My two-year-old never ceases to amaze me. I was picking up some scattered toys when I heard her counting from one to ten all by herself.  Moments like this can fill a mother’s heart with so much happiness.  So I’m marking down July 24, 2008 as a day when my baby reached another milestone in her life.

I’ve been teaching her to count since she was a year old. We would count whenever we’d go up and down the stairs or whenever we put away the toys and stuff that she’d mess up in the living room.  The best that she could say was “two, tee, two, tee” (two, three, two, three). Last month she liked to say “eat, nigh, eat, nigh” (eight, nine,eight,nine) everytime she got hold of the phone.  

All kinds of success can be attributed to something. In this case, I think, her being in preschool has reinforced her learning.  And to think that she started going to school only two weeks ago.  

For two months now she’s been fascinated with Oswald, an octopus cartoon character on the Noggin/Nick Jr. channel.  I can’t understand why she loves it.  The program is very dry and unexciting. I guess because it’s supposed to be an educational show for preschoolers. She has this book, that I bought at the 99 Cent Store, entitled “Counting with Oswald” by  Phoebe Beinstein and illustrated by Etsu Kahata. Before going to bed she’d always look for it saying, “Osald, whey aah you?   Whey aah you, Osald?”.  When she finds it, she’d hand it over to me to read.  We’ve been doing this for about two months. I can memorize the book from cover to cover.   I’m sick of it actually. But now that my baby can count on her own, I suppose I owe you my thanks, Oswald.