My name is "Tristan." I am "2."

Tristan has been talking for awhile now but he never could or would say his own name. He would say other people's names but not his. We thought maybe his name was hard to pronounce but then he has cousins with uncommon names and he could say them. I was beginning to think he just didn't like his name since he would rather call himself "Dune." A couple of months ago, he would refer to himself as Dune or Doon. He points to himself and says "Doon do it." He still does that by the way. We have no idea where Doon came from.

In the past week, we have been trying to teach him how to say his full name. I have heard him say his first name from time to time, usually when he is copying me. He just doesn't refer to himself as that. He obviously knows his name since everyone calls him Tristan. A few days ago, he was saying his first and last name but he added a few extra syllables to his last name. Yesterday was the first time he pronounced his full name clearly. Well, as clear as toddler language gets :) It's actually very cute to hear. We were so excited, we recorded him saying it several times. Yeah, we're those kind of parents.

When we ask him "what is your name," he responds correctly. We then ask him how old he is and he says "2." We started to teach him his age when he turned 2. We're not convinced he knows what 2 is because he says "2" every time we ask him "how many." How many grapes would you like? 2. How many fingers am I holding up? 2. Everything is 2 whether it's right or wrong! Research studies also suggest that children under the age of 3 1/2 do not understand numbers the way we do. They live in a logarithmic world. For instance we see 1 and 2 as being the same distance as 8 and 9. They are both 1 apart. Toddlers see a huge gap between 1 and 2 and little gap between 8 and 9. Why? Because going from 1 to 2 is essentially doubling. When children turn 3 1/2, they finally understand numbers as discrete units. 5 is now 1 more than 4. Now, the child can learn mathematics! I'm a math geek so I can't wait to do math with Tristan. I found the number podcast on Radiolab very interesting. Jean-Louis introduced me to Radiolab awhile ago and the talks are so interesting, I now have a subscription to them in iTunes.