Thanks everyone for the comments and advice.
I think my husband may be coming around. This last weekend my husband asked if I had feed the d. o. g. Spelling out the word dog so that our pooch wouldn't get excited and think it's time to eat again. We were both amazed when our son said,"dog". We tried spelling the word out loud again and he once again said dog. We also spelled "cat" out loud which he also got correct.
I reminded him that our son is only 1 and 1/2. He was stunned.
I can't wait to see what my little one will do next!