Pavlov's Babies...

It would be so much easier to raise kids living in a cave. Sometimes I really despise hearing about other kids and how smart they are, or how quickly they are developing physically. As Chris would say, we have a tendancy to parent retroactively. Someone with a child that is younger than ours will say 'oh my kid just started using a spoon to feed himself.' Then we will realize it's time to get Lily to start using a spoon to feed herself.

I thoroughly enjoy hearing how cute my kids are, but nothing tickles my fancy more than hearing that someone thinks my kids (well, Lily for now) are smart. Lily has the appearance of being smart (no, not cause she is half-Asian. Although later in life people may assume she is good at math. Tis a burden I will carry until I die.) because we have taught her a lot of tricks. The smarts come in simply at the fact that she 'performs' her tricks on command. More or less. So here's a list of some of her best 'tricks':

-She says 'See Ya!' at the end of the 'Backyardigans' when they say 'Bye!' and 'See ya!'

-She can point to her belly button when you ask her where her belly button (or 'behkob' in Korean)

-She just learned to point to her nose and say 'Ko', which is Korean for nose. This trick, along with the previous one is interchangeable. They don't always work on the same day.

-She says something that has the same syllables as 'one, two, three, jump!' (it sounds like 'uhn, oo, ein, uh.' She's a genius people!)

-She puts her hands together when you say 'Pray' (or 'Guido' which is prayer in Korean. That's a hard 'g', not 'Gweedo' like some Italian guy)

I was telling my friend Cassie the other day ago that I need to teach Lily more 'skills' and less 'tricks'. She is a kindergarten teacher and so she promptly told me that Lily clasping her hands to pray is a great example of her fine motor skills being as sharp as can be. Bless your heart Cassie!

The pediatrician often says that you shouldn't worry about when your baby starts walking, or gets potty trained or whatever have you, because in all likelihood by the time they are graduating high school- they will be able to walk to pick up their diploma whilst not soiling themselves all the while. In the moment it all seems like such a big deal, but in the grand scheme of things, whether they do things earlier or later than the 'average baby', it doesn't really matter. And this is what I must repeat to myself over and over again every day.