Abe, age 2 and a half

He eats raw parsnips.

He sits on the kitchen counter to help me cook. He actually helps. This is his favorite place in the house. We're starting to think he may become a chef.

He pretends to cook you anything you want but specializes in making "eggs and cheesetoast."

He told me tonight that he wants to eat Christmas lights because they taste like frenchtoast.

He can count to almost 20.

He won't go to sleep early but he doesn't complain about being put to bed. Last night, he was contentedly singing in his room until 12:30.

He runs very fast and can easily go up and down steps.

While watching the Irish movie The Secret of Roan Inish, Abe turned his chair upside down and declared that he was "sailing to Irish."

Our dumb cat Bang Bang sleeps with him most nights now.

He's learning to find Ethiopia on a map of Africa by pointing to the bag of coffee on the map of his children's atlas. He says that he was born where the bag of coffee is.He still reads the comics every Sunday.

He likes to go for rides in the wheelbarrow.

His favorite thing to drink is apple cider, not hot chocolate. He has forgotten about his leftover Halloween candy.

He still occasionally asks if he can eat me up he loves me so.

He is most excited about going to "South Ferry" on our upcoming New York trip because of the incredibly serendipitous book we have from the library, How Little Lori Visited Times Square. We love this book so much. Currently our most favorite.

He has his first backpack, as of today. It's for the trip to NYC. He'll be wearing his backpack for the first time and officially having his very own seat on the airplane. The cute-factor of those little boy backpacks just kills me. And Abe wearing his back pack? Be still my heart.

He sings a lot, songs like "I've been workin' on the railroad" (every verse) and "Oompa Loompa" among others. Please excuse the poor quality of this clip; if he knows I'm filming, he stops singing, so I had an odd angle and back light.