This evening, Alasdair said 'funny' part way through my first reading of the Cat in the Hat. I don't think it was when he offered his own milk to the milk the cat held on a dish (after waiting impatiently for me to get to that page), or when the cat fell on his head, or when the cat released those blue-haired toddlers from the box. But at some point, he said funny, and that got me thinking.
Alasdair is definitely exploring the concept of funny. He often says funny when someone else does something funny, or when he does something funny (Ah-ster, fuh-nny). He laughs when adults laugh, but other things make him laugh too. And sometimes I'm just not sure if the things that he does are meant to be 'jokes' or 'tricks', like when he seemed amused as he repeatedly pointed at Percy calling him Charlie the other day. I suppose, as the Cat in the Hat teaches us, what constitutes a good game or a good trick is in the eye of the beholder.
That being said, I am becoming increasingly suspicious that his 'inability' to say Sheila's name is actually a joke. He can say many, many words and he knows a lot of names. But Sheila apparently evades him. One night a couple of weeks back we were over at Sheila's and (as always) every once in a while we would ask Alasdair 'Can you say Sheila?' His standard response to this is 'Yah.' Sonja was also joining us. Before she arrived, I asked Alasdair 'Can you say Sonja'. He responded 'Yah', seemingly indicating that he couldn't, but moments later burst out with a loud 'Sonja'. And when Sonja arrived he followed her around saying 'Sonja, Sonja, Sonja!'. Admittedly we had laughed the first time he said it, but now it was like he was determined to rub it in.
Over the past couple of days, Nana got Alasdair to say Sheila a couple of times while we were up at Elkhorn. So when we met up with Sheila today at Chapters I was almost sure he would say her name. But when I said 'Who's that?' all I got was his standard 'Yah'. I suppose there are many explanations for this, but for today, I am going to consider it Alasdair's trick, even if this makes me the fish in the pot, saying 'No ... I do not like it! Not one little bit!'
My mind was really made up when we left Sheila at Chapters and headed towards home in the stroller. A few seconds after we had parted ways, Alasdair looked around for her and I heard him clearly and
quietly whimper 'Sheila, Sheila??'
It has been quite a while since my last post. I hold Knuffle Bunny responsible. You see, Alasdair and I fell in love with Knuffle Bunny. The first and second books in the series arrived in our house on the same day, and so at bedtime we read with the first. Alasdair and I both thought it was great, and we read through it several times. Then I couldn't contain my curiosity, so we read the second one (Knuffle Bunny Too), and Alasdair enjoyed it even more than the first, maybe because Trixie (or Trixies as he says) had grown up a bit. And so for several weeks we would read Knuffle Bunny two or three times an evening. He loved the first page where he would point out the dog (he called her Sadie), Trixies, her daddy, the squirrel, and he always waved bye bye to Trixies mommy. He was intrigued by the events that unfold in the classroom, leading up to Ms. Greengrove confiscating the bunnies for the afternoon, and he was quite concerned that there was some pushing going on at the playground. I think he also was puzzled by the antagonist, Sonja, because of the Sonja that he knows. And he would always give me a hug when we reached the end and Trixies and Sonja hug. Oh, Knuffle Bunny, how could I not love you?
I love Knuffle Bunny because I can relate. I can understand the panic when Trixies' parents realize that Knuffle Bunny is missing. I mean, we have not one, not two, but three identical wooden Percy engines. I like how Trixie 'ate' her dinner, and devoured her dessert (sounds just like a little guy that I know). And I love the looks that her parents exchange when at 230 in the morning Trixie reports that she has the wrong Knuffle Bunny. But most of all, I love that Trixie is a girl. I don't know a lot about children's literature, but it sure seems to me like there are a lot of boy characters. I know there are girl characters, but they are often in books targeted specifically towards girls. Otherwise, authors seem to default to boy. In Knuffle Bunny, the story would work just as well whether Trixie was a girl or a boy, and I am so glad that Mo Willems made her a girl (I am also hoping that someone reading this will send me some book suggestions that prove me wrong).
Anyway, I have had Knuffle Bunny on the brain (and in my heart), and it has created a complete blogger's block for me. Until story time tonight when I realized it was Easter and the Easter bunny (but not Knuffle Bunny) visited us this morning. And that got me thinking and blogging. We had a great Easter day, with a visit to the zoo this morning, some bike riding this afternoon and then out for dinner this evening. Alasdair was spoiled rotten. He got some choo choos from his Uncle Greg, some Hot Wheels from Auntie Terrie and Uncle Richard, and that rascally Easter bunny brought him some sidewalk chalk and a tricyle. 
