Driving the Car and Pushing Buttons

Jack has shown a keen interest in pushing buttons on stuff that he knows he shouldn't mess with. According to my parents, this is an hereditary trait as I did the same when I was a little boy (more on that later). It would appear he's figured out that the buttons on his toys don't compare with what the buttons do on "real" stuff like our alarm system, key switches and knobs in the car, laptop computers, the dishwasher, and the microwave.

His latest button craze is combined with "driving the car," which he likes to do after I pick him from day care or after we return to the house from an errand. This involves him climbing into the driver's seat of the car and pretending to drive. Normally, this this is harmless when the car is shut down although some buttons will remain switched on even if the car is turned off (e.g., the seat warmers which can be a little bit of a surprise if you're not expecting it).

Jack (in May, 2008) pushing buttons.

A couple of times, I've arrived home in my work car as my attractive wife and Jack are returning from day care. Jack loves to get into the passenger seat of my work car as I drive it into our two-car garage. In the couple of times he's done this, he's managed to reset my satellite radio, erase one or more presets on my car radio, and and creatively reposition my rear view and side mirrors.

Jack in February, 2009 still pushing buttons.

Jack will try to "drive the car" for as long as possible. He loves it. When finally persuaded to come into the house, he'll delight in pausing live or recorded TV on our Tivos in the living room and his bedroom. He can even turn on and off the TVs using the Tivo remotes (which refers to as 'motes').

In many ways, I can empathize with Jack; I loved pushing buttons on gadgets when I was little. I remember one night, my father took the family to a friend's house for dinner. The house was very fancy and ornate. As my parents talked in the living room, I wandered down a hallway and saw the Mother of All Control Panels, complete with glowing buttons. Ooooooh, I thought. I shouldn't mess with it but, well, I was nine or ten and couldn't resist it. I pressed one button, or maybe it was two and then heard the loudest sound in my life (I had activated the burglar alarm). I remember sympathetically backing into the opposite wall. My father was furious. Our host was magnanimous, I remembered. I felt like Mickey Mouse in Disney's version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

Obamicon

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama was momentous and historic. On the right is Shepard Fairey's now very famous poster of then-candidate Obama.

By way of Habesha Child (one of the blogs I follow), I found a website that can create your very own Obamicon.

It's all about the future after all.

Jonny Quest

Jack has fallen in love with another short on Boomerang/Cartoon Network. This one pays homage to the classic 1960s animated show, "Jonny Quest" which was one of my favorites as a kid. It was one of the first cartoons that featured more realistic violence and suspense (and I'm not talking about the lame Scooby Doo variety).

It's shot in painstaking stop motion animation using action figures moving around a board game tableau of the show. Jonny, Hadji, Race and Bandit all are chased by bad guys - both humaniform and monsters - as they race to rescue Jonny's father, Dr. Benton Quest, from a giant octopus.

Really, it's better if you just watch it:



A larger version of the short can be viewed here. Unfortunately, Jack's Tivo only caught three fourths of it (it ran in front a Power Puff Girls episode). Neverthess, Jack is mad about it and wants to view it over and over. The music is an excellent acid jazz version of the original Jonny Quest theme performed by the James Taylor Quartet (no relation).

Like the interstitial/short of "El Kabong" I have captured this to my laptop. I foresee Jack asking for this one a lot in the future. Now all I have to do is to get him to watch an actual episode of the real show. It rocks.

I, I, I, I, I, I want that!

Recently, Jack has started to repeating the first word of every sentence he starts. "I want that!" - which is often said during toy commercials - comes out as, "I, I, I, I, I, I want that!" Or, in the form of a question, "You, you, you, you, you, you want to play with me?"

Yesterday, while I was getting him out of car seat he looked at my nose and said, "You, you, you, you, you, have mocos?" ("Mocos" is Mexican slang for boogers.) I laughed hysterically.

