Declan, a founding PlayGourmet, is 2 years, 2 months, and some change old. When I describe him to people, I basically just describe a person that I would like to be. He is athletic, adventurous, and imaginative. He has a great sense of humor, and loves to play, eat, and be with his family.

But I mentioned he was two, right? That certainly comes with its challenges. He is learning to be independent, and about cause and effect. So the independence means his opinion should count. And sometimes, he doesn’t feel like we are considering his point-of-view. Which he is not always that good at articulating very well.

His curiosity about cause and effect has led him to learn things, like when you are nice to someone they are nice to you back, and when you toss a ball to the dog, he chases it. But he also teaches himself things like, when you throw a cup of fluid on to the rug, Mommy spends the next 10 mins scrubbing it and when you give Daddy a flying knee to the baby-makers, he keels over in pain, and tells mommy to play with him.

Going through our days experiencing life through his eyes has been amazing. We get to see things for the first time again, kind of… only better. Imagine a baby who is in a constant state of “What is going on!” They don’t even know things like gravity exist, or time, or things that are so obvious to us, that we don’t even use our conscious mind to take into consideration. Now, a young child has to learn all of those things. I imagine that learning to ride a scooter without having any idea at all of what was going to happen next, would cause some unnecessary stress, where as we get to enjoy just the euphoria of it. Until the inevitable CRASH, POW, BANG, tears…. But that is not enough to deter thankfully.

Speaking of firsts, this weekend our little PlayGourmet discovered his new culinary passion. Shrimp. He ate all of his and his mom’s. He will learn he is going to have to get quicker if he want’s his dad’s too.

Developing him along with his mom, is the most fascinating science project I have ever taken part in. I feel like I am reading a book, and I am only through the first two and a quarter chapters, and this is a book I can’t put down.