Counting With Hyrum

Dada tries to make everything a game, especially when he guesses something might be distasteful. So I try to make diaper changing and bedtime as fun as can be. One way I've done that is to hold Hyrum (after he was old enough) just above his crib and called out, "One ... Two ... " and then plopped him into the bed. Sometimes I count Three also, sometimes I wait until a Nine count, sometimes I drop him early. It's the anticipation of being dropped in bed that really brings out the biggest smiles.

This week, Hyrum demonstrated that he has been listening. He's always loved counting books and listening to me count in different dialects and voices. "And I've noticed him saying the number 2 when he reads the counting book himself," adds Joy, "and wondered where he got it from." Now he's added to it. (added to -- added two, get it?)

He started wandering around the house this weekend yelling, One, Two, Aaargh!, "only the Aaaa is pretty soft, which is nice. More like a rasp aghghghghg." [And no, I haven't been showing him Monty Python and the Holy Grail to teach him about the Castle of Aaaargh.] He also shortens it to just 'Two, Aaargh!'

"This morning when I went to get him out of his crib, I heard him saying 'One, Two, Aaargh!' to himself. He kept saying it over and over again last night in his high chair when he was done eating and I kept laughing and laughing."

Today during the sacrament, he was reading a Joseph Smith pop-up book. As quietly as a toddler can speak, he murmered, 'One, Two, Aaaargh!' as he opened each flap. It was hilarious! He was surprising Joseph and the woodland creatures all through the reverence! But he did so quietly.

Hyrum can count to 2.

Here is a video of the recent entertainment. It starts on an Aaaaaargh. He does it again, softly, while Joy is talking to me, so listen in closely right after she says "put him to bed." The other highlight in this is that when Mama counts "One, Two...." he waits for her to finish and adds the "haaaaaaaaaagh" for us.



[and here, despite Joy's protests, is the Monty Python excerpt in question. She says, "I don't like Monty Python."]

MAYNARD: '... the Castle of uuggggggh'.
BEDEMIR: What is that?
MAYNARD: He must have died while carving it.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, come on!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what it says.
ARTHUR: Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'aaggggh'. He'd just say it!
MAYNARD: Well, that's what's carved in the rock!
GALAHAD: Perhaps he was dictating.
ARTHUR: Oh, shut up. Well, does it say anything else?
MAYNARD: No. Just, 'uuggggggh'.
LAUNCELOT: Aauuggghhh.
KNIGHT: Aaauggh.
BEDEMIR: You don't suppose he meant the Camauuuugh?
KNIGHT: Where's that?
BEDEMIR: France, I think.
LAUNCELOT: Isn't there a Saint Aauuuves in Cornwall?
ARTHUR: No, that's Saint Ives.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, yes. Saint Iiiives.
SEVERAL: Iiiiives.
BEDEMIR: Oooohoohohooo!
LAUNCELOT: No, no, aauuuuugh, at the back of the throat. Aauuugh.
BEDEMIR: No, no, no, oooooooh, in surprise and alarm.
LAUNCELOT: Oh, you mean sort of a aaaagh!
BEDEMIR: Yes, but I-- Aaaaagh!
KNIGHT: Oooh!
KNIGHT: Oh, no!

MAYNARD: It's the legendary Black Beast of aaauuugh!
ARTHUR: Run away!
ALL: Run away! Run away!


Next, I'll have to teach him to count to 5.....