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!"