Ahead of me again

How wonderful to be continually, delightfully surprised by my son's personality and development. Two years old is really the best age yet!

Today was a day of readjustment after Grandma's visit. He seems to have bounced back to an even more exuberant version of his "normal" self. His whole body just lit up when I picked him up from daycare. Immediately upon coming home he asked for chalk--orange chalk--and ran to where his name was written on the driveway, and cried "E!" and tried to trace over it, then "S!" and tried to trace that! His literary achievements are being hampered by still-developing motor skills. Today's daycare sheet said "I had a very good first day back! I surprised my teachers by pulling down my pants and sitting on the potty!" Wow--and surprised Mommy too! Since he's been telling me when he "has poop" for a week now, I have started looking into buying a potty and getting a potty training book, but haven't done it yet. This is just like Elias: always just a couple weeks ahead of me. This happened with the alphabet, and counting, and now potty training and I might even say writing. Genius!

It was wonderful having my mom come visit for a week, but Elias was challenging at times. We were both sick, me with that cough and Elias with an icky, runny ear infection (which, in a reversal of the normal order, I gave to him.) Elias was additionally discombobulated by the increased flexibility of our vacation schedule. His sleeping schedule was all messed up and he didn't eat as much as usual. He clung to the familiarity of his library, insisting either Mom or me read to him ALL the time. He also had a quasi-meltdown in a fabric store. Still, with the 3 of us, we did so much more than we had before, in terms of going out to eat, out to other places, and riding a long time in the car. He especially liked riding on the train at the zoo.

Elias' last monthly birthday

Elias is 23 months old today: his last socially-acceptable "month" birthday. On his wall chart he is exactly 34" tall, which makes him of exactly average (50% percentile) height. Rounding out the stats, he's ~70% for weight (reflecting his "momma's belly") and a whopping ~95% for head circumference--reflective of his amazing brainpower, it just so happens!

Elias' alphabet recital today: ABCDEF - - IJ - LM - OPQ - S - - V - XYZ! I think this is simply amazing for someone so young, who hasn't been drilled on it. He's picked it up himself just with me reading alphabet books with him and singing (or shouting) the alphabet song. Does anyone else think this amazing? Seems he should be reported to some governmental genius authority or something...oh, wait a minute. In all those sci fi books, that's always a very bad move.

In the bath today he appeared to count out his stacking cups, up to 8 (There're only 7 cups, but he added the "eight" at the end as a bonus). This is how the alphabet thing started. I was counting them out as he methodically unstacked them, but then he immediately took over, pre-empting me! He didn't pronounce them all clearly, but they were in the right order. Maybe I should get him a counting book.

He is finishing his transition this week to the 2-year old room at daycare. He wasn't too happy about it yesterday, but today was much better. (I, however, am thrilled at the $56/month lower tuition.) He still sees his old toddler pals and teachers at meals and on the playground. This teacher, as his previous teacher did, commented to me today that she's never seen a kid so book-crazy as Elias. One of the occasional caretakers remarked yesterday how he was so surprised Elias called him by name, when he'd only met him about a month ago and hadn't seen him since then (now that's a skill I've never been able to attain.)

I wonder why I delight so very much in his obvious intelligence. Sure, sure: most parents will say their kid is exceptionally smart--but Elias really is! =) Maybe it says I'm more of an intellectual snob than I'd thought. I know I'd love him just as much if he were as dumb as a kite, but what a blessing that he excels naturally at something I have always valued.

Postscript: currant scones: uummmm!