little Astro Boy toy that he was carrying around. Well he decided to put Astro boy in a bin and leave him there because apparently Astro Boy was not being a good friend. We got no more than ten feet away from Astro Boy when Holden went running back and picked him out of the bin and said,"I love you Astro Boy!" It wasn't just the fact that he went back that made me laugh. It was the concern on his face and complete relief when he was reunited with Astro Boy. It was like he made the worse mistake of his life deserting Astro Boy for five seconds and the most thrilling moment of his life when they came back together. Being 3-years-old, it may have been the worse mistake yet, but I think he is just testing the limits of his friendships.