Contrails? What?

Grafton's bedroom has a skylight, which provides a fairly wide view of the sky above and the street below our house...if you place your head right up to it.  Often, just before bedtime or right after being lifted out of the crib in the morning, I'll carry Grafton over to the skylight to "see what we can see" of the world outside.  (This used to be my secret technique for getting him to settle down when he refused to sleep.)

This morning we walked over to the skylight together in our pj's.  Dad saw some smoke emanating from the neighbor's chimney and pointed it out to Grafton, thinking he would find it interesting.  But he was too busy looking up at the sky. Uninterested in the chimney smoke, he pointed way up asked "What's that line?"  At first I didn't understand his question, but after he repeated himself, I realized he had spotted a contrail from an airplane that had flown overhead.  I explained to him all about airplane exhaust, atmospheric temperatures, and frozen vapor, and he listened intently.  I then noticed that Venus was bright and visible just below the contrail and told him about the planet that was up in the sky.  With our morning observations complete, we proceeded to get dressed and ready for the new day.

For me, the interesting thing was that I realized Grafton has started to ask the question "what is that?"  He had asked this "what" question a few times already in the previous few days, but it didn't register with me that it was a new form of inquisitiveness for him.  

I must also note that he hasn't asked the "why?" question much recently, but I have a feeling that one will start again soon.

Restoration

Just noting that Grafton's injured fingernail has finally grown back fully, after losing the damaged fingernail altogether.  The finger is back to normal.  This is well ahead of schedule, as his doctor indicated it would be Feb or Mar before the damaged nail would be regrown.  He has a small scar and bump above the finger nail, which will likely be a permanent reminder of the incident.  But all seems to be well with his right middle finger.

While we're on the topic of healing, the bump he has just above his nasal bridge is considerably diminished and hard to detect now.  Perhaps this injury was not as permanent as we had thought it would be.

Grafton's Song

Grafton was sitting on the couch, with his new guitar (well, ukelele) in his lap, and started playing a song.  He declared, "This is Do Re Mi song".  After he played a few notes, he realized it didn't quite sound like the song he had intended to perform.  To rectify, he quickly explained, "This is not Do Re Mi.  This is Grafton's song."

Grafton's interest in music and dancing continues unabated.  He's often found with an instrument in his hands, including his ukelele, recorder, harmonica, and accordion.  He likes drumming along with Daddy as well, using any objects we can use to bang together and make a rhythm.  His rhythmic timing is really coming along, and he can continue producing a steady beat while Daddy drums alongside or plays the harmonica.  And, of course, Grafton dances whenever there's music in the air.  He still frequently demands that we play music for him on the stereo.

Christmas Eve Independence

Grafton enjoyed his third Christmas Eve at Nana and PopPop's house, with Baba, Grandpa, Jake, Sophie, and Jenya.  He played extensively with Jake, although I can't really say what he was doing, since I was not invited.  For the most part, Grafton actively ignored his Dad today!  I guess this is part of growing up.

No more water until...

Grafton asked for some water while Dad was making dinner tonight. Dad gave him a cup and allowed him to use the refrigerator's water dispenser to fill his cup. After just a few sips he wanted to dispense more into his cup. But Dad told him that he could only get more once the water in his cup was gone. Discovering a technical loophole in this rule, Grafton produced one his devious grins, walked over to the kitchen sink, and dumped his water down the drain. Since he outwitted his Dad, we let him dispense some more water.

Special Delivery

Today, Grafton delivered his...um...err...first solid excretion into his potty. It started out as usual by sitting him down on his potty to go pee. But it was soon clear he was ready to deliver something more substantial, and so he stood back up, as he would normally do for this activity when wearing his diaper. This freaked out Daddy a bit, and so I gently persuaded him to sit back down. But by then it appeared the urge had subsided. Mom then walked in and we waited for him to pee. But he didn't have to go. So he eventually stood up, and somehow, without either of us knowing it, the potty was full. But not with pee. What a surprise! It surprised Grafton too, and after poking it, he started to cry. Of course, we started to congratulate him and tell him what a great milestone this was, but I think our praises were lost on him in his moment of distress and confusion. But he soon came around, and after asking us to wipe his tears (something he now does after every time he cries), he told us his was "happy again" and we proceeded to give him a bath.

These Bars Can't Hold Me In

Usually Grafton goes down for bed pretty easily. But on the night of December twelfth he was not interested in sleeping, and protested loudly when we lowered him into his crib, with some wild flailing and crying to round out the protest. As soon as he felt his feet reach the mattress, he recoiled by kicking up one leg up above his waist, easily clearing the top bar of his crib. In one fluid motion he grabbed the bar with his hands, pulled himself up and rolled over the top, as if he was running through an undersized military obstacle course. Of course, we were both right there catch him and thwart his escape (and prevent certain injury). I think we'll be converting his crib into a bed very soon.

Early December

Grafton now "loves" things, or so he tells us.  "I love my giraffe", "I love my car", etc.  But a couple recent ones were particularly funny.  While looking at the latest Vanity Fair with Mom, Grafton was being told about all the celebrities on its pages.  At one point declared, "I love Johnny Depp" and later "I love Jay-Z".

When Dad drives home from Boston, he almost always calls up Mom and Grafton on the phone to see how there evening is going.  Dad always asks Grafton about what he's up to, what he's eating (if it's his dinner time) and what he did during the day.  This past Thursday the phone call with Grafton was a real two-way dialog.  For each question I asked, Grafton had a lucid, accurate response, in full sentences.  It definitely seemed like a jump in his conversational abilities since the last call we had together.

In keeping with his age, Grafton is now frequently heard making demands, such as telling his parents to "stop!" when they're doing something he doesn't care for (usually singing).  More frequently now he gets in a mood where he has to be in control of everything, and if we turn something on (e.g., the radio), then it must be turned off, or if we're sitting down on the couch over here then we must instead sit down over there.  We're trying to explain to him the most of the time he doesn't get to decide these things, but we also allow for him to be in control when it's appropriate, so that he can enjoy this feeling of being empowered.

Grafton had recently entered the dreaded biting phase, which has now, thankfully, almost completely subsided.  Most days after coming home from school, we ask him how is day was and his response is almost always, "Grafton no biting".  (In response, we provide him with thorough and heartfelt congratulations.)

Grafton has started to really latch onto his animal dolls.  In particular, his yellow, crocheted giraffe.  We'll often find him on the couch, snuggled behind the two side pillows, and with the blanket over his legs, curled up with a doll.  Sometimes he'll be having a quiet conversation with the doll.

Today, Grafton was down in the den playing by himself, while Mom was cooking dinner and Dad was putting up the Christmas tree that we had picked out earlier in the afternoon.  Dad asked Mom if she had checked on Grafton in the last few minutes and she said, "yes, he's fine".  Just then Grafton climbs up the stairs to the kitchen and announces "I start a fire!"  (We think he was either asking us to start a fire in the wood stove, or perhaps he heard a Christmas song about a fire...and chestnuts?)

Tonight, while eating, Grafton finally---finally!!!--announces, "I like my dinner".  This was a far cry from the last two nights, in particular, when Grafton basically went to bed without eating (he refused to eat).  I guess his lack of eating finally caught up with him, and he was very thankful to have a yummy meal.

While cleaning up our pile of children's music CDs, Grafton insisted we put one on.  So I threw one in the CD player, and it was one that neither Neva or I had heard before. Grafton on the other hand, sang along to every song on the CD, even performing the proper gestures for the songs ("Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Hokey Pokey", etc.).  We couldn't quite elicit where he had learned all the songs (Nana? Daycare?), but it was clear he heard them all many, many times before.  Needless to say, we'll play this one for him much more, now that we know how much he likes it!  Plus, it was a lot of fun to watch him perform something we had not taught him ourselves.

While going through the Christmas tree decorations today, Mom found a few glow-in-the-dark spherical glass ornaments.  She decided to make a mobile out of them, and hung them up in Grafton's room.  Before bed, she explained to Grafton that they would glow when we turned out the lights so that he could see them at night.  I believe her words were, "when the room is dark, you'll be able to see your balls!"  [sorry, that one's not really about Grafton, but I couldn't resist]

A Real Two-Year Old

I think we finally have a real two-year old on our hands now.  In the sense of "terrible twos", that is.  No, Grafton's not terrible, he's far from it.  But boy, most requests we make of him now usually receive an automatic "No!", even if it's something he clearly wants, like putting on his favorite pajamas, or eating a second helping of blueberries.  If it is something he wants, he'll wait until we begin to retract the offer before changing his position on the matter.  It's also getting much harder to get him to stop doing things he's having fun with, like playing with water in the sink or coming inside after playing in the yard (or the driveway, as is more common).  He can really turn on the tears quickly now! When Grafton's well-rested, fully fed, and in a good mood, he can still be a very agreeable little boy, but when he's not, he's definitely pushing his behavior farther towards the Dark Side.  Even so, we can get usually him to turn around his mood pretty quickly with an appropriate distraction, bribe, or carefully negotiated deal, which is reassuring.

Bucket Head

From today's "Toddler 3 Daily Communication Form":

Outside Grafton put a big container on his head and said "Say hello to  Bucket Head!"

