Billy is still a good eater, but one of his eating habits makes my stomach turn. (I can say only one because he doesn’t do the chew-the-food-spit-it-out-then-eat-it-again trick any more) Billy loves ketchup. It is a must with fries, hot dogs (any meat for that matter), and pizza. Yes, pizza. Ick. And when that ketchup is on his plate, everything else must be dipped in it — goldfish crackers, cheese, veggies, bananas. If his pile of ketchup isn’t quite big enough, he points to it and says, “more, peas.” Sometimes a bath is the only thing to rid him of the smell of the red stuff. But he eats and that is what counts!
When Ricky was littler, we were often told (and we knew it) that he was spoiling us for any future children. He was quite easy — a good sleeper, happy to play by himself, not big into making messes. Everyone was right. Did we all sense Billy was the next in line? A college student writing a thesis about the boys’ blog could find a common theme of “How different are Ricky and Billy.” Here’s another one. Fruit snacks. Billy turned 2 just two months ago. He’s opening his own snacks — Ricky who is nearly 5 doesn’t open his! But Billy . . . first he helps himself to the bag (easiest at Grandmama’s where they aren’t behind a locked door) or to 5 bags like he did yesterday. If you try to help him, you may hear the gruff, “no! me do it!” and he does! He also helps himself to bottles of water from the fridge, which he happily opens by himself, M&Ms from the candy jar, apples from the fruit drawer, and pretty much anything else his heart desires that isn’t under lock and key. Fortunately for him, his stinkin’ cute face keeps him from getting reprimanded too much!