Have any of you with kids ever experienced this?
At home, your kid is dazzlingly brilliant, outgoing and just positively sparkling with personality.
He points to various objects and says their names (sort of); he babbles, he laughs, he smiles and chortles and tickles and wrestles and he knows what sound a cow makes, and what sound a dog makes and he knows what you mean when you say "cup", "dinner", "bath", "book" and "naptime", along with a whole host of other words.
You are convinced that he is the most talented, masterful, capable and accomplished toddler on the face of the planet.
So you decide to bring him to your workplace, so you can show him off to all your co-workers who keep hearing you brag about the magnificence that is your child.
And what does your tot do when confronted with a horde of skeptical co-workers, all of whom are, from his mother's description, expecting a child-sized version of Einstein or Galileo?
He picks his nose. And cries. And shoves crackers in his mouth and then sticks his tongue out and blows so that the crackers go spraying all over his face and his clothes. I'm talking about those bright orange Lance crackers. Orange.
In other words, he acts like a toddler.
So imagine my surprise, and delight, when we're hanging out in a co-worker's office and Drew turns, points at a picture above the co-worker's desk - a picture of a flying duck - and he says, clear as a bell, "Kack, kack. Kack, kack."
"That's right!" I scream. "Duck goes kack-kack! Isn't he brilliant? He's so smart! I told you all he was smart! Nobody believed me! But now you know!"
"Yes, yes," responded the co-worker. "He's very smart. I didn't know a duck went 'kack-kack' until he told me."
Bleh.
So, anyway. According to my son, ducks are not the only animal that say 'kack, kack.' Pretty much anything with wings says 'kack, kack' except chickens, which say 'bock, bock.'
Cows, however, say 'boooo'. I guess in his world, all cows are scared cows.
Anything with wheels says, "vroooom, vroooom" unless it's in the bathtub, in which case it says, "brrrrdin." (I still haven't figured out the logic behind this. I'm sure there's a rational explanation. Maybe something to do with water pressure and its effects on car engines or something like that.)
And he can wave 'hi' and 'bye', but he can only say 'hey', so if you tell him to "wave bye-bye", he waves frantically and then says, "Hey! Hey! Hey!"
And anything is OK to put in the water, and in fact it is preferable that everything be in the water, up to and including our cell phones (disaster narrowly averted).
And Mommy saying, "What's that in your hand? Is that a bug? Oh my god!" is a cue for him to giggle hysterically and run away.
And he loves to play hide-and-seek, although his idea of hiding is standing in the middle of a room with a blanket over his head.
And you may never see him do any of these things, but that's OK. I'll tell you all about them.
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And now, some random pictures, for your entertainment:
This is Drew enjoying lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Greenville. He had cheese quesadillas and tater tots. I didn't know tater tots were considered Mexican cuisine, but apparently they are an integral part of the culture, as they were featured in every kid's meal on the menu. He ate half of the tots, and the other half got squished up and smeared on his bib.
And here's a couple of bath pics. Bath time is one of Drew's favorite parts of the day. He'll stand in front of the tub squealing and dancing from foot to foot while the water fills up. When his patience reaches its end (after approximately 5.4 seconds of squealing and dancing) he attempts to climb into the tub himself, usually while he's still fully clothed.
