"I don' wannit"

I've said many times that Benny is a puzzle.  I love him to pieces, but I don't always "get" him.

Benny's limited (but growing) communication is very two-dimensional in a world that functions on three-dimensional communication. 

What do I mean by this?  Most people can tell you their preferences, then tell you why they have those preferences.  The "why" is the third dimension that gives shape to the basic two-dimensional fact.  It completes the picture and helps you understand what makes a person who they are and why they make some of the choices they do. 

While I don't think most three year-olds have a complete grasp of three-dimensional communication, it is a skill that is emerging.  The concept of the "five W's" (who? what? when? where? why?) are beginning to be understood receptively, and used expressively... everyone has probably been around a toddler who has continual questions, right?

Benny does not yet have a concept of the five W's... receptively nor expressively.  It's not that Benny doesn't ask questions, but he tends to learn language in "chunks".  At this point, language for Benny seems to be a series of one to four word chunks that he learns as a chunk and uses as a chunk.  The skill of mixing the chunks up to create other chunks is not really something with which he has much skill.  For example, Benny might say "hi", and pause for your response, and appropriately follow it by "how you doing?".  I don't think he really understands the individual words how, are, you and doing, but "how you doing?" is a chunk he has learned comes after the chunk "hi".  It sounds good, but he can't answer the question, "how are you doing?", which proves he doesn't really understand some of the language he uses.

I say this to convey a recent humorous Benny decision, for which we have no logical explanation.

Benny loves Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars.  For his birthday, he received a package of five cars and trucks.  He was thrilled.  He spent most of the evening lining all five of them up, rolling them across the table, or carrying them around.

A few days after his birthday, though, the baby blue 1959 Corvette was ostracized.  Benny distinctly decided he did not like, and did not want, the Corvette.  For no apparent reason, it was noticeably left behind.  Thinking it was just a mood or phase, Jen and I have returned it to him many, many times in the weeks since his birthday.  We'll often hand it to him and say something like, "here, you forgot one."  When he sees that it is the '59 Vette, he shoves it away and says, "I don' wannit."  Since making this decision, he has been 100% consistent.

I have never seen him make such a definite decision about disliking one particular toy, and I'd REALLY like to know why he has selected this one bright, shiny, new car to ostracize from his group of many cars.  However, any attempts to ask him "why?" just lead to a reaffirmation of, "I don' wannit!"  He'll play with just about any Matchbox-sized car he can get his hands on... whether it's his or one of his sibling's.  But, NOT this one:

the ostracized Corvette

So, if anyone has ever dreamed of owning a baby blue 1959 Corvette, Benny has one he'll sell you... really cheap!  We're not sure why... but one thing we DO know is that he "don' wannit!"