Things I Want to Remember About Age 2

There are so many things I want to remember about Gavin at age two, and how I wish I'd written them down on a daily basis! Some highlights:

• He seats himself at the table for dinner and says grace each night. He provides a running commentary throughout the meal and occassionally says sweet things like, "This is a very good dinner, Mommy!" or not-so-sweet things like, "I WON'T eat my tomatoes and I WILL have a treat!" Fortunately, dinner is often redeemed when he says, "May I be excused?" and "Thank you for dinner." Aw, manners really melt a mom's heart.


• He knows how to operate an iPhone and all the game apps. Gavin is quite adept at the Crazy Birds game and had to show me how to turn on daddy's iPhone on our flight to Utah last month. I'm not so sure this is a good thing. :)


• Gavin loves all of his stuffed animals. They are, in fact, his best friends and he has names for each one of the 17 creatures he sleeps with each night. However, Blue Puppy and Brown Puppy are his special friends and they come with us everywhere. I shudder to think what life would be like if we lost these ragged little creatures.


• This boy loves going to restaurants and now asks if he can go to specific places like Cozy Thai or Steak 'n Shake. Oy! He gets to go out to lunch with us once a week, and is really great in restaurants.


• Gavin's biggest passion right now is for music. He stands at he CD player for hours each week, selecting his favorite songs and singing. Sometimes he'll get out his drum or keyboard and play along, but often he likes to make up his own songs. I feed him song titles like, "Mommy's Really Pretty," and let him take the ball and run with it. You should try it sometime. There's nothing more gratifying than hearing a two-year-old sing at the top of his lungs, "Mommmmmyyyyy, you are reeaaaaaallllyyyy PREEEEETTTTY!!!"


• Sometimes we're not allowed to sing along to the songs on the radio ("No! I need to hear the words! You don't sing!") OR look at Gavin ("No! Don't look at me, Mommy!"), but we're always allowed to give Gavin cookies. Go figure.


• Gavin is now very interested in geography (thanks for my Oregon Scientific Smart Globe and my own geography nerdiness) and numbers. He loves to count things...and count things...and count things. And then he shows me where Brazil is on the globe. I think he's smarter than I am at this point.

Ah, I could write a book.