Monday, November 28, 2011

My Little Einstein

Happy Monday. It is 5:30 and way too early to be up. But here I am, up and blogging. I expect to be here more and more in the 10 or so weeks ahead. I think I started losing sleep much earlier when I was pregnant with Nathan so I consider myself lucky. And, my body and brain need to get used to being up at odd hours again anyway, right? May as well be productive.

I was laying in bed thinking about how amazing our little man is. There is no better word to describe him these days. There is a show called Little Einsteins and Nathan loves it. These four kids go on these adventures in a rocket ship. They learn about music and use big words and familiarize kids with the classic Mozart and Beethoven tunes we all know but could never name. He probably could. Anyway, Nathan has become his own little Einstein these days. We were reading Peter and the Wolf and along the bottom of the page, they show an instrument and a bar of notes. The first time we read it Nathan says, "Those are notes! From Einsteins!" He imitates playing a violin and hums music now. Just from one show! He hums Star Wars all the time now too, from listening to his Star Wars CD's all the time. (Well, just one. Daddy confiscated the rest of the collection. Nathan can put the CD on at will but is still a little rough with it.) We were tossing a ball into a hoop upstairs yesterday and missing. So he turns to me and says, "We just need a little pixie dust!" He gestures putting "pixie dust" on the ball and tosses it to "help it fly." He's seen the Tinkerbell movie a time or two - this is what he got from it. A appropriate solution that he remembered and suggested all on his own. "That is the planet if Saturn!", he says to me when he sees a picture of it. The Milky Way, Earth! He knows this!

Leo and I will often see ourselves mirrored in the things he says and does too. (This idea of being like your own mother starts from birth I realize.) He says "that's fantastic!" like I do when he's excited. "Whatever you say Mommy" like I do when I'm exasperated and give in to whatever silly thing he insists on. He even throws in a sigh like my own. Last week it was "now, now, now!" and I heard myself demanding things of him and adding now at the end when he was dawdling or just ignoring me. And of course he says the bad things too, as I've shared before. He will sometimes insist on saying "Holy Crap" even though we say over and over the things he can say like "Oh my goodness" and "Holy Canoli." He knows when he's being good and when to push buttons. He knows all expressions and uses them how he wants - depending on how much he thinks he can get away with I'm sure. He can even use the F word properly. I'm not proud of it, but man, the kid is too stinkin' smart for his own good!

He has an amazing memory of things we did too, long before he was so articulate. He will see something like fireworks and remember that we saw fireworks at the beach six months ago. Or he'll name a friend out of mid-air who we haven't seen in weeks. Like he was really sitting there thinking about them. He went to a Christmas Parade a few weeks ago with Gigi and Grandpa and when he came back he said he saw Storm Troopers. I asked my mom to confirm and yes, there were many. And Princess Leila and Jabba the Hut even. "Really?" I ask to confirm. "The big blobby guy?" Yup, that's him. He isn't even three and knows every Star Wars character there is and the names of some of the ships. Millennium Falcon - really? He remembers everything he sees and hears. He just pulls out concepts, words, names and memories out of nowhere. And when he says he sees a firetruck outside or hears a train in the way distance or sees a certain character or image in the background of a picture or TV, he is usually right. He notices the details in everyday life that we tend to ignore. He sees it all. We know this about him but are constantly floored by his mind. I had no idea he would be so smart.

A lot of this has to do with his own uniqueness of course, but Leo and I have to take some credit here as well. Yeah, the TV is on a bunch in our house - something I do try to curb even though it's so easy to let the boob tube babysit! But he hears us talking to each other about lots of different things. Nathan has a lot of friends. We do different activities, and lately, we make him repeat long sentences after us just to see if he'll do it. And he usually does. He masters big words with no problem. Leo taught him "fermentation" or some other such word relating to beer brewing just yesterday. He may not use it right away, but someday he will turn to me and tell me something about fermentation and I will fall off the couch in shock.

I hope he stays like this - absorbing, inquisitive, GENIUS!

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