ABC 123 and the Mechanic

If it weren't because Bill told me that he had re-read my last post tonight, I probably wouldn't have noticed how much time has passed since I last blogged. Well, juggling a changing work schedule and life with a toddler leaves both Bill and me no time for ourselves or each other. What's worse, the recent changes in our lives make it impossible for me to stay up past 9pm or for Bill to be in bed before 1am.

I'm blogging now at 2:33am. I got up to go to the bathroom and have a late-night bowl of cereal.

Hey, as I peeked at the time on the right-hand bottom corner of my screen, I noticed something else: It's July 11th. Kai's 22 month old today.

Oh.... what can I say about the little boy's recent development?! He amazes us each and every day with the new things he has learned, new words he can say, and new facial expressions he comes up with. The boy learns so fast that Bill and I realized we only have to say or show him something ONCE, and he's got it. For instance, his new favorite thing is to use his toy screwdriver to fix his toy cars. He has only seen his father using the screwdriver once or twice (and never on or around a car). Like a mechanic, the boy knows you gotta "turn, turn, turn" the screwdriver when you fix the car. He tries every hole and knot; everything that looks "turnable". He says, "All done" or "Better" after he finishes fixing it. This evening, when he was showing my mom how he fixes his car via Skype, he actually said, "Mommy. Try" after he turned his push car upright, and as soon as I pushed the car back and forth a couple times, he looked directly at "wai pou" and said, "Good job" and started clapping (Nope! The boy ain't shy when it comes time to acknowledge his achievements either).

Another amazing and amusing thing he has started doing quite frequently is singing. He loves the ABC song, and he brightens up whenever he hears it. He can't quite "catch up" when you sing it to him yet, but he knows a few words here and there: ABCD... JK...QR...W...now I now I...me. Aside from trying to sing the song, he has also taken an interest in learning to recognize the alphabet. So far, he has consistent success in recognizing P and U; all the other ones are a hit-or-miss. On the other hand, his numbers are growing by leap and bounds. He now counts like this: one, two, three, five, seven, nine, ten, eveven, twelf, dirteen, (sometimes fourteen), fiveteen, (sometimes any of these numbers in between), twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three. We don't know why he seems to prefer odd numbers, but what do we care?! Our not-even-two-years-old son is able to count to 23 on his own!!! The funniest thing is when he tries to count fast. I can tell he wants to go from 1-10, but he hasn't seemed to be able to get beyond 5. My guess is it's because 7 is the only bisyllabic word in the bunch. It's easy to go 1235 or even the 9 and 10, once he gets over that hump of having to say two syllable in the same amount of time he'd use to say one.

His interest in singing and this blip in counting show that he has perceptually mastered the rhythm of English and is now getting a shot at producing it. Every time he sings and counts is his articulatory muscles getting a work-out. It's a beautiful sight, for me in particular, as I understand the complex and intricate mechanics of the brain, nerves, and muscles in language production.

Life with a toddler is busy and action-packed, but we both love watching and discovering what he's come up with next so much that we both have a hard time imagining spending time away from him (like when he goes to daycare). If he's learning this much this fast when he's only spending time with his parents, imagine the stuff he'll say or do when he's got all the other kids and much much more toys and books to play with at the daycare?! ::shudder::