Theater Manners

One of the few movies Grafton has watched is the Sound of Music.  All of the singing and dancing and beautiful scenery really catches his attention.  This afternoon, Grafton found the DVD insert on his bookshelf and handed it to his Dad.  So I asked him if he'd like to watch the movie, and of course he said yes, and started to walk downstairs with the insert in hand.  So we threw in the DVD and started the show.  Mom came home as it was starting and joined Grafton on the couch.  They watched together, while I began cooking dinner. After dinner was in the oven, I came in to the den, and reacting to the music started tap dancing (with flailing arms) right in front of Grafton.  Grafton, who was heretofore attentively watching the movie, started to scowl, quite clearly annoyed that someone was blocking his view of the TV.  Realizing that I wasn't going to move out of his way on my own, Grafton finally makes eye contact, glaring up at me, points a stern finger down at the couch and barks out, "Silly Daddy! You sit down on the couch!"

Neva and I burst out laughing, of course, but I heeded his request. Admittedly, my dancing is not as entertaining as the musical numbers in the Sound of Music, so Grafton was quite justified in making his demand.

October Tidbits

• Grafton is very protective of his new laptop.  Whenever Mom or Dad try to use it to load a web page or application for his enjoyment, he pushes us away and says, "my puter, my puter!"
• Mom asked Grafton to say "thank you" for something she he handed him, he said "thanks, mama".   (We found this significant, since he wasn't repeating the phrase verbatim, but had his own way of saying the phrase).  Similarly, we asked Grafton, "tell Rachel to have a good weekend" and he said "have a good weekend, Rachel" (placing her name at the end of the sentence).  Minor milestones, certainly, but something we wanted to remember.
• Yesterday (Sat, 10/23) Grafton told Mom he wanted to go hiking today to see "jeep in a heap".  The previous Sunday (10/17), we had gone for a hike [photos, video] and saw a couple of old, abandoned, rusted out cars alongside the trail. Grafton was remembering these cars and the fact that they met the same fate as the jeep in his book "Sheep in a Jeep" (it falls to pieces after crashing into a tree).
• Bed time has been a bit rough lately, and we've been forced into practicing "tough love" to get Grafton to fall asleep on his own.  (Nap time has been a problem for much longer, but bed time was usually always very easy up until a couple of weeks ago.)  So now we're having to let him cry for as long as it takes (up to 40 minutes some nights). We'll only go up if he starts asking for "blanket on", which means he's cried himself to exhaustion and is ready to hit the sack.
• After drawing a picture, Grafton described what he drew on his picture "turtle", which was one of the first times he's attempted to explain what was behind his artistic expression.  Yesterday, as he was eating his waffle quarters, he'd take a bite or two and then describe the shape that he saw: "boat", "doggy", "mountain".
• This morning (10/24), Grafton woke up with us in our bed and played by himself for an hour, without bothering us.  When we finally woke up he showed us how to play the violin, demonstrating his use of a pretend violin bow.
• Neva and Grafton carved a pumpkin yesterday afternoon, and after the sun went down Neva illuminated the pumpkin with a candle.  Grafton liked to point out, repeatedly, that it was a "scary pumpkin".

