New Tricks

All of a sudden, Iain recognizes stuff. Not stuff, I mean. Representations of stuff. As Hayakawa would say: the word is not the thing.

What do I mean? He's been able, for at least 2 months, to identify some things when they are shown to him. Hold up a teddy bear and he will say "Teddy!"

But in the last two weeks, he's suddenly aware that two-dimensional representations of things are also that thing. So he'll bring you a book and say, "Cat! Kitty! Cat!" and when you look on the cover, there is - indeed - a cat curled up on the bed. Or he'll read The Very Hungry Caterpillar with you and want to name the fruit.

Or, and this is his favorite, he'll walk around an empty diaper box pointing out all the places Elmo appears. He's on top, he's on every side, he's everywhere, dude. Then he'll point out the baby, and the Mama, and then it's Elmo again.

This is abstract thinking, and I am dee-lighted. It's only a short step from this to deconstruction, and maybe even challenging the epistemology of heteronormativity. Or whatever floats his post-modern boat.