Wampum

Sam has become numerate recently. Counting the characters in Little Bear. Ordinary small ordinals. The run to 60 was quite a surprise. I'm making him jump through more hoops. When he first started oral language, labeling, after the "red juice", I forced five words. My hand outstreached, fingers apart for denominating, 'I" "want" "red juice" "please" "dada wa". Eventually I forced those boundaries with "and a fish on my head", which always got both a laugh and six extra words. That was followed by "and the Mississippi River", and that by "and the French Republic".

Then I made Sam read me letters. A letter would say "I want eggs and sausage and red juice" or "It is time to go to the shop".

Now Sam has to write me a letter. That or speak French.

A small stuffed tiger bit my butt yesterday morning, and I got a note. It read "Y U R -- D I D". I got the general idea and died as befits a 'rent with a rent rear. That evening saw "I -- W O T -- O J", and sometime during the afternoon there was a note that has slipped out of my mind. Today will be more letters. Sam has become a boy of letters, and numbers.

Update: This just in: "I WOT EGGS", revised as: "I WOT SASSIGISEGGS" (implicit "and" via concatenation), and continued on the verso "I WOT TOST".