words and thoughts

The latest advancements in Jonah's language development are dependent clauses. For a long time, he has been using "and" to connect two statements or to make lists. He has recently begun to lengthen his sentences, using "but," "because" and "while" clauses. The stories he likes to tell have become longer and quite a bit more elaborate as today's quote of the day exemplifies ("I'm a night man and I'm blue. And daddy is a bad guy. He has a scratchy back").

The other day Jonah also correctly counted three items. I have read that two-year-olds, though often able to rattle off numbers in correct order, are not able to grasp the concept of counting. They can only distinguish between one item and two or more which they will, no matter how many there are, count as two. I have noticed that exact phenomenon with Jonah. By the age of three, toddlers are able to count three things and as they get older, they begin to really grasp the concept of counting. So, Jonah counted to three the other day. It was trucks, I think.

Jonah has been asking a lot of why questions as well. For example: "What do ladies wear bras for?" and "What is the sky for?" I didn't think that at barely three-years-old, my child would make me sweat and strain my brain as I try to respond to him.

Speaking of words, I have become completely addicted to playing Scrabble online (Scrabulous, actually, via Facebook). In the morning, that's the first thing I always want to do, and when Jonah falls asleep, I can't wait to jump on the computer to play some more. Maybe it's because playing the game takes my mind off other stressful things, like grieving. It's so much fun; my latest obsession.

The addiction is paying off -- as far as games are concerned anyways. Last night I had a couple of friends over for "game night" and I kicked ass in Boggle. Yeah! Too bad we didn't play for money! I think it's just because I've been in word game mode and I've been learning new words, useful for such empty pursuits as Scrabble and Boggle.

When my students learned about my Scrabulous addition, they said: "Well, at least it's not cigarettes or alcohol." Wow, I think they took the word 'addiction' a little too literally.