ABC Ecstasy

Greyson is all about the alphabets these days. It all started when my mom bought him these alphabet fridge magnets. When my folks were here, he was just starting to recognize and sound out certain letters. Now, he knows more than half the alphabet, and can sound it phonetically or say it. It's changed our outings completely. Before when I ran errands with him, I had to give him an interesting toy to play with the stroller, or a snack to keep his hands busy. Now, Greyson entertains himself calling out alphabets wherever he can find them. It's like he's cracked a secret code, and suddenly everything; street signs, store windows, packaging, store fronts...they come alive.

One time, I was getting money from an atm, and he was in his stroller next to him when I hear him excitedly call out "Aaaah.....T-t-t.....Mmm!!!" I taught him about stop signs so that we can be on our way to learning not to run into an intersection. Every time he sees one, he calls out "SSsss....T-t-t....Puh puh puh!" and puts his hand out in front of him. If we're walking, he'll stop dead in his tracks and do it. It's really cute, but we take forever to get anywhere. I forgot to go at an intersection today because we were busy reading a "One Way" sign. Another time, we were poised in front of a restaurant when a young man came and opened the door for us to go in. I cheerfully replied, "Oh go ahead, we're just reading the Open sign." He looked at me like I was crazy.

Greyson loves to sing the ABC song (or Baa Baa Black Sheep, or Twinkle Twinkle, whichever it's most familiar as). He can hum it front start to finish, and if you hum it along with him, he's actually on pitch most of the time. The other night we put him down for bed, and he hummed himself to sleep. He sings it throughout the day using different consonants. Today he "Rurr"ed it in the car, over and over, in between exclaiming at Stop signs. I find myself thrilled at every opportunity to teach him something, and yet at time, exhausted by yet another level of this "on" switch, so unique to mothers and mommy radar. It amazes me, this stage, how truly like a sponge they are. It's such an awesome responsibility, motherhood. Knowing that you're responsible for how this child learns, grows, socializes, eats...it's all so much to wrap my brain around. I guess that's why we don't spend too much time thinking about the breadth of this task as mothers, we just do it.









Here's Greyson digging into my popcorn at the Farmer's Market.