The new face of McKinley's?

Eli is hilarious. I picked him up from school one day and his pockets were stuffed with pecans he had picked up under the pecan tree on the playground. Then I took him to McKinley's with me for a bit so I could wrap up a couple things I had been working on. When he is not begging for mini muffins, he usually draws/writes letters/scribbles on paper (he calls his papers "his work") while he waits on me to finish working. This particular day he walked around passing out pecans to all the employees which definitely provided some comic relief. Then I watched as he slowly, very slowly, crept up to a husband and wife sitting out in the dining room. They saw him coming and said something nice like, "hey there, how are you little fella?" Eli didn't say anything in reply he just kept creeping up to their table, gingerly fished a pecan from his pocket, and slowly slid it across to the slightly bewildered and amused couple. At this point I was trailing Eli from behind and when I saw this I had to cover my mouth with both hands to stifle the laugh that was threatening to escape. I had never seen him walk up to a table of guests before! I quietly explained what it was and where he had gotten it, and quickly prodded Eli along so that we would not disturb them further.

Eli went back to working on his papers, and I went back to wrapping up my day. After a few minutes I realized it was way too quiet...I had not heard little booger's voice and thought I had better check on him. I circled the kitchen...through the hallway, peered into the dining room, back around the counter towards the kitchen again. "Anybody seen a little red head?" I jokingly asked to anyone listening, but I was really starting to feel concern welling up inside. Where is he?? I made another lap around the restaurant and went back to peer into the dining room again. I guess the borderline panicked look on my face told the story, and a cute college student sitting out at a table raised her hand and pointed down.....



Eli had bellied up to this table of three sweet young ladies and was saying and doing God knows what. I later realized that at one point he was taking papers off my desk and passing them out to these complete strangers. There were only a couple that I would consider confidential. (I think he feels right at home with college-aged girls because he has two that babysit for him on a regular basis after school, and a couple more who babysit on occasion. He loves them all!)

He was extremely filthy and I was a bit mortified. He had played hard outside at school and it showed all over his clothes and under his nails. His nose was also starting to snot because of the change in weather. Appetizing, huh? AND (cute as it was) he would not leave their table, ugh. Needless to say, I passed out free dessert cards to these sweet, gracious, good sports.

This is a holiday night in the life of a baby with a mom who owns a bakery....twas the night before Christmas Eve and we were busy, busy baking and boxing at McKinley's. Aaron came up with Eli to help for a while and tried to get Eli to lie down in a booth. He wouldn't, he preferred the floor...and actually went to sleep there. Poor baby. Aaron took him on home soon after to put him to bed. Do you think he is going to have issues when he grows up?