A Few Cute Things About Pookie, Part 3: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes Edition

A couple of months ago, my mom bought a book for Pookie called Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, just like the song. In it, there are illustrations of kids touching each of these parts as they are mentioned, and then all together (along with eyes, ears, mouth, and nose). Anyway, several times over the past couple of months I have sat down with Pookie and tried to do this book with him. When it says head, I touch my head and his head. When it says shoulders, I touch both of my shoulders, and then I touch his shoulders. And so on.

Pookie just didn’t seem to get it. Most of the time he was too distracted by other toys to give me more than a few seconds of his attention, and when he did  pay attention he just grinned at me when I touched his toes, I guess because it tickled! But I just couldn’t get him to touch his own head, or his own shoulders, or anything.

Then one day a couple of weeks ago, that all changed. Yeah, yeah, you think you know what I am going to say. You think I am going to say that one day I decided to make one last attempt at doing this book with him and magically he knew all of his body parts!

Nope. It’s cuter than that.

We were in the play room (do all cute things happen in there now?), playing on the floor, when all of a sudden Pookie reached for a book lying nearby. It was not the Head, Shoulders book, but just one of many that float around the room and that Pookie often opens and flips through, but doesn’t study closely. Anyway, Pookie got a hold of this random book, opened it to a random page, and promptly planted his hands on his head, looking at me to see if I was watching. I was!

I immediately found the actual Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes book, opened it in front of him, and again, his hands went straight to his head as he flashed a big grin. Excitedly, I did the whole routine with him, touching my own head, etc. so Pookie could imitate me.

“Head!” Pookie’s hands go straight to his head.

“Shoulders!” Pookie’s hands don’t move from his head.

“Knees!” Pookie’s arms hang at his sides.

“Toes!” Hands back on the head.

Ah well. Progress, right? I did this with him several more times, and by the next day, he had learned to touch one other body part besides his head: his toes, which he touched when I said, “Knees!”

The next several days contained lots of head-touching, some of it prompted by me, and some of it spontaneous. The sight of any book caused him to touch his head; grocery shopping had the same effect (or was boredom the cause?). Anyway, while Pookie became intimately familiar with his head shape, I focused on just getting him to the next step, shoulders. He seemed to have a hard time with this, and I wondered if touching one’s own shoulders may be too awkward a maneuver for a baby his age. But he finally, he made some progress. His hands would be on his head, and I would say “Shoulders!” and touch my own, and in response, Emrick would move his hands to the back of his neck. Then “shoulders” became his upper chest. Then one day I was pushing him in a shopping cart at Target, and out of nowhere he just put his hands on his head (this is a common occurrence now) and I said, “Shoulders!” and he moved his hands and landed them squarely on his shoulders! What a boy!

So now we’re working on knees, and today he actually touched them, for the first time, I think. By the end of the year, we hope to have him being able to identify not just the eight body parts named in the book, but also his clavicle, his tibia, his cochlea, his cuticles, and his toe jam.

Wish him luck!