1, 2, 3...

Toddlers just amaze me. I was always a little intimidated with the prospect of teaching a child how to read and count (and I want to homeschool? Hmm...), but it's actually a lot easier than I had imagined. A month or two ago, I drew a "W" and Jack pointed to it and said "double do, double do!" A couple of days later, I drew "W" again with chalk on the sidewalk. He said "Mmmmmm!" I then realized that he was sitting opposite me and was reading the letter upside down. I was just amazed!

Today, he woke me up (way too early, I might add). When Bernadette died, for some reason, he started using a pacifier at night. So, now he just loves his paci. This morning, he had one in his mouth, and he walked over to "the spot" in one of our kitchen cabinets (i.e. the place where we stash them when he's awake) and he said "One paci...want two pacis." He even put the "s" at the end of paci. I handed him a second paci. He said "Two pacis...want 3 pacis!" I was just blown away that he knew what "One, two, three" meant. I mean, how do kids know that numbers are for counting and not just words that go together in sequence? Crazy.

Jack's best bud, Ben, who is 26 months has this thing where he will count to 12 (usually skipping 6 or 7) and then scream "Blast Off!" and run as fast as he can to the opposite end of the yard with his arms shot out in front of him. I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence that children in this town (home to NASA) learn how to count by pretending to be rockets. But regardless, it's to die for. These kids are irresistible.