I was asking Kris the other day to tell me that my daughter is smart. We certainly don�??t want to be the kind of parents who profess to the world that our child is the smartest most advanced kid on the planet. Everyone does that, and it has always annoyed me. I made it a goal of mine not to do that same thing about Zoe. So the way I get around the urges is to constantly check with Kris to validate my beliefs that Zoe is smart.

Example. Zoe can point things out, toys and objects that she plays with. I will ask her �??where is the fish car?�?� and she will look around and find her little fish with wheels and bring it to me. I line up some of her stuffed toys and ask her to pick out the pig or the rooster and she will easily locate and identify them. I asked her where the balloons are and she looks up in the air towards the balloons we have in the house, the ones for Kyle�??s first time back home on leave.

So Kris typically just smiles and hesitantly says �??yes Eric, she�??s smart.�?� So I feel confident enough in Zoe�??s mental aptitude to appease my patriarchal needs. All until I brought Zoe out front to play while Kris turned the dirt over in the old flower bed in our front yard. Kris wanted to plant some plants in this now barren patch of dirt adjacent to our driveway so she could fill it with cactus plants and the like.

A few minutes after being put down in the front yard to play, Zoe found her way over the this dirt patch and summarily began placing the clumps of dirt in her mouth. Clump after clump she just kept placing them in her mouth, even after repeated commands from Kris and I not to keep doing it. �??Ucky and No!�?� were stated several times, in no uncertain terms. Zoe just sat there filling her mouth with the grainy, smelly dirt. I�??m not sure, but I almost think that her look became defiant after the third clump, as if to say, �??How smart do I look now, Papa?�?�

All things in perspective�?�.

Categories: Rantings
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