It's cute but I'm privately freaked out. Is he going to stutter? My attractive wife doesn't think so but I don't know how much science is in play here. Do any of my seven readers have any opinions?

Diapee!

Lately, Jack has taken to wanting to run around (literally) in nothing but his diapers. Yes, by his wanting to run around in diapers you can infer that my initial optimistic thoughts on getting Jack potty trained by last November were woefully incorrect.

His mania for running around in diapers seems connected in some way to a burst of new-found energy. It's amazing. He runs around our coffee table while watching his favorite shows cackling all the while. On weekends, I take him to the local park where he devours slides, runs across fields and digs into sand.

After his bath time, he resists - mightily - getting into this pajamas. Because it's been a little cold here in northern California, we dress him in two layers: light weight summer pajamas over traditional fleecy footies. We have to fight to get him into the light weights and then again to get him into the footies. Like Dylan Thomas, he likes to rage against the dying of the light but when his head hits the crib mattress and I turn off the light, he eventually gets to sleep.

Haircut!

Jack got a haircut today!

Afterward, he got his favorite treat: a lollipop.

Rhapsody in Pink

Jack is into the color pink. I'm not sure how this happened or if it otherwise reflects badly on my fatherly duties but he's mad about pink. He saw a commercial before Christmas for My Pretty Ponies and said, "I want that!" Now keep in mind he says, "I want that!" for just about any toy commercial he sees on Boomerang or Cartoon Network. At first I just ignored it but my attractive wife picked up on it.

Then, during our drive down to Los Angeles just before Christmas we stopped at a McDonald's Restaurant in central California. We decided to get Jack a Happy Meal and when I took him to the toy display, he said he wanted the Pink Pony and not the Bionicles. The restaurant was a zoo and over the din of people ordering we received a Happy Meal with a boy's toy (Bionicle) and not the Pretty Pony. Jack was at first upset but soon forgot about it. So did I. Not my attractive wife.

Fast forward to last week. While shopping at Target (i.e., The Mothership) my wife picked up a Pretty Pink Pony and brought it home. She said she picked it up because Jack kept asking for it during our trip to LA. I think she got it to drive me crazy.

Who's your Daddy, Pink Pony? That's right, General Grievous.

Pink Pony's arrival also coincided with a weekend visit to Jack's older cousins, who live about ten miles south of us. His only female cousin, Erin (6) had a Barbie Glamour Jet Plane that she did not play with. The jet is big and pink and Jack fell in love with it. The rear of the plane has all these small compartments which open and close and Jack loved manipulating them. To him, it's a jet plane that he can open up and mess with and it also happens to be pink. To me, it's a fraking Barbie Glamour Jet Plane that's PINK. As we were getting ready to leave, my sister-in-law begged me to take it home because it cost them $60 and Erin never really wanted to play with it. My attractive wife thought this was very funny but also said Jack should have it. Jack hugged it all the way home which was hard since it's so big.

Finally, Jack has discovered The Powerpuff Girls and it's his new favorite show. It still may be too early to call, but I think we're finally over The Pink Panther. My attractive wife and I have seen nearly every episode twice and frankly, we never want to hear the Pink Panther theme ever again. (Are you paying attention to the color theme here?).

Two nights ago, we were watching an episode where the girls battle one of their Kindergarten classmate's mischievous imaginary friend. At one point, Blossom (who wears a pink outfit!) charges the invisible villian and ends up being thrown into the closet. She emerges looking just like Eric Cartman from South Park. My attractive wife and I bust into laughter much to Jack's delight.

"He knocked me down. I'm seriously."

Bibi Bear

I've written before about Jack's special teddy bear, whom he named, "Bibi Bear". (Sometimes Jack pronounces it, "Bibi Bay-er" for emphasis.) When Jack was a new born, we were blessed with many gifts from friends and family of stuffed animals. As an infant and toddler, Jack showed little interest in them but, after I left for Iraq in the fall of 2007, he picked out one of two identical white stuffed teddy bears. I'm not sure where the name came from (perhaps a variation of "Baby Bear") but Jack chose this bear and hasn't let go since.

