Astounding, Amazing, Unbelieveable, Very Advanced and Other Inaccurate Superlatives

I have cute kids...to me.  Okay, I have cute kids to me, my parents, my in-laws, and several other people who are fond of them.  They're in that very active time in their physical and mental development where they learn things in leaps and bounds.  Leave for a week and when you come back my children will be doing something you've never seen before.   It's a truly remarkable time of development.

I don't know much about children.  I didn't baby sit a lot and I didn't have friends with young children I spent time around.  So when I see my offspring do something unexpected, it does seem pretty darned amazing.  That same experience has been happening around the world for eons, as parents and loved ones look at little Harpo and say, "did you see him do that?  He's so advanced!"

I'm a skeptic and a realist and so I wondered, is my kid really that truly exceptional offspring known as a "genius"?  Or, is it just a basic instinct to think our children are far superior to the children all those other people have?

I watch the other parents.  I watch the other children.  I mentally compare to see if my son and daughter (who are finishing up their second semester of calculus tonight while they sleep) are really that much more advanced than the other kids.

For the most part, my kids are about par.  In some cases, my kids are mental and physical rock stars.  In other cases, my children have a thing or twenty to learn in order to catch up.   Either way, as a parent I'm happy that my children are thriving, have friends and are happy.

The Big Boy Update:  Rough and Rumble.  My son likes to be physical sometimes.  I hear it's a boy thing and not just my son being aggressive.  I was skeptical, but since hearing that I've been watching other boys and boys just like to play rough.  We're still working on when it's appropriate to play rough and how to recognize when someone doesn't like you playing rough with them.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: I want to go to sleep.  She's told me that several times recently at the end of the night.  Even with the excitement of movie night and an upcoming birthday cake song to be sung, she wanted to go to bed.   When she asks to go to bed, she falls straight to sleep.