"He didn't talk words - he went Boing Boing! instead!"

I've said it so many times in posts but Opeie is a bookaholic, he goes through books like they are going out of fashion and can quite happily sit in the nook of my armpit and have 10-15 books read to him one after another. Although he does watch TV occasionally he would definitely choose books every time if given the option. His most recent favourite book is Gerald McBoing Boing by Dr. Seuss.

The book is an adaptation of a short movie made back in the 50's which I also managed to track down and he loves too. The story is about young Gerald McCloy who when learning to talk at the age of 2 doesn't speak words he goes "Boing, Boing" instead and his crazy noises develop over time. It is a great story and something a little different, although the father in the story would definitely benefit from going on one of those government run parenting courses.

The rhyming is amazingly written which you expect from the good Dr. and although Opeie can't read the book himself the still manages to finish off the lines as I'm reading because we have read it so many times. He's always quick to jump in with the "Boing Boing instead" before i get to say it. I hope his love of books continues as its building good structure for his reading as he develops.

Here's the short movie if your interested in having a look...

"Big R, little r, Rosy Robin Ross. Rosy's going riding on her red rhinoceros"

Opeie's speech has really developed over the last few weeks and he is starting to pick up things very quickly. The week before last he counted to 12 completely out of the blue on his own, myself and Mrs M were speechless, were so proud of him. Opeie is a huge book worm and quite often throughout the day he will come to us saying 'book' and then will happily have 10 books read to him in a row. This morning i read 7 Dr Seuss books and 2 books that we got Mrs M for Mothers day. Everytime you turn a page when reading Opeie will call out all the things on the page that he knows, it's adorable.

We've been working on his alphabet for quite some time and although he can say the letters when copying us he still struggles a little with the dreaded letter 'W'. As he is loving Dr Seuss at the moment the Dr Seuss ABC book has been great for teaching him the letters and it's also one of my favourite of his books.

I didn't really get into Dr Seuss until my late teens but i fell in love the first time i read 'The Grinch' and it's something i wanted to install in the boys, much the same as Mrs M and her Dick Bruna books. I love anything that builds a child's imagination, the illustrations are beautifully done and the rhymes although simple and sometimes made up are perfectly executed...