This morning Grammy woke up to the pitter-patter of little feet running around the dining room. Oliver’s latest thing is to play “Chase” around the table. He will run in circles for what seems an eternity provided that someone is following him. Occasionally he will switch directions to unwind, but he will keep going until he is winded and out of breath. He’s gotten pretty quick too. When he does this he refers to himself as “Dash” from the Disney movie The Incredible’s. He has not seen the movie, but he loves his Dash doll. He even resembles Dash! Sometimes Oliver will run in place as if he is peeling out before actually gaining any actual mileage around the table. It’s a great cardio workout to start his day and it is the only real exercise I get these days.

When Grammy entered the room Oliver was a bit reticent because he did not initially recognize her. That did not last long however, because Grammy was holding a bag of toy cars she brought with her to give The Kid. As soon as he realized that Grammy was holding something for him, he jumped out of my lap and ran to her in order to inspect the bag of goodies.

Inside the bag were four die-cast metal cars that propel forward when they are wound up. [Think big Matchbox cars.] Initially, I noticed the small dangerous parts, but Oliver’s face lit up when he saw the cars. He said “CAR!” and it was all over. He loves these things. So much in fact that I could not pry one of them out of his hands at nap time. Now whenever any of the cars are not in his presence he whines the word “CARRRR!”.

Last night when Papi was putting Oliver down to bed, he had to struggle with him just to keep Oliver from sleeping with it. The first thing Oliver said to me this morning when he woke up was “CAR?!”.

It seems as though he has no other toy at this moment. I think Grammy may have opened Pandora’s box.

(PS:Grammy's luggage arrived at 10:30pm last night)