Everyday Excitement

If only I could capture and share the excitement of every moment of Graeme's day, the world couldn't help but smile.  No matter what he is doing, he has this incredibly cute (usually high-pitched) energy about him.  Tonight we are having "Movie night" and he's been bouncing around all day, singing "I want movie night!  Is it dark out?  Is it time for movie night?"  He even peeks trough the curtains to check if the sun has gone down.  He runs with a little hop everywhere he goes.  He bounces.  It's lovely.

If he finds the right puzzle piece, he has this guttural, self-satisfied laugh that is precious.  I need to catch it on video.  For Christmas, he got a number of presents, but the most exciting were the few packing peanuts that were left in the bag of gifts from my parents.  "I got some 8's!" he shouted.  "I love 8's!"  Then he found a suitable plastic cup for them to sleep in and carried them around for the next few days.  Once forgotten, I threw them away (horrible mum that I am) thinking that was that.  A few days later, however, Gavin was snooping (as he often does) for toys or snacks or anything new and interesting.  Lo and behold, he finds a very large bag full of packing peanuts from the larger box of gifts sent by my parents for Christmas.  The scene unfolded as follows:

"Hey, look!  It's a big bag of 8's for Graeme!," says Gavin,  "Hey, Graeme, look it's a bunch of 8's for YOU!"

I say, "Oh, Gavin, let's not get those out.  They will just be a mess and I don't want you to --"

Graeme enters, "My 8's!  I love 8's!!  I want to count them all!  I love to count."  And then he proceeds to grab the bag and drag it out into the living room.  Since I love for them to count - practice is good, right? - and it is cute that they are still entertained by packing peanuts, I make them a deal.

"Here, Graeme, how about this... I'll give you some to count, but I get the rest of the bag so things don't get too messy."  He agreed. And I dished out a couple handfuls of peanuts.  (He can only count to eleven after all.)  Everyone wins.