Growing Up Fast!

Ok, here's an entire blog about J's "new tricks" - so if you're not into hearing Moms go on about their kids' new skills, read no further ;)

The first skill that he's been honing in the last few months is shapes. He's known what the moon is for a very long time now - it was one of his first words. He recognizes the moon in both crescent and full shapes in life and in books. Stars have also been a favorite for some time (both real and in the stereotypical "star" shape found on toys and in books). To it he's added squares, triangles, circles, and hearts - if asked he can identify which is which when we're coloring together or in his books.

He's also been hard at work on his colors. Once he realized he could say blue (or "booo") he has been using it to ask what color something is. It started with his shirt each day - he'd point to the shirt, ask "boooo"?, and smile when I gave him the appropriate color. As of the end of February (21 mo. old) he could reliably ID blue, red, green, and yellow when given his choice of blocks. In the two weeks since then he's added orange, brown and often purple (sometimes mixes purple with blue) and can select the appropriate crayon or colored area in a book. He can also pretty reliably "say" green, orange, and purple - rather than just using "blue" as a synonym for "color". They are not as clear as they could be, but his speech is getting there.

The skill I'm most excited about is his counting! For a month or so he's play counted - he'd go down the line of snowmen on our couch blanket and intone staccato noises as if he were counting them but the sounds were not recognizable as English. For a few weeks now he'd often say two (doo) and/or three (tee) if we said, "Let's count..." and begin him off with "one...". He's learned the sequence up through five and sometimes seven. I thought he was just learning a little chant, so to speak, that would later lead to him applying the concept of counting. But just this afternoon he was coloring at his little table with 5 crayons. I was otherwise occupied, but looked up when I heard him counting... he counted his five crayons by moving one apart from the rest then adding "doo, teee, or, ive" and separating them into the new pile. Then he picked up all of them and said "ive daaas!" (five crayons), lifting them up above his head in his fist! [He doesn't yet have a "f" or "k" sound in his verbal vocabulary]. I'm so excited that he seems to be understanding that counting is a concept, not just a rhyme!