Can you tell the difference? Jack can.

Bibi Bear is intimately tied to "paci" (the pacifier) which, I have been trying to wean him off of. I'm afraid there is not much progress to report in this department. We have been successful in relegating Paci only to nighttime and Jack regularly asks for it during our bed time routine. Some mornings, he surprises me by announcing that, "Paci is for babies!" and he leaves it in the crib without issue. Other mornings (especially Mondays) he has a hard time giving it up.

We keep Bibi Bear's twin (brother? sister?) in Jack's crib. Jack acknowledges that it's there but otherwise shows little interest. One night, my attractive wife gave Jack a bear after lights out and Jack announced, "That's not Bibi Bear!" and he was right. How he could tell, especially in the dark, is beyond me but I suspect it's the smell.

Bibi Bear is on the right.

When I give Jack Bibi Bear during out night time routine, he often mashes its nose up to his and sniffs it. Maybe the smell has a calming affect. We wash it but are concerned that maybe it will fall apart which would be bad, especially for Mom and Dad's sanity. Wish us luck.

"Jedi Fools!"

Jack’s fascination with Star Wars: Clone Wars continues. He routinely asks me the name of every character on screen. Even my attractive wife, who is no sci-fi fan, can rattle off major characters for Jack. Jack can name Jedi Masters Kit Fisto and Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as his favorite character, General Grievous, and Sith Lord Count Dooku. He’s gaining familiarity with Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and droids R2-D2 and C-3PO.

The other day while driving him to day care, Jack warned me that General Grievous was chasing us as we ran to the garage. We boarded our rocket ship (the family sedan) and blasted off. On the way, he asked me what the “robots” say (Jack’s label for the Trade Federation’s inept Battle Droids). I said, “Roger roger!” Then he asked me what General Grievous says. I said, “Jedi Fools!” But he corrected me, “That’s what Count Dooku says," and I realized he was right, of course. But he thought it pretty funny nonetheless and started saying, in his best low evil voice imitation, “Jedi fools!” We both laughed about it. Eventually, I did get off a viable General Grievous quote, “Prepare the hyperdrive!” which Jack agreed was correct.

Mr. Fingy

For my seven readers of this blog, my apologies for the dearth of postings since New Year’s; the entire household got sick just before Christmas with yours truly getting it last and worse. I only stopped coughing two days ago. Blech. To complicate matters, Jack seems to have picked up some new viral infection that makes his nose run. Poor guy, he can’t yet properly blow his nose. When we entreat him to do so, he ends up blowing out his mouth. Also, being just three, he’s still too young to get the benefit of powerful over-the-counter drugs like Benedryl. On the other hand, we’ve discovered the joys of Vicks Vap-O-Rub. It seems to be helping. Last night, my attractive wife put it on Jack’s feet and then put his socks on. This seems like quackery but she says it works.

Many children craft an imaginary friend at some point. Jack’s new friend is “Mr. Fingy” who is not entirely imaginary because he manifests corporeal form; namely, his right index finger. Mr. Fingy is the primary operator of Jack’s numerous toy vehicles (trucks, diggers, cars, etc.) Jack will place Mr. Fingy into whatever vehicle is near and exclaim, “Mr. Fingy’s leaving!” and then asks, “Are you sad?” Mr. Fingy then goes on whatever excursion Jack imagines only to return a few seconds later. “Mr. Fingy’s back!” he’ll announce.

Sometimes Mr. Fingy will misbehave, or at least that what Jack tells us. A few nights ago in the bath, he said, “Mr. Fingy is bad!” I looked at him, “Really?” “Yeah, he needs a time out!” Jack says and places his finger on the side of the bathtub for a few seconds. “Is Mr. Fingy behaving better?” I ask. “Yeah!” Jack says and resumes playing.