hexxy

Christian likes to make up nicknames for things and people. Sometimes he says "Poppy-da" or "Pops" (for you-know-who). Sometimes he calls Dave "Dad-doo". Once in a while, I get "Mommy-na". And we all know about "Mumba". (btw, we got him a little push-mower, and today he called it "push-mumba").
He learned his shapes recently using the shape sorter toy-- the classic red and blue ellipse with the yellow handles at both ends. He decided to call the star "Sah-zee", the pentagon "Penty" and the hexagon "Hexxy". So over the past month or 2 I've gotten used to hearing "Hexxy".
One of his favorite books is the "I SPY: Little Wheels" board book. It's one of those "must read over and over" books that we've all memorized.... or so i thought.
This morning he brought me the book, all excited, and sat down in my lap (the best part), and started turning the pages purposefully, saying "hexxy...hexxy...hexxy!!" as if he were searching for something very specific. I was so curious to know where he'd found a hexagon in a book of wheels. The suspense mounted as we went through every page and he still wasn't satisfied. He started thumbing through the pages again, backwards, still chanting "hexxy", getting a little more desperate with every unsuccessful page turn. Finally he stopped turning, and exclaimed with glee, "HEXXY!" ............. and pointed to........ a small yellow Taxi.
"Ohhhhh...Taxi!" i laughed in amazement.
"Haxi!" he smiled with contentment.
i looked at Dave. "Did you teach him that?"
"No, i thought you did."
hmm. either he's learned to read behind our backs... or one of his grandparents has been reading "I SPY" a little more literally than we have.
now we just need to work on that "T" sound....