baby genius

I've talked about it before ... Mothers have a natural inclination to believe that their child is the smartest, most adorable, best baby there is. Whether smack in the middle of all the growth charts or not, it doesn't matter. My baby is inherently better than your baby. He might be smaller, or thinner, or have far less hair on his head. He might even be crawling instead of walking, grunting or squealing instead of talking ... But there is something about him that makes him better.

Really. Truly. There is.

While I say this tongue-in-cheek, part of me does believe it ... I wouldn't be a proper mother if I didn't! Part of me likes to think that I've produced progeny that combines the best of me and the best of my husband ... So, surely, he must be awesome! Look into his little gray eyes and tell me I'm wrong.

Did you hear that? Gray! Really ... They're gray!

Now, that's special!

How many gray-eyed people do you know?

But anyway ...

Knowing how I feel about my kid, it is fun to see him through other people's eyes.

For example, my mother-in-law was so impressed that Malcolm was stacking boxes and blocks at eleven months old, she started bragging about it ... To everyone! Soon, the entire family was abuzz with the amazing news:

Her kids never did that, she said ... Never entertained themselves with constructive play until much later. Her kids were only into destroying things, not building them. Malcolm, surely, is ahead of the curve. He's so smart ... And coordinated!

She still talks about it today, over two months later.

Yes, she asks about first steps and first words, but she still gets excited when he starts stacking things. It's one of the first things she reports back on after he's spent a day with her. It's going to be his "claim to fame," the thing she reminds him of when he is older and wiser. The thing that sets him apart from all the other grandkids ...

"You know, when you were little, you started stacking things really early ..."

I'm glad Malcolm has that.

It's good to be special.

(For the record, I looked it up in one of the many baby/toddler books that I've accumulated ... There is nothing extra special about an eleven month old that stacks objects. It is perfectly normal. Let's just keep it our little secret, though. I like it that Grandma thinks our little man is a genius!)