For Justus' birthday Grandma got him this really cool battery operated car that he can ride in. It is adjustable so that, when he is too young (as he should be now) Mom and Dad attach a long handle to the back of it that has a button where WE can operate the car - to include motorizing and steering. There is another button on the actual steering wheel, where, once he gets bigger, he can drive and steer himself.

So, here we were on a nice family stroll, the mom and the dad, with the little red handle on the back of the car because Justus just can't understand how to actually 'hold' the button down on the steering wheel (he presses it, but only momentarily, so his driving consists of little neck breaking lurches).

We're driving along when, suddenly, Justus decides that he wants to have his right foot just hanging out of the car dragging on the ground, perilously close to getting run over by the back tire.

So we of course stop the car. "Put your foot back in Justus" we say. "Foot" we point, "in." we repeat. "Put your foot in or we won't be going anywhere."

It's at this point that Justus takes off just fine, holding down the little red button on the steering wheel with no problems, leaving mommy and daddy in the dust.

As we watch Justus, driving himself down the road, foot dragging on the ground, against the will of mom and dad, we can only shake our heads and imagine that this is only year 1 of what is turning out to be a very interesting learning process.