We have a book called Animals A to Z. Each page has a letter of the alphabet and a picture of an animal that starts with the letter. A is anteater, etc. H is hornbill.
For a while now, when there’s a bird Soren doesn’t know and we ask what it is, he’ll respond with “hornbill.”
The blocks seen in the above picture have little images on the sides that don’t have letters or numbers. We play with the blocks by building things and by identifying the images. Tonight, it went something like this.
Ben: What’s that? (Image is a bird or bird-like item.)
Soren: Hornbill.
Ben: No, it’s a [whatever]. (Side note: we don’t know what all of the things are.)
Me: LOL
Ben: What’s that? (Image is some sort of animal-related thing.)
Soren: Hornbill.
Ben: No, it’s a [whatever].
Me: Haha LOL
Ben: What’s that? (Image is a star.)
Soren: Star-hornbill.
Me: [Cries.]
It was awesome because he knew I thought it was funny so he kept doing it. Watching a kid develop a sense of humor is just about the best thing ever.
This reminded me of that old Saturday Night Live skit where Sean Connery says “swords” all the time. Apparently you can make me laugh by doing nothing more than repeating a word in the right situation.