My Son the Genius

While I was playing catch with my two year old son tonight, it occurred to me that he was pretty young to be playing catch. I was throwing him a rubber ball and he was catching it. The only ones he missed were the ones I overthrew. I started thinking about all the things he was doing that I thought were pretty advanced.

Since about the age of 6 months, my son has understood that keys go into locks. He couldn't reach the door knob, not for lack of trying, but he would have the key, usually the right one, and be trying to climb the door to put the key in the hole. I thought this was pretty impressive at the time. He only continued to show advanced motor skills.

I looked through the "What to Expect" toddler book to see how my son compared to his age group. He is currently 26 months old, going on 27 in the next week or so. Here are some of the things he is already doing, compared to what age he should be doing it.

Activity	Expected Age in months	Actual Age in months	Variance
Wash & Dry Hands	34-36	25	He still needs a little work, but he has it down pretty well
Throw a ball overhand	34-36	14-16	He has been throwing overhand as long as he has been throwing.
Identify 4 colors	34-36	24	He has red and blue down pat...he rotates among about 4 others.
Identify 4 Pictures by naming	34-36	25	"Grandma", "Grandpa", "It's Me", "Mama", and "Daddy" are common pictures he can name.

I could continue, but this makes my point. He is well ahead of his age category. Some things he can do that aren't mentioned in the book:

• Correctly insert DVD into player
• Turn TV on and off on command (or on his own timetable), and adjust volume
• Unlock both door knob and dead bolt
• Turn off any computer regardless of having seen it/it's power button before
• Make cell phone calls to Mommy's friends or Daddy without Mommy knowing, and actually have a conversation (as best he can)

There are more things, but those are among my favorites. I think it is a pretty impressive list of stuff.

I know that all children are different, and that each one develops on their own time table, but it is always fun to see your kid ahead of the pack. He is excellent at motor skills, but is much slower on the verbal track. His cousin who is two weeks older than him has been talking for a long time, and can sing. She can't do some of the cool stuff above, so it balances out. :) I will keep you posted when he starts doing more cool stuff.