Mr. Fix It

For his birthday, the Stumachers got Grafton his own workbench, replete with a hammer, screw driver, adjustable wrench, and pliers, all of which can be stored on its peg board with hooks, or in its 5 shelves or cabinet.  Now that Grafton's got tools, he's starting to "fix" things!  For example, he was just banging away at his tractor trailer with his hammer.  After some manly work, he declares "all fixed", followed by "still broken", which meant another trip back to the workbench for another tool, and which no doubt means more banging is in the near future.  The best part (for us parents) is that when Grafton is done "fixing" something, he takes his tools back to the workbench and hangs them back up on the pegboard!

Earlier, we were playing "pick up and drop the tissue".  When the tissue fell behind the workbench, he said "I'll get it".  And when I asked how he would do that he answered "with the hammer", which he pulled off the workbench, rotated the workbench out of the way, and the fished out the tissue with the hammer.  And of course, the hammer went back up on the pegboard when done.

The workbench is also serving as his Play-Doh play area and his Automoblox and Hot Wheels maintenance shop.  He likes to perform tire rotations on his Automoblox cars, although mostly he just takes off the wheels.  When Grafton is too tired to stand in front of his workbench, he'll find our short wooden stool and slide it over to the bench, and then sit or kneel on it as he works away on his cars or fills them with Play-Doh.

When Grafton's all done working hard at his workbench, he'll cool off by diving into his pool (blue bean bag), after which he's all "wet".

Gotta Get a Jeep

Grafton loves Jeeps.  For months now, he's been able to identify them on the street (all models, all colors).  He points them out in TV commercials and magazine ads.  He even has a book about one.  So last Friday night, while Mom was away at the salon, Dad had the bright idea to search for Jeep videos on YouTube to keep Grafton entertained. Well, now Grafton's addicted.  In the morning, and in the evening, Grafton asks "Watch Jeep Daddy's computer?"  Of course if Dad's not too busy (though he usually is), we'll search for Jeep videos together.  Grafton loves watching the souped-up vehicles perform extreme off-roading maneuvers, and saying "wow!" and "he did it!" when a Jeep clears a huge boulder, clears a steep, rutted incline, or climbs out of a deep muddy hole.  Of course, it's possible his excitement is a learned behavior, but it's hard to say who he might have learned that from.

Oh yeah, Grafton also likes Hummers.

Our Darling (Peeled a) Clementine

After Grafton finished eating two clementines, he demanded more.  So I brought out two more.  But this time I showed him how to peel the clementine.  Leaving the fourth clementine on his tray
he started peeling the entire clementine himself, just as Dad had shown him.  He first bit the skin, then slowly peeled off the skin, then split up the pieces, and finally popped them in his mouth.

Do Re Mi...

In an attempt to distract Grafton from his whining about going to bed, I started singing "Do[e], a deer..", and he finished the line, "a female deer". I continued, "Re...", and he produced a shy rebuttal, "a drop of golden sun". Neva and I looked up at each other, but with a look of disbelief--it had been two weeks since we last watched the Sound of Music.  And while we had sung this song to him many times for a day or two afterwards, he had never sang and the words before himself.  Grafton was waiting for the next note, so I continued, "Me..."  to which Grafton retorted, "a name I call myself".  Then, "Fa..."  Well you know the rest. And so did Grafton! Well, every line, except "La" (a note to follow "so").  We were really surprised he knew the whole song.  We promised him he could watch a scene from the movie in the morning, if we went to bed now.  And he did, without complaint.

Two

Happy Birthday, Grafton!  Two years old, wow.  But as Grafton says when asked his age, "I'm 14 o'clock" (in fact, we finally caught him on video tonight telling us his age correctly).

Thanks, everyone, for the cards and gifts!

Photos are here.

More to come...Mom and Dad are exhausted...it's been a long year. :-)

Ready for the Winter

Grafton sports his new winter jacket, hat, and lunchbox. Somehow Mom managed to color coordinate the whole thing, including his shoes.

More shots here.

Trick-or-Treat!

Cowboy Grafton lassoed in a big bag o' candy while trick-or-treating in Armonk.  A few more Halloween photos are here

In this video, Cowboy Grafton learns that the candy doesn't carry itself:

Theater Manners

One of the few movies Grafton has watched is the Sound of Music.  All of the singing and dancing and beautiful scenery really catches his attention.  This afternoon, Grafton found the DVD insert on his bookshelf and handed it to his Dad.  So I asked him if he'd like to watch the movie, and of course he said yes, and started to walk downstairs with the insert in hand.  So we threw in the DVD and started the show.  Mom came home as it was starting and joined Grafton on the couch.  They watched together, while I began cooking dinner. After dinner was in the oven, I came in to the den, and reacting to the music started tap dancing (with flailing arms) right in front of Grafton.  Grafton, who was heretofore attentively watching the movie, started to scowl, quite clearly annoyed that someone was blocking his view of the TV.  Realizing that I wasn't going to move out of his way on my own, Grafton finally makes eye contact, glaring up at me, points a stern finger down at the couch and barks out, "Silly Daddy! You sit down on the couch!"

Neva and I burst out laughing, of course, but I heeded his request. Admittedly, my dancing is not as entertaining as the musical numbers in the Sound of Music, so Grafton was quite justified in making his demand.

October Tidbits

• Grafton is very protective of his new laptop.  Whenever Mom or Dad try to use it to load a web page or application for his enjoyment, he pushes us away and says, "my puter, my puter!"
• Mom asked Grafton to say "thank you" for something she he handed him, he said "thanks, mama".   (We found this significant, since he wasn't repeating the phrase verbatim, but had his own way of saying the phrase).  Similarly, we asked Grafton, "tell Rachel to have a good weekend" and he said "have a good weekend, Rachel" (placing her name at the end of the sentence).  Minor milestones, certainly, but something we wanted to remember.
• Yesterday (Sat, 10/23) Grafton told Mom he wanted to go hiking today to see "jeep in a heap".  The previous Sunday (10/17), we had gone for a hike [photos, video] and saw a couple of old, abandoned, rusted out cars alongside the trail. Grafton was remembering these cars and the fact that they met the same fate as the jeep in his book "Sheep in a Jeep" (it falls to pieces after crashing into a tree).
• Bed time has been a bit rough lately, and we've been forced into practicing "tough love" to get Grafton to fall asleep on his own.  (Nap time has been a problem for much longer, but bed time was usually always very easy up until a couple of weeks ago.)  So now we're having to let him cry for as long as it takes (up to 40 minutes some nights). We'll only go up if he starts asking for "blanket on", which means he's cried himself to exhaustion and is ready to hit the sack.
• After drawing a picture, Grafton described what he drew on his picture "turtle", which was one of the first times he's attempted to explain what was behind his artistic expression.  Yesterday, as he was eating his waffle quarters, he'd take a bite or two and then describe the shape that he saw: "boat", "doggy", "mountain".
• This morning (10/24), Grafton woke up with us in our bed and played by himself for an hour, without bothering us.  When we finally woke up he showed us how to play the violin, demonstrating his use of a pretend violin bow.
• Neva and Grafton carved a pumpkin yesterday afternoon, and after the sun went down Neva illuminated the pumpkin with a candle.  Grafton liked to point out, repeatedly, that it was a "scary pumpkin".

The Lure of the Leaves

Returning home from dinner out on Friday night, Dad decided we could all use an evening walk on the MHC campus before heading home for bed. As Grafton's recent taste for walking is best described as "reluctant", we have to devise strategies for coaxing him along, lest we end up holding him most of the way. Knowing that Grafton loves stomping through leaves, Dad decided to use this as a motivating force for Grafton. "I think I see a big pile of leaves, Grafton!", yells Dad. Peering through the darkness of MHC campus, Grafton spots the leaves along the path and runs towards them. With the leaves conveniently lining the side of the path, Grafton tromps through the crunchy detritus, kicking colorful shapes into the air with each step. Dad and Mom join in. Alas, the trail of leaves ends, and Dad looks off into the distance to find the next pile. The MHC grounds keepers are too well-funded, however, and the lawns are mostly devoid of the expected autumnal ground cover. But the recent winds have collected small piles around tree and fences, and Dad finds what he's looking for between a pair of trees. "Grafton, I think I see another big pile!", Dad exclaims. After searching the horizon, Grafton confirms, "Big pile leaves! Big pile leaves!" and starts running across the grassy field. After pulverizing a few thousand more leaves under his feet, we run to the next pile alongside a fence. Then we follow a another trail of leaves alongside the stone curb in the street (no cars). Grafton is walking like a champ now, making good time. But it wasn't until the very end of the walk when we found the mother lode. A forty-five degree embankment rising up from the corner of a small parking area had completely escaped the attention of the campus ground crews, and had accumulated a virgin pile of leaves so deep and fluffy that it was, without question, the jewel of leaf piles in all of South Hadley. But this was not apparent at first. From the top of the embankment, Grafton starts walking down into the leaves, joyfully romping through knee-high depths. But with a few more steps he plunges down into an unexpected abyss, disappearing almost entirely from view, save the hood of his winter jacket. Flailing, then rolling, and finally rising to his feet, he emerges, giddy with delight. He then runs from the pile, only to turn around and with a running start, dives back into the pile. This goes on for some time, with Dad's encouragement. Mom has already headed back to the car for warmth. Eventually, we both run out of steam and head back to the car as well. When we arrived at home and removed Grafton's jacket, we found a lot of these.

