If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious...

At Boy Wonder's four-year checkup, the doctor began with a series of questions. Could he walk forward and backward, jump, and hop on one foot? Why, yes. Sometimes all at the same time while standing on the couch. Could he speak clearly, so that strangers could understand him? Check. At the dentist's office: "Hi, Dr. Dentist! I'm BoyWonder Last Name! Are you going to check my teeth?" Dentist to Dragon: "Wow, he's really outgoing. He's only four?" At the mall: "I'm Boy Wonder. I'm the one who's bigger and has teeth! He's the baby brother. We call him Action Hero and he has four teeth." (In response to "Aw, what a cute pair of brothers!") Could he draw with a crayon? Yeah; actually, he can write his NAME with a crayon. (Or a marker or a pencil. I just about fell over the first time I saw him write his name; I still have the name-tag sticker he wrote it on.) Build a tower of blocks? Check. Name at least four colors? More like all of them, for a while now. I still remember going Christmas shopping with him in the stroller, a few months before he turned three; we were walking past display tables draped in various colorful cloths, and he was pointing and shouting, "Rett! Lello! Green! Hurple! Bew!"

The questions went on; I don't remember any more of them, but the answer to most was, "Yes, with flair." This doesn't mean that I think he's a Gifted Prodigy, although I think he's pretty smart; he's been doing curriculum-ish stuff at daycare for a while, and he's got a good memory, like someone else I know. (Blush.) He is pretty verbal and outgoing, though. And watching him learn, listening to him ask questions, watching him puzzle over the answers...all fascinating. One of the most enjoyable things about being a parent is getting a crash course in Early Childhood Development.

There's a lot to absorb, though, and the wires do get crossed sometimes. Please enjoy these recent examples.

We've been talking about days of the week a lot recently (Friday is Grandma Day, Saturday and Sunday are days when Mommy and Daddy are home and not at their offices, Monday is a school day). He also likes to count.

"And then there's sixteen. What comes after sixteen?"

"Seventeen! Eighteen! Nineteen!"

"Wow, you're doing great. What comes after nineteen?"

"Friday!"

From the scientific frontier:

"Mom, mosquitos suck butts, right?"

Body art:

(patting Dragon's tattoo) "Daddy has a dragon on his arm." (pause) "When I grow up, will I have a dragon on my arm?" (Me: "Well, if you want one. But someone will have to draw it with special ink...but not until you're at least eighteen, or until you...oh, never mind.")