Language development

So we've always suspected that Grant was a pretty smart tyke. Heck, given the IQs of his parents, his odds were at least a little better than even that he'd turn out a relatively smart kid. However, he continues to surprise us.

At 10 weeks old we were able to capture on video, him saying "Hungry." We had been hearing this word whenever he was hungry and looking for food (he did a lot of 'root hawging' when he was a newborn and hungry and soon began adding this word to his regular requests for food.) Few believed us and most chalked it up to 'new' parents thinking their child was the most amazing thing ever. Well, he is, but that's not the point. The point is that the child said the word 'hungry,' an adjective, not even a noun mind you, anytime he wanted food from the time he was just a few weeks old. That seems remarkable even to this first time mom.

Fast forward to his 18 month old well baby check up with the pediatrician. His growth milestone was to have 10-15 words in his bag of tricks (this seems low but that's what his pediatrician wanted him to have accomplished) and he had close to 30.

Then at just shy of 20 months, after months of playing with a toy laptop Daddy got him for his birthday, he suddenly knew the letters "B" and "G." Everywhere he saw them he would point them out and proudly declare them. This soon led to knowing the letters "E" and "T" and then Big Brother D taught him the letter "O." It's been a runaway train ever since. By 22 months he knew all but about 6 letters and had started learning a few numbers. We thought it might be better to perfect the letters before really learning numbers so we backed up a little and fine tuned the letters. Anytime we were out he would see signs with letters and read them out loud. He would proudly read off the letters in the names of authors on book covers when I was reading while he splashed in his kiddie pool. Trips in the car became a game of him shouting out letters he saw on billboards. Calling him a sponge doesn't come close to describing how quickly he has been learning.

He's now just about 3 weeks shy of his second birthday. He knows his entire alphabet (not the song, but the letters) with the exception of the letter "H." (Poor Aunt Heather may never hear him say her name!) He still is a little slow to identify the letter "X," and some letters sound very similar to the untrained ear (F/S and M/N)...but he's good enough that he attracts the attention of sales clerks and school teachers and anyone else while we are out and about.

And despite our attempts to stop learning numbers so we could finish letters without further confusion (9 and P were regularly mixed up at first) he still has learned half his numbers with little to no effort.

I innocently told him the colors of his crayons two days ago and today he woke up saying "Yellow, blue, green, red..."

I'm biased....but just because I'm biased doesn't mean he's not a genius.