Why oh Why?

I've been waiting for this to happen, and it finally has. Grafton has started to inquire about the causal forces of the universe. Well, not quite. But he has started to ask "Why?" And like his father, when he was a small boy, Grafton doesn't just ask once and go away, satisfied with his newly acquired tidbit of knowledge. Indeed, every explanation describes a phenomenon, which in the eyes of Grafton, is but another unexplained mystery of the universe which requires further explanation. And thus another "Why?". Another answer, and then another question, "Why?". And so on, ad nauseum. It's as if Grafton is searching for the very axioms of nature upon which our cosmological existence rests. Or maybe he just gets a kick out of making his parents talk until they're exhausted. Either way, we love it.

Little Things

Over the last couple days, Grafton has enjoyed showing off his improved jumping skills.  He can jump pretty well now, straight up, pushing off with both feet, and gaining a few inches of air.  He practiced outside on the front porch, which provided a rewarding boom with each landing.  Loud enough to keep up Mom, apparently, who was napping upstairs in the bedroom.

Lately, Grafton has been singing a few songs in their entirety, including his ABCs (with the "next time won't you..." epilogue), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Are You Sleeping Brother John.  What took us by surprise the other day, was when he started singing that last one in French! (Frere Jacque)  We didn't teach him that one.

We "gave" Grafton his own computer, the old VAIO laptop.  Now Dad can actually get some work done on his own computer when Grafton is up in the office.  Grafton really enjoys it!  He won't let us touch it when he's using it.  He's already learning how to build software compilers (photo).

While cleaning up the office, I came across some old puzzles, where there are pairs of twisted metal shapes that need to be separated by rotating them just so.  I told him to try to take them apart.  Seeing that he couldn't quite do it yet, he started walking downstairs and said "go get scissors, cut it".  Ha!  This shows he actually understood the goal of the puzzle.

Gory Details

For those that want to see Grafton's injured finger, photos are now posted. Enjoy!

Rewind the Week

Okay, so let's pretend we can rewind the week, and just focus on the previous weekend. Here are some highlights.

On Friday, Grafton had a dinner party with his friend Joe, at Joe's house. (Mom and Dad also had dinner with Joe's parents, Liz and Bennett. A very yummy shrimp & grits dish was enjoyed by all adults.)

On Saturday, Grafton went on a tour of the northern Hill Towns in MA, enjoying time in Shelburne Falls, and driving around Zoar, Rowe, and Hawley. We stopped in Rowe to enjoy the serenity of the town's center, which consists of a church, a post office, a pond, and a gazebo. We later drove up, and then down, the "Meanest Mile in Massachusetts" (Kingsley Hill, Rd.) Grafton was not impressed and soon fell asleep.

On Sunday, we headed to the Stockbridge Festival Harvest with Nana and PopPop. Grafton had a fun time playing in a cornbox (i.e., a sandbox filled with corn instead of sand), taking an (assisted) plunge off the Hay Jump, running around the Hay Maze (video), and taking an (abbreviated) pony ride.

Injury Prone

When it rains, it pours.  Dad had just finished his commute to Boston, and was walking into the lobby of the Sealy G Mudd building where he works, when he receives The Call from Mom, "Grafton got hurt again."  This time, while at school and standing still next to a book shelf, he spontaneously trips on his own feet and falls head first onto the corner of the bookshelf.  Big bruise right between his eyes.

Mom, after receiving The Call from day care, headed over to school to see how he was doing, and took him out to lunch at Barstow's.  Fortunately, he was in good spirits, as you can see in the photo.  

On the commute home, after navigating 40 minutes of out-bound Boston traffic, Dad receives The Call again, "Grafton got his finger caught in a shopping cart and it's bleeding."  Not just any finger, but the same finger he hurt earlier this week.  Bandage comes off, another bruise, more blood.  Mom frees his finger from the cart, but has to head home immediately to administer medical care.

We're heading to the doctor today for a (scheduled) follow-up on his (original) finger injury.  Please wish Grafton luck today, since I don't think Mom or Dad can handle any more Calls.  Fortunately, Grafton bounces back from each injury in good spirits, and has yet to acknowledge any pain he might be feeling.

Interestingly, he hasn't been sleeping well this week, and refuses to go down easily at bed time, which is a first for him.  Perhaps he's missing critical sleep, making him a little less coordinated and careful in his movements?

Big Boo Boo on Finger

Grafton injured his finger today, while playing outside at daycare, around noon.  Apparently, he was running while pushing a tikes bike, and somehow fell when the bike flipped backwards on him.  We're not exactly sure what injured his finger, but it was a really bad scrape that took off a good bit of skin and half of the fingernail on his right middle finger.  Dad arrived soon after and brought Grafton to the emergency room at Bay State Hospital, where Mom later joined us.  After four x-rays, a couple of lidocaine shots, and a thorough saline cleaning, the official diagnosis is "open fracture and tissue avulsion of distal finger".  So there's a small break in the bone at the tip of his finger.  There was not much more to do other than to tape up the finger and send us on our way.   Grafton was really brave while in the emergency room.  He cringed when the shots were administered, but didn't cry, and put up with the saline cleaning very well.  He was also a model patient during the x-rays, holding his hand still in some difficult poses (while sitting on Daddy's lap).

As soon as Grafton got home and out of the car, his bandage fell off and onto the driveway!  Dad was picking up a prescription, and upon hearing the news from Mom, picked up additional bandages to re-apply the protective layers.

Of all days for a work trip, Mom had a flight at 5:30pm today, so had to leave for the airport soon after we all arrived home. (We deliberated about this for a little while, but decided Grafton and Daddy would be okay on their own.)

Grafton has been doing really, really well so far.  We played outside a little, picking up pine needles and stuffing them in his play car's trunk.  Grafton knew to keep his injured hand inactive.  Inside, he's continued to play with Matchbox cars and has yet to complain about his finger, and he's even holding cars in his right hand now.   He'll head to bed soon, and here's hoping he has a pain-free sleep.

Not yet sure if he'll be heading back to daycare tomorrow, but we'll play it by ear.  Mom will be home late on Tue night.

It will be a long time until Grafton's finger is fully healed, since the fingernail will need to grow back entirely, but the doctors believe he'll make a full recovery.  We're heading to a specialist on Friday, just to be sure.

Books, Rain, Stairs, Water

Dad picked up Grafton at little early today from school so that they could meet Mo Willems at a book signing in South Hadley. Once there, we picked up his latest book, "Knuffle Bunny Free", which Mo signed for us.  (He also told us to look for a cameo of the pigeon character from his earlier books, after we mentioned that we were big fans of the pigeon.)  The protagonist, Trixie, loses something dear while taking a plane ride, which we recently did ourselves ("we" = "Dad"), leaving Grafton's "Blueberries for Sal" book on the plane ride down to NC.  Grafton loves his new Knuffle Bunny Free book, which I think we read to him four times today already.

After the book signing, Dad and Grafton went for a walk in the MHC sports fields, watched the college teams practice their respective sports, and the proceeded to get drenched by a soaking rain, before heading back home.

While we're here, I'll mention that Grafton finally took a solid tumble down the staircase to the den.  He slipped on his PJ's pant cuff, leaned forward, but with nothing to latch on to, slide down 3 stairs head first, hit his lip on the bottom step, and then completed the maneuver with a full somersault, landing in the den on his back, staring up at the ceiling.  He cried, but was uninjured, and was back to playing within a couple of minutes.

With the help of a stool, we learned that Grafton really enjoys playing in the kitchen sink, catching the running water in his open bottles, and then pouring it out.  Again and again and again. This is great, since we can now cook dinner in the kitchen with him nearby, in one place, and wholly entertained.

Leader of the Chorus

Today's "Toddler 3 Daily Communication Form" had this note written on it:

Grafton like watching the rain through the open windows today. He also had the whole class singing along with "Nana PopPop coming soon"!

Tower of Cars

As parents of a toddler, we were having our typical Saturday night fun by shopping for groceries at the local big box store. As were we finishing up, we strolled down the aisle of kids toys. We passed by a rocking horse, which Grafton refused to try out.  We passed by baby toy after baby toy, none of which were of any interest to our son.  But as we approached the end of the aisle, we entered the hallowed ground of miniature die-cast cars.  Grafton immediately took possession of the Hot Wheels Dynamite Blaster Launcher (with 5 cars), held it up high and yelled "This One! This One! Buy It!" We laughed at his exuberance and ability to hone in on his favorite toys. While Grafton continued examining his new favorite toy, Daddy was checking out the other selections of die cast cars nearby.  Grafton, seeing that Daddy was interested in a different box, came over to see if there was anything else that could possibly be better than the Dynamite Blast Launcher. And indeed there was! It was a tower of see-through plastic, which stood taller than our child, and packed with so many cars and vehicles that it would be years before he would have the number skills to count them all (there were at least a hundred cars in there).  This was clearly a package worthy of a big box store, being of a scale that was at home alongside 8 gallon jars of mayonnaise and 20 lb boxes of over-sized muffins. After the few milliseconds it took for Grafton to recognize this treasure trove of vehicular joy, he lunged at the box, seized it with a strangling hug half way up its length, pulled it from the bottom shelf, and started jumping up and down with it, while he squealed in a voice that was too loud even in a big box store.  It took a while for us to calm his excitement, but we were eventually able to extricate the item from his rigamortis-like grasp.  With the simple phrase, "Let's keep looking," Grafton calmly decided to follow us down the next aisle, perhaps with the expectation that an even better selection of toys was possible.  In fact there were larger truck toys on the next aisle, each of which Grafton reached for in turn.  And with incredible restraint and understanding, he put each one back of the shelf when we explained that we were not going to purchase it, and that we should "keep looking."  While that line seemed to do the trick of letting us move on, when the end of the aisle arrived and Dad repeated it one more time, Grafton happily turned the corner into the next aisle, and said "more trucks." And so Dad, knowing there would be no more toys to see, felt a sudden pang of guilt and remorse at the misdirection he used to get Grafton to move on.  But not quite enough guilt to go back and buy any of the toys.  Of course, Grafton's birthday is not far off, and perhaps there will be a way to make up for it.

