With letters you can make words. This is Max's new revelation, and he is happy, because as far as he is concerned, there is only one word that can be spelled, and he can spell it: M A X. "Hey Max, what's M-A-X say?" "Massss!"

"What's D-A-D-A spell?" "Massss!"

"What's M-A-M-A spell?" "Massss!!" And so forth.

More entertaining than spelling is the 6-foot walk from the fridge to the metal back door on the side of our kitchen, where those letters which have not been tossed behind the fridge are placed, after a wobbly walk, before being replaced on the fridge. This game is great because he will play it alone (so that's why walking evolved) for upwards of 10 minutes, during which time several dishes can be washed or much of the Styles section can be digested.

This walking and letter-recognizing made me think that he was so grown up that maybe, just maybe, we would be able to listen to regular-person music instead of the Dan Zanes version of the Hokey Pokey. For people without kids, Dan Zanes is the former lead singer of the Del Fuegos who, after having kids and tiring of Raffi, started a hipper-than-thou cool music for kids kind of outfit. Their early gigs were reportedly attended by the likes of Madonna and Apple Paltrow and the rest of the popular crowd. Many albums later, Dan Zanes rocks such venues as the Natick Mall and is just acceptable enough to get completely overplayed when an obsessive-compulsive 21-month old is "in charge" of the music. So I put on London Calling, an album that has not seen the light of day in, oh, say, 21 months.

Max's comment? "No. No noise. Want music."

We will ask his pediatrician about this before panicking.