So Smart!

When James and I found out we were going to have preemies, I worried about what the future might look like for our boys.  Would they have severe cognitive delays?  Vision or hearing impairments? Cerebral palsy?

When we made it to 33 weeks, some of those fears diminished a bit.  But I would be lying if I said I didn't still sometimes worry about them being delayed.  Not that there'd be anything wrong with having a child who was a slower learner, but let's be honest...no parent wants their child to struggle or every feel inadequate.

Our boys all had language delays.  It was a pretty big source of frustration for all of us (mostly them) during the toddler years.  While they still have somewhat of a delay, their speech has dramatically taken off over the past year.  Not only do they ramble on and on, but people can now understand most of what they say.  And I absolutely love watching the conversations that take place between them.

With this language boom has come a realization that our kids are really darn smart!  I know every parent probably thinks this about their kid, but I have to say, I'm just blown away by some of the things they know.

At not quite four years old, we can:

• Read several hundred sight words and lots of primary books.  Ollie and Lucas are reading at a first to second grade reading level.
• Can spell CVC phonetic words (ex: rat, pop, etc).
• Differentiate between consonants and vowels.
• All count to 100.  Ollie knows his numbers up to 1,000 though we always make him stop before he can get there.  He also knows that 1,000,000 is made up of a one and then six zeroes.
• Count by tens.
• Recognize several shapes including: circle, oval, square, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid, hexagon, octagon.
• Name 10+ colors.
• Differentiate between fruits and vegetables.
• Recite the seven days of the week and the twelve months of the year.
• Identify Kansas, Texas, and California on a map (don't ask).
• Tell when our birthday is.
• Recite our phone number.
• Tell how old we are, and how old Mommy and Daddy are (not sure that's a good thing).

A lot of these things, they've known for quite a while.  It just fascinates me how they soak everything up so easily.

So why am I blogging about this?  Just to brag to everyone about my genius children?  Not really...though I am really darn proud of them!  It's more to be able to look back in a year and see what they can do then.  We definitely have things to work on.  Less academic, more fine and gross motor related (such as dressing themselves, pedaling a tricycle, cutting paper, and holding a crayon properly).  I have no doubt they'll get there.  In the meantime, I'm just enjoying watching them learn something new everyday.