This is the way we learn, the way we learn, the way we learn...

I can't stop singing this song.

Counting, counting, counting is such fun
Count with me, come let's start with one
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Wasn't that the best?
I'd love to count again

Over and over again. It's like I've lost all control. I'll be scrubbing the egg yolk off the breakfast dishes and just start singing out loud. I won't even be looking at Jasper -- sometimes he's not even in the room. I'm in one of those zone moments where you just go on autopilot. You know like when you get in the car and all the sudden you're at your destination and you can't remember driving there? Well, that's me with this song.

It's not exactly a new thing, though. Seth's always thought I had an uncanny ability to memorize the words to songs. My sister does the same thing. In fact her friend Hayden once told her that if only she could carry a tune, she'd be a great singer. The same could be said for me. We come by it honestly. Our mother is the queen of this, and you should see what happens when the three of us get together with some Bing Crosby at Christmas.

Without thinking, I used to bust out the lyrics to the Dixie Chicks ("The sheriff tipped his hat and said thank you, ladies..."), Aerosmith ("I was cryin' when I met you..."), John Mellencamp ("Jackie's gonna be a football star...") or even a little Cher ("If I could turn back time...").

Some tunes are just catchy, you know? And when you hear something over and over again, it starts to sink in. Especially, I think, if you're not trying to learn. If you're just letting life happen around you, things become familiar. I always sing the counting song when I walk into the kitchen because that's where I hear it most. It plays on a new toy we inherited from Dina, the Learning Play Home, and it sits in the room beside the kitchen. Jasper is in love with it as well as the other gazillion songs it plays.

He, too, is picking up on things going on around him. He's not singing Taylor Swift yet, but he is learning, every day. About six weeks ago he started shaking his head "no." For about five seconds I thought it must be some hard-wired human thing because I didn't think he learned it from me. But then I realized I was shaking my own head, I just wasn't thinking about it.

That's exactly what happened to Jasper yesterday when we were waving goodbye to the babysitter. He raised his own hand, did his own fist-clenching wave, opened his mouth and said, "Bye-bye."

Just like that. His first words that were something more than an indiscriminate sound. No "Dada" or "Momma," just "bye-bye."

It was amazing and adorable, and I have witnesses, so I know it wasn't a crazy-Mom-wanting-her-kid-to-sound-smart moment. We've been saying "Momma" and "Dada" a lot in an effort to teach him. All the while, he has been learning. Just like I learned the counting song. I didn't set out to memorize that song, trust me. I was just doing my thing, and I picked it up. Kids are no different. In fact, they probably learn more than adults do because we often stop paying attention to the small, common things.

Maybe I'm catching on. "Bye-bye" is hardly a meaningless phrase in my book, now.