A Few Letters Short of the Entire Alphabet

I bought some little alphabet flashcards for James and he is doing great with them! He will bring me the box and say "Uh!!" because he wants to go through them. (and once isn't enough--we have to do it at least three times.)

Here is a video I took of his progress. (I don't usually go thru them quite so fast, but I was trying to keep the video short for uploading purposes.)

Now, the funny thing about these cards is that they have some pretty obscure animals on them.

If you had to think of an animal that started with the letter "N," what would you come up with?

Perhaps nightingale? Or newt? There really aren't many, until you start venuring into specific kinds of a species, like a "Newfoundland Dog." Anyhow, the animal that starts with "N" in this deck is a "Narwhal."

What? A whale with a Unicorn horn? Uhh . . I consider myself pretty well read and knowledgable on animals, (well, at least I can name every breed in an Animal Planet dog show, and I know most of the obscure baby animals names . . LOL) but a Narwhal?

Ok, how about Q?

I must confess, I am starting to fill a bit stupid. Do you know what a Quetztal is? according to Wikipedia, "Quetzals are strikingly colored birds of the trogon family (Trogonidae) found in tropical regions of the Americas."

Who knew? Not me--and how do I explain that to James? Couldn't we make it a little easier with a "Quail?"

How about X?

Why, "Xolo" of course! Xolo is short for Xoloitzcuintli (a Mexican hairless dog.) Ohhh, right. I knew that.

???!!!

At least on his wooden alphabet blocks they say "X-ray fish."

Next time I do the alphabet with him I will have to get him saying "Hippo." It is the cutest! It just replaced my favorite word he learned, which was "Pips" for "peach." When he sees the H card he immediately says "Pippo."

Love it!!!