Progress with Mazzy

Mom reported to Dad today that Grafton pet Mazzy for 10-15 seconds, before the cat took off for a safer spot under the bed.  Either Mazzy is warming up to Grafton, or she's starting to become senile.  I never expected she'd give in to a close encounter with our son.

Pumpkins and Mazes

Grafton went pumpkin picking today with his friends, Grahm and Ivorie.  We'll let the pictures tell the story.

Oh yeah, last weekend we ventured into a corn maze, and there are some pictures of that as well.  Grafton was out and about doing some other things as well that weekend (scroll right see the pictures).

Morehead Moments

Two weeks ago, Grafton headed out of town for a trip down to Morehead City, NC to see his grandparents.

He really enjoyed flying on the airplanes.  On the first flight (of 4) he was very focused during the takeoff, listening to Daddy explain how the plane was racing down the runway, lifting off, and then flying up into the air.  Of course, we had some turbulence eventually, and Grafton smiled and said it was "bumpy" but "fun".  He only threw one minor fit on the two flights down to NC, which was fortunate considering that he refused to nap.  In the Baltimore airport, he had a great time riding up and down the escalators (in his Dad's arms) while waiting to board the plane.  When we arrived at the car rental agency, he had a great time climbing around the car while Dad was trying to install his car seat.  On the drive to the coast, he slept for three hours--nearly the whole way.  He woke up refreshed and alert, and after a quick stop for a snack on the road, he was ready to play with his grandparents. He wasted no time having fun, and had his Grandpa pick him up and place him in the bed of the Dodge RAM 1500 pickup.  He loved being up in that truck!  Probably because one of his favorite Hot Wheels cars is...wait for it...a Dodge RAM 1500 pickup truck.  (On the trip, Grafton also finally learned to use the term "pickup truck" properly, as he had always used "dump truck" to describe pickups.)  In the truck bed, Grafton found a nickel and found this round, shiny metal disc rather intriguing.   We explained to him that it was money and that he could use it to buy things, or sell things (such as pizza).  Grafton accumulated many more coins over the course of the vacation, thanks to Grandpa's and Dad's generosity.

On the second day there, Mom and Dad headed over to Rose's (a local department store, of sorts) and bought a few toys for Grafton, which included his first Big Wheels (well, a no name brand version of this). After 30 minutes of assembly, the rig was ready for action.  Despite buying the one with the adjustable seat position, Grafton's legs were not quite long enough to reach the pedals, but he had a great time pushing himself around, with his feet on the ground.  It had a perfectly-sized slot in the "dashboard" for his Dodge RAM 1500 Hot Wheels car, and he refused to ride the Big Wheels unless the truck was safely stowed in its special spot.  Grafton also enjoyed riding around the driveway on his fire truck, which he seemed to remember from the last time he visited Morehead.  Grafton made many pizza deliveries using both his Big Wheels and fire engine, collecting many nickels in the process, and making change for his customers.

On the third day, we brought Grafton to the aquarium.  He wasn't all that interested in the aquatic life, unfortunately, and preferred to simply run around, weaving in out and of people.  But he did take a little time to check out the fish, and also seemed interested in the manta rays that were swirling around an open tank.  But he seemed happier once we were back outside, and made friends with a turtle before heading back.

We also brought Grafton to the beach a couple of times, enjoying what must have seemed like a gigantic sandbox to him.  While we didn't have him in a bathing suit, we did venture into the water, ankle deep.  While he had some trepidation at first, he was soon enjoying splashing around in the small waves, as they rolled in, tickling his knees and soon his knees and waist.

As always, Grafton demanded to be read to throughout the trip, and he became very interested in the plot of  "Jack and Rick", though Mom and Dad were somewhat less intrigued by the storyline after the tenth or so reading.

Similar to Mazzy, Seal was generally nowhere to be seen.  But at one point Grafton went exploring and found the cat in Grandpa's office.  He went over to make friends with her, but she hissed (and probably swatted) at him, and he came back crying.  He later removed all of his toys from that room.  The next day he refused to go into the room, clearly scared of what had happened the previous day.

Grafton also found Baba and Grandpa's bedroom.  With Grandpa's help and permission, he went nuts jumping up and down on their bed (yes, this is what grandparent's beds are for!)  Mom and Dad, hearing the ruckus, went to go check on him, and saw him bounding up and down and rolling around on the pillows.  We warned Grandpa that Grafton, having just been at the beach, was full of sand!  But Grandpa and Baba didn't mind, so we let him continue having his fun.

Thanks to the grandparent's help, Mom and Dad even got a few minutes alone to enjoy themselves on vacation, catching a dinner at Amos Mosquito's and a quick bike ride to see the setting sun.

Counting Teens

When Dad got home, Mom told him how Grafton's counting skills are coming along, and that he's able to reliably count from one to ten.  So Dad asked Grafton again, "Can you count to ten for me?"  So Grafton started counting again, but this time went, "fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen."  Dad was shocked, not realizing Grafton could count this high.  Earlier in the day, he had counted from fourteen to twenty for Mom, so she was a little less surprised, but enjoyed his double-digit counting just the same.

Mazzy Reconciliation

Grafton rarely sees Mazzy, since our cat refuses to come out while our son is at home.  She'll usually just hide up in the office and wait for Grafton to go to bed before reclaiming the main house as her own.  And it's rather unfortunate that Mazzy is so averse to Grafton's company, because Grafton really gets excited when he catches a glimpse of the cat.

Today, we witnessed an interaction that gave us a glimmer of hope that someday these two might actually be friends, or that Mazzy might eventually tolerate Grafton. Dad had just returned home from a bike ride, and heard Grafton stomping down the stairs from the office.  When appeared in the den, he acknowledged my return, but continued with a task that he was clearly very focused on.  He went over to his pile of Matchbox cars, picked one up, and trudged all the way back up the stairs to the office on his own.  Worried that he was playing on the stairs unsupervised, Dad followed him up, only to watch him walk over to Mazzy and place the car down a few feet from her resting spot. Next to Mazzy was a small collection of cars that Grafton had apparently already brought up to share with her.  (As it turns out Mom was upstairs watching all this unfold.)  With us both up in the office, Grafton headed back down to the down to pick up yet another car to give to Mazzy.  Which he did.  Realizing that Mazzy had enough cars to play with, he went over to his block pile and brought one block after another over to Mazzy.  All the while, Mazzy looked less than thrilled that Grafton was approaching so closely.  But she refused to run away, as she had always done in the past.  And Mom had been warning Grafton that he shouldn't get too close to the cat, or she would get upset and run away.  He understood this and obeyed the rule, and was therefore able to enjoy perhaps the longest interaction with our cat to date.

When the Mom's away, the boys will play

Mom's away on a work trip, leaving Dad and Grafton to fend for themselves.  (Well, with a little help from Nana and PopPop, who came by to help out on Tue.)  She'll be back on Thu evening.  So far Grafton has been doing well in light of the parental absenteeism--no fits or tantrums yet, though there is still time for that.  He definitely has started repeating his "comfort" line "Mama coming home soon", and I keep telling him she'll be home in a day or two.  Dad's doing okay too, so far!  He's even remembered to brush Grafton's teeth.

Blogging Buddies

My cousin August now has a blog too! My parents have promised to read it to me everyday!

Mmm, meat

Grafton had steak for the first time on Tue (8/30).  We had a tender cut, and so we thought he could chew it easily.  We cut off a few thin slices for him.  Apparently, he knew exactly what it was, because when we asked him, "would you like to try some steak?" he started chanting "Meat! Meat! Meat!"  He seemed to enjoy it, because he finished the first portion we gave him, and asked for more.

Where's the toothbrush?

We've been trying to teach Grafton to brush his own teeth.  Mostly he just keeps the brush in his mouth and walks around with it.  A few nights ago, he was in the den with his toothbrush, when Mom stepped away for a second.  When she returned, Grafton no longer had the toothbrush, and Mom started looking around on the floor to see where he had dropped it.  Not finding it anywhere in the den, she finally looked back in the bathroom, and as it turned out, Grafton had already placed it back in the cup where we keep it!

