Richard Scarry, Hack Writer

It's got no plot. It's got recurring characters (namely "Goldbug") that are as cloying as the Brady Bunch's Oliver.

But it's got lots and lots of cars. So it's OK with Gabriel.

Richard Scarry's books seems a lot less compelling to me now than they did to me as a youngster, and "Cars and Trucks and Things that Go" is no exception. In the end, it's just a mechanism for learning what different kinds of internal combustion engines look like-- and most of them date to the 1970s anyway.

But Gabriel loves it, so it's OK.

This was his book du jour for a while, starting at the age of 18 months or so. It's no longer his first choice very frequently, but he still comes back to it.

And it's a hard one to show much sympathy for.

No More Sippy Cup?

There was a time when I laughed at people who said "sippy cup."

And that time may come again, as Gabriel now shows growing interest in drinking things our way-- from a glass.

Last week he drank successfully from a regular straw for the first time. This was at Open City Diner. He did it several times, and was so pleased each time that he smiled broadly. You can tell when he's pleased with himself, as opposed to just pleased.