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?