Persistence of Memory

One of my daily joys is a new discovery of my Precious Boy's budding brilliance.

For example, this weekend's lesson was the persistence of memory.

Often, I will read my son a book, or let him watch a video and half the time, or I'll mention something in passing, I don't think he's paying attention. Then he'll surprise me.

We were playing with one of his more unusual stuffed animals, a giant stuffed shrimp with a top hat from the Bubba Gump restaurant chain. Precious Boy got this from my sister as a Christmas present two years ago. We started doing our usual skit, giving the shrimp a voice as it discusses with Elmo whether it's time to have pancakes, when Precious Boy chimed in, using his normal voice, "I got dis, Tita, Christmas." Which was absolutely correct.

What amazes me is the fact that I think I told this to him once, maybe twice. The other time he could have made that connection was when he actually received the present, which would have been when he was 1.

Go figure.

He's also been singing lots of different songs lately, stuff that I never thought he picked up. He was singing the "Colors, Colors, Everywhere" song from a Blue's Clues episode that I swear to you he has only seen about 5 times, at the most. (Yes, in the whole debate about toddler exposure to TV, I've fallen flat. But I do have my limits - Yes to Bob the Builder. No to Spongebob.)

And he's been repeating lines from books, like the "Water, Water Everywhere" book (part of the Baby Einstein set) that he hasn't seen in weeks (since My Darling Redhead just finished a major bathroom renovation and I had stored a lot of the excess bath books and toys). He also knows the opening lines to one of his new favorites, the Dr. Seuss story in the Sneetches book about the empty pale green pants.

He's a genius, I tell you. A genius.