All about Taede

Taede loves Malia and Kael. Loves them. He tries to copy them in everything they do. It's kind of cute seeing him chase after Kael and the neighborhood boys as they run around playing whatever violent shoot 'em game boys that age are into. Given a choice, I of course would prefer that he play a different kind of game but what am I going to do? Isolate him from Kael and the boys during parties? Taede knows how to properly hold a lightsaber and shoot a blaster. If said blaster is too big (as most are) he turns it around on his shoulder and carries it like a bazooka.

During the school year while Kael's in school he spends all his time with Malia. 20% of the time they play together. 80% of the time they fight. Taede is the Master at the Snatch and Run method of playing. Malia will set up all her princess stuff set up in the doll house and you can see Taede lurking in the perimeter, waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in, snatch a Princess and then run to me with Malia hot on his trail, shrieking like a demon from hell. It's kind of funny, actually. I feel bad for Malia and will put him a time-out but honestly, it's really hard not to laugh out loud.

Malia loves to dress up and I'm noticing now that he's pretty good at playing dress up too.

The best part? He can put the shoes on himself and click clack his way around the house without slipping. He just has to make sure he doesn't wear Malia's favorite shoes. See how mad she is in the background?

He's also getting pretty good at putting on make-up. Usually, however, it's pretend make-up. Once in a while I'll put chapstick on him myself (he's never done it himself). Malia loves putting on my chapstick - she slathers on a pretty thick coat before I am able to wrestle the little tube away. And I forget how very observant his is. We had dinner at Malia's BFF Audrey's house last night and the girls were playing with a stamp set. Audrey told me that Taede was putting the stamp on his lips. I look over and noticed that he was using the stamper like lipstick, but the cap was on. Since I was washing dishes, I took note of his action and put in a mental sticky note to tell him "No Mouth" when I finished. A split second after that mental note, he took off the cap and...

I busted a gut laughing (more than a little impressed that he correctly swiped the right part of his face). Linda, true to form, freaked out and ran over to him with Baby Ethan on her hip and then ran back to get a wipe to wipe it off. I yelled NO WAIT!! She stopped and thought maybe I wanted to use water, soap, something stronger than a baby wipe.

But no. I just wanted to get a picture before she cleaned him up.