When's spring break part two?

It's been quite a spell since I have had time to blog. Erik and I taught three weekends in a row for Ashland University. We had a fantastic time and met some amazing teachers. We finished our last class and I immediately started spring break. I had a list of things to do for the week and somehow I never got to most of it. I had way too much fun playing with Eli and watching him enjoy his newest pasttime: coloring. He loves crayons and scribbles joyfully on his paper. We even found the Holy Grail of paper: giant post-it notes. They stick to his mat and we don't have to worry about Eli tossing it on the floor.

I also took Eli for a rowdy morning at Little Gym, a pint-sized gym for pint-sized kids. They have all sorts of climbing equipment, mats and balls. The kids have free play and then a teacher leads the group in a structured activity like pounding on a giant tube and singing "The Noble Duke of York." For Eli, though, the best part was basketball. The teacher rolled over a short hoop with dangly bells attached to net. The kids took all sorts of balls out of a big tub and tossed them though the hoop. Eli shot hoops like a pro and was quite unnerved when the teacher started to roll the hoop back to the side of the room. In fact, Eli just kept walking right after her, putting more balls in the basket. And finally when she got the hoop back to it's spot in the corner, Eli just grabbed some more balls to toss in. It was just darling. Maybe instead of being a world-famous Professor of Botany like his Nana Jane and Poppy, he will be a starter for the Knicks. Let's just hope he realizes that buying Hummer is not enviro-friendly.

I am not in any way ready to go back to school. Why isn't sping break two weeks long?

Survey says!

One of the 23 parenting magazines we receive had a poll. It asked parents is they felt their child was smarter than average. In the end, 78% of parents stated that their child was smarter than average. Of course, Erik and I are convinced that Eli is smarter than smart, and we have empiracal data to prove our claim!

We went to Border's and proceeded to look up a book title. Erik stood at the kiosk and typed in the title. To the left of the screen is a little slot where you throw away the paper that prints with the location of your book. Lest anyone think we coached our little prodigy, there is no visible paper near the kiosk. All of the printouts go into a space under the desk that isn't visible.

On the surface of the kiosk, right next to the little slot, are the words "waste paper." As Erik stood there holding Eli, our darling boy yelled out, "Paper!" as he stared straight at the waste paper slot. Erik and I stopped in our tracks. Could it be? Our 20-month-old can read? Do we have a super genius on our hands? Should we start homeschooling next year? Should we purchase "War and Peace"?

We had to test our new-found mensa member. After all, what is life without some norm-referenced, high-stakes testing? We found the first book in the store that had the word "paper" on the cover and asked Eli, "What's that word?" He proudly answered, "Flower!" but we were not deterred! It just so happened that there was a flower on the cover. Try again! Cover the flower! "What's that word, Eli?" Erik asked. Our wonderful baby smiled and said, "Potty!"

I guess he's not ready to read "A Tale of Two Cities" yet but to us, he is a genius.