I think one of the memories of Charles I’ll carry with me is his happy dance when he has a new toy car.
Mom went to Walmart today. She announced this fact beforehand which caused Charles to instantly demand pants. He also submitted to socks, shoes and a coat, if that’s what it takes to ride in the car. At one point Mom was conferring with me as to her purchase list while Charles was pushing on her leg saying “c’mon”. He’s got his Mom’s headstrong nature and his Dad’s monomanical focus.
I don’t think Mom got Charles anything the first time but by the second trip he’d worn Mom down and she bought him a new toy car.
I found this out as I’m looking to see if Mom needs help with the groceries. Charles rushes over to me saying “open!” and holding up the package with the car in it. As I work on opening it, I can hear Charles start breathing faster. He’s making these little pre-happy moans and then he starts bouncing up and down on his toes.
Dad is opening the package and then I will have my car!
I have the package open in moments and I hand it to Charles, who pounces on it like a starving peasant on a fresh baked loaf of bread.
I then discover something else about Charles and his cars. He has many that are the typical hauling truck you see moving furnitute and such around town. Of course, these are not put together with the highest amount of structural integrity and it doesn’t take much time with Charles for the backs to pop off. Like the first people to try hagis, Charles has made a virtue of necessity. After just a few minutes with his new truck, he asked Mom to pop the back off. When Mom told him that it wasn’t supposed to come off, Charles resorted to a technique that’s succeeded in the past - throwing the truck at the ground as hard as he can. Sadly, this car is made of sterner stuff than other ones and stubbornly refuses to disassemble. Charles seemed to accept this, but I suspect that he’s just biding his time until he has a better throwing arm.