Isaac has become both more talkative and more resistant to changing his diaper. So when we ask him if he pooped in his diaper we get a litany of excuses and whining. Well, on Sunday we had the mother load of excuses, clarifications, and distractions. It made the lawyer part of me very, very happy and was a denial/deflection worthy of Bill Clinton's "It depends on what is is" answer. Here you go (bonus points if you can follow each part of his Tom Wolfe, stream of consciousness answer):
One of the most interesting pieces of parental advice I have received from a non relative came from a guy named Gever Tulley. Here is the speech I am talking about. One of the things Tulley suggested you should do is let your kids drive a car. My dad did this with me and I still remember driving out of the camp grounds from our annual Labor Day camping trips. It was a treat and a delight. Trying to pass that feeling on it Isaac and to teach him to respect but never fear things, I decided on Labor Day to let Isaac get behind the wheel. We went to a big giant parking lot. He sat on my lap. I had control of the petals and never let the car go faster than idle speed, but Isaac had complete control over the wheel other than the occasional course correction. Here is the best of the videos:
Two funny related stories.
For the rest of the day, whenever I would near an intersection Isaac would, from the backseat, say "Turn it, turn it, turn it!"
Second, when we were driving we saw another car looking like they were doing the same thing. The car was going slow in a parking lot. We decided to go over and check it out. When we did we saw a Mom in the passenger seat and a teen son in the driver's seat. She got out and they swapped seats. As they did I rolled down the window and said "Doing the same thing we are?" She said yes and looked into the car's interior only to see a two year old. She about passed out. "He's a little younger though" I said. She laughed that nervous laugh of someone who is shocked. Then her son got out of the car and I instantly saw that he was a kid that had been babied his entire life--the product of a helicopter parent.
Isaac will definitely be the product of helicopter parents, too, but hopefully not in the same way or to the same degree. He LOVED driving and wants to do it all of the time. Tomorrow he and I are showing Mom his skills.
Two funny related stories.
For the rest of the day, whenever I would near an intersection Isaac would, from the backseat, say "Turn it, turn it, turn it!"
Second, when we were driving we saw another car looking like they were doing the same thing. The car was going slow in a parking lot. We decided to go over and check it out. When we did we saw a Mom in the passenger seat and a teen son in the driver's seat. She got out and they swapped seats. As they did I rolled down the window and said "Doing the same thing we are?" She said yes and looked into the car's interior only to see a two year old. She about passed out. "He's a little younger though" I said. She laughed that nervous laugh of someone who is shocked. Then her son got out of the car and I instantly saw that he was a kid that had been babied his entire life--the product of a helicopter parent.
Isaac will definitely be the product of helicopter parents, too, but hopefully not in the same way or to the same degree. He LOVED driving and wants to do it all of the time. Tomorrow he and I are showing Mom his skills.
Isaac and Dad have been experimenting with the Lego side of the train table for a while. All of that freedom is pretty daunting. We created a city, a really, really, really tall tower, and a few ramps. We even created a perfectly symmetrical Acropolis-type structure, but none of these creations held Isaac's interest for even a second.
Then on Saturday Isaac and Dad began working on a super fort to protect the Lego guys from dinos. We had made a few over Christmas break, but the Lego table allows us to do all kinds of crazy things, even with the limitations Duplos impose. We build one that was okay, but didn't really flow well and when legos don't flow well for a two year old you get a pile of bricks pretty quickly.
So Saturday night Dad thought about what to do and Sunday morning we started building. Isaac built all of the columns and Dad made a working gate and arranged the platforms. Eventually we perfected it today adding a fully-functional gate, a working (yes, working) elevator, and a rotating crane platform. There is also plenty of room for all of Isaac's beep beeps and lego guys. Here is the fort facing off against its sworn enemies--the dinos and animal horde:
Isaac and Ba Ba have the daunting challenge of trying to keep the peace between the two warring factions. And since all of this work is parching, there is some warm milk close at hand.
Then on Saturday Isaac and Dad began working on a super fort to protect the Lego guys from dinos. We had made a few over Christmas break, but the Lego table allows us to do all kinds of crazy things, even with the limitations Duplos impose. We build one that was okay, but didn't really flow well and when legos don't flow well for a two year old you get a pile of bricks pretty quickly.
So Saturday night Dad thought about what to do and Sunday morning we started building. Isaac built all of the columns and Dad made a working gate and arranged the platforms. Eventually we perfected it today adding a fully-functional gate, a working (yes, working) elevator, and a rotating crane platform. There is also plenty of room for all of Isaac's beep beeps and lego guys. Here is the fort facing off against its sworn enemies--the dinos and animal horde:
Isaac and Ba Ba have the daunting challenge of trying to keep the peace between the two warring factions. And since all of this work is parching, there is some warm milk close at hand.