D....A....N....T....E

I did the trendy thing and painted the letters of Dante's name and hung them in his room. A few times he has pointed at them with an inquisitive grunt. So, I would said "D, A, N, T, E. That spells Dante," and point to each letter as I was saying it. This probably happened a total of 5 times spread out over a few months.

One night last week, he asked again about the letters, so I told him "D, A, N, T, E." Not really expecting a response I said, "What does that spell?" He said "Dante!" I was so excited that I had to get Brad to come in and hear him say it!

Then, a few nights ago, I said D.. and then paused to see if he would say them."...A...N...T...E." He knew them! A least, he memorized the order ;)

Ok, ok. I am not trying to say that my child is a wonderkid who knows how to spell his name at 23 months, but it is at least impressive that he was able to come up with all the letters without me further prompting him :D

Ohhh, Nooooo!

Dante has finally taken to reading books to himself. The problem is, really terrible things are happening in all of his books.

Let me rewind to about two weeks ago. I am merrily typing away on my computer (probably one of the bazillion essays I had to write recently.) Brad is also using his computer, presumably to look at obnoxious videos on YouTube. Dante is sitting on the floor in the living room reading a book, and we start to hear him talking.

"Ohhh, nooooo!" *Page turn* "Ohhhhh, nooooooo!" *Page turn*..... "Ohh, nooooo!"

Brad and I smile at each other.

Brad says "Man, whatever is happening in that book must be pretty devastating."

I had no idea why Dante had taken to exclaiming "Oh no!" while reading every single book. In fact, for a few weeks I could not figure out where he had even heard that phrase before. Last night, as I am reading to him, it comes to me.

"Still more--W! And X Y Z! The whole alphabet up the-- Ohhhhhhhhhh....."