Prior to today, Kian has only counted to 2, even when there are more than two objects. He would say, "one-two" while bouncing his pointer finger and then just keep bouncing his finger to count more without verbalizing more numbers. Sometimes he'd repeat "one-two-two". Then, out of the blue today, he counted to ten on his own without prompting or echoing! When he counted the doors upstairs in his typical style "one-two...two doors!" I corrected him saying that there are actually four doors, "one-two-three-four". I coaxed him to count to three, but then he just kept going on his own, while I stared in wide-eyed amazement! He looked a bit surprised, quite delighted, and proud of himself, and then counted to ten again. I rushed him downstairs so that Ryan could hear him, and Kian counted to ten a 3rd time on our way downstairs! Unfortunately, when I turned on the video camera Kian became more interested in the camera, possibly getting a bit shy, too. He got out "one-two" and then stopped. So, he didn't count to ten for the camera or for dad at that moment. Here's the video anyway...
Later that evening, I was able to catch him counting to ten for Nana Joan on the phone, but the recording only started at "three". One of these days, we'll catch the whole series of numbers on one single video! Until then, here is part 2 of the counting to ten series...
We just returned from an overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge, about 80 miles away from Seattle. The indoor waterpark offered a couple of good spaces for toddlers, but I think the really happy kid was Kian's dad, who enjoyed several runs on the big waterslides! At 30 weeks pregnant, I opted to hang out in the wave pool and little kids' areas. Kian enjoyed telling Ryan and I to get under the "waterfall" (the mushroom-shaped structure in the photo above) or under the bucket that dumps water on your head. He also repeatedly pointed out the two huge ceiling fans, as well as the one fan that was off, so I had to get one photo of those. When we retired for the evening, he was sure to say, "Night night, fans. Night night, agua." Another highlight of the trip for Kian was the elevator and finding our hotel room. He walked down the hallway, saying "Not our room...not our room..." until we showed him where our belongings were. Since returning home, he's mentioned the elevator and room several times. We had a great time and look forward to returning in a couple of years, when he can appreciate even more of the activities.
