Ever since Gavin was young, he has demonstrated a sense for brand loyalty. It began with Starbucks after I started feeding him sips from my Starbucks hot chocolate. After that, he would start pointing at Starbucks whenever we passed it, indicating he wanted hot chocolate.

The next big brand Gavin decided he liked was anything with Thomas and Friends. He would go berserk whenever he got a new Thomas and Friends product – be it a toy, a VCD or a towel with a picture of Thomas on it.

His godmother recently gave him a Thomas pillow case and he started dancing with joy. I think the exuberance he displayed when he received it spoke volumes about how grateful he was to receive this present. When I asked him to say “thank you” to godma, he signed “thank you” enthusiastically several times.

During a grocery shopping trip, I discovered another brand preference Gavin had developed. The first bottled juice we introduced him to was by the brand “Peel Fresh”. It wasn’t long before he would start looking for “Peel Fresh” in the supermarkets whenever we go shopping.

After my most recent food poisoning episode, I seem to have developed an affinity for drinking orange juice, so I started buying the 2L cartons of juice instead of the 1L cartons. For some strange reason, Village Grocers in Bangsar Village only sell the 1L cartons of Peel Fresh. Since they didn’t have the 2L cartons, I decided to get Sunkist instead. Even though I had put two 2L cartons into the trolley, Gavin kept pointing to the Peel Fresh carton, indicating that that was the one he wanted.

Over the weekend, we took a family trip to Teluk Intan to visit some of hubby’s relatives. Among the stuff we brought with us was a tin of Milo. When Gavin saw the Milo tin, he started saying “Mi. Mi.” - ever since that day, he has been saying “Mi” whenever he sees the Milo logo.

So here are a couple more brands that have just found themselves in the history books of Gavin’s Choice Awards:

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This week’s Gavin’s Choice Award has definitely got to go to:

Thomas the Tank Engine

I’ve never realise just how fond Gavin was of Thomas until I noticed him gravitating towards the Thomas toys in the toy department one day.  Although Gavin has watched Thomas and Friends on TV, he has never really watched the program as often as he has Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or My Friends Tigger and Pooh. 

The interesting thing is that I think he likes it even more than Mickey or Pooh…

Gavin really loves the theme song:

In fact, he likes it so much that he’ll quieten down whenever I start singing it - even when he’s throwing a tantrum.  The Thomas song has been really great for getting him to calm down almost instantaneously and to do a lot of things that previously, he would never have done without a fight (such as allowing me to buckle him into his carseat after a long day of shopping).

None of his other interests or toys has ever had an effect like this before - not even Baby Signing Time which I thought was already really good.

So yup, Thomas definitely gets Gavin’s vote for the Choice Awards…

That said, I wonder how long this interest in Thomas will last?  My SIL2 and hubby have already warned me not to over do the Thomas song in case it loses its appeal.  True, true, it’s usually my last resort, but it’s so effective, it’s hard to resist breaking out into the Thomas song.  Even my SIL got hooked on the song when she was here on holiday.  I caught her humming it several times in the kitchen when she was baking up a storm.

You’ve got to admit, the tune’s pretty catchy.

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My SIL and I took Gavin to check out the new branch of Toys ‘R’ Us at KLCC and to do a bit of shopping yesterday.  We were taking the escalators up to Kinokuniya when Gavin spotted Starbucks in the distance.  He pointed to it and said, “Eh, eh.”

Gavin’s really into the whole coffee culture - or rather, I should say he’s into the hot chocolate culture.  For some time now, he’s been taking sips from my hot chocolate every time I get one from Starbucks.  In fact, while he occasionally declines my offer to share some ice cream with him, he has almost never rejected the hot chocolate.  Yep, he’s a kid who rejects ice cream.  My FIL once commented that never has he ever known a child who rejected ice cream before.  I would even go so far as to say that hot chocolate tops the list on Gavin’s food preferences. 

Fairly early on, Gavin started to recognise the Starbucks take away cups and would insist on having a sip when he saw it.  Yesterday was the first time he’s ever shown recognition of the Starbucks shop front.

Aside from Starbucks, Gavin has been demonstrating a marked preference for certain brands and items over others.  So evident is his preference that it has prompted me to create the Gavin’s Kid’s Choice Awards (yes, the logo should look somewhat familiar - it belongs to the Nikelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards).

And here is the first winner for Gavin’s Kid’s Choice Awards:

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