Michael will learn to read before he learns to talk...

... as Ben and I keep joking.  He has a keen interest in the alphabet.  I'm not quite sure how, but he's been able to identify all his letters for some time now.  The only time we really "practice" the alphabet is occasionally at the park, I'll sing the alphabet song and point to the letters that are imprinted on a wall on the playscape.  It certainly wasn't enough that I expected him to learn the alphabet that way, but then we were playing with alphabet flash cards and I would put out half a dozen random letters and ask "Which is L?" and he got all the letters this way (not even in order!).  This was probably a few months ago.

Over the last few weeks, he's been trying really hard to talk.  He's imitating all the sounds we make, and we know him well enough to decipher that "opa!" means "open" and "fffff" means "off," and so on.  He's having trouble putting two different sounds together, and it was actually only yesterday I heard him say "opa" for the first time.  We've been working hard on that one -- he has been doing "oh!" or "pah!" for "open" depending on the context, and I've been trying to get him to combine the two sounds.

Today we were coloring and I wrote out the alphabet on a big piece of paper.  I pointed at each letter in succession and he told me what it was as best he could; he couldn't make most of the sounds, but you could tell the wheels were turning and figure out what he was trying to say.

It must be terribly frustrating for Michael to have all these thoughts and have such trouble communicating.  He's getting better, and he's trying his hardest, God bless him.  He actually doesn't seem frustrated, but instead proud at what he can say, which is great.  I'm more frustrated than he is.  :-\

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Cute anecdote time.  Michael knows that kisses are exchanged when he is upset, but he seems to be confused as to the direction.  Whenever he gets hurt, or gets upset, he scrunches his face and gives me a big wet kiss.  Even when he's mad at me.