Fix It

Grafton's showing some new skills in taking apart and reassembling mechanical objects.  He has a simple wooden car whose rear axle has a wheel that is no longer glued on.  He likes to take the wheel off, pull the axle off the truck, then put it all back together.  When it's apart in pieces he'll agree that we need to "fix it".  More impressive was his ability to take apart and reassemble a tire gauge.  At first, he was just interested in pulling out the PSI measurement "ruler" and pushing it back in.  Then he realized the head of the (cheap!) tire gauge would come off (yes, a definite choking hazard).  But he was able to reinstall it, which made him very happy.  Then he realized that by taking off the head, he could dump out the internal spring and the ruler.  Eventually he was able to reassemble all of the major pieces, sliding the spring back in, then the ruler inside the spring, and finally replaced the head.  Now, the gauge doesn't exactly work anymore, but it was fun to see him figure it all out.  He kept at it for a long time, repeating the steps again and again.  Each time he reassembled the gauge (and the truck) he would get excited and hold up the repaired object with pride.

Funny Phrases

Grafton continues to his improve his language skills, and is talking up a storm. He's beginning to produce fairly complete sentences. For example, while reading his "Sheep in a Jeep" book, he explained to me the full story shown on one of the pages, saying something like "pigs helping sheep pull jeep from mud".  There are times when he'll just go off for a full minute or so, trying to explain to us something that he's seen; sometimes we understand, sometimes we have no idea what he's saying.

He's coming up on some interesting phrases as well:

• Daddy and Grafton went to a park, and I pointed out some shoes that were snagged up on an electrical line.  This really caught his attention, and when we got back home he was describing what he saw to Mom, and told her the shoes were "high as a house"
• While at Jenya's birthday dinner, the babysitter asked him how many hands he had, and he replied "no clue"
• Whenever it's time for a new diaper, he likes to call out "New Dipah!"
• While at Target, we were looking for a xylophone for Grafton, but he found a 10-pc Collector's Edition Matchbox set, and with great excitement he pulled it off the shelf, held it up and demanded, "Buy it!" (he continued to hold it with both hands until we reached the checkout, where we had to convince him that he would get it back after paying for it)
• Also while at Target, we were looking for a stepping stool for Grafton to use in the bathroom.  We found one with 2 steps, and he tried it out. After climbing to the top step, he realized he was rather high up and warned (himself) to "Be careful".  (I guess we say that to him a lot!)
• Yesterday Grafton took notice that Daddy has hair on his legs, and after pulling it a bit told Daddy that he has "dirty legs"

Expensive Taste in Cars

Grafton now has twenty-one Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars. His favorite two are the 2005 Range Rover Sport and 2007 Cadillac Escalade. He likes that the Range Rover has a towing hitch on the back. By the time he's ready to drive, we'll probably be able to afford one of these cars for him--as long as it's one of the above model years!

Pee Pee in the Potty

While at school today, Grafton made his first pee pee in the potty!

Toddler 3

Well, as it turns out, there is currently no Toddler 2 class at Grafton's daycare center.  We realized recently that Grafton is in fact in Toddler 3.

He's doing well in his new class. His teachers tell us that he's well matched with the other kids, and is communicating with them very well, and has a good understanding of what his classmates are doing. They also tell us he has a good sense of humor. He definitely seems happy with his new class, since most days when we drop him off he won't even say goodbye to us, as he gets involved in his activities pretty quickly.

Toddler 2

Grafton started in his new daycare class today, Toddler 2.  As usual, he settled in to his new environment without a complaint.  He seemed happy to be back with Rachel, his first teacher from Toddler 1 (prior to the summer semester), and Tina, another teacher he's spent time with in the past.  He's also back with his friend, Joe.

Pizza's Ready

We made a pizza tonight and set a timer to tell us when it's done.  All of us were sitting in the den when the timer went off, and Grafton yelled out "Pizza's ready!"

Car Crazy

Grafton is big into cars these days.  We bought him two used play cars for driving around outside (one of the cars is just the like the one Nana & PopPop have for him at their house).  He loves playing in these cars, and still enjoys playing the role of pizza delivery man.   He's also very insistent on parking his cars when he's done playing.  Grafton also loves playing with his Hot Wheels cars inside, lining them up, rolling them around, and even crashing them together.  And when he gets the chance, he loves to play inside Mama's and Daddy's real cars, when they're parked in the garage.  And he continues to call out "car!", "Jeep!", and "big truck!" when he sees these vehicles on the road.  Basically, Grafton loves vehicles of all kinds.  He had a few funny car-related moments last Tuesday...

While in the garage, we popped the hoods on our real cars and showed Grafton the cars' engines. We tried to explain to him how the turning engine turned the wheels, and while he listened intently, we're not sure we entirely communicated the idea to the him.  But we're pretty sure he understood that a car has an engine.  Later that day, Neva asked him to show her where his play car's engine was located and he was able to show her where it is, pointing at the front of the car.  Later, Dad asked him again, and asked Grafton to look underneath the car, and he bent down to look for the engine under the car.  (Grafton apparently understands the of "underneath", which impressed us.)

After showing him the engines, Daddy decided to check the tire pressure on his cars, with Grafton looking on.  Of course, as soon as Daddy obtained his tire pressure gauge, Grafton coveted it, and didn't let up until he was in possession of the tool.  Somehow Grafton knew what to do with it, because he immediately proceeded to hold it up against the tire valve on the front left tire of Mama's car.  (I hadn't showed him how to use it yet, at least not that day--maybe a couple months ago?  Maybe he saw similarities between the bicycle tire pump he plays with?).  After that, Grafton refused to relinquish control of the gauge, and then "checked" one of the tires on Daddy's car.  Fortunately, Daddy has 4 tire gauges and was able to keep Grafton happy by giving him a few others to play with.  Returning to the task at hand, Daddy proceeded to remove valve caps and check tire pressures.  Grafton was very interested, watched intently, and followed me around for all eight tires, all the while carrying his own gauges with him.  Later, when Mama came outside to see us, unprompted, Grafton showed her what had learned by running over to his play car and "checked" the pressure, holding the gauge against the little plastic wheel!  We asked him how the pressure looked on his tires and said "14".  We were both surprised that he knew the question required a numeric answer.  (He seems to understand numeric questions in other cases, and often responds with "3" or "14".  E.g, on 8/20 he also responded "14" we asked him how much he weighs after stepping off of our bathroom scale.)

Finally, Daddy checked the oil in his car's engines.  To keep Grafton entertained we placed him in the driver's seat of Mama's car, while Mama watched him.  While Daddy was under the hood, Grafton proceeded to close the garage door, after finding the remote garage door opener in the center console of the car, and also turned on the radio by himself.

Next week, I think we'll head over to MA RMV to pick up his learner's permit.

D**m it

We don't curse much around Grafton, but when something goes wrong we apparently say "damn it" a bit too much. Grafton heard us say this again, this morning, after we saw that he spilled some applesauce on his clean pants. He proceeded to repeat the phrase again and again. We quickly taught him to say "shucks" instead, which he thankfully started repeating. We'd better watch our tongues more carefully now--he's picking up on everything we say these days.

Movin' on up

It's official. Grafton will be moving up to the Toddler 2 class starting next Wednesday. It should provide a better fit for him, since he'll again be with toddlers that are closer to him developmentally, and with more age-appropriate activities. He'll also be back with his some of his old friends and teachers that were with him last semester while in Toddler 1 (Joe, Gabbi, et.al.). No doubt Grafton will miss his current friends and teachers (Mitch and Greyson), but change is good, even if it's a little hard at first.

Grafton Hold You

This past weekend, Grafton and Dad headed up to the office together and found Mazzy resting on the bed. Mazzy was clearly feeling lazy, because she usually bolts before Grafton can make visual contact. Seeing Mazzy in front of him for once, Grafton said to Mazzy, "Grafton hold you." This was the first time we've heard Grafton refer to himself in a sentence. (Clearly Mazzy understood this request, because she immediately flew off the bed to find a safer location.)

Teaching Bad Habits

On Saturday, we were eating dinner outside on our back deck. Grafton, who has been recently enamored with the "Cowboy Small" book at daycare, has been repeating the one part he finds the funniest, "kerplunk!" (when the cowboy falls off the horse). So, for fun, Dad took a sweet potato fry, dropped in on Grafton's plate, and said "kerplunk!"  Well that was it. Grafton assumed he had been given the green light to take any piece of food off his plate and throw it back down while reciting his favorite line. Needless to say, this went on for some time, all the while with Mom gazing back at Dad with a (deserved) look of dissatisfaction. Dad learned an important lesson that evening.

To Grafton's credit, he ate his entire meal, and them some. He wolfed down 1/2 of a large turkey burger with cheese, countless fries, a separate slice of cheese, and half of our side dish of peas. We kept kerplunking...err, placing...food down on his plate, and he shoved each piece in his mouth without hesitation. We've never seem him so hungry!

Hiking in Wendell State Forest

On Sunday, we took Grafton to Wendell State Forest for a picnic and then a hike around Ruggles Pond.  Grafton hiked by himself for about half of the distance.  He proved adept at navigating the roots and rocks, and so I think we'll be increasing the level of difficulty the next time out!

Nobody & Too Much

A couple new phrases from Grafton...

• When arriving at an empty classroom in the morning, Grafton likes to explain, "nobody here"
• Yesterday, during a walk on the MHC campus, we pointed out the dark forest next to the path, to which he responded "nobody in the woods"
• Today, for the first time, he started using the phrase "too much"

What's your name?

