In the last post I mentioned a linguistic connection between Edward and his Uncle P.J. I forgot to note a shared pattern with Uncle Joe. One of Ed's favorite books at the moment is Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. A book full of vehicles, both real and fanciful (e.g. a pickle truck shaped like a pickle and a corn car shaped like an ear of corn)--what could be better? So much to explore on every page, he finds something new each time through it seems. One thing he identifies is the stop sign carried by a recurring character, a police fox named Officer Flossy, who is trying to get that reckless Dingo Dog to pull over to face numerous traffic violations. Every time he sees it he calls out "Stop!" Well, actually, he says "Fwop!" This is the connection to Uncle Joe, who also had trouble with consonant combos beginning with 's.' The one I can remember most from Joe is "fwelly" when something was particularly odorous. Edward also throws in "fwippers" (slippers), "fweeper" (street sweeper) and occasionally "foon" (spoon.)

We try to resist the urge to mimic his own sounds, so that he'll hear the correct version as we praise his identification of the object in question. But it's so funny to drive along and suddenly hear "FWOP!" from the back seat when he spots the red sign. The first time he did this, it took a few repetitions before I figured out that he'd made the connection between the picture in the book and the real thing outside. When I put it all together I was so excited I called out "Stop! That's right Ed, it's a stop sign!" Unfortunately, John was driving at the time and thought I'd seen something he didn't and was calling for him to stop.

My sore back is improving, though I'm still fighting through some pain. The worst is getting up from sleeping--perhaps that weak muscle is just a little too relaxed then. But I've been working on strengthening it with the leg lifts twice a day and finding time to ice it two or three times a day so we'll hope for continued improvement.