She Really IS Smart! (sigh of relief)

I know- I have heard it a thousand times- don't compare your children. That wasn't too terribly hard to do in the beginning because they were so much alike the first few months (i.e. colicky, tummy woes, food allergies, etc). But as Elena began to grow older, we noticed some drastic differences between the two of them. Part of it is that Elena is a girl. Elena was able to verbalize words and then sentences WAY before Elias did (goes to show that God really DID make girls to be more communicative than boys!).
That in her favor, we also noticed that she is not quite the thinker than Elias is. For example, when Elias was about 18 or 20 months old, I had him on the changing table one day when he pointed up to my Texas Tech shirt and said "T-E-X-A-S". WHAT?! I didn't teach you your letters! Where did you learn that? Well, Elias played with lots of toys that said the names of the letters, and so he learned them on his own. Later, when Elias was about 3, he just busted out reading a book to Adaryll and I one night. Thinking he might have it memorized (but neither one of us remembering having read it to him before), I picked up some new books the next day and he read those to us. How long had he been able to read before he decided to let us in on it! By 24 months, you could ask him where any U.S. state was, and he would point to it on the map.
OK, you get my point. Elias is an intellectual.

One day last summer, Adaryll was having the following conversation with our friend and first-grade teacher, Louise:
Louise: You really should think about putting Elias in Kindergarten this year (a year early).
Adaryll: Really? Why?
Louise: He is already reading and he is just so smart. I think he would do really well.
Adaryll: Yeah, he is really smart, isn't he? Elena, on the other hand, she is.... she is....
Louise: NORMAL! Elena is NORMAL!!!

This week, I started to count for Elena. I was thinking that I would say 1, then she would repeat it. Then I would say 2 and she would repeat it. Instead, this is what happened...



Yeah! She really IS smart! I didn't teach her that! I wonder how long she was able to do it before I knew! And I wonder what else is in that little brain that I don't know about!