Easter and 123 ABC

I only have one picture for this post, but some exciting developments!  First, as you can see above, we had our first try at dyeing eggs for Easter.  It worked out better than I imagined.  I thought we would have dye and eggs splattered everywhere, but Zane was careful.  Here is a rather long video of the process, probably only interesting to grandparents!

I had to work on the Saturday before Easter, so I was sad to miss the chance to take Zane to his first egg hunt.  Michael took Zane to the zoo where they have an area for 1-3 year olds.  I guess it was pretty easy, as there was no start time, and piles of eggs were everywhere.  Still, Zane liked it, and even helped put eggs in a baby's basket.  Hopefully this cancels out the bad karma he got a week later from whacking a baby at daycare with a shoe.  It was an accident, but Zane had been told to stop swinging his shoes around or just such a thing might happen.  He ended up having to stay inside while everyone went on a walk.  This was his first "bad" report home.  He's been having a hard time lately listening and obeying.  He's being very 2, and it is quite tiring.  Still, most of the time he is a good boy.

We are all very proud that Zane is now reciting his ABCs and counting up to 13 by himself!  It seems as though all of a sudden a switch has been thrown in his brain.  Around the time we went to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago, he had started to say a few letters here and there and count up to five or six.  I've noticed in the past that travel seems to accelerate new development, and that seemed to happen here, too!  While we were in Hawaii we watched a bit more TV than we normally would, and Zane started watching a show called SuperWhy.  It's a show all about learning to read.  He seemed mesmerized and started participating in the show.  When we got home, he was watching it one day and all of a sudden he started repeating the alphabet along with AlphaPig!  Now he can do the whole thing all by himself with no mistakes.  Michael and I and Marie at daycare have been telling Zane the alphabet, but it took a pig on TV to make it all gel.  Oh well, whatever works!

Along with reciting the alphabet has come some letter recognition.  It's very exciting to have him be able to point out a letter on a written page.  He can even distinguish some words from others if I say something like, "It's the shortest word and it ends with a T.  Can you find that one?"  Just a couple of days ago he started drawing in a very different way and announcing he was writing his name.  It looks like a rune or a very long E with many spokes.  It's definitely very different from his usual drawing.

At the same time Zane all of a sudden began reciting numbers up to thirteen and sometimes beyond!  It seems like some sort of list-making set of neurons in his brain are turned on.  He also seems to be starting to understand the concept of counting.  I don't have any illusions that Zane will be reading and doing math next month, but it's an exciting start!

Finally, Zane has started to sing and hum a bit.  I sing to him a lot, even though he complains about it. :)  He started softly and shyly singing to some CDs, though, and it tickles me to no end.  Last week all of a sudden he started humming, and made a big deal out of demonstrating it to both of us.  "I'm humming!  It sounds different."  He likes to go to a spot in our backyard and announce, "I'm going to do some humming."  Then he will fiddle with flowers while he hums.

Today is a warm beautiful day, and I got a little bit of video of him "writing his name," but unfortunately the battery died a short way in, and he wouldn't do it again.  Then some video of him humming.  You may have to turn up the volume for that.


Oh!  And I almost forgot to mention that Zane has also been zipping around on his balance bike like a daredevil.  He goes fast enough that I have to run to keep up.  I know he'll have a major wipe out someday, but meanwhile I don't want to inhibit him by telling him to be careful all the time. Maybe next time I'll get video of that!

Happy Spring!