E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G spells STOP!

Kostyn knows four words that he recognizes and can spell. “Kostyn,” “Evan,” “love” and “stop.” This is great fun, particularly in the car where we have to linger at every stop sign so he can wave his little finger toward each letter and announce each with excitement, as if he didn’t just read the same damn thing 2 blocks back. “S-T-O-P. This spells ‘Stop’!” he says with great pride.

And I admit, I’m proud of him. Smart little bugger, he is. But I think what I love most is that he loves letters and words and spelling so much it doesn't matter to him that 99.8 percent of the time he doesn’t actually know how to read what he spells. He just defaults to “stop”:

As he hands me the box of crackers I asked him to get out of the pantry: “R-I-T-Z. This spells ‘stop.’”

When we go for a walk around the block and he has to s-t-o-p at every sign in someone’s yard. “G-A-U-G-H-E-N R-E-A-L-T-Y. This spells ‘stop.’”

And my personal favorite, which occurred yesterday at the grocery store when he pointed wildly at several of the illuminated numbers at the checkout counters and "spelled" them: “8-7-6-5-4-3. This spells ‘stop.’”

It's gonna blow the kid’s mind when he starts to understand this whole “phonics” thing we’ve been doing...