One...two in a million.

The word "two" is one of Kiernan's newer words. A couple weeks ago, I held up two fingers in the car. I wasn't counting anything, and I wasn't celebrating "V-E Day". I think I was practicing my finger spelling. Our sign language class is on something of a haitus, so to keep myself sharp I work on my finger spelling at random moments. If I'm driving I spell names and titles and whatnots that come on the radio. I have started doing this on autopilot. Often I find myself doing this while watching television and I don't even really realize I'm doing it.

I'm guessing a commercial for V for Vendetta came on the radio and I had my hand draped over the passenger seat. Kiernan saw me do the sign for "V" and he shouted, happily, "Two!" I got pretty excited.

I have yet to reproduce this, so it may have just been a coincidence. That or maybe he has checked that task off his Toddler To Do list and is uninterested in going back to it. He will repeat the word "two" if you ask him to, from time to time.

As I said a few posts back, we have a policy of trying to give him choices when we do certain things. When it is reading time before bed, we ask him to choose which book he would like to read, holding up two choices. We have started doing the same thing with certain foods at meal times. Recently I read in some parenting magazine that toddlers, especially as they get older, like getting to make a choice, it makes them feel like they are in control. It is also useful to remember that they will often choose the second choice, because it is the last thing they heard. So if you're looking to steer their choices, making what you want them to choose the second option can work as a strategy.

The other night at dinner we had moved on to the fruit portion of the meal. I got out some berries. Kiernan is into berries now, especially strawberries and blueberries. Cantaloupe was king around here for a long time, but now it's mainly good for squeezing in his tiny fist so that the juices run down his arm. This is, I assume, very satisfying. Although not really the reason I bother to buy cantaloupe and carefully cut it up for his meals.

So Wendy offered Kiernan some blueberries, but on this occasion asked him, "Kiernan, do you want one blueberry, or two? One? Or two?" She held up her fingers to reinforce the point.

He replied with, "Two."

She gave him two berries and we smiled at each other in amazement at the little things he's picking up and figuring out. We are doing this more and more lately. It seems every day he does something he could not do the day before and surprises us, and we just look at each other with a mixture of surprise and satisfaction and pride.

I recalled the statement from the magazine about toddlers choosing the last thing said, and, being a smart alec, asked, "Kiernan, would you like one berry, or a million? One or a million?"

"Two," he said.

We cracked up. He had foiled me again. Until the next time I asked, when he responded with his own version of the word "million". This further cracked us up.

As it turns out, "million" is now one of the words he likes to pull out to use on his own. Wendy demonstrated this for me this morning at breakfast. She said, "Kiernan, let's show Daddy how you like to say Daddy's new word." She then held up two of something or other he was eating and asked, "Kiernan, would you like one, or two?"

"Million," he said.

I figured some day someone would come along to tame my goofy, sarcastic sense of humor. I never thought it would be my own sixteen month old son.

I can't wait until he's old enough to start editing this blog. "That's not the way it happened, Dad." Given his rate of development, and his mother's will, I give it two more months.