I'm starting to think that my 3 1/2 year old could sound out words if he wanted to. He's more like 3 3/4 yrs old. Anyway, the other day I was trying to distract him so that B could have some time to himself for a change. I was helping little T cut and glue things. He wrote his name and then he wanted to write some other people's names. He's been writing his first name since he was 28 months old, no lie. He had written the first two letters of his name in an art class then so I had dictated the last 3 letters; I have no idea how he learned to form letters. But he really lost interest in writing letters and I think he may have forgotten how to form some of them. He's not that interested in academic stuff and he's not one of those kids who likes showing off what he can do.

Anyway, he wanted to write, "Daddy" but he needed help. He was telling me that there were D's in it. Then, he wanted to write B's name and he knew some of the letters in that. I can't remember what exactly we were talking about, but he was guessing letters that were correct that led me to believe he was sounding them out.

Today, he was telling me what he wanted to eat. In reply to something I said, he said, "I'm joking!". I teased him by saying, "You want chicken??" And he laughed and said, "Noooo...I'm JOKING." and I'd say, "You want chicken??" This went on and on until he said, "JOKING. It has a *G*." So, of course, I said, "You want jicken?" Then he laughed and said, "No. Next is an O." I really think that he could sound out and spell words if he really wanted to. He's probably lucky that I'm not one of those Moms who would jump on the prospect of working with him and "playfully" shove it down his throat.

We had an incident last month when he read the label "Blue's Clues" with no visual or auditory cues. We had lost our channels (again) and the only thing on the screen, besides the notice that we didn't subscribe to the channel, was a bar at the bottom that showed the channel number and TV show title. He had said, "It's Blue's Clues!" even though he didn't have anything to cue him other than the small text. I had asked him how he knew and he said, "because of the picture". There was no picture, so I think the "picture" was the label. We very rarely watch that show (twice a month?) because it never seems to be on. That freaked me out a little.

I should probably think about getting ready. The pool opens in 20 minutes and I made a promise that we would go today. We like to leave by 1030, because it's been hitting 100F and I'm paranoid that T will burn, even with sunblock. B inherited dh's skin and he tans very easily and darkly. T, OTOH, is glow-in-the-dark-white. Even if I look at the back of their necks, B is very dark just from walking around, whereas T only has a hint of color. I don't want my baby to get sun-burnt. Plus, it's just too hot at 11ish, even in the pool. I should go get ready!