N A C H O

These are the letters Grafton was able to write last night, following Mom's instruction.

Grafton and Dad Read "The Lorax"

Grafton recites pieces of "The Lorax"...from memory!

Training Wheels

Grafton's been having a ton of fun at school riding the red tricycles on the playground. He's told us about it a number of times when we've asked him what he did at school that day. (Usually he'll also explain that he didn't crash into anyone.) So realizing how much he was enjoying the pedaling experience, we headed to the bike store and traded in Grafton's Specialized Hotwalk bicycle for a Schwinn Gremlin pedal bicycle, with training wheels. At first, it didn't go so well, as he kept hitting the breaks (turning the pedals in reverse), and had lots of trouble getting started. Then Dad realized that the cranks were binding for some unknown reason. After a quick repair at the bike shop, the pedals were turning smoothly, and Grafton did much better. He still would hit the breaks at inopportune times, and didn't always apply them after picking up speed on a downhill section. But the couple of times we've taken him out for a ride, he has been able to get cruising on the sidewalks around our house. For short bursts, at least. So far, each time, we've ended up dragging the bike home ourselves. But I'm sure it won't be long before we can't get him to bike back home at all.

Letters (ASCII 0x40-0x90)

We've been working with Grafton to start teaching him to recognize the letters of the alphabet. His Baba made him a nice flip book of the alphabet, one letter to per page, with accompanying pictures. Most nights we flip through a number of pages to recite the letters and ask him what letters he's seeing. (He likes to do this with his Dad by flashlight, after we turn out the lights in his bedroom). With the exception of 'G' he has yet to demonstrate he's learning the alphabet. But I actually think he knows more than he lets on, as he has a tendency to tell us "I don't know" any time he's not entirely certain about an answer.

Tonight, at dinner, we were pointing out to him the letters that start various words of items at the table ("pizza", "cup", etc.). He was more attentive and engaged than usual. After running through a number of words, we recited a list of 'B' words, and asked him what letter they started with, after sounding out the 'B' sound for him a few times ("buh, buh, buh"). He called out "B!" and we could tell he was very excited at being able to identify the letter. This motivated him a bit more, and he started asking us what letter various other words started with. He went on doing this longer than we would have expected, showing us that he really is getting interested in figuring out how letters relate to words (you know, what we adults call "spelling").

Lately, Grafton has also really enjoyed putting together his alphabet train jigsaw puzzle. He will often call us over to help him identify the letters so that he can piece together the train into the full alphabet.

Hopefully, his interest in the alphabet will continue to grow! I feel like he's on the verge of a minor intellectual jump...if we can keep him motivated to learn.

Back on Track

Grafton is getting back on track with his potty training. The last couple of days he's successfully told us when he needs to get pee in the potty, and produced the goods once we got him on the potty. He's even woke up with a dry diaper this morning, and headed straight to the potty after getting out of bed.

Rainbow in the Berkshires

Driving home from Otis tonight, Grafton saw his first rainbow. It appeared to us multiple times as the country road weaved in out of the trees, and Grafton pointed it out and smiled each time he saw it.

(Sorry, no photos.)

You Never Can Tell

You never can tell what will be a problem for a toddler.

With our big move now a few days behind us, Grafton is doing great with the change. We didn't know whether this was going to cause problems for him, and we were worried that he would constantly ask to go back home, or back to his old room. But he's barely asked about it. In fact, I think the only time it comes up is when we ask him about it. So far so good.

We were also worried about his sleeping arrangement. We delayed for months converting his crib to an open bed, worried that he'd be getting up and down all night, causing days or weeks of restless nights for us all. But moving into our new house, we knew it was time to make the conversion. Although we were concerned that altering his bed at the same we were moving might be too much at once for him. But we did it. And for the past two nights, we think he's never slept better. In fact, Neva just commented this morning how this was the first night in a long time where neither of us were woken by Grafton calling out to us for a "re-tuck". So much to our surprise, he's doing really well with his new 3-walled bed.

But then there was the tub incident. He made it over two and half years using a (oversized) infant tub for his bath time. We never liked the full bath tub in our last home, and so we just kept using the smaller infant tub. Now that the new house has a much nicer tub, we were happy to be do away with the infant tub. But Grafton was not happy about it all! What a fit he threw! He refused to sit and screamed so loud that I'm quite sure our auditory systems sustained significant damage (the bathroom's tile, fiberglass tub, and mirrors do little to attenuate high-pitched screams). He was also slipping constantly, since the tub does not yet have a mat. I held him by both arms trying to get him to sit, and eventually prevailed. But the screaming continued. On his butt, he continued to slide around, which he found moderately entertaining and started to come around emotionally. But just as he was getting used to the tub, he slid onto his back, sending his feet flying upward. His little toe hit the tub faucet and got cut, and started bleeding. More crying and screaming (understandably now). His toe is fine, but I think we might go back to using the infant tub for another night or two...