Making Connections and Learning Lots

Warning: this is one of those posts about my kid that may only be interesting to me. And my mom.  And might sound braggy, but why wouldn't I want to brag about my own kid?

Lately, Nathaniel's little mind has been working hard to make new connections. I am constantly amazed by his intelligence!

He has been trying to decipher between "bad" and "good." He will say, "Scar mean?" Then he'll say, "Simba mean?" I'll tell him that Simba is nice, and then he'll go on naming more Lion King characters saying they are nice.

In the bath he just started saying "baby shark?" Then he went on to add "Mommy shark, Daddy shark, Grandpa shark, Grandma shark." I was caught off guard by that one!

He also will say "Nate Hansen, Mommy Hansen, Daddy Hansen, Grandpa Hansen, Grandma Hansen."

I especially love when he tells me I'm funny. At dinner last night, he was starting to frustrate me and then he just looks at me and says, "mommy funny." It was as if he was mocking me! I had to laugh. He's even said to me a couple times, "You're funny mommy." He also tells me about some of his friends at school: "Devin silly, Kendal funny."

In the bath he started spinning in a circle and moving his feet and said "it's fun!" He's really starting to understand the meanings of a lot of words and I just think it's great.

A few times now he's said "I pooping" while he was actually pooping. Later that day he started naming off all the Lion King characters and saying things like, "Simba poo poo, Nala poo poo." He will walk over to the toilet and say "toilet, poo poo." I'm really hoping this means he's gearing up for some potty training, but I won't force it. Although, once he has pooped and you ask him if he needs a diaper change, he will say "NO!"

He's getting good at his colors and counting as well. He can count to ten and only skips one or two numbers. He likes to count the drops of water that come out of the faucet in the bath. He usually ends up being off by one because he always starts counting at two. Yesterday he repeatedly yell counted "2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10!" He loves to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and will recite it with me. If I say "Brown bear, brown bear," he'll say "what do you see?" Then I'll read the next lines 3 or 4 words at a time and he'll repeat it. On the last page with all of the different animals, he'll point to them and name them, both color and animal.

Also, he still loves the alphabet. I caught him singing along to the entire song, including the "now I know my abc's" part. He likes to yell sing his abc's in the car. It usually goes "a,b,c,d,f,g,h,i,j,k,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,h,i,j,k!!!!!" I love it!

He also sings along to lots of songs now. His current favorite is "Old Donald's Farm." He makes me sing a billion verses of it before he goes to bed. I let him choose the animal and he now includes lions, dinosaurs, tigers, Simba, Nala, Pumba, Timon, Scar, Mufasa, and Zazoo. He also loves Africa (Toto), Beach Boys (Don't Worry Baby), Happy (Pharrell), the whole Lion King soundtrack, and I Am a Child of God. He knows quite a few random words to these songs and will shout them out. It's so funny to hear him say "pee pee paired! (be prepared)" and then clap and say "yay, Scar!" at the end of the song. He still loves Elmo's song with all kinds of characters added in. He's very entertaining.