Just take one!

Grafton has taken a fluoride tablet ever since he had his first teeth. (South Hadley water is not fluorinated.) Since the tablets came in a child-resistant prescription bottle, it was always Dad's job to open it for Grafton and offer him the tablet. When he was young, I would carefully pour out one tablet into the upside-down bottle cap, which now doubled as the serving tray, and offer it up to him. Often, however, more than one tablet would sneak out and I'd warn Grafton each and every time this happened, "Just take one." As Grafton got older, and clearly capable of remembering on his own to take a single pill, I would still provide the reminder with a grin. Some nights, when we were in a joking mood, I'd spill out the whole contents of the bottle into the cap and provide the same daily reminder. Or, to keep the jokes fresh, I'd spill out a few and tell him "Just take two!" (To which Grafton would just shake his head, confirming his lack of enthusiasm for my attempted humor.) Habits die hard, and this silly interaction continue on even to this day (with occasional minor variations--none of which have any hope of invigorating the joke with any level of humor).

In the mail today arrived two envelopes addressed to Grafton. Both were from a class action settlement, having to do the with the flouride tablets we've been giving Grafton. The pharmaceutical company lost the suit, having been accused and found guilty of having only provided 44% of the labeled flouride content in the tablets. For which our award of damages was a meager $15.35 of the overall $15.5 million suit. But no matter. The real disappointment is that all along I really should have been telling Grafton, "Just take two!"

The Quabbin Tower Hill Climb

Inspired by his recent San Souci hill climb PR, and watching the pros ride up HC climbs in The Tour this week, Grafton had asked me if we could try his hand (or rather, his legs) at a "real" climb himself. So I gave it some thought as to where a challenging, but rewarding climb might be that we could attempt together. It had to be sufficiently long and steep enough that making it to the top was not a sure thing. And it had to be safe enough for Grafton with traffic and on the return descent. And the view at the summit had to be impressive, so as to provide that influential positive feedback that would encourage him to seek out future uphill challenges. Well, The Quabbin Tower Hill Climb seemed like the perfect fit. The climb is 1.8 mi long, rising 500ft, at a 5% grade, which classifies it as a Cat 4 climb.

After deciding on this venue earlier in the week, I told him we could do it on Saturday, and I don't think a day went by where he didn't mention it. So this morning (after watching the day's Tour stage, of course) we packed up and headed to the Quabbin. As we drove there, Grafton's determination never wavered (as sometimes it has). Upon arriving, he pulled his own bike out of the back of the car and was ready to go instantly. I will let the video coverage provide the rest of the story...




More photos from the day. And Google's version of video coverage.

Star Spangled Banner

What's for dinner?

Dad: "We could make spaghetti tonight. We haven't had that in a while."
Grafton : "What's spaghetti?"

Table Tennis Rivalry Tides Shift as the Basement Tournament Enters its Second Month

After a numerous string of emotional defeats over the previous weeks at the hands of his father, Grafton's ever-improving table tennis skills finally lifted him to his first decisive triumph on Saturday evening. The following morning, with his confidence still buoyed by his initial win only hours earlier, Grafton proceeded to hand down three more defeats over a four game series on mid-Sunday morning.

His father, during his post-tournament press conference, shared his mixed emotions, which spanned the spectrum of bruised ego to brimming pride.

Future matches can be attended most evenings through the winter and early spring. Tickets are still available.

Financial reality

"$30 doesn't go that far at Dick's Sporting Goods", said Grafton, after trying to spend a birthday gift certificate there today.

Eight year old can put in his own batteries

Mom was trying to help Grafton install batteries into his bedtime reading light on his birthday when he declared that, "Mom, I'm 8 years old! I can put in my own batteries!"

Another Tooth Gone

Grafton's second front tooth feel it today. Not unexpected after Grafton showed us a bloody sink after brushing his teeth last night.

All 4 front teeth are now out.

"History of Baseball"

Grafton has been very excited about his school project where each student is writing their own book. He was even worried about missing the "publishing" step when he was taken out of school for his dentist appointment.

