Jack the Workingman

Jack really thinks of himself as a workingman. Sometimes he is a carpenter, sometimes a painter, and of course, sometimes a demolition specialist who works a jackhammer. Greg calls "Dispatch" to learn where Jack's next job is and to report our location on route from one job to the next. Note the tool belt. Tuesday morning Papa was there with Nana and we all stayed indoors because of the rain.

Today Jack was a painter and window washer so the kitchen door's lower eight window panes are now sparkling clean. He took his jackhammer to the playground where it works really well in the sand. The other kids were all hoping for a turn, but Jack offered up his big shovel and bucket to share instead of the jackhammer. It was funny to watch him edge over to the end of the sand area to avoid the other kids. In the afternoon, we visited the pet store to buy treats for Ripley, the library, and the hardware store. Coming home, we spent hours looking at the snails on the steps and the stepped-on snail on the sidewalk.

We also watched the PG&E men using an instument to locate the gas main. Tomorrow is the big day when they will jackhammer up the sidewalk and street next door. Jack and I plan to be there with earmuffs and his jackhammer.

Jack and Emma Paint the Zoo

Friday, March 16, Jack and I met Jenny and Emma at the zoo. On the way, Jack saw a man trimming a hedge and raking the trimmings into a trash can. "He's doing a great job" was Jack's verdict.

At the zoo, we headed for the Farm where Jack immediately located a rake and dustpan and set to work. It was a gorgeous cool, bright day so there were soon other kids to contend with. Another little boy wanted to use the wheelbarrow, so we had to negotiate a sharing arrangement. No kid ever perseveres the way Jack does, however, so the other kid soon wandered off. Emma loves the stall in the barn where you can draw. Jack joined her there and raked the whole room. They have a TV in there that shows a video of horses, but neither of our kids pay it any mind.

Jack had brought two little strips of watercolors and set to work with Emma painting the fence. A zookeeper was incredulous and asked us to put the paints away because she was afraid the goats would eat the paint. Jack had no problem with taking the paints outside the Farm area where he and Emma painted the turtle statue and the nearby fence.

We rode the train, played in the dirt, and had lunch at Leaping Lemur Cafe before heading for home. The photo is Jack with his friends, Big Bear, Tom Cotter the giraffe, Tom Cotter the polar bear, his police puppy, the Gama-go Bird, the horse, and his monkey head.

Jack and Joker

Today was quite a day and I'm too tired to relate it in detail. After morning at the playground and at the rec center class, Jack worked in his dirt pile, hoeing energetically and then instructing me where to sprinkle the "seeds" before he raked dirt over them.

A Gama-go spouse needed a blond toddler for Gap advertising, so I drove Jack down around 3:00 for a photo session. Jack fell asleep in the car and didn't warm up to changing clothes and posing, so we returned home around 4:30. Guess who was there on our steps to greet us--Joker.

Jack was so excited. Joker ducked under a construction sign with Jack dancing after him explaining "I told John McGill about you, Joker. I told him to watch out for you. I told him you are afraid of riding the Cushman." "Joker, come see the stroller." "Joker, there's a shed here. I have a shed upstairs, Joker." When Jack and I patted Joker, he meowed and Jack was delighted. Joker was content to roll on his back and present his tummy for patting.

We had a real battle of wills late in the day when Jack refused to let me change his dirty diaper. Trying desperately to think what an unconditional parent would do, I reasoned with him every which way. Finally got the diaper off only to progress to a battle about cleaning up and then about the new diaper. Jack took the new diaper and rolled it up into a tight roll. Then he grabbed my glasses so that I had to gently extract them from his hands and put them out of reach. I considered just letting him go without a diaper, but that seemed impractical because I had not been able to take his pants off. Eventually I got another diaper on him and when I started to put him down on the floor, he started to cry, so we hugged and kissed each other and then went in to deposit the poop in the toilet, which gave him great satisfaction. (No flushing until he left the bathroom.) He gave me a hard time each diaper change today, but this last one was really extreme. Is this all about the difficulty of pooping? Does he not want to let the poop go even after it's out? Does he do this with everyone or is Nana special?

Jack and the machines

Tuesday's high light was sitting in the Cushman and pretending to drive. He questioned John McGill about each lever. John explained each one as he would have to an adult. Jack also got to go inside the shed and name the chain saw, the weed-wacker, the lawnmower, and the chain pruner. We watched as John McGill put down the ramp and drove the Cushman backwards into the shed.

Thursday was a stressful but ultimately happy day. After the flood in the bathroom and Jack's clean-up of the kitchen floor, we took Jack to a new doctor. Jack got to look into each examination room before the doctor was ready for us. It's a nice cheerful office with only the doctor and his receptionist--no crowds of parents and kids. But Jack became unhappy when we went into the doctor's office. He probably remembered the shot at the last doctor visit. This doctor has good ideas for helping Jack. I took Jack off so the parents could consult with the doctor without a crying kid. We comforted ourselves with a visit to the hardware store and then headed for the playground.

Jack did a lot of digging and playing with his little plastic bulldozer. The playground was crowded and we interacted with several other kids. Jacob, the little five-year-old who gets dumped there by his father, Joshua, another similar kid, Nicholas the bare-foot three-year-old, and Kayter, an almost two-year-old boy. Jack readily shared his shovel and bucket with these kids. In a real star moment, Jack wanted his bulldozer back from Kayter. He asked nicely for it and kept asking when Kayter did not return it. Finally, Kayter handed it back! Kayter is a good climber and Jack tried to imitate him when he climbed up the side of the little house instead of the ladder at the back. Three little boys shared the slide with only a little intervention to be sure they did not land on each other.

We returned home and tried lunch but Jack didn't eat much: a little avocado, some pecans, some banana, some pineapple, a dab of yogurt. He refused to try some stew or my sandwich. He did drink about two glasses of milk on my watch and two glasses of juice. In the pm, he asked for and ate a whole orange (tangerine?) and some apricots.

It became obvious that he was not going to take a nap, so we set out to find machines. I drove to Bosworth and Rousseau and parked the car. We checked out a large high-rise forklift, a backhoe, and dump trucks. A large crane was using a grapple to pulverize debris and lift it into a huge dump truck. A large truck was shooting cement into the foundation, but we couldn't see that from our vantage. We observed the reebar and talked to a working man who had been working on the concrete. Jack love all this and asked to go see the backhoe again.

Around 3:00, Jack had a pretty easy, big poop. He asked me to go to the kitchen which I did. We changed the diaper with no fuss and continued play. Around 4:00 we went up to the dirt pile with the wheelbarrow and his tools and the yellow bulldozer. He worked hard digging, especially with his hoe.

Jack really plays well in his living room. He invents all sorts of scenarios, most of which require me to move from one spot to the other. I can read my newspaper a little bit, but he wants me to participate pretty regularly in the logging exercise or putting out a fire or building a shed or highway. When he is annoyed with me, he tells me to "stay out of my job, Nana, stay out of my job."

Books: The Happy Dog book is popular as are all the machine books, including the new one Ericka gave him. He also pulled out Best Word Book Ever and the Best ABC Book and the "food book," which is the alphabet book that uses vegetables and fruits. Jack lives his books--the food book prompted him to ask for apricots from the jar in the kitchen cabinet (he knows where everything is).

Concern: Giving Jack the metal chain was probably not my best idea. He has begun to throw it up in the air. I tried to teach him to just drop it, but there's still some danger he could hurt himself with it. I also taught him to put it on a newspaper if he wants to stand on it on the wood floor. He does need a chain for his logging work. Do we have a plastic chain that could work?