learning to read

Bino has been fascinated with books from the beginning, so this past weekend I thought I'd see if he had any interest in learning to read. He's interested. He doesn't know his alphabet yet, so he's reading just by sight. We have been shocked at how quickly he's picking up new words. As of this afternoon, he can identify hi, bye, baby, Mama, Papa, car, star, robot, balloon, Elmo, bear, and sometimes toes (which he occasionally mistakes for feet, a word we haven't introduced yet). That's about one tenth of his entire spoken vocabulary!

This afternoon we were playing at words on the computer (I'd type them and he'd read them on the screen) when he said a new word we hadn't learned yet (star). I typed it, he read it, and hours later, he can identify it on a card.

You can hear a Boston accent in the making here (maybe he's picking this up at daycare?), which Pedro and I find sometimes hilarious. Listen to the two-syllable "bear" near the end.

At the park

He loves going down the slide.  And making noise.  And running all over the place.   You can hear him saying "bye" at the end.  

Things he finds hilarious

Here's one.  

Thomas the train overload

After I put these new train (or as Bino says, "Hain! Hain!") sheets on Bino's bed, he must have spent 20 minutes shrieking and dancing around in it and his matching pjs. He's such a happy little boy now.

Speaking of things Bino says, by our calculations, he's approaching a vocabulary of 100 words. We seem to be in the midst of that "language explosion" we've heard about for so long. Recent additions include ride, quack, park, flower, c'mon,  swing, spoon, rice, rain, apple, and bed.

Balloon balloon balloon!

Last weekend we went out to eat at a place that will quickly become Bino's favorite restaurant if it keeps handing out balloons.  He was pretty excited about this one and insisted on hanging onto it in the car on the way home and for some time afterwards.  He kept shouting "balloonballoonballoon!" and sometimes "Red balloon!" over and over.  An incantation of joy.

Riding the bus

This isn't quite the way I imagined his first bus ride, but it's pretty cute nonetheless.

Little monkeys

Here are Bino and his father performing "5 little monkeys" and an interpretive dance rendition thereof. We were all in a silly mood here.