The Charlotte Trolley

This afternoon we rode the Charlotte Trolley, which was a great family outing for all of $5.20!
We happened to be the only riders on a late Saturday afternoon, so we had the conductor and excellent volunteer tour guide--an elderly Mr. Abbott--to ourselves.
As fits his nature, John was very serious when the trolley was driving. He sat still, stared, with his brow furrowed. But when we stopped for 10 minutes at the end of the line before turning around, he was able to relax and have fun exploring the trolley. He kept shouting, "Wow!" Then the train started up again and John turned back to his serious, observant self. Even with his somber mien, at every stop on the route, John would quietly sign for MORE.

I forgot the other day to post that John did something interesting linguistically: he applied the sign for NURSING to a mother other than me. We met our friends the Mills in Greenville, SC, for Mass and a visit. My friend Elaine just had her third baby and said newborn began crying at the lunch table. Before Mama could start nursing her, John saw the baby's distress and signed BABY NURSE repeatedly.

Then tonight at a restaurant, John applied NURSE to another baby-mama dyad and strung together three signs for the first time (when he still hasn't strung together two spoken words). There was a toddler in the restaurant screaming in terror because the waitress had brought a flaming dish to the table. Chris said to John, "That baby is crying, but it's okay, her mama will probably nurse her." Later when the same toddler began crying about something else, John signed BABY CRY NURSE. I thought that showed good observation and empathy!