Spiders, spiders everywhere! Also, letters.

Mimi recently turned James on to the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song, and it's now his favorite entertainment. (Translation: We now sing it at least 5-7 times/day.)

James understands English pretty fluently, but -- while he can say a number of words -- is not too concerned with using words in everyday communication yet. He asks for the spider song by calling, "This!" and making the spider-climbing gesture with his hands. (He's much better at it than his mother -- my lack of manual dexterity means that the thumb-meets-forefinger-and-switches-around spider gesture is a real nightmare.)

We've discovered that "This! [spider!]" can cheer him up whenever he's cross. Especially if you sing it at double speed. That's a real crowd pleaser.

In other James language news, he's gotten really into letters and numbers. We have magnetic letters on the fridge that we play with (these are the letters you pop into the little frame and sing, e.g., "B says buh! B says buh! Every letter makes a sound..."), and he spends hours standing in front of the fridge, trying out different letters. He remembers them, too -- the other night we were playing with the foam letters and numbers that are his favorite bath toy. I was trying to spell the word "STOP" but couldn't find the "T," so I idly said, "James, I can't find the 'T' anywhere. Do you see it?" He rooted around for a second and handed it to me. Huh, I thought, and asked him about a few other letters. He handed each one to me in turn without hesitation.