Wheels

Every day I'm finding out a little more about the little man - a morsel more of his personality reveals itself on the menu of his day to day activities.

I'm not sure how to describe one of the recent discoveries but I'll try. He a 'sticker' he finds what he likes and then he does that one thing - a lot - and for a long time. This applies to a few situations.

For example, there is a playground near our place, he used to be happy playing on the swing, pretending to call someone on the oversized telephone, whizzing down the slide - then one day he discovered, up the stairs, across the wobbly bridge - a wheel! This simple, red, metal steering wheel sits at the top of the highest section of the playground - just near where you would go down the slide. Presumably it's there to keep kids occupied while they wait for other kids to hurl themselves down the slide sideways, backwards all the ways that kids seems to do.

For our Alexander there is no greater pleasure in this earth than standing at the top of the playground turning the steering wheel this way and that. Literally nothing comes close! Occasionally he will press the middle of the wheel where the horn would be and say "beep beep"

Alex with his beloved wheel - one of them anyway

"Do you want to go down the slide now?" we'll ask him after 20 minutes or so of standing and turning the wheel.
"No!" he'll reply with a determined shake of the head
"What about the dinosaur bouncy thing - you used to like the dinosaur bouncy thing..."
"No."

If either of us dare to remove Alex from this prime position there will be tears, flailing of arms and eventually, he will climb back up the stairs, across the wobbly bridge and up to his post - at the wheel, captain of the playground.