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.