Little darling

Naughty, devious, smart, funny, darling boy!

It's well known among my 12 cousins that growing up, the older group of us had a slightly different relationship with our grandparents than the younger few. It was all we knew growing up. Something to complain about when the younger set arrived. And something to laugh about now.

But something funny happened. The oldest of the group started having their own children and it seems that I've done the unthinkable. I've managed to bring the family's little darling into the world. For over a year, I watched my grandparents' eyes light up at the sight of him. When that little darling was no longer content to sit on a lap, I watched my grandfather protectively walk behind my son, holding both of his hands firmly, giving him the freedom of walking with the security of his great-grandfather holding on tightly.

The little darling managed to evoke a sensitivity unheard of from our family's most emotionally shuttered members. Over the last few days, my aunt and grandmother told me how much my uncle was enamored with my boy. He spoke of him to my grandmother on the phone just last week. My aunt reinforced that my uncle felt a very strong connection with him and just gravitated towards him.

My son is cute. His smile is sweet. But, he is bad. Bad in a "I'm only going to be bad if you're watching me so you see how smart I am and then I'm going to shout a great big belly laugh about it" bad." I broke the news to my grandmother 2 days ago. And I may have jeopardized his "darling" status.

And while this "badness" is in no way a recent thing, I did share with my aunt last night that our evening's occurances shockingly reminded me of a certain man that we both loved. That I may have found our "Whoopi Goldberg." Since, last night our little darling:

1. Started yelling at us belligerantly at dinner, all the time trying to make us laugh.
2. Wripped Chris's beer out of his hands, attempting to guzzle it. Took a sip and did NOT spit it out like he does to soda, but instead tried to reach for more and more and more.
3. Slammed the door open to our office and sauntered in with his shirt pulled up and his belly hanging out, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Little darling my ass! But he does make me laugh.