Sunday, September 26, 2010

Where's your nose?

I've been trying for the last little while to teach my son the names of his body parts.  He might not be able to say much but I know he's developmentally at the age where he can understand quite a bit.  We sing "head and shoulders" and name eyes, ears, mouth...and every chance I get I touch him on the nose and tell him "Nose." 

Every once in a while I ask him, "Where's your nose?" and then wait eagerly for the moment I've imagined, when he'll put his little finger on his nose and look up at me proudly as though to say, "Here it is, mommy!  Here's my nose." 
But he doesn't do it.  He just looks at me with this kind of puzzled expression.  So I touch his nose and tell him again, "Nose."  He pushes my hand away as if I'm totally annoying him and crawls away to do something more exciting.  Like chew furniture.

Bath time is always a good time to name body parts.  Lately he's taken a particular interest in his littleman parts (maybe he's making sure they're all there after our little testicle scare ).  Whenever I get him into the tub he spends a good few minutes checking things out.  "Penis," I tell him.  He quickly learned to anticipate this response from me; grabbing hold and then looking up at me expectantly.  "That's your penis," I tell him.  He grins.

Well tonight at bathtime we had a breakthrough.  On this particular evening he was much more entertained by splashing the bejeezus out of the water and thoroughly soaking me than exploring his nether regions.  I took advantage of the opportunity for a little anatomy lesson.  "Where's your nose?" I ask hopefully.  Nothing.

You've probably guessed by now where this is going.  I gave it a shot:  "Honey, where's your penis?"  Without hesitation he reached down and grabbed a hold of his little wanker, beaming up at me proudly as though to say, "Here it is mommy!  Here's my penis!" 

Not exactly the way I imagined the moment, but I'll take it.  That's my boy.

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