As of yesterday, he can provide the correct answer to this most important question.  I'd say he pronounces it more like "Gafton".  He can also tell his parents what their names are, when asked (i.e., "Neva" and "Andrew"). It's very cute.  Interestingly, he's been able to tell us his teachers' and friends' names for quite some time now.

Runaway

In the words of his teacher Mitch, Grafton has been starting to "test his limits".  To our chagrin, we've also been witness to this behavioral shift.  Honestly, it's not been all that bad, as he only acts up on days when he has a sleep deficit.  But today was one such day.  On this day, Grafton spent considerable time refining his techniques for ignoring parental questions and requests.  He worked on how to feign interest in any nearby inanimate object when something is asked of him, appearing completely entranced by the object while he studies its finest details.  Grafton also practiced his "I was heading somewhere important before you started talking to me" technique, in which he slyly meanders away towards a distant destination that clearly is more important and more interesting than any trifling talk that might be emanating from his parents lips.  All of this we can take in stride, and sometimes we even get a little, hidden chuckle out of watching his antics be put to use.

But then he went too far.  It was about 6pm in the evening, and Dad was gathering together all the trash for the next day's curbside pickup.  Mom was outside with Grafton, and he was enjoying himself while pushing around an empty cooler-on-wheels at the top of the driveway.  When Dad came outside with the recycling, he saw that Grafton was starting to head down the driveway and asked him to turn around.  In an instant, Grafton dropped the cooler to the ground, and started running full-stride, downhill toward the street.  Busy with the trash, Dad called out to Mom, "you'd better go get him!"  She started down after him.  Usually Grafton will run a short distance and then stop, just to see if he's caught anyone's attention.  But not this time.  He started running faster as he heard Mom's sandals flip-flopping behind him!  Mom was slowly closing the gap between her and Grafton--but not quickly enough!  Realizing he might actually reach the street before catching him, she starts to yell wildly at him to stop, but I think this only spurred on his escape.  Dad, who was originally convinced that Mom was going make the catch halfway down the 150' driveway, stood helpless as he watched the pursuit unfold in slow motion.  Feet before the driveway ended, Mom was able to snag the little sprinter, who was given a proper scolding, and then brought inside for a lengthy timeout.  We were both in a little shock at how quickly this dangerous situation unfolded, and then how fortunate we all were that it ended without incident.  Perhaps we'll start our search again for a new home, preferably one located at the end of a cul-de-sac.

Clear Lungs

We brought Grafton to his pulmonologist today for his third follow-up check up, since his hospitalization.  His lungs sounded clear and the doctor agreed that his health looked good.  His oxygen saturation measured 100%.  The doctor explained that in order to test the theory that his asthma-like symptoms were caused by an ibuprofen allergy, we'll have to subject him to the medicine while under medical care, as they watch for recurrent symptoms.  We're not thrilled about doing this, but it will good to know whether he needs to avoid ibuprofen.

Miscellany, 8/9

• On Sunday, while eating dinner at Nana & PopPop's, one of the side dishes was fresh peas from a local garden.  Grafton liked the peas so much, he requested, "More peas please!" (they really were sweet and delicious).
• Grafton spent hours this past weekend playing in a toy car, pushing it around, and getting in and out more times than anyone would care to count. He had fun pretending to be a pizza delivery driver, bringing make-believe pizza to anyone that asked for it.  PopPop paid him once with a piece of paper and asked for change; later on Grafton remembered this and gave Nana change after making a delivery.
• Recently, at night when Grafton wakes and wants someone to check on him, instead of crying, he simply repeats, "Mommy and Daddy coming soon", "Mommy coming soon", or "Daddy coming soon".  Later the same night he requested, "Blanket on".
• He counted to 8, while reviewing the 10 instruments shown in his "Zin Zin Zin, A Violin" book.
• He can recite letters A through G in order.
• Reading his "My Car" book with Mom, he could tell us what  the last word of each sentence is on each of the first few pages, including "my car", "clean", "oil", "gasoline", "wheels", and "rain" (wipers).  Interestingly, he told us "signs", but one page too early, so he's clearly memorizing and recalling parts of this book.  When asked who the character was (Sam), he said "boy" and then "Grafton", when asked the character's name.  This is one of the first times he used his name without being prompted.
• In the tub, Grafton was playing with a new boat, which came with a small fish, but which was missing.  He remembered it was "outside" on the back deck and asked Mama to retrieve it.
• Capable of completing his peg puzzles now, matching up the pieces and rotating them as necessary.
• Enjoyed playing with a long piece of cardboard, with upturned ends, standing on it and jumping up and down.  Mama asked him if it was a skateboard, and he said yes.

See also, "Miscellany, 7/26"

The Be Bop Link

Now we know why Grafton loves his "Charlie Parker Played Be Bop" book so much!  According to Wikipedia, "The most notable player of a Grafton saxophone was Charlie Parker"
[research provided by ntolopko]

Mine

Having just returned from food shopping, we were all sitting down in the living room enjoying a bowl of blueberries together. Grafton's a big fan of blueberries, but he was willing to share the snack with his parents. He even went so far as to grab a handful out his Daddy's hand and brought them over to his Mama, who was laying down on the couch. We told him, "That was so sweet to bring Mama blueberries!" and he clearly understood because he went back to the bowl to do it again. After grabbing another handful, he started walking slowly over to Mama, but by the time he arrived all the blueberries had been consumed (we'll probably have to discourage him from getting into the pizza delivery business). He returned to the bowl to eat some more himself, and now he started cramming more into his mouth with each handful. Daddy had been enjoying the blueberries as well, and so far Grafton seemed to enjoy sharing the afternoon treat. But the bowl was getting low. Seeing the bottom of the bowl growing larger, Grafton's willingness to share evaporated, and when Daddy went reaching for one more berry, Grafton declared "Mine!" (muffled somewhat by a mouthful of blueberries). This was the first time we heard him lay claim to property. Daddy reached again for another tasty berry, and Grafton again protected the dwindling supply with a much clearer "Mine!" I asked him if Daddy could have a blueberry, and he blurted out a clear and definitive "No!" I then asked if Mama could have a blueberry. Again, "No!" We let him finish the bowl. We'll teach him the virtues of sharing another time.

Six Legs Walking

We took Grafton for a walk this evening, after the weather cooled off. He had eaten a healthy portion of his dinner and seemed full of energy, and we thought he might be willing to do most of this walk on his own.  With stroller and backpack left behind in the trunk of the RAV4, we headed out for our regular Mount Holyoke College lower lake loop walk.  Grafton did great!  He stayed focused on the path ahead and ran and walked ahead of us and along side us.  We stopped to watch a pick-up game of Ultimate Frisbee, but before long he was back to walking.  He crossed over the lower lake dam bridge on his own, and kept up a brisk pace along the east side of the lake.  A pair of young ladies were out jogging, and he pointed out to us that they were in fact "running!"  He ran alongside for a couple of seconds, but couldn't keep up.  Before long we were around the lake.  Grafton stopped for a bit to play in a gazebo, and while normally he would get interminably side tracked by such an activity, he soon decided that walking was more important.  We saw a couple of bunnies near the shore, and Grafton's quick approach made them dart away into the bushes.  He found that rather amusing.  Passing by a bike rack, he paused to make a loop around it, and checked out the left-behind bike chains.  But then, back to walking!  Over the bridge (parents carefully flanking on him on the sides), across the street (parents holding his hands, and explaining how to look for cars), and onto the gardens.  It took a little coaxing to convince him the gardens were worthwhile, but he soon agreed and set off for the destination with unwavering speed.  We looped through the paths of the garden, took a quick rest on a bench, and them more walking.  Grafton then climbed the full staircase (about 2 flights), hands free, right leg leading the way up each step.  He was huffing and puffing and even told us it was hard, but he never gave up.  Some more hand holding as we crossed another street (and another parental explanation of how to look out for cars), and then back into the grassy fields for...more running.  Another bicycle rack was nearby and he passed back and forth through its U-shaped profile.  After collecting and passing out some acorns to his parents, Grafton was back on the move.  Running down the hill to quad, we approached the large field in the middle. As we neared another bicycle rack, and we asked him this time how many bicycles there were, and he correctly reported the number "thwee".  Thinking it might be a fluke, and seeing three Adirondack chairs nearby, we asked him how many again, and "thwee" once again was his reply.  We decided to sit down for a rest in the chairs.  He enjoyed sliding back in the deep, sloped bottom of the Adirondack chair, and didn't even seem to mind smacking his head against the back rest once.  Soon, a small army of kids from a sports (?) camp entered the field and soon began sitting down around our chairs.  They were perhaps 8-10 years old.  Grafton was intrigued.  He watched as they gathered and kept his eye on a ball they were kicking around.  Eventually one of the kids decided to lay down on his back to rest, and Grafton pointed out that he was sleeping.  Grafton, who was probably tired from all the walking, mimicked the "sleeping" kid and laid down on the grass, looking up at the sky.  From his reclined position, he decided to start "exercising" (his words) and began lifting his legs, left first, then right, and so on.  The kids were beginning to watch him, thinking his antics were amusing.  Grafton must have noticed the growing audience, because he then turned over and performed a downward dog yoga move, looking at his audience upside down through his legs.  This achieved a positive reaction from the kids, and so he continued the show by moving to a modified downward dog pose with his left leg up in the air.  Then his right.  Back and forth.  The kids were now laughing and applauding our little guy.  We asked him if we was doing yoga and he confirmed the fact by repeating the word for everyone to hear.  Kids started asking him for high-fives, and he withdrew at this point, feeling pangs of shyness.  But after some more yoga moves, he felt renewed confidence and gave out a few high-fives.  It was already well past his bed time, but we couldn't get him to leave on his own volition.  We tried walking away about 50 feet, but he was fully content to remain where he was and even bid us a goodbye or two.  Eventually, we convinced him to leave and he said goodbye to the kids.  We carried him a bit at this point to try to get home soon, but he still had energy left to walk and run on his own, and so we let him.  Fortunately, we averted an almost certain visit to the emergency room, as Grafton was running down a hill toward a stone staircase.  Andrew saw the impending danger, worrying that Grafton might trip before reaching the staircase, and so ran over to intercept him.  And trip he did--he went flying head first toward the staircase!  Fortunately, Andrew caught Grafton's head with his hand just before impact.  Phew.  We carried him the rest of the way back.  We all look forward to our next walk together.

