What Your Toddler Knows

I am amazed every day at what my toddler knows. Some recent examples:

Michele and I received an email today from my grandfather, who lives in Los Angeles, saying that he was going to be in town and asking if we'd have time for a visit. After my wife replied, she told Jonah that Great Grandpa Sherman was coming to visit. Jonah pointed to the fireplace, where we have a picture of me, Jonah, my dad, and my grandfather. Thinking Jonah was confusing my grandfather with his grandfather, since we just saw my dad last weekend, Michele brought him over to the picture. He immediately pointed to his great grandfather, Sherman. The incredibly cool thing about this is that he has probably seen his great grandpa five times in his whole life, with the last time back in May.

A couple of weeks ago I was singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to Jonah. Not even thinking about it, I paused after the first "little" and looked at Jonah. He said, "sssss", which is how he says "star". Jonah had never before shown that he knew the words to this song or any other. My wife joined in and we sang the rest, pausing before the last word of each line. He got every word: "aah", "ha", "sss", "sssss", and "aah". Then we all repeated the song. Michele and I were stunned. He did the same thing a few days ago, so I'm convinced he knows the song.