Leather Parchment

Grafton has been practicing his writing a lot lately. He has a minor obsession with pens and paper. Every piece of paper he sees lying around, he asks, "Can I write on that?" Which is nice, because he didn't always ask initially, believing all paper was specifically intended for him (including bills, and such). Similarly with pens, he picks up any one that he sees and walks around with it, looking for paper to write on. (Though we decided to put an end to this practice, to keep him safe from pointy pen tips during high rates of translocation.)

So a few mornings ago, Mom had headed off to work, while Dad continued to get ready. Grafton was sitting in the living room, and requested to watch cartoons. But Dad encouraged him to listen to music instead, and Grafton agreed to some Johnny Cash. With Grafton occupied, Dad headed upstairs to finish getting ready. A little while later, Grafton called up and announced, "I did my letters!" To which Dad responded encouragingly, "That's great! Can I see them?" I headed downstairs to see what he had written, but Grafton was still sitting on the couch. "Where did you write your letters?," I asked my proud son. I was confused when he pointed to the leather couch he was still sitting on. And when he looked up at me to see whether his father was proud of him, he must have been equally surprised by my dropped jaw and gaze of horror. "WHAT DID YOU DO, GRAFTON!?," I yelled out. And instantly he realized that he had done something rather bad. I immediately sent him to his room for a timeout (mostly so that I could calm down myself), and he was already crying as he went up the stairs. I looked down at the couch one more time to read his fingernail-etched glyphs: "AHL".

We had our talk a few minutes later, and we left it at that.  I told Mom about the transgression after Grafton went to bed that night, to save him from another act of parental retribution.

The next day, Grafton sat on the couch once more. This time he got to watch cartoons. And he wore gloves. Interestingly, this was his idea, not mine, and he noted that with these on he wouldn't be able to scratch the couch again!

Written Identity

Grafton has taken the first step towards writing his autobiography. Namely, the ability to write his own name, without guidance, prompting, or copying.