

Monday, July 30, 2012

Oh My Word I Think He's Gifted

I'm hesitant to admit that my kids are the coolest kids out there.  I mean, they are, but in mommy-world it's just not cool to state it as fact.  Unless you put the words "to me they will always be..." before those sentences as a qualifier.  Such as: "to me they will always be the cutest kids in the world," or "to me they will always be perfect," even when you think it's really 100% true, no qualifier is needed...Along the same lines, it's also not that cool to say "my kid is advanced," or "my kid is smarter than your kid," don't ask me why, it's just a little frowned-upon...crazy.That said, I need to let you in on a little secret (all five of you that read this, hi mom, hi dad!)...shhh...I think Elijah might be gifted.  Particularly in the animal and color-identification lobes of the brain.  I'm telling you, that kid soaks. it. up.  It sounds most impressive to say that my child is 1 year old and knows all his colors, including shades like white, gray, pink, every animal he's ever laid eyes on whether in person or a book, and most of their sounds.  In reality he is nearly two and most other kids his age do have a color or two down and a lot of their animal sounds but seriously, he amazes me sometimes with his ability to retain and repeat information.For example, yesterday while he ate his Cheerios (Chee-ee-oos) and watched Praise Baby (Pays Baby) in bed with mommy he pointed to a yellow dot on the bedspread and said "yew-wo."  Then he pointed to the grey, I told him it was grey, and the same with the white.  This morning, again eating chee-ee-oos and watching Pays Baby, he spotted one teeny tiny letter amongst all the other, mainly primary-colored letters, and shouted "White!"  Um...seriously kid?  Most children your age would hardly even notice that non-color of a letter, let alone know what that color is called.  However he did it several other times today throughout the day when he encountered something white, in addition to the normal "boo one!"  "Geen one!" and yew-wo, wed, puhpul, pink, onch (orange) etc. that we are used to.
Lest you think I'm just being the proud mommy, I'd like to point out that throughout all of this Evelyn remains mostly mute unless it's to point out some color that invariably, is wrong, with the biggest, heart-wrenching smile on her face as she waits for the praise she is due.  Maybe this is why she doesn't know her colors...I don't have the heart to tell her she's wrong...I digress.  Evie right now is mainly preoccupied with finding new ways to steal food, rip out her hair pretties, push her brother, run from mommy, tear apart books, climb on the table, wind up in timeout, and make up for it all with the biggest, sweetest, fish-face kisses a mom could ask for.  I'm not concerned about her development as she is really pretty right-on with what she says and knows, but her "normalcy" only serves to point out her brother's slightly accelerated skills all the more.
At the end of all this, I will be the first to admit that I have no idea if this knowledge will serve him well in the future- at this rate he's destined to become a starving artist who travels the world to paint "doggies" and "kitties" and "piggies, la la la" in brilliant technicolor.  Maybe one day I'll be nice and teach him that in fact, a pig says "oink," a mouse says "squeak"(not cheese), and a horse says "neigh" (not haaa-ay).  Havin' fun in the Heights!  ~Krista