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Wow!

Simon continues to be a boy of few words, even as his comprehension is obviously increasing at a rapid clip. He’s been able to point out things like dogs, cats, fish, babies, buses, etc. for a while, and now he can also show me a taxi, ferry, bridge, helicopter, boy, girl, and most primary colors. Among is few new spoken words is “wow!” Coincidentally, he’s learned a few new tricks that I think are worthy of this new exclamation.

In the patios of Sesame Street, this blog entry is brought to you by the word “Wow!”.

Wow! #1: Conquering the Slide:

After 3 ½ month of teasing, Simon finally decided to go down the slide last night. He went down a few times on our trip to San Francisco, then developed sudden-onset slide phobia. We’d try to have him go down, and he’d fuss and squirm. I took him down on my lap, I waited at the end for him, I climbed through tunnels, and went down beside him-all in a seemingly futile campaign to get Simon to go down on his own. No dice. Every time he’d walk over the slide, sit down by its edge, put his hands on the sides…. And then turn around and beat a path to another section of the play equipment. Every time. Last night, for reasons I cannot explain, he let go and went for it. Upon reaching the bottom he looked up at Matt, flashed a huge smile, and declared, “Wow! Indeed, kiddo.

Wow! #2: Introducing the Pronoun:

Until yesterday, Simon’s vocabulary was composed of nouns and exclamations only. (The “dirty” in “dirty dog” and the “nice” when petting the cats don’t count.) Yesterday, he added his first pronoun. As an added bonus, he almost used the correct one. Mom and Simon were playing a knock-knock game, and twice when Mom asked “Who’s there?” Simon answered back “Me.” While technically he should have used the nominative “I”, I’m not going to quibble about case with a toddler. I’m just impressed he didn’t say “you” or “Simon.”

Wow! #3 Hopping Down and Backing Up:

We’re about six weeks into this walking thing, and other skills are beginning to emerge. The big two are his ability to hop down from a step or chair and his ability to walk backwards. The backwards walking has manifest itself in a particularly cute habit: Simon can now get a favorite book, walk over to me, turn around, back up a few paces, and sit himself down on my lap to be read to.

I’m sure there are other Wow!s I’m missing. Every since Simon got up and walked, it seems he learns something new every day. If he keeps this up, the entire summer will be brought to you by “Wow!”

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