What He Does Know

I'm a comparative person by nature. I don't make impulsive decisions, I sit in the aisle at Target and compare price to quantity to versatility to brand name to blah blah blah. That's just who I am...I wish I could help myself, but I can't. So, I'm learning to accept this about myself.

I am finding this comparative nature to be a bit troublesome when it comes to my kids, though. I find myself comparing them to other kids their age. SUCH A MISTAKE! I was starting to worry about Clinton because he wasn't counting to 10 like Ethan Steece or talking clearly like Conley or playing pretend like Dalby. And while I was watching his every move to see if he was headed in the direction of these other kiddos, I found my child has his own skill set. And while it's not your typical show-off skills, it's still quite impressive.

Clinton can't count past three. And he often won't do that. Even if he counts to three, he often just says "Tree, tree, TREEEEE!" with the voice inflection mimicking that of "One, two, THREE!". I've gotten over this as I have discovered that even though he won't say the words, he actually understands the concept....but only as it relates to matchbox cars and monster trucks...and only up to three. "Clinton, can you bring me three monster trucks?" Three will appears. "Clinton, can you pick up those two cars?" Two get picked up.

And also as it relates to cars, trucks and heavy machinery, Clinton is well versed in his colors. He's not a big fan of talking about colors, unless we're talking about some type of motorized vehicle...but don't let him fool you, he knows his colors. Wed, Arnch, Geent, Bue, Ite, Back, Poople and Oh-oh.

And he doesn't appear to talk that clearly either, and in some cases he just doesn't, but a lot of the words he's trying to say are really hard words. Giant Excavator, Ambulance, Tractor, Skid Steer, Harvester, Bulldozer, Car Transporter. I kid you not, the kid knows every type of heavy machinery by it's name. And if you get it wrong, he will scream "No" at you until you say the right one. You can imagine how pleasant some of our conversations are in the car as we pass construction sites and I'm trying to drive and figure out exactly which piece of machinery he's talking about. When we went to meet his teacher last week, they had Clinton's favorite book...something about working trucks, I forget the name. I had