I'm One Of Those Parents

Every parent thinks his or her child is special and smart and amazing, right?  Everyone else rolls his or her eyes and thinks, "Suuuuuure" but will actually respond with, "Yes!  The fact that Johnny is sticking his feet in his mouth does mean he is interested in anatomy and will become a podiatrist."  Then that person posts something on Facebook saying how he or she is sick of parents bragging about their "brilliant" kids.  I have a little more humility than these crazy parents, but I do want to share a cool story with you.

On Thursday I got my boys into their cribs but it wasn't quite naptime yet.  I didn't want to take them out of their cribs and risk a fight to get them back in, so I decided to vamp for 10-15 minutes before starting the naptime routine.  My kids still aren't really into storytime.  After I read two or three pages of a book one will inevitably ask for the book.  I will give it to him and he will usually take it from my hand and then toss it aside as if to say, "How dare you read to us!!!  I do all the reading around here!"

With storytime being nixed I decided to focus on the animal decals.  I do point out the animals from time to time.  I tell the boys the names in English, American Sign Language, and Spanish (the ones I know...what the heck is the Spanish word for ibex???) but I never really emphasize learning the animals like I do when we read a book.

That's why I was totally shocked when I saw how well the boys could identify the animals on the wall near their cribs!  In the take you didn't see, each boy was three for three.  In the video, they got five out of six.  I think "jellyfish" was too hard because there's no good sign for it and I don't know the Spanish word for it so we don't practice that one very much.

I also have the most amazing nanny in the world who loves to do art with my boys and she recently showed me that they are little Picassos in the making.  Here they are having fun with paint for the first time with our awesome nanny.

I know that just because my kids know a few animals or get paint on paper it doesn't mean I believe they will be the Doogie Howser of the vet world or the next Pablo Picasso.  I admit that they still have a lot (of the basics) to learn. For example, Jeff likes to bang his head against the wall.  When Derek or I say, "Don't knock your head on the wall!" all he seems to hear is "Knock your head on the wall."  He laughs the first couple of times but then hits it just hard enough that he has that look of "Why does my head hurt?"  Aaron is no better.  He enjoys drinking bathwater.  He has a cup that he fills with water and tries to drink from it.  The problem is it's a big cup and all he does is douse his face with water.  He scares himself after water splashes his face.  Six seconds later he does it all over again. 

So while I'm proud of my kids for learning animals and trying art, I know that doesn't make them the smartest kids on earth.

Wait a minute.  Now that I think about their behaviors I think Jeff banging his head on a wall is like an engineer testing the strength of his supporting beams.  Aaron getting wet shows he is going to be an underwater explorer like Jacques Cousteau.  

Wow...my kids really are geniuses!!!

OK...go post a message on Facebook about a crazy dad.