For those of you looking for commentary on world events or a take down of liberal media bias, I'll get back to you shortly. This entry is from the department of proud daddy shamelessly bragging about his son.

David, who will be two years old on Sunday, is already beginning to read. It all started earlier in the summer when big sister Olivia started teaching David the ABCs. She didn't necessarily expect to teach him anything, she was just playing school and made her baby brother play the role of a student along with some of her dolls. Much to everyone's surprise, David really did learn a few letters. One day, his mom was reading a picture book with him and he pointed to the letter B and said "buh". I tried teaching him a few more letters and was amazed to see that he could consistently recognize A, D and F.

Over the next few weeks he learned the rest of the letters. No, I didn't push it on him, or make a big deal about it. This was just a game that he loved to play. Whenever he saw letters, whether in a story book, on a food package, or outdoor sign he would call out the names of the letters. He still can't pronounce them all correctly. C and K, for example are both "kuh", W is "wuh" and Y is "yuh". The last letter he learned was Q, which he kept confusing with O. Once I started calling it "koo" instead of "kyoo", he too was able to call it "koo".

A few weeks ago I wondered whether he could recognize entire words. I happened to be wearing a Gap t-shirt, so I asked David to call out the letters. "Guh" "A" "Puh" he yells out. "Good," I tell him. "That spells Gap. Can you say Gap?" "Gap!" he shouts. Then I brought out David's Gap hat. "What does that say?" "Guh" "A" Puh", he calls out, "Gap!".

The next day I showed him the Gap hat again. He remembered! "Guh" "A" Puh". "Gap!". So I wrote down the letters D-A-D-A. He called them all out. "That spells dada," I explain, "D-A-D-A. dada". David takes his turn: "D" "A" "D" "A" he declares, "Gap!"

I've kept up the word lessons, very gradually, no more than a few minutes a day and using only the simplest words. Mostly it's been the same story: "D" "A" "D" "A" "Mama!" or "M" "A" "M" "A". "Gap!" But yesterday I showed him the words "Foo Foo" (his favorite story book) and "EGG", his favorite breakfast food, which he pronounces "Ahguh". This morning he performed brilliantly: "F" "O" "O" "Foo Foo!"and "E" "Guh" "Guh" "Ahguh!".

A good egg, my boy.