No Longer A Toddler

Ok, I know the official 'they' say that kids are toddlers until they're, what, 5 years old.

But when Shane goes and does something like he did today,

I have to disagree.

Brett told me this morning that he was supposed to bring potato salad to the hanger dinner tonight.

Thank you sweetheart. So I get to cookin'.

Shane was really interested in me peeling potatoes,

and the boiled eggs. He stole pickles while I was

chopping them and was overall just curious.

But he was kindly staying out of being 'in the way'

so I didn't pay a whole heap of attention to him.

That is, until I was cutting my second batch of potatoes

(the first go round was mashable by the time I got to them-

as a mom I am easily distracted when there's a sreaming baby following me around).

So, I'm pluggin away and Shane creeps around me

and grabs a couple eggs.

I didn't even pay attention to that,

thinking that he was just going to play with them- but he didn't...

cracking them on the table next to me...

carefully peeling off the shell...

trying to save the cool big pieces that he gets off.

He asked for help when he got any tricky parts for his little hands,

and handed a few off to me, so he could get started on the next ones.

He kept going like that until he couldn't reach any more

(I think there were 4 left)

He hasn't seen me doing any such thing since Easter.

I never asked him to do it, or showed him how.

It was all his own initiative.

Now, THAT is my big boy.