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"