Where does he get it from?

So, we have a little talker on our hands. Anyone who has spent time with Danny knows that fact. Danny has always been a very verbal child and has amazed us with his skills. I used to laugh when the nurse at Danny's doctor would start the long list of developmental questions and ask us how many words Danny would say. She would give me some options such as 5 words or 10 words, because I believe she thought my pause meant I misunderstood the question. But the actual truth was I was trying to count words in my head really fast and realizing that it was way beyond being able to count. I think I just said "At least twenty?" with question in my voice, because I felt like I hadn't given the answer she expected.

Well, yesterday he amazed us again in the word of language development by READING! No really...I'm not kidding. At least that is what we thought had happened. And I am not talking about the kind of reading that he currently does at home when we read a book. I will start a sentence and he "remembers" the word from one of our previous fifty times reading that book and will finish the sentence for me. That is also impressive for an 18 month old, but not quite like our experience yesterday.

Here is what happened:

Danny and I were out doing our usual Monday grocery shopping and were blessed to have Scott be able to join us for lunch(one of the many perks of our new place...Scott is about 10 minutes away from our house!) So, being the frugal shopper that I am, Danny and I had already decided we wanted to take advantage of the $1.50 deals at Sam's Club for lunch. Mmmmm, I can taste the yummy hot dog now. We were in line debating what to get for lunch for Danny. Should we go for the pizza? No, pizza had been on the "boy's weekend" menu, so we continued to chat about the options. I was having the hot dog, as was Scott, but we are always worried about giving a hot dog to a small child. But after realizing that I could use a knife to cut it up into itty bitty portions, we opted for the hot dog special times three. I guess while Scott and I were conversing, Danny was working on his new reading skills, because all of a sudden he yelled out "ICEE". It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about(we call the teethers in the freezer icees also, but there weren't any in sight) Then I gazed past the cashier and noticed the large Icee machine behind the counter. OK, you are saying to yourself that I must have bought one on a previous visit, but I haven't. I have never bought him an Icee at Sams and his only similar experience might have been when we had a Costco membership and I used to get a fruit smoothie to share. Different machine, different name, and it has been at least 6-8 months since he has had a Costco fruit smoothie. I can assume that he read the words, right? How else would he know? I am still trying to figure that one out.

So, therefore, we can only conclude that he is a genius. Of course all parents say that about their kid, but this one is actually legit. He is reading at 18 months...Any Mensa members that happen upon this blog, please take note. You have a future member named Daniel.

He takes after his Daddy...


(No,we didn't get an Icee, but we got really excited about it though!)