Baby or Big Boy?

So, I was reading a friend's blog the other day and she wrote about some of the things her little boy says or does that show his cute personality. I thought, "I need to do that for Parker!" Then at play group yesterday, Parker ran off, quite a long distance away from me, and it hit me, he's really becoming more of a big boy and less my little baby. He just saw his friends and off he went. Not even a glance back at mama. I sat there fighting the urge to go to him as he joined his friends climbing on rocks and throwing stuff into very shallow, but disgusting water. I sat and watched him from a distance thinking, "My baby isn't a baby anymore!" Eventually he did come back to me and made me feel like he still did need me. In some ways he is still babyish, he still needs his burp cloth and blanket when he is tired or gets hurt. He holds onto the tags and rubs them on his face. He still needs mama when he gets hurt. Only me, no one else will do. He gave up bottles when he turned one, but he almost always has a sippy cup with milk. Although he has been branching out to juice lately. Sadly, I can't really think of very many baby-like qualities. He has a lot more 'big boy' qualities these days. He insists on sitting at the island in our kitchen on a bar stool instead of his high chair. He has to have real silverware at home or if we are in a restaurant, even if he doesn't need it for what he is eating. He is talking more and more every day. He usually repeats the last word he hears when you're talking to him or if he is paying attention to someone else's conversation. He loves to give 'knuckles' or 'knuckle bumps' or whatever else people call it. He's really into 'Finding Nemo' right now and goes around the house chanting like the fish in the tank when they name Nemo Shark Bait. He loves looking at pictures on the computer especially of his cousins. Several times a day he points at the camera or computer and says, "Addi" (one of his cousins) which means he wants to look at the pictures. We usually just put it on slide show and if a picture of mom or dad comes up, he points at us and says, "Mama" or "Dada". He is really starting to remember his friends from nursery. One of them is named Ian. Every time we go somewhere he says, "Ian" and thinks we are going to his house. He of course loves Batman just like daddy. He's been saying Batman for a while, but lately has been more growling it than saying it. He has foam letters that he plays with in the tub. He always finds the 'P' and holds it the whole time. He is starting to recognize some letters. He's showing some interest in using the potty. It might be mostly because when he does something on the potty I give him an M & M. If I try to get him to tell someone what he did on the potty he usually says, "NN" (M & M). After I finish spiking his hair, he gives me this mischievous look, rubs his hand on his hair to mess up what I just did and then runs away squealing. I'm sure there are a million more, but I'll leave it at that. When I knelt down to take a picture of him, he came over and gave me a kiss (unsolicited by the way) and I snapped this pic as he walked away. So, there he goes to play with his friends. Even though he is growing up (too fast in my opinion) hopefully he'll still need me for a little while longer!