Stop the presses!
Published July 25th, 2008 in Re: the lil' monkey, Sunrise Sunset file.
Stop the presses our daughter’s a frickin’ genius! (Bet you never heard that out of a proud parent’s mouth.)
And we aren’t the only ones freaking out about it. I think she is, too. Just got a call from the preschool that she is on a hunger fast, and won’t leave the couch, where she has surrounded herself with books.
Why? Behold Fig. A, at right: her rendition of the ALPHABET. (A transcribed Fig. B here, for those of you who, due to your not being our daughter’s parent, might not be able to make the letters out .) It was rendered this morning – are you sitting down? – at about the rate of speed it took her to SING the alphabet. And not sing it like she was on Quaaludes, but rather sing it at a fairly decent clip. You know, like about at the pace that your ordinary three and-a-half year-old would sing it. Yes, your ordinary THREE AND A HALF YEAR OLD. Which means, I’m thinking, she’s not so ordinary. (Or could it be that that she’s ordinary, and our love and pride is, too? Dang, what a ride.)
I’m also now beginning to think that this roiling sea of thought inside her brain, this slo-mo mental super nova, just might be part of what’s been behind her, shall we call them, behavioral tics latelty.
It’s only a theory, but it is mine. About which (behavioral tics), watch this space on Monday. Hint: the appropriate soundtrack would be Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, from The Exorcist.
Lesbian Dad is written by a parent who answers to the name "Baba" and works toward a world in which amor does indeed vincit omnia. 
shame about the November challenge. Im in the UK but it all counts as one step further! 
Frickin’ genius is right. That’s kind of freaky. Although I have gotten (sort of) used to her incredible verbal aptitude, seeing it in WRITING is a different thing altogether.
I love the exclamation point at the end! (Does that mean she is ready for blogging? When will she start guest-posting?)
Ours was doodling around in a notebook the other day. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and realised she’d written her name (backwards albeit) but all the letters are there. They are growing up so fast!
Cue my favorite rendition of the heart-tugging classic from Fiddler on the Roof from The Heavenly Harpist.
Dude. That is genius.
It is genius. And you know what I think is as heartwarming as our kids’ love of books and writing and general literate hijinks? Is how freakin’ thu-rilled us English geeks get about it. We’ve been praising the pre-literacy activities of our now-six genius, who is teetering on the verge of actual reading, and has more written words in her lexicon every day (see how I squeezed the brag in there?) as though no child has ever done it before. Although given the distance she had to come, I still maintain that ‘genius’ isn’t too strong… and I don’t think it’s too strong for your girlie, either!
Wow!!!! All the more genius for being in capitals.
Or did she learn them by singing loudly?
(Resisting the temptation to wonder if thats how to learn AMERICAN).
RESIST RESISTING, MY SCOTTISH AMIGO! AND YES! SINGING LOUDLY IS THE ROOT OF ALL ERUDITION.
Amigo por supuesto, but Scots I am nots: Hugh Grant & I share something other than a passing resemblance.
Yegods, woman! I presumed wrongly! Duly schooled myself here. Chiswick, West London, I read.
Do you think we both might be able to earn some money being his body doubles in film? Of a panoply of employment aspirations, that might be among my highest.
(I wonder how many gals such as us have similar aspirations? Might we buck one another’s spirits up with a club of sorts? Trade hair care and Saville Row shopping tips?)
That is pretty amazing. Shocking how fast kids learn things. My son did the same in preschool. He wouldn’t take a nap like the other kids so they said he could stay awake if he sat quietly. They saw him one day with a magazine and notebook and was writing the words he saw in the magazine. So this became a day to day thing. He even was trying to write me a love card and since he couldn’t remember how to spell some words and grandma was busy, he found the nearest item which were ingredients and started writing them on the card. So much fun to watch what they will come up with next.