Like most parents, I take delight in verbal milestones. Such as, when “baa” and “coo” became “bottle” and “cookie,” and again when “cookie now!” and “big doggie” turned into “I want cookie now pease,” and “look at that big scawy doggie.” But perhaps most exciting of all is what is happening now with our reader-in-training, Wilson, age 2.5. The “word explosion” has arrived.
We’re actually having conversations. Okay, maybe we’re not discussing politics or literature but… now, finally, I’m able to say things like “Please don’t climb on the fridge” and Wilson will respond with “But I want some milk. And some cheese. The orange cheese, right there. Will you cut it for me?” Ah, so much easier than having to say, “don’t do that,” and then dealing with a massive fit on the floor.
I’m also finding that while the verbal skills are exploding on a daily basis, so are his pre-reading skills. Last week he walked up to a “Happy Halloween” banner I had hanging over the fireplace and shouted “L, L, two Ls!” and then “O, W, E, E, two Es!” and “A” and “X” and “B.” All right, so he didn’t get all the letters correct, but it was enough to get me pretty excited. And then there are the books… the massive amount of books. Normally our routine has been to read to him at naptime and bedtime but now Wilson wants to be read to all the time. He’s yanked every single book he can find off the shelves and tossed them all over his bedroom floor. It’s like a book bomb went off in the house. So now we read while he’s getting dressed. We read while brushing teeth. We read before breakfast, and after breakfast. We read during dinner. We read during dessert. We bring books in the car. Thankfully, if his older sister is along for the ride, she reads to him there. I’m trying to accommodate his insatiable desire for books as much as possible—while also maintaining my sanity of course.
I know that it’s a phase and that soon we’ll no longer view his verbal abilities and obsession with books as tiny miracles but as everyday things we take for granted. For now, though, it’s pretty amazing to watch the early literacy fireworks in action.
–Allison