A fascination with letters? With a certain PBS kids' show called Word World? A photographic memory? High IQ?
Who knows.
What we do know is that Xander likes letters and he likes to spell. Sometimes he says his letters in perfect order, all but singing the ABC song to us. Sometimes he just says random letters that don't have any clear meaning (at least to us anyway). And by says, I mean he follows you around demanding you repeat each one he says or he just says it a little bit louder each time until you finally give in and say it back. Have I mentioned he's also slightly tenacious? Because he is.
Even more impressive for a three-year old, he sometimes just goes through a whole list of words that he knows how to spell. Shoe. Music. Ladder. Truck. Boat. Friend. Nest. Mug. Tub. Slide. And just about anything else that has appeared on either Word World, or it's close cousin, Super Why (also a PBS kids' show).
And, yes, he also likes to spell bear. It's probably his favorite with the wooden letters, though shoe wins the award for being said most often out loud.
S. H. O. E. Shoe! (Probably at least 10 times a day, every single day). That's our spell boy.