A Few of His Favorite Things

I just finished admiring my perfect sleeping child, and being amazed at how such a little tiny person can have so much personality, likes and dislikes and definitely his own plans and designs. In honor of my beautiful little man, here is a list of the things he loves, the thing that light up his face and warm my heart. 1. His fishies. For Eddie's first birthday, his father and I got him an aquarium and 5 goldfish (a few catfish and a big ugly plecostomus came a few weeks later) because he loooooved the tanks at Wal*Mart. The first day he had them, he pointed each one out to me saying "Dah, dah, dah..." as though he was naming them. I kind of thought he'd be thrilled and then get used to them and probably find them boring. Instead, he is still, almost three months later, completely entranced by them. As soon as we lift him from him crib in the morning he points at them and says "Neh!!" with great urgency. He is able to feed them with the pellet-type food we bought. He will sit on your lap and watch them. If you let him, he'll open the top and try to pet them. At night, before we put him to bed, he feeds them again and blows them a kiss (the ONLY living thing he will consistently blow kisses to). We can even convince him to go up to his room by saying "Let's go see your fishies!" He just adores them. 2. Fruit, especially strawberries. This kid eats fruit like crazy. If we don't provide fruit for a meal at home he'll start shouting and pointing to the kitchen. I dread winter when fruit will be more expensive and harder to find. 3. Juice. Going along with the fruit theme, I guess. This kid drinks so much juice (which is really 1/3 to 1/4 juice cut with water) that I can't believe he's not basically a fountain. Don't get me wrong, we change plenty of wet diapers, but I've seen him chug 6oz of juice without taking a breath (no mean task with a sippy cup) and demand more. 4. The Backyardigans. Possibly the least annoying toddler-aimed TV show since Sesame Street, the Backyardigans use their imaginations to go on fantastic adventures. They use "big words", always speak properly and use real children to voice the characters. The songs are very catchy. Eddie totally rocked out to their soundtrack in the car the other day, to the point I thought he was having a seizure, until he stopped, looked at me, said "he!" and went back to grooving. 5. Baths. Really, water in general - his water table, the dog's water dish, puddles, whatever, but a bath is the best. He'll usually stay in there until I drag him out, wrinkly and wiggly, and he'll grump a bit while I dry him off. He loves to splash, to play in the faucet's stream, blow bubbles off his hands, even put his face in the water and blow his own bubbles. Well, those are Eddie's top 5; there are other things that come and go - certain toys that are great for a few days, then get forgotten and rediscovered, foods he can't live without and then can't stand. I can't wait to see what he loves next.