Word play

Over thanksgiving dinner we were playing a fun game with Jolly wherein the adults at the table took turns stating what kinds of animal was in what item of clothing, preferably alliterative (e.g. "jaguar in my jeans", "panda in my petticoat", "gorilla in my girdle"). We kept asking Jolly to participate at intervals and he kept demurring ("Mummy say it.") but then eventually he had a very concentrated look and spontaneously busted out with "PENGUIN. In my POCKET." and was then clearly super-chuffed even before the entire table erupted into cheering and applause. Baby's first deliberate use of alliteration!

Ephiny also reported that he counted to five owls in a picture today. In itself, that isn't terribly remarkable, but he pointed at each owl in turn and then actually STOPPED at the number five, rather than carrying on as high as he can go... thus seeming to indicate at long last the point of counting. That's a big stride in numeracy!

I'm so proud of Jolly!

Our eldest such a delightful little person these days, even when he is being "developmentally appropriate" (thanks, Sears family, for that great descriptor of the toddler whiny boundary-pushing). It's really such an honor to get to spend time shepherding him through his day.

And, I do want to say that having both a toddler AND a baby is really awesome because it has heightened my appreciation of both the awesome aspects of both the newborn and the toddler stage. The baby seems more precious and small and snuggly in comparison, and that is obviously all great, but the toddler's verbal expressiveness and interaction and imaginative play is equally highlighted. A very clear comparison point for where they start out makes me really impressed with how far Jolly has come, and having RJ in the picture now really makes me love both developmental stages for exactly what they have to offer. (It clearly helps that we have really stellar specimens of each. Not that I'm biased.)