Counting

Baby B and Granddad here, counting the holes in the yellow playground barrier. Granddad's counting was boringly conventional, I have to say, but B's was more creative: "Too, too, fore, aTe." Or sometimes, "Too, fore, siss, aTe." This was the first time it had ever occurred to me that the even numbers between one and ten are generally easier to enunciate than the odds.

Because we missed seeing the Child Genius last week due to other social commitments, we expected to see a step change in him today. We hadn't quite anticipated the explosion of vocabulary that greeted us his morning, or his increasing use of phrases - especially when giving orders such as "Boots DARE!" (pointing to the space under the hall table where he likes grandparental outdoor shoes to be left), or "Stan' UP!" if you happen to be sitting somewhere he doesn't want you to be.

Some of his pronunciation is still a bit on the baroque side, but the glottal stop is giving way to some quite precise consonants now, which make it much easier to understand him. He'll also have a go at harder words than previously, if he's in the mood: "tsangyoo" is rather lovely, and I also very much like "buwdozuh". Some things have been lost that I miss - for instance birds have suddenly become "BIRDY!" rather than "ee, ee", which they've been since he first realised that that (or a variation thereon) is what most of them seem to say. But fire engines are still "nee naw", and buses are still "din', din'" - at least for this week.

Best of all from R's point of view was that he was quite often called something not a million miles from "Dandad" today, which I need hardly tell you charmed him to his boots; but sadly the Boy resolutely declined all invitations to prove the rumour that he can also (nearly) say Grandma. It could be that he's lost his confidence in the word, but it might equally be that this was the point at which he decided to assert his right to silence. He's turning into a very determined little body.