Yep, I'm officially "THAT" mom!

After this post you can talk behind my back... or roll your eyes... or call me a hypocrite.  It's OK with me. :)  I am now posting the "Oh my gosh, my child is a genius" post that I hated so much before I had kids.  I don't really think she's literally a genius.  I think she got blessed (and cursed) with a really good memory.  Regardless, I was beyond impressed so I'm sharing!

The other night Olivia was playing in the bathtub.  She has those foam letters that everyone has and she was handing them to me or putting them on the tub ledge.  Even though she loves the alphabet, we haven't really even scratched the surface when it comes to letter recognition.  She's more interested in the pictures that go with the letters and I am not interested in pushing it.  So when she handed me the letter "S" and called it by name, I was pretty surprised.  Next, she handed me the letter "B" and called it by name.  Now my mouth was hanging open a bit.  Most of the letters she was just calling "A", but I decided to go through and see what other letters she knew.

There were only one or two more that she actually recognized, but then I was given the second shock of the night.  I held up the letter "E" and she said, "Elephant".  Yes, we do flashcards, but not for the purpose of the letter.  I rarely even say the letter names.  It's usually just about naming the picture, so this took me by surprise.  Next I held up the letter "H" and she said, "hippo".  Well hippo isn't even on the H flashcard, so now I was really impressed.  I held up the "B" again and this time she said, "Queen Bee" and then quickly changed it to "bumblebee".  I knew exactly where she was getting these from.  Her laptop.  The fact that she made the connection was still amazing to me.  I held up the "S" and she said, "Seal!" and then "Mr. Sun".  That's one answer from the flashcards and one answer from the laptop.  I held up the "N" and she said "Newt".  Come on. Is no one else impressed that when my newly turned 20 month old sees an "N" she says newt?!?  I mean, I know it's just memorization at this point, but still!!!!

So after bath I pulled out her laptop.  She got it for Christmas.  I was sure she'd learn from it, but our main objective at the time was to give her something to pound on.  She was thinking that mommy and boppa's laptops were fun toys and we were not loving that idea.

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It has a couple of different modes, but since animals are her favorite it mostly stays on that mode.  You push the button and it asks you a question.  Then you have to push the paw button to get the answer.  Shortly after she got it she had elephant hippo and iguana down.  I'll hear her answer animals here and there, but never paid too close attention.  She doesn't  play with it every day, and it's one of those where she'll be into it for a few minutes and then she moves on.  So I went through each letter and she knew the answers to EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM except one.  And here's the impressive part to me--when you push the letter a question mark comes up on the screen.  Then when you push the paw print to get an answer, the picture of the animal comes up on the screen. So she is having to make the connection between pushing the letter button and what the computer is saying/showing her.  The letter itself never shows up on the screen.

Check out these questions/answers....

A- "Who has a big mouth?" ... alligator
B- "Zzzz... who makes that sound?" ... bee
C- "Meow... who makes that sound? ... cat
D- "Who's extinct?" ... dinosaur
E- "(trumpet)... who makes that sound?" ... elephant
F- "Who has scales?" ... fish
G- "Who has long arms?" ... gorrilla
H- "(stomp stomp) ... who makes that sound when he walks?" ... hippo
I- "Who's a lizard?"... iganua
J- "Who has tenticals?" ... jelly fish (Olivia just said fish)
K- "Who has a belly pouch?" ... kangaroo
L- "Who has a mane?" ... lion
M- "Who loves bananas?" ... monkeys
N- "Who's an amphibian?" ... newt
O- "Who has eight legs?" ... octopus
P- "Who's black and white?" ... penguin (Didn't know this one)
Q- "Who lives in a hive?" ... queen bee
R- "Who hops?" ... rabbit (Olivia said rabbit, then changed it to bunny)
S- "(bark bark) ... who makes that sound?" ... seal
T- "Who lives in a shell?" ... turtle
U- "Who has big feathers on his head?" ... umbrella bird (Olivia just said bird)
V- "Who has a long neck?" ... vulture
W- "Who has a blow hole?" ... whale
X- "Who moos like a cow?" ... ox
Y- "Who has big horns?"... yak
Z- "Who's black and white?" ... zebra

I mean, we love the thing, but a vulture? Really?  And I think the reason why she doesn't know P is because it asks the same question for penguin and zebra.  Confusing!! 

Then last night while I was babysitting at the church, Michael said that she brought him her magnetic letters off the fridge one by one and told him the coordinating animal.  So even though it is memory at this point, she is definitely making connections.  She connected the bathroom foam letters with the animals and then also the magnetic letters. This is advanced, right?  I'm not one of those mom's who thinks her kid is smart but they are really just average, am I?  You can tell me.  Honestly.  I can take it. :)