Working At the Car Wash (Wash, Wash)
Greetings to everyone.
Sorry for the 70's retro disco reminder in the title.
Fridays are cleaning the house days. Xavier helps Rebecca with cleaning and earns a couple of dollars for his efforts (when his efforts are worth a couple of dollars, of course; none of that "no-score" soccer mentality fostered here).
This morning, Xavier really earned his dollar for cleaning up his toys in Middle Earth. Rebecca did not have to move anything out of the way to vacuum, and all his toys got put in his toy bins. They were not in the bins in an orderly way, but in the bins none-the-less. He also did a dollar-worthy job on his room.
We keep Xavier's money he earns in a Mason jar on his desk. He can see it, and we are helping him understand the relationship between work effort and dollar value, as well as costs and choices in buying toys.
Xavier's primary focus for his dollars are two things: "sharks," which refer to any kind of toy with jaws that open and close when squeezed, and Hot Wheels, cars and accessories.
Xavier has grown obsessed with car washes these past few weeks. Perhaps, because he has sat through a couple of them in these last couple of weeks. He gets really excited with all the water and rollers and dryer action as the car progresses through the stages of the wash.
I introduced Xavier to Hot Wheels YouTube videos last week. Who knew the monster that lurked behind sharing that piece of knowledge?! Xavier obsesses with watching these videos; we've seen them all at least twice!
Then, as he has gained a workable enough understanding of how to use the remote control for the TV YouTube app, he came across Hot Wheels Car Wash play sets. We've seen every car wash play set video at least a half dozen times. He'll watch for a while, getting more and more amped up, then have to run out to play with his own cars. Then, he comes back and watches again, only to run out excitedly and play with his setups.
Well, this morning, after cleaning up his room and play areas, Xavier came to Rebecca and wanted to build a car wash for his Hot Wheels. He knew he needed several things: a track to carry the cars, a tunnel for the cars to go through, sprayers to wash and rinse the cars, rollers to roll the cars and "leaf blowers" (dryers) to dry the cars.
As he listed these items off to Rebecca, he held in his hand a bunch of track; he did not know where to get the other parts he needed.
Mama, being the genius that she is, suggested using his six foot nylon tunnel for the tunnel. She also got a roll of paper towels and some toilet paper rolls for the rollers.
They put everything together. They improvised with other toy parts the sprayers and "leaf blowers." Xavier has spent the day running his cars through his car wash, often re-configuring parts of it as he thinks of new ideas.
And, yes, Xavier does sing "Working at the car wash, wash, wash" sometimes as he plays.
The Robot Grasshopper
Greetings and Happy New Year to all!
Our new year began as you may expect of a middle-aged couple with an active three-year old. We put Xavier to bed at his normal time, then watched TV until midnight.
Of course, we fell asleep before midnight. We woke about a quarter after the New Year, kissed, then went to bed.
Rebecca had her reserve weekend this past weekend. She needed to go up early this month: two days early. So, Xavier and Dad lived like bachelors for four days!
One of the toys Dad got in his stocking was a little solar powered robotic grasshopper. Some assembly was required.
This made a great father-son project after church and after lunch. We built the robot, which excited Xavier. He is into robots. He got two robots in his stocking. He has two pair of underpants with robot prints which he favors more than his others. He often talks like a stereotypical robot at times.
Xavier was highly involved (and helpful) in building the grasshopper. Of course, we needed to take in on a test drive after building it. Fortunately, today had a lot of sunlight, which the robot requires.
The best angle for the day and time was the driveway. Once we corrected the robot's actuator (we installed it too tightly), the grasshopper wriggled down the driveway.
Xavier jumped and grinned ecstatically! Then he learned that blocking the sun with a shadow across the robot stopped its movement. That led to an hour of fun in the sun and on the driveway. Robot on; robot off; repeat.
Balloon Volleyball
Greetings to all.
Xavier got to do many things with Aunt Kathy. He even let her put him to bed one night. It was a Christmas miracle!
One of the games played was balloon volleyball. Xavier found a balloon in his toy box. We blew it up and it became a nightly ritual before going to bed to play the game.
I don't know if the nightly games helped tire Xavier out, or wind him up. Fortunately, Aunt Kathy offered to put Xavier to bed the first night.
With Xavier wound up, and knowing how difficult getting him down in such a state can be, I took her up on her offer. As she led Xavier to his room, I secretly laughed.
Kathy returned less than fifteen minutes later. Xavier was in bed and stayed there. In fact, he fell asleep very quickly. Try as I might, I could not convince Kathy to do this for us every night until Xavier turned four.