How do YOU cookie?

Every few weeks I meet a dear friend MG for lunch. Who is MG? You might remember, I've mentioned her before. She was my supervisor and mentor when I started working at CDC, and we've stayed in touch past her retirement. We used to meet once a week, but because of schedules (and because I'd be as big as a house if we kept eating Panera once a week!) we usually meet once or twice a month. It's the highlight of my week, I love catching up with MG (short for Momma Gwen)'s life and telling her all about ours. She's funny, loving and a wee bit sassy at times, so any conversation with her is incredibly satisfying. As if that all isn't enough, she sometimes bakes goodies and shares! WHOOOOOO!! She makes the most incredible brownies (from a very secretive recipe) that are out-of-this-world delicious, and she recently made some cookies. YUM. She had a nice little parcel full of cookies waiting for me one day we caught up, and after I ate one at lunch (and another on the ride home), I shared one with the boys. MG thought they'd be better heated just a little, so I zapped them in the microwave for just a few seconds to make the chocolate a little melty.

And so the boys dug in. As I watched them eat, I noticed something that Keith and I have been aware of for a while: our boys are very different. Personalities, looks, preference for decibel level of their conversational voice, etc. Their approach to the cookie eating showed some of these differences.

Let's analyze Cole first. See how he calmly and deliberately puts the cookie into his mouth? Fingers go right in, guiding the cookie to it's destination.

I can't pretend that chocolate doesn't get everywhere, but he's fairly neat and gives a sweet appreciative smile.

Grady's approach is a little less....organized. First, he takes the cookie/food item and explores the texture. Since we're dealing with cookies here, he gives it the crumble test. If said cookie passes the crumble test, then he shoves 2-3 pieces of the cookie into his mouth at once. NUM-NUM!

Or, from the looks of this picture, he rubs it all over his face.

Messy or neat though, I could tell both boys loved the cookies, so thank you MG!