Goin' on a Bear Hunt.

MANY MOMENTS: Hunting and Grunting

Although Tavish's first birthday party had to be cancelled due to sickness (Tavish's - it was sad), Tavish received a lovely gift from his friend Celia, a book: "Going on a Bear Hunt". What a book! The paintings are lovely and the story invites lots of actions and sing-songy excitement. Over the past month, Tavish has truly developed a strong affinity for this book. It started when Grandma and Grandpa were visiting and my Mom noticed that Tavish would consistenly take this book from his shelf when she was with Tavish in his room. Interesting. No matter where she moved it to, he would look for it and pull it out. Fast forward to our trip in Maine. Yes, I'm a sucker and brought it. Anyway, this book has become the soundtrack to this holiday. It is read a minimum of 3 times a day. We've kept it up in the room we're sharing, so it's guaranteed to be read in the morning in our fake "it's good to be awake" voices. On a side note: our days have consistently started at 6am --- it's not pretty ... we don't even know what to do at that hour of the morning other than feel sorry for ourselves. It also is read once before afternoon nap and at least once more before bed time - at a minimum. There's no way you could not read it if he recognizes that it's nearby. It's completely worth it though as the joy he gets from this book is rewarding unto itself. The story comes along with sound effects, care of Tavish. For awhile now, when we see a dog we've said "there's a dog (pointed) and said 'woof'!". It makes sense that Tavish would do the same. When he sees a dog, he often points, but always says "woof" ... or in Tavish-speak "muhhhhh" in a deep, gutteral sound - truthfully, more of a grunt than anything else. Oh, there happens to be a dog on every page of the story. Yup, every page. We've also been asking Tavish questions when we read stories for a while now: "where's the bird?", "where are your toes?", "can you count the bears on chairs?" etc ... in this story, I don't have to ask about the dog very much ("muhhhhh") but I started pointing out the 'baby' in the book or asking "where's the baby?". Well, turns out this stuff is transferable. Tom was wearing Tavish in the carrier the other day when a solid 2, maybe 3 year old was pushed past us in a stroller. Clear as a bell, Tavish states to Daddy "baby" and points. Love it. It's officially added to the repertoire of 'real' words he uses regularily and was motivated by none other than "Going on a Bear Hunt". He also loves the page after the one in the book that dramatically asks: "what's that?". It reads: "It has one shiny wet nose (Tavish touches his nose). Two big fury ears (one ear gets touched). Two big googly eyes (one eye gets a poke). IT'S A BEAR! (laugh). He points at the bear then you hear "muhhhhhh" for the dog that appears to be quite startled by the bear. If you leave Tavish to his own devices and that book is nearby, he'll flip through parts of it, but he's clearly looking for that page. Every time it's read, it's like it's new entertainment for him. I've read it where the book itself acts things out (e.g: up the stairs, stumble - trip, etc), where we move him ... always funny. Huh, now that I think about it - maybe we both like "Going on a Bear Hunt" because of how ridiculous Mommy and Daddy become when they read it.