Miscellany, 7/26

• Likes to recite, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"  For full effect, he points his finger while reciting this.  He often repeats this spontaneously while in his car seat.
• Mama was singing to Grafton the song "The wheels on the bus go round & round".  Mom got to the 3rd verse and realized she forgot the words.  Grafton reminded Mom that the 3rd verse went "beep beep beep".
• Staying at a hotel in Rutland, VT, Mom and Grafton walked out to the parking lot to go for a drive, after Dad left for a bike ride.  Unbeknownst to Mom, Dad had moved the car overnight to a new spot.  So Mom walked up to someone else's RAV4 that was parked near the original spot, but this RAV4 was blue.  The key fob didn't unlock the car, which confused Mom, but Grafton was already pulling and pointing Mom in the right direction, towards Dad's car, and saying "Daddy's car".
• Likes to sing the line "London bridge is falling down" & "my fair lady". 
• He has figured out how to use mini lies to get out of doing things he doesn't care to do.  For example, when he didn't want to be in his high chair he complained, "too tight" (it wasn't).  When he didn't want to eat zucchini bread, he said it was "hot" (it wasn't), knowing that he doesn't have to eat food that is too hot.
• Likes to push shopping carts, pushing from behind on one side (Daddy will help guide the cart, of course).  He also likes to push his own stroller; making people laugh when they see the stroller coming toward them, and can't see Grafton behind it.
• He ran into a display at a grocery store, while pushing a shopping cart.  He realized he had done something wrong, and said "sorry" in a very apologetic manner.
• Loved playing in the 4-person tent that Daddy set up in the back yard.  Looked forward to going inside every day after school for the first week.  He would run around inside, and jump all over Daddy.  He also like to have Daddy zip and unzip the cloth windows.

Signs of Learning

A few notable Grafton moments, showing the little pieces of the world he's been paying attention to:

• He practically memorized his "Charlie Parked Played Be Bop" book.  We could turn the page and he'd recite the next page's text (a single line).
• He's getting better at his ABC's.  Knows many intermediate letters, which he will call out if you pause (as of a couple of weeks ago). P and Z are his strongest letters right now.  D is problematic. A, B, and C are no problem.
• We were showing Grafton a picture of a pony in a coloring book, and then he pointed to back of daddy's head and said "pony tail".
• We were looking at his friend Joe's birthday photos, and at the very first photo showing a balloon, Grafton starts singing "Happy Birthday to You" all on his own (Jun 17).

Grafton is still not yet there learning the meaning of "you" and "me", since he continues to say "hold you" when he wants us to hold him.  He puts his arms up, stares longingly, and says "hold you".  We correct him, and repeats the corrected request "hold me", but reverts back to his own version the next time around.

Runny nose

Grafton has a runny nose today.  But he was still in good spirits this morning.

Burrito Surprise

We stopped in to Mesa Verde last night for a quick bite (after bidding farewell to Currie, Carlos, and Augustus).  Neva and Grafton ordered a burrito, to share, but we had to feed Grafton some jarred food and apple sauce while we were waiting, since he was so hungry.  Once the burrito had arrived, he was no longer hungry (apparently), and refused our attempts at feeding him the beans, rice, tomatoes, and chicken.  But something finally clicked in his head, and he became very interested in the contents of the mashed up burrito.  Instantly, he grabbed a huge piece of chicken, shoved it in his mouth, and kept at it, chewing and chewing.  We thought for sure he'd simply spit it out and give up.  But as the half-chewed pieces fell out of his mouth, he shoved them back in, and finished the whole piece. Before long, he was sampling the beans, and even the tomatoes, which he's always refused (along with just about every vegetable).  At one point, he became interested in the tortilla, and finding a piece that was too large to eat, he began using his spoon to cut it in half.  This was the first time we've witnessed him trying to use a utensil to dice up his food.  All in all, we very impressed with his interest in the burrito and his resolve to ingest it. When he was very young, he never questioned eating anything, but has become much pickier in the past months, but this meal represented something of a turnaround in his food interests.  Perhaps he's acquired renewed confidence in eating different foods now that some new molar and canine teeth are on their way in.

No pants!

As Grafton approaches his 20 month birthday, he's increasingly demonstrating his ability to object to routine requests.  These days, every attempt at dressing him with pants or shorts is met with a cry of "NO PANTS!" and endless wriggling to avoid wearing them. We're not sure what triggered this behavior, though it may be related to his enjoyment of running around naked after bath time.  Occasionally the scope of this phenomenon broadens to include his diaper as well (and he can just about it pull it off himself now, if he's so inclined).  At meal time, the bib becomes the object of his objections, and even if we get it on, he's quick to pull it off immediately after he declares "done eating".

Fortunately, Grafton's recent ornery behavior is balanced by some very cute, endearing, and agreeable activities.  When he's in a receptive mood, and we're explaining something to him, he'll often indicate his understanding or agreement with a high-octave, drawn out "yeaaah".  When he's in an energetic mood, he loves to run endlessly (inside or outside), proclaiming "I'm running!" with every lap he makes around us.  And of course he loves to point out that he's wearing "running shoes".  When it's too hot to be running outside, Grafton enjoys taking it easy on the back deck making bubbles.  He's taught himself how to dip the bubble wand into the liquid, pull it out, and wave it around to make bubbles.  Grafton also still loves music, and knows how to ask for what he wants to listen to, such as "Cow CD" and "Jazz Fly".

But maybe we should stop playing this song for him.

Broken PSU

On Sunday morning, Grafton and I were browsing through the huge number of pictures that were taken at the Mason-Wehby Send Off party. With Grafton in my lap, we were quickly flipping through the images, when all of a sudden the screen goes blank and the computer's fans and hard drive spin down, leaving nothing but silence in the room.  I told Grafton that I thought the computer had broken, and he definitely understood, because he kept pointing at the screen, repeating "broken" and even "fix it" and "turn on".  After trying the obvious fixes, I explained it wasn't going to come back on (the power supply unit had apparently died).  He was sad (and so was Dad), but we both took it in stride, and instead got ready to go to Otis...

Oui

With Grafton's Granddad and Baba at our house, we were all listening to a "Learn French" CD while eating dinner.  He seemed really interested in it, and was even trying to repeat the French phrases he was hearing (some quite well!). Just for fun, we started to ask him some questions, using some of the French words.  But after one particular question he so loudly, clearly, and unmistakably blurted out "Oui!" that it equally surprised all four of the adults in the room.  We sat there for a minute discussing how he could have possibly known to say this, or whether we simply misheard him.  We're all quite sure that the CD itself did not repeat this particular affirmative French word. It's still a mystery.  I have, however, in the past, spoke a few French words to him, but it was so long ago, it's hard to believe he would have remembered.

A couple other language related observations of late:  While watching Wimbledon, he explained to his parents what we were watching by saying "tennis, tennis, ball, tennis ball".  The same day, I think, he picked up my wallet that was laying on the coffee table, knew what is was and said "wallet", followed by "money".  (He proceeded to empty out the contents.)  We had fun teaching him silly phrases like "going shopping" and "charge it", which he was able to repeat, and made us all laugh.

Week in Review

Grafton has made a number of small developmental leaps over the last week or so, which we thought would be worth recording.

Starting with the most important (at least to his parents), Grafton has learned to identify the feeling of a lumpy diaper.  While most questions these days are met with an immediate "No!", on occasion, Grafton will now respond to a diaper change query with a reserved, drawn out, "yeeeaaahh", and a shy smile.  Just yesterday he was introduced to a training potty, and started acting out appropriate usage techniques with his small baby doll.

On the academic side of things, Grafton has started to learn and recite, in ascending order, the first three members of the set of positive integers.  We're not convinced he understands the meaning of each number's value, but he is able to count homogeneous set of objects of size N, where N <= 3.

But enough about mathematics.  On Father's day, Grafton enjoyed his first experience in a pool.  Nana and Mama took him to the community pool on Harrington Road.  After some initial trepidation, he warmed up to the idea, and eventually he was flying over the surface of the water in a plastic, floating airplane.  Six days later, he relived the experience with Nana.

