10 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About the X Man...

1. His favorite show is Spongebob Squarepants. He's addicted to cartoons of any kind but Spongebob is on another level with him. He once told me "Spongebob is my lovah".

2. He is Italian through and through. Despite having no Italian blood in him, he was born and spent the first 3 years of his life there and it shows; pasta and pizza are his favorite foods. When we go back to Italy, the first thing he asks for is "pasta Angie" (pasta prepared by our neighbor Agnese). He also has to have olive oil and balsamic vinegar on pretty much everything he eats.

3. AC Milan is his favorite "calcio" (soccer) team. I bought him an AC Milan jersey with "Pato" on the back and it is by far his favorite piece of clothing. Everyday when he gets dressed he asks if he can wear his Milan shirt. If he could, he would wear it every single day. He wears it so much that the Italians at the local gelateria have started calling him Pato.

4. He's scared of...well, pretty much everything. Seriously, this kids is the biggest wuss I've ever seen in my life. He's scared of flies and flips out when one comes near him. He's terrified of bees. He won't sleep with his nightlight, he has to have his bedroom light on. He's scared of dogs. He's scared of the elevator. Seems like everyday we discover something new that he's afraid of.

5. He has no style. He recently had his haircut and I was telling him how cool he looks. Then I told him that next we should shave all of his hair off. The wife said that he should get a mohawk. His reply was "Daddy, I want a mullet".

6. He loves to draw. He obviously gets this from the wife. One of his favorite activities is drawing, coloring and painting. And he's actually got some talent for a 4 year old.

7. He's also in love with The Transformers. He's got a few Transformer toys and carries them with him everywhere. He constantly sings the theme song of the old cartoon (More than meets the eye...robots in disguise!). Of course, he won't watch them by himself because he's too scared of Megatron.

8. He loves board games. Last year I bought him the game Trouble and all he wanted to do was play it. I bought him Operation, same thing. A few months ago he developed an obsession with checkers and chess; he doesn't know how to play but no matter, he makes up his own rules. Lately he's been dragging out Life, setting it up on the living room floor and making up his own rules to that. He's also been bugging me to play Monopoly. I'm trying to take advantage by looking for educational games.

9. He is fussy eater. This is a constant source of frustration for the wife and I. He will not drink milk so we try to make him eat a lot of cheese and yogurt for calcium and protein. He will only drink water or certain kinds of juice. Anytime we eat, we constantly yell at him to eat or else he will just sit and play or talk. He usually is still at the table an hour after we're finished. And his favorite ploy is to whine and complain that his tummy hurts so won't have to eat anymore after a few bites. The wife is always worried because he's so skinny but I tell her I'm not worried because he has an endless supply of energy. And besides, at least he's not obese like many American kids are these days.

10. He currently has a Kung Fu Panda obsession. I took him to see it in the theater a few weeks ago and he laughed all the way through it. He sometimes mimics the Kung Fu Panda's karate moves in the pub and asks me every day when the DVD is coming out so we can buy it.

And a bonus one...

11. He's very musical. He loves music of all kinds and remembers the words to a lot of the songs he hears - his current favorite is "Rock Star" by Nickelback. He likes to sing to his little brother sometimes. The people at the pub sometimes play songs that he knows just to hear him sing and watch him play his air guitar. He also loves hip hop; I know this because the other day he asked me "Daddy, is the black one the coolest one because he makes cool music?" I was a bit confused so I asked what he meant and he replied "You know, the black one, the one that says 'yo'...is he the best cause he makes cool music?". So yeah, he likes hip hop.