The Extra-Extravert

While we were in Ely for our baseball weekend, the ever social Peanut Maximus was busy interacting with anyone and everyone. One of the baseball games was in a normal field where there was space for him to play (excellent!) and three of the games were in more of a stadium, where we sat on the bleachers (much trickier). At all of the games my little chatterbox was busy cheering. He cheered for all the players on our team that he knew, and he learned the names of a bunch of players he wasn’t as familiar with. We talked about ALL the numbers on their backs, since Peanut Maximus is excited about numbers these days. By cheering, I mean this kid loudly shouts whatever he hears other people shouting. “Go Marcus! Go Jackson! Go Bacon Andrew!” Bacon Andrew is really just Andrew, but for some reason Peanut Maximus has decided his name is Bacon Andrew. Additionally there are invisible imaginary friends playing baseball on the field, and Peanut Maximus updates me about what they are doing all the time. So you can also hear him loudly shouting, “Go Rozina! Go Collin!” And there are, of course no players by those names on the field at all.

Because he likes to talk, Peanut Maximus strikes up conversations with everyone in the vicinity. He talks to other parents, “And who are you watching today?” He tells them about how he is watching is brother Isaiah. Isaiah’s teammates give him an extra baseball to toss around. Dads of players on the team take pity on him and play catch with him. Peanut Maximus talks to the coaches of all the teams while they are waiting with their players to play the next game. “Did your players listen to you today?” He has long conversations about Cookie Monster, sunflower seeds, and sleeping in a hotel with the players from other teams who are spectating on the bleachers. And here’s the deal. This kid is pretty cute, and everyone is oddly happy to converse with him.

Peanut Maximus has no trouble introducing himself to kids at the park and asking them their names. He struck up a conversation at the Mukluk store with the saleslady who noticed his Cookie Monster shirt, and told her all about how his big brother makes cookies for him, and the cookies are not black and burnt, just puffed up and delicious. The saleslady remarked that she likes puffed up, delicious cookies too. He had a long conversation with another kid in the bookstore about how some dinosaurs are scary and have teeth and some don’t. Then they smashed their dinosaur puppets around until the other mother and I mentioned that we might need to be a little more careful.