Why Do Kids Do That?!

I joined a women only gym down the street from our house (Fit for Her). We live close enough that we should walk, but I took Jonathan today so we drove. I made him leave his trail mix in the car, but let him bring in Cheerios to snack on. I got Kim enrolled too, but she hasn't gone yet (I've only been 2x). They have all kinds of cool things including massage chairs and tanning, but I really like the kid's play area. They don't have an attendant, instead they have a surveillance camera in the play room and it hooks up to a cable channel on the TVs that are on front of every cardio machine. Anyway, Jonathan did great while I worked out, he played with cars, watched Clifford on TV, and rearranged the small chairs. When it was time to leave I went in and he helped me clean up the toys and pick up some Cheerios he had spilled on the floor. He was being so well-behaved and so quiet that I began to get suspicious as we were walking to the car. I noticed he was drooling considerably and had that funny "my mouth is too full" look. I suddenly thought, "Oh no! What if he found something on the floor, or a small toy and is trying to eat it!" So I stopped him and told him to spit it out, which he did without complaint. What he had in his mouth looked like a brown pitted cherry half from a cherry pie, though considerably well-rinsed with baby saliva. It took me a moment to realize that it was a raisin! As we were walking into the gym he had stuck a raisin into his mouth. He had held it in his mouth for 45 min? No way. So I asked him what it was. "Razin, Mommy, yucky razin." he told me.

This is not the first time he has held food in his mouth for an unnatural length of time, but it is probably the longest amount of time. My child re-hydrated a raisin into a grape, because he didn't like it and refused to chew and swallow it, and wouldn't spit it out until told to! Why do kids do things like that?