My son is a genius

Ok, I know. I'm not the first parent ever to think that their child is perhaps the most gifted individual to ever toddle on two feet. But, since it's just you and me here in the space, I'm going to put down my completely unvarnished, unadulterated, incredibly biased praise for one Samuel Atticus Weisbrod for posterity so that when he goes on to cure cancer, solve the Israel/Palestine crisis, and fix the US political system before he's 30 years old I can say "I knew it when he was 18 months old." Also, you should stop now if people talking about how awesome their kid is makes you throw up a little in your mouth (seriously, this is where I would stop if this were someone else's blog). Don't say I didn't warn you.

And let me say now before I get to far into this that my measure of success as a parent has zero to do with his cognitive ability (as long as he can support himself as an adult) and everything to do with his enduring happiness and belief in himself. But let's let that go for one moment to bask in the brilliance of Samuel A.

So, from some quick online surveying it seems that the language milestones for 18 months include a vocabulary of 12 and 50 words and understanding around 200 words. In February we counted around 150 words that Sam speaks and by now I would estimate it is around 300. His vocabulary includes words like "triangle", "motorcycle", "helicopter," and "Target" (yes, the store. Sam has learned his very first brand).

Where Sam really excels is in his knowledge of birds. Tonight, at dinner Sam looks outside and says "chickadee." Sure enough, there were two little black-capped chickadees gathering nest materials on the ground outside the window. A minute passed with us looking at them and then they flew away. I told Sam "the chickadees flew away" and he said "flew away" (he often will immitate the last two words of a sentence, particularly if he doesn't know those words). I then asked him "What else flies?" I figured I'd be answering it myself but Sam processes for a minute and then says "Robin." Seriously. I was floored. I responded "yes! A robin flies. What else flies?" And Sam said "Cardinal." Now, I knew Sam knew those words and that he could identify those birds (once, when seeing a Cardinal, he made the beginning of it's call "Cheer Cheer Birdie") but to link that to the question "What else flies?" seems unbelievable. I then said "A plane flies." And his eyes widened. And then said "Does a helicopter fly?" and he broke in to a huge grin as he made the connection around things that fly. Awesome!

Sam is also in to nursery rhymes and can recite broken but recognizable and hilariously cute versions of "Bah Bah Black Sheep," "Row Row Row your boat", "the ABCs", "Ring around the Rosy", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and "Rain Rain Go Away." When we pass the park on the way home he will occasionally say "Home again, home again, home again, pop!" (from the nursery rime Home Again, Home Again, Piggity Pop!). Sometimes the "home agains" will continue repeating which is pretty damn adorable. If you start him off counting with "1, 2, 3" he can count up to "10" (although he does miss numbers). That's crazy for an 18 month old, right?

He also understands the concepts of names. When asked what "Mom's" name is he says "Sara"and he does the same with "Dad" and "Kyle."

Unfortunately, when we start videoing Sam's emerging language development (mostly because it is super cute), all he wants to do is grab the camera. We'll have to keep working on it. I'll make it a goal for this weekend.

Ok, I should stop now. I know I'm going to look back at this post and regret it. I already do a little bit even though I haven't yet posted it yet so I went ahead and added the up front warnings. So if you read this far and now have to brush your teeth you have no one to blame but yourself.