winning by a nose

who's the fastest?  who's the smartest?  who's the best?  it doesn't even matter what we're talking about ... if liam's in the vicinity, he will be doing whatever it takes to claim the prize.  he has a competitive streak that we've been hoping for a while now would begin to wane, but so far, there's no end in sight.  he wants to win -- and if there's not a contest of some sort to be found, you can bet your bottom dollar that he's going to turn whatever he's doing into one.

take yesterday, for example, when my parents invited us over to their house to help trim their tree.  my dad opened up the box of ornaments and the kids peered in, eager to see the treasures inside.

well -- not quite.  susanna peered in, oohing and aahing at all the beautiful decorations.   by the time she'd extracted her first one, however, liam was making his third trip to the tree, bound and determined to hang the most.  at least a fourth of the ornaments he put up wound up falling to the floor (carpeted, thank goodness), since he'd done such a poor job in attaching them in his quest to be the fastest.  he felt it imperative to lap susanna twice in order to ensure a victory.

chris and i would exchange glances, so tired of this insatiable desire of his to win, win, win ... but knowing that anything we might say would fall on deaf ears.  i mentally made a note to ask santa to put a little more patience in liam's stocking this year.

after the final ornament was hung, my father asked the kids to get together and stand in front of their handiwork for a picture.  while he was waiting for the camera to turn on, liam took the opportunity to, um, use his finger to clean out his nostrils.  dad couldn't pass up the opportunity to rib him a little.  he joked, "hey liam -- pick a winner!"

true to form, liam immediately stepped forward and raised his hand in the air.  "ME!"