DD4 doesn't care too much about maps yet, but he has always loved road signs. We just got back from a fabulous trip to aruba (lucky me!), where DD4 had to be in control of the map with the quite different road signs on it. He would see the signs and yell out what they meant to the driver.
We also risked paying extra for our luggage, hauling back the giant bag of rocks he collected to add to his other rocks. When I was carrying his booster to the baggage line, a bunch of rocks fell out of the cupholder. I asked him where they came from, and he said "the road - they're gravel rocks." These mysteriously didn't make it home with the rest of the beach rocks... I'm also expecting a meltdown when he notices that the very big beach rocks he collected did not find their way home.
Belle - your son's schmuzzy lane reminded me of my son's 2-year-old obsession with the upside-down show. He called himself "shmuzzy" in the parent-tot classes, and collected little fuzzy pompoms and called them schmuzzies, like the critters on the show. He made different houses for them all the time.
