Mine!

This past weekend we went down to VA to see Maria's cousin. As I have said before, they've got a two and a half-year-old, and she hates me. Simple reason: I take her favorite playmate (my wife) away from her. She likes to demonstrate her dislike for me by coming up to me with something (toy, book, etc.,) then makes like she's handing it to me, then quickly pulling it back, while exclaiming, "NO! Mine!" And if I try to take something, she screams really, really loud.

We're not talking like, car-horn or air-horn loud. We're talking like, if you needed to hear an alarm while the space shuttle lifted off, you could use her voice. It's amazing.

Anyway, her ways really came through when I was sitting next to Maria on the sofa and put my hand on her leg. Our lovely little niece came up, slapped my hand and said, "No, Maria is mine!"

So naturally the next morning I ate her cereal while she watched.