Dentist today

Grafton and I got good laugh from the sign he saw at the dentist office today: 

You don't have to brush all your teeth.

You only have to brush the ones you want to keep.

Final Days of Baseball

Grafton's last baseball practice was a parent-kids match-up (parents vs. kids). Grafton and I arrived a few minutes late, and his team was up to bat. He headed straight to home plate for an at bat, while I hustled on to the field to play outfield. Grafton had already hit the ball and was rounding the bases while I was taking the field. He was rounding second after the 2nd base throw missed its target. The ball was rolling straight for me, and I picked it up just in time to tag my son while he headed towards the third base. The uncanny timing of the play had everyone yell out in surprise and laughter, while Grafton walked off the field shaking his head.

Two outs later, the parents were up to bat. I was up third and soon took the plate for my at bat. On the first pitch I hit a pop-up fly to third base. Grafton was the third base man. The ball went right to him, and he called "I've got it!" and made the catch like a pro. He got me right back!

The next day was Grafton's last game of the season. They played one of the stronger teams they've faced all season, but did really well. Grafton had some great hits. He ended up being the last batter of the game, and his last hit was a line drive shot to the outfield. It was an easy double, but due to throwing/catching errors, he ran the bases and came home, arms in the air, celebrating his in-the-park home run. Nice end to the season!

Turning into a reader?

This morning Grafton says, "Dad, can you turn off the TV so I can read Jack & Annie?"

(Grafton started reading the book to himself last night after telling us he wanted to start reading chapter books on his own.)

Snap Whistle Play

Grafton has recently figured out how to snap. He also achieved a faint whistle last night, so that should be coming along soon as well.

His piano playing is coming along really nicely as well. Last night he played me his two pieces, and looked over at me to make sure I was listening. Of course, this means he was playing from his pieces from memory! They were short, but this is still the first time I've seen him play without any apparent effort.

Capitalist

Dad: "Grafton, come on! I don't want you to get pizza sauce on the wall of my house."

Grafton: "It's not your wall. It's the bank's!"

First Basketball Game

Grafton played his first competitive basketball game today at Mosier. It took a while for both teams to get the hang of playing a real basketball game, but I was impressed by everyone's skills by the end of the game. Similar to soccer, Grafton was very fast moving up and down the court and had high intensity when on defense. He got a few shots off, but no baskets yet. I think he'll do great as he continues to figure out the flow of the game. I definitely noticed that when he was playing poing guard that he could dribble the ball up the court with looking at the ball, and was able to keep an eye on his teammates.

By Ear

Grafton realized he could play some his piano songs by ear and he performed a couple for me this morning. I think this is great milestone in his musical career!

Chinese Instruction

Grafton has been occasionally teaching his parents the Chinese symbols that he's learning at school. Today he introduced some news one to me that are particularly hard to pronounce. In response to my attempts, he gave up on me said, "Dad, we'll work on it."

Hardball

Grafton and Dad played catch with a real baseball today. Dad was a little nervous at first, worrying it would end up with a bruised face (not saying on who...). But no such thing happened. And Grafton's arm packs some heat! And he's catching a good bit too in his undersized glove.

Old Books Must Be the Best

Mom: "Why do always choose the old, beat up books from the library at school?"
Grafton: "Mom! That means a lot of people got them and [so] they are the best books!"

Another coder?

I introduced Grafton to the "Lightbot One Hour Coding" app, which is an educational app that teaches the basics of programming in a visual way. He picked up the programming environment quickly and with little help proceeded through Level 1. He was usually able to figure out where a bug in a given program existed and to remove and redo the undesired commands. Level 2 required use of procedures--a set of repeated commands that can be packaged into a single, reusable higher-level command. Grafton immediately recognized how to make use of this programming abstraction, and how it helped simplify and shorten the main program, which gave me great pleasure to witness. He knew exactly when it was appropriate to call the procedure from his main program. I think what made me happiest of all is that he kept at it for almost an hour and repeatedly declared "I love programming!" If this is the start of his programming education, he'll have had a two year jump on his Dad--so I look forward to seeing where this takes him.