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: