Knowing so many kids of around the same age, it’s really easy to watch common developmental phenomena as they come and go. One thing that seems to be a favorite talent to two-year-olds is the ability to give two word commands in the form of “<person>, <action>!”, where action is something that the person is supposed to do with said two-year-old. If the action is not soon performed, the two-year-old follows up by a grabbing of the adult’s hand and dragging them toward desired action.

Verl’s desired action is definitely “sit”, as in “Mommy, sit!” and “Daddy, sit!”, which means, “I am playing with this toy, and you should sit down and play with the toy with me.

It’s interesting that they have learned to clearly desire the participation of others in their activities, and to request it.

Flynn’s favorite action is “outside”. When we were over there a couple of weeks ago to babysit, he kept saying “Fishy outside! Fishy outside!”, more and more insistently, and then grabbing my hand to drag me outside, since it was dusk, and the adults were hanging out inside for a while before mom and dad took off for their date. As I’ve mentioned, Flynn loves anything to do with water, including fish, so I figured there must be some kind of a toy fish or something outside that he wanted to play with. I was saying, “You have a fish out there, Flynn?” Finally, Owen chimed in, “No, I think that’s you.” Of course, the standard formulation! “Mommy, outside!”, “Colin, outside!”, and “Fishy, outside!”

So, yeah, I’m “Fishy” :). And very flattered to be so, given Flynn’s love of fish.