Paying Off!

Lately I've been wondering if any of the things I've been focusing on with Nathan have been sinking in at all.  First, When we take a shower, I always sing one or two songs over and over again...At first it was ABC's and Jesus Loves Me.  He can sing most of those two songs now.  So, I started singing Praise Him, Praise Him All You Little Children and Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World.  He hasn't started singing along at all...and I feel like he should have by now.  Secondly, Dave and I have been trying to help him count.  He counts like this, "1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8: ...all the way to 13.  But never gets the 4 or 5.  We've been focusing on getting to the 4 and 5 for months and months and months.  Well, today, we were playing something...I can't remember what...he got tired of it and moved on.  So, I started cleaning or straightening up.  He started looking at his books.  While he was trying to decide which book to pick, he starts singing, "Praise Him, praise Him, all you little children, God is love, God is love."  {By the way, I had not sung at all yet today.  This was all on his own.} My heart leapt!!  What joy!!  I quietly enjoyed him.  He decided upon a book as he finished the verse; he selected one about counting ladybugs.  By himself, he sits down, and starts counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12!  And then repeats it!  So, by this point, I am sitting down beside him, praising him for his counting.  I ask him if he'd like to read this book.  He says yes.  And through the pages, he just keeps on counting.  The book only goes up to 5, so in order to count higher, he re-counts the ladybugs.  After each counting series on each page, I grab him in my arms and excitedly tell him what excellent counting he is doing.  And he reveled in it.  He loved the accolades. In fact, after he finished counting one of the pages, he kind of waited for me, maybe even peeked at me with a sideward glance, so I could congratulate him on his counting accomplishment.  It was so precious!!  Finally, a return on investment.