Gavin is 2!

Dear Gavin,

Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet blue eyed, blond haired snuggle bug.  Gavin, you are the snuggliest two-year-old ever.  You still love to be "up-py."  You are definitely on the apprehensive side about new things (or even familiar things sometimes). Often you will be playing happily and then all of a sudden run over and want me to pick you up. 

When Tyler was your age, he was obsessed with cars.  You don't really have a thing like that that is your very favorite, but you get super excited every time you see an airplane.  You have a few little airplane toys that you have fun with.  Again though, you are not all that into toys; you will play with something for a few minutes and then move on. That may be partly because Tyler tends to jack whatever you start getting into. 

Yes, he takes your toys sometimes, but he also totally entertains you.  Most mornings after breakfast, I get you boys dressed and then you go play together while I get read and clean up.  It is the cutest thing.  You read books to each other or sit quietly with toys.  You love Tyler so much.  You always look for him when he is not around. You call him "broder" or "Ty-woo" (which I think is seriously the cutest thing you say).

Mr. G, you love to sleep.  After you ask for "1 more story," we do our prayers and if I ever try and rock you, you will sit with me for a minute or two, but then you point to your crib.  You never fuss at bedtime.  You take 2-3 hour naps daily and sleep 12+ hours at night.  I wonder if in high school you will ever get out of bed on weekends ;)

You have zero interest in TV.  It's funny because you were exposed to way more screen time than Tyler ever was before age 2, but you really pay no attention to it.  That's why it surprised me so much the other morning when Tyler was watching Tangled and you looked at me and said, "Mommy, O'd dat horsy go?" (aka where'd the horsy go?).  A full sentence, wow! It came out of nowhere but it was so cute.  Paige told me that at her house you held up the lego motorcycle and said, "O'd Jeff Motorcycle go?"  Her husband Jeff rides a motorcycle to work.  Smart boy :)  You take in so much and understand so much.

The other day, I was rocking you right before bed, and I was praying out loud for you.  You realized I was praying, and quietly you added, "... And Ty-woo ... And Kelsey."  Eeek, you are the sweetest!  You love to pray for all of your grands and your family and friends. 

Gavin, you are definitely my stubborn one.  If you don't get something you want, you will immediately start to throw a huge fit.  It takes a lot of patience on our end to make you stop, look in our eyes, use your words, and calm down. 

We are pretty strict with you, but we have to be.  You would just walk all over us if not.  It's so easy to just give in and give you everything that you want (because you are SO cute), but we hold our own and we don't give you everything you want.  You get so mad sometimes!  It's actually hard not to laugh when you do your dramatic displays of freak out.  But I am so proud of you because you really are trying to learn how to stop yourself and just use your words. 

One thing that always makes you happy is music.  You love to sing and dance.  We have dance parties daily.  You love itsy-bitsy and the ABCs.  You can repeat all of the letters to me (it's cute because you repeat every letter except X; instead of X you excitedly say Y!!)

Oh Gavs, I just love you so much.  You are so handsome and sweet.  I am loving watching you grow.  I think you are going to make me laugh a ton this next year as I start to learn more what is in your head as your vocabulary expands. 

I love you SOOOOOO much!!!  Love, Mommy