JustRunJustLiveJustBe

My nephew turns two-years-old this week.  And while my mother thought buying the entire state of Colorado and sending it to him would suffice as an appropriate gift, I had a little more trouble deciding.  I’d gone the bike tricycle route for Christmas, which was fun, and the swimming/pool gear for some other recent holiday,  (yes, I am that aunt)  so I was pretty much running out of big ideas.   You see, I buy the clothes and the cute stuff and the toys when necessary, but everyone does that.  And I’m just not that kind of gift giver, at least not when I can help it.

I think I had a dream or watched Oprah or something one day when I was about eighteen, but for whatever reason I got this idea in my head that it’s so much more fun to give experiences rather than things.  (See: golf lessons, home brew kits, concert tickets, etc.)  Ideally, the Pollyanna side of me likes to think that memories far outlast anything I could wrap up neatly with a bow.  Not that I don’t like the shiny and the new, but that really wasn’t going to apply here.

What kind of experience or memory can possibly be given to a two-year-old?  Everything is new and interesting at that point, which is both a blessing and a challenge.  I love giving books, but again, he’s two.  And with already having the entire state of Colorado, you can be certain there were books in there.  While there are books I know he has, and ones I believe he should receive as he gets older, there was nothing I could think of for right now.  I was getting nowhere.

Then I remembered the best part of being a two-year-old:  anything can be new and fun.  And then I remembered the best part of being an aunt:  I don’t clean up the mess.

So I concentrated on the packaging of the gifts instead, and my sister will no doubt thank me profusely for months to come.

Oh, there is really so much more than these photos reveal. There are parts of that box my sister will still be finding when this kid turns three… or twenty.  But we can’t go ruining the surprise on the internet. 

Happy Birthday, Ivan.