Hugs

One of the neatest things you get to witness when you watch your child grow up is those moments when learning occurs right before your eyes.

 

 Tonight, it happened at bedtime.  We were reading this book he has called “Hug”.  There is no text to the story, just a series of pictures of a little monkey watching various animals hug one another – giraffes, hippos, snakes, lions etc.  Realizing he is alone with no other monkey to hug, he walks around sadly, saying “Hug”.   EVENTUALLY, after a lot of lamenting about hugs, his mother appears with outstretched arms saying, “BOBO!”  and on the next page he runs to her and exclaims, “MOMMY!” and then on the next page they hug.  It’s a simple story and for some reason it’s one of Toby’s favourites.

 

Tonight as we read it we got to a standstill at the page where the Mommy appears.  We stopped there for a minute as I explained that it was the mommy monkey who was excited to see Bobo. He then flipped to the page where Bobo runs to his mommy and paused there for more explanation. And then he flipped back to the page where she first appears.  Back and forth he went and I alternated between saying, “mommy!” and “Bobo!” until FINALLY he pulled his milk bottle out of his mouth, pointed to the mommy and very softly, yet definitively announced, “Mama.”

 

He then turned the page and pointed to Bobo and said, “Dada”.  Then (FINALLY) we moved on to the last page where they hugged and Toby clapped his hands and then turned and gave me a big hug.

 

I guess this whole time he’d been trying to figure out who this “Bobo” character was and finally realized that it must just be a mommy and a daddy hugging, because that’s what mommies and daddies do and that’s why it’s a happy ending.