The Lure of the Leaves

Returning home from dinner out on Friday night, Dad decided we could all use an evening walk on the MHC campus before heading home for bed. As Grafton's recent taste for walking is best described as "reluctant", we have to devise strategies for coaxing him along, lest we end up holding him most of the way. Knowing that Grafton loves stomping through leaves, Dad decided to use this as a motivating force for Grafton. "I think I see a big pile of leaves, Grafton!", yells Dad. Peering through the darkness of MHC campus, Grafton spots the leaves along the path and runs towards them. With the leaves conveniently lining the side of the path, Grafton tromps through the crunchy detritus, kicking colorful shapes into the air with each step. Dad and Mom join in. Alas, the trail of leaves ends, and Dad looks off into the distance to find the next pile. The MHC grounds keepers are too well-funded, however, and the lawns are mostly devoid of the expected autumnal ground cover. But the recent winds have collected small piles around tree and fences, and Dad finds what he's looking for between a pair of trees. "Grafton, I think I see another big pile!", Dad exclaims. After searching the horizon, Grafton confirms, "Big pile leaves! Big pile leaves!" and starts running across the grassy field. After pulverizing a few thousand more leaves under his feet, we run to the next pile alongside a fence. Then we follow a another trail of leaves alongside the stone curb in the street (no cars). Grafton is walking like a champ now, making good time. But it wasn't until the very end of the walk when we found the mother lode. A forty-five degree embankment rising up from the corner of a small parking area had completely escaped the attention of the campus ground crews, and had accumulated a virgin pile of leaves so deep and fluffy that it was, without question, the jewel of leaf piles in all of South Hadley. But this was not apparent at first. From the top of the embankment, Grafton starts walking down into the leaves, joyfully romping through knee-high depths. But with a few more steps he plunges down into an unexpected abyss, disappearing almost entirely from view, save the hood of his winter jacket. Flailing, then rolling, and finally rising to his feet, he emerges, giddy with delight. He then runs from the pile, only to turn around and with a running start, dives back into the pile. This goes on for some time, with Dad's encouragement. Mom has already headed back to the car for warmth. Eventually, we both run out of steam and head back to the car as well. When we arrived at home and removed Grafton's jacket, we found a lot of these.

Why oh Why?

I've been waiting for this to happen, and it finally has. Grafton has started to inquire about the causal forces of the universe. Well, not quite. But he has started to ask "Why?" And like his father, when he was a small boy, Grafton doesn't just ask once and go away, satisfied with his newly acquired tidbit of knowledge. Indeed, every explanation describes a phenomenon, which in the eyes of Grafton, is but another unexplained mystery of the universe which requires further explanation. And thus another "Why?". Another answer, and then another question, "Why?". And so on, ad nauseum. It's as if Grafton is searching for the very axioms of nature upon which our cosmological existence rests. Or maybe he just gets a kick out of making his parents talk until they're exhausted. Either way, we love it.

Little Things

Over the last couple days, Grafton has enjoyed showing off his improved jumping skills.  He can jump pretty well now, straight up, pushing off with both feet, and gaining a few inches of air.  He practiced outside on the front porch, which provided a rewarding boom with each landing.  Loud enough to keep up Mom, apparently, who was napping upstairs in the bedroom.

Lately, Grafton has been singing a few songs in their entirety, including his ABCs (with the "next time won't you..." epilogue), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Are You Sleeping Brother John.  What took us by surprise the other day, was when he started singing that last one in French! (Frere Jacque)  We didn't teach him that one.

We "gave" Grafton his own computer, the old VAIO laptop.  Now Dad can actually get some work done on his own computer when Grafton is up in the office.  Grafton really enjoys it!  He won't let us touch it when he's using it.  He's already learning how to build software compilers (photo).

While cleaning up the office, I came across some old puzzles, where there are pairs of twisted metal shapes that need to be separated by rotating them just so.  I told him to try to take them apart.  Seeing that he couldn't quite do it yet, he started walking downstairs and said "go get scissors, cut it".  Ha!  This shows he actually understood the goal of the puzzle.

Gory Details

For those that want to see Grafton's injured finger, photos are now posted. Enjoy!

Rewind the Week

Okay, so let's pretend we can rewind the week, and just focus on the previous weekend. Here are some highlights.

On Friday, Grafton had a dinner party with his friend Joe, at Joe's house. (Mom and Dad also had dinner with Joe's parents, Liz and Bennett. A very yummy shrimp & grits dish was enjoyed by all adults.)

On Saturday, Grafton went on a tour of the northern Hill Towns in MA, enjoying time in Shelburne Falls, and driving around Zoar, Rowe, and Hawley. We stopped in Rowe to enjoy the serenity of the town's center, which consists of a church, a post office, a pond, and a gazebo. We later drove up, and then down, the "Meanest Mile in Massachusetts" (Kingsley Hill, Rd.) Grafton was not impressed and soon fell asleep.

On Sunday, we headed to the Stockbridge Festival Harvest with Nana and PopPop. Grafton had a fun time playing in a cornbox (i.e., a sandbox filled with corn instead of sand), taking an (assisted) plunge off the Hay Jump, running around the Hay Maze (video), and taking an (abbreviated) pony ride.