Daddy Truck! (by Andy)

As everyone knows by now, Alton loves "things that go." Trains, planes, cars, tractors, etc.. you name it. So along these same lines, Alton loves my truck. " Daddy guck" as he calls it. There's nothing abnormal about it - it's just a regular dark blue pickup truck that Daddy drives. But I think that since it shares a name with his beloved trucks (semi trucks, dump trucks, etc) and since he hardly ever gets to ride in it, an attachment has formed. Alton has ridden in the truck only a handful of times. The hassle of moving his car seat and the fact that besides Alton, really only the driver fits comfortably, has kept Alton from having frequent rides.
Steering.

Recently, we (Alton and I) have made a semi-regular routine of going to get the mail. He and I walk down to the mailbox and back. Inevitably, we pass the truck twice. On the way out, he normally cruises right past it, usually touching the bumper or looking at his distorted reflection in the trailer hitch ball. However, on the way back, he walks right up to it, reaching for the door handle and doesn't want to go anywhere else. On a normal day, I'll convince him that today is not a good day to get in the truck and he sadly accepts it and waves goodbye (the first couple of times, this resulted in sobbing tears that broke our hearts). But on a rare occasion, Alton gets to sit in Daddy's truck.
Seat belts are important!

The normal routine is that Alton and I will get in the truck and listen to the radio while he pokes around, looking at all the cool stuff. Alton stands on the driver's seat with me sitting in the passenger seat. The truck gets turned to "accessory" so that the lights and radio come on, but the engine isn't running and it won't shift into gear (although the only rule I have is that the gear shifter is not to be touched). I plan for these explorations to last about 5 or 10 minutes, but they have lasted 30 minutes before. So I decided that it was time for me to share with everyone his abilities and a few cute pictures.
Gotta find some good tunes!

So. Here's what Alton knows about Daddy's truck. He has learned all of this on his own and the performance of any of these items usually gets a huge, proud smile across Alton's face.
-Pick the ignition key from the key chain
-Insert the ignition key into the ignition (it's really only his strength that keeps him from actually turning the key)
-Turn the radio on (turning it off requires you to hold a button down and that takes too long)
-Change from CD to radio and back.
-Turn the radio volume up (he rarely turns it down and will crank the volume up and dance)
-Turn on the bright lights
-Turn on the hazard lights
-Lock the doors
-Roll down the windows (although he doesn't do this often because when he messes with the switch and the window next to him "jumps," it scares him)
-Turn on the windshield wipers
-Open the glove box
-Technically he knows how to honk the horn, but he's not strong enough and will just pat the steering wheel when he wants it to go
Honk the horn!


And I apologize for the quality of the photos. They were all taken this evening (12/11/09) with my phone and the idea of actually taking pictures of his antics was spontaneous. This is one of the few times where it's actually better to view the pictures as you see them in the blog, rather than clicking on them and seeing the full-size version.