Grafton's memory and recall of people and events is becoming more apparent every day.  On Thu, we were explaining to him that it was his last day with his current teacher, Rachel.  We asked him if he knew who his new teachers would be and he told us "Grayson", which was exactly right.  So he really is  beginning to understand non-trivial questions and conversational ideas.  When we reminded him about his second new teacher, Mitch, he told us "tar", which of course meant "guitar"--the instrument that Mitch plays everyday at school for his toddlers. (Grafton got a preview of this during recent "transition" days.)

We've started to let Grafton play in our cars while they're parked in the garage.  He really enjoys sitting up in the front seat, and even climbing over to the driver's seat.  Every time he does this, though, he demands us to "go!"  Once, while he and his Daddy were sitting in the back seat together, I tried to explain to him that we couldn't go because I would have to be in the driver's seat in order to make the car move.  Unprompted, he exclaimed, "keys!", so somehow he's already learned this association.  (Probably because every time we get into Mama's car, with Daddy driving, Daddy asks Mama for the keys.)  Somewhat related, Grafton likes to walk into the garage and point out which car is Mama's and which one is Daddy's.  Yesterday, while in Otis, he attributed the white Subaru to Nana, saying "Nana's car".  Oh, and of course, he counted three of its four wheels, as we walked around it with Nana.  On Wednesday, Grafton's maternal grandparents arrived at our house.  Grafton, coming home from daycare with Daddy and Baba, was refusing to get out of his car seat.  Daddy, seeing that the grandparent's car was in the driveway, knew that it might provide the necessary excitement to convince Grafton to agree to a car seat extraction and egress maneuver, and said "Look! Is that Baba and Grandpa's car over there!?"  Smiling, he put his arm up to be lifted out, and then ran over to the silver Honda, and commented how "Bab's car" was "shiny".

This morning, Grafton gave us a few insightful one-liners.  While bouncing up and down on the couch, Mama explained that he needed to exercise caution, lest he fall off the edge and hit his head.  Clearly, he understood the warning, and remembered a similar lesson from one his books, because he retorted "No moaw monkeys jumpa da bed", while simultaneously waving his pointer finger at Mama.  The same morning, Grafton found himself engaged in an audit of Daddy's wallet, which started with a complete emptying of its contents.  With dollar bills strewn all over the floor, he began performing his accounting task by collecting them all again.  Worried that his accounting techniques would ultimately result in a financial loss for us, Mama requested that he turn over the cash.  Unwilling, he explained "No money", and then "Going shopping".

Finally, today is June 26th, which marks the one year anniversary of Grafton and Nana's two hour tour of Boston's Wang Medical Buildings, on foot (and stroller).

South Windsor to Amherst

Grafton had full day today.  In the morning, he headed down to South Windsor with Neva to visit a friend that she used to work with.  Later in the day, once Andrew returned home from his bike ride, we all headed north for a Taste of Amherst.  It was a beautiful evening, and we ate lots of food, ice cream, and cookies. We met up with Grafton's daycare pal, Joe, and his parents Liz & Bennett. Grafton enjoyed running around in the crowds, weaving in and out of people's legs, occasionally stopping to check out a dog or another toddler.  After eating, we sat down in the grass to listen to some live music, and Grafton and Joe had a great time dancing together. After a few songs, we headed home for a quick bath and long night's sleep.

Having a cow (over cows)

We stopped by Cook Farm after dinner this evening for some ice cream and to let Grafton check out the cows on the farm.  The thing is, Grafton loves cows.  He loves talking about cows.  He loves songs about cows.  He loves pictures of cows.  He loves saying the word "cow".  And so you can imagine how much he enjoyed seeing a whole farm of real cows, all walking around right in from of him!  What a grin he had when we first got out of the car and stepped up to the fence.  He then went off, non-stop, telling us all about cows:

Grafton: "Cows!"
Parents: "Yes, look at all the cows!  Do you like cows?"
G: "Cows! Eating"
P: "Yes, they're eating--what are they eating?"
G: "Grass"
P:  "Those are huge cows"
G: "Huge cows!"
P: "Do you see the brown cows?"
G: "Brown cows!"
P: "Look, that cow needs to be milked!"
G: "Uda"
P: "What's that Grafton?"
G: "Uda!"
P: "Yes, cows have udders!"  (how did he know that!?)
G: "Milk!"
P: "Yes, cows have milk in their udders!"
G: "Cows!  No shoes!"
P: "That's right--the cows aren't wearing shoes.  They have hooves."
G: "Hooves.  Tail!"

...and this went on for a long time, as we had an in-depth talk about all the cows, with Grafton teaching us all about the finer points of cows.  He particularly enjoyed watching them go to the bathroom, and when they were done, he demanded "more! more!"

Well, by the time we were done watching cows (and by "we", I only mean us parents), we decided to skip the ice cream, and headed home to put Grafton bed.  I think I know what he's dreaming about tonight.

Strawberry Fields

Grafton is now an experienced strawberry picker!  We took him to Dickinson Farms, in Granby, MA, for a warm, sunny evening of strawberry harvesting.  He made the long walk to the fields pretty much on his own, and only stopped once or twice to acquire some rocks on the way out.

As we started filling up our cardboard tray with berries, he removed them nearly as fast, stuffing them in his mouth, red juice flowing down his chin and forearms.  He satiated himself in time, and then started helping us pick.  First, by taking the berries that his parents plucked and placing them into the tray, and before long, by finding and extracting the berries on his own.  Not all of his were juicy and ripe, so we tried to teach him the qualities of strawberries worth picking, and in the end he found some really nice ones.  When he tired of the chore of picking and stowing berries, he had fun romping up and down the narrow aisles, and occasionally hopping laterally between the rows.  He found an irrigation sprinkler and made sure he understood how it worked before resuming his explorations.

After picking as many as we could conceivably consume in a week's time, we headed back to the farm stand to weigh our harvest and pay up.  It's a good thing the farm did not have a policy against eating berries in the fields, because Grafton definitely would have been caught "red handed".

Blueberries will be ready in early July, and Grafton and his parents will be out there picking!

Imaginary Play

This afternoon when Mama asked me to pick up and hand her some toys on the floor, I intentionally passed the toys and pretended to pick up something else on the floor and handed it to her. Mama caught on quicker than I expected, as she put those imaginary items in my toy box. So I immediately asked her if she wanted some tea. After I delivered a steaming cup of tea to Mama, she asked for some cookies. And the game continued...

I repeated this game with Daddy, when he returned from his bicycle ride.

Otis 200th

Nana and PopPop invited me to partake in the 200th birthday of Otis, a three-day celebration, starting on Friday.  My parents agreed to take me.  We drove over after daycare, but since there was no food at the Friday event, we skipped it and went out for pizza in Great Barrington.  I ate a whole slice.  I met a couple next to us that drove to the pizza shop on their Harley Davidson.  I impressed them when I told them "motorcycle".  I think they liked me!  They left before us and showed off just how loud their motorcycle was when they drove off.  At Nana and PopPop's I got to stay up very late, waiting for them to come back home, but I finally got to see them before going to bed.

The next day, I ran all over the house and then overslept during my afternoon nap.   So we missed all but the tail end of the big parade.  Even though Daddy jogged me down in the backpack carrier as fast as he could.  But I still was able to enjoy the rest of the events, which included a petting zoo, a tractor ride, live music, and plenty of running around.  There was a riding mower sitting in a field with the key in the ignition, so I decided to give it a ride.  I never figured out how to get it started, but I was able to climb up and down off the seat.  Later on, I got to sing on stage with Nana and her group of Red Hat singers.  I also tried the jungle gym, and started to figure out how to climb up the bars (avoiding disaster thanks to my parent's quick reflexes).  I also enjoyed running through a puddle when my Daddy wasn't looking and getting my shoes and pants muddy and wet.  I was too busy having fun to eat anything.  I think I got to meet just about everyone in Otis, since Nana introduced me to all the people she knew at the celebration.  On the walk home, I saw a truck which I remembered seeing at the mall earlier this week, and so I shouted "Jeep!" to let me parents know.

Back at the house, I exercised a lot, running around all over the house (and making it known by yelling "Running! Running! Running!").  I figured out that I can get others to stop and go by calling out "Stop!" and "Go!".  Nana taught me how to do stretching and back exercises while laying on my back.  Everyone seems to get tired of exercising so quickly, but not me!

Mommy and Daddy decided we'd stay another night, so who knows when I'll be back home!  I like going away for the weekend.

Here of some pix of the Otis 200th birthday celebration.

Double Decker Buses

Today at school (daycare), Grafton was trying to stack and balance one toy bus upon another.  He tried and tried, but the bus on top would always fall off.  Finally realizing that the bus on the bottom did not provide a stable stacking surface, he figured he would need to try a new approach.  So, after some careful deliberation he called out to his teacher, Rachel, "Tape!".  She brought some over, helped him the tape the buses together, and a double decker bus was enjoyed by all.

Later in the evening we headed to the mall, in order to let Grafton run off the excessive energy he must have amassed during a rainy day at school.  He must have run a full mile in the mall (and so his Dad did as well).  Our last stop in the mall was at Borders, and Grafton honed in on a picture book about buses, which also doubled as a toy, thanks to the wheels attached to its cover.  Fittingly, the last page of the book highlighted double decker buses!