We've Only Just Begun

I'm just embarking on a thrilling, yet daunting journey with my children. Taking the lead is J, who turned 5 two months ago. Not far behind is Z, who will turn 3 in a few weeks.

I'm thoroughly daunted because my little brainiacs blow me away every day. Their minds are like sponges!

I'm just starting on this blog, chronicling my journey as a mother and their journey as (most likely) gifted children, I'll summarize the first brainy years of their lives. These are not all earth-shaking or astounding accomplishments, but it's all part of their stories.

J

• As an infant, he always looked pensive. One lady in the grocery store commented, "He looks like he's trying to cure world hunger!"
• He sat up at 5 months, pulled up and cruised (within minutes of each other) at 6 months, crawled at 7 months.
• At 9 months, he could walk by just holding the tip of my pinky-finger, but refused to do it on his own until he was 12 months. When he decided he could do it, he suddenly did do it. He hardly ever fell, and his second day of mobility was spent zooming around the house and hauling things around.
• His first baby sign was about a week after I started using them, at 10 months. It was Christmas time, and he signed "tree." It was a huge breakthrough for him, a whole new world opening up. He learned many more signs, made up some of his own, and put two signs together.
• When he was 2 1/2 , he couldn't make me understand the word "spaceship," so he substituted the word "aircraft."
  
• He always spoke as though he were much older. It's hard to remember his real age sometimes, and to keep my expectations appropriate.
• At age 2, he demonstrated his amazing memory. Easter was approaching, and I explained to him that the Easter Bunny would come and fill plastic eggs with treats and leave them in his basket. He said, "I know. Last year there were trucks in the eggs." I checked our photos of the previous year's Easter (when he was just 15 months old) and there were indeed HotWheels in his Easter eggs.
  
• He learned all his letters and their sounds very quickly, although I didn't introduce him to them early. He learned the alphabet song from a friend, who mindlessly sang it while playing with Play-doh during church nursery class. Then he learned them by sight, along with the sounds they make, from The Letter Factory video.
• Before he was 3 1/2, he liked to say which letter a word started with, and was putting 2-3 sounds together. He spelled out the word "star" to me verbally. At 3 1/2 he began to read 3- and 4-letter words such as "wet" and "hand."
• At age 4, he taught himself to add and subtract. After I tucked him in bed, he'd often throw in "Hey mom, 4+4 is 8. I love you!"
  
• At age 4 1/2 he began grouping objects to do math. He stuck his markers end-to-end in four groups of three and asked me how many that made.
• At 5, he multiplies by 0, 1, 2, 10, and 100 easily, in his head. It is obvious that he understands the concept of multiplication. He has begun to ask questions that require division & fractions.
  
• At 4 1/2, he memorized the water cycle. He talked about "reversible changes" and changes of state.
  
• Just after his 5th birthday, he finally got the courage to read. He'd been reading signs in the grocery store (i.e. Frozen Foods) but just didn't feel confident. I bought him Dr. Seuss's Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? He read it to me that night and was hooked.
• Just 2 months after he read his first book, he just read our Little Golden book 101 Dalmations completely on his own, and silently. He easily reads through books he's never seen or heard before.
  
• He recently built two ramps with Legos. They were the same height, but had a different slope. He decided to roll marbles down them to see which one was faster. He called his ramps "inclined planes."

Z

• Sat up on his own at 3 1/2 months old. Crawled at 7 months. Walked at 12 months. Was also proficient at signing.
• I worried that he would feel like the "dumb brother." Although I knew he would be smart enough, I figured J would be a tough act to follow. He seems to be keeping up just fine.
  
• At just over 1 year, he took an interest in the letters on our moving boxes. He identified all letters as "B" and "O."
  
• 19 months, he got the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics toy for Christmas. When he got the letters out, I discovered that he knew half of them (by name or by the sound it makes) already. His speech was a bit behind at that time. He actually learned to speak by saying the letters and the sounds they made.
• Before his 2nd birthday, he knew all the letters & the sounds they make, the basic shapes, and the primary and secondary colors. The only problem was he couldn't pronounce "orange."
  
• Before he was 2 1/2, he managed to look through a telescope and see Jupiter during a visit to an observatory. He recognized it and was very excited. He said, "I see it! I see Jupiter!"
  
• At almost 3 years, his favorite shoes have zig-zag stitching. He calls them his "sound-wave shoes."
  
• His vocabulary is surprising. He uses "creature" "character" "instrument" and "equipment." And just a moment ago, he told his brother (who was yelling in his ear) "your sound-waves are obnoxious."
• His memory is remarkable. Today he went with his dad to pick up our lawn mower from the repair shop. There were hundreds of lawn mowers in the shop yard, but he immediately spotted ours. He hasn't seen our lawn mower in 8 months.

So that's how I'll start us off, I guess! I have many thoughts swirling in my head. I started this blog mostly for me. Writing helps me figure things out. But like most things in life, I'm happy to share my experiences with the world, in the hope that it might help someone. After all, why would we all want to go around making the same mistakes as everyone else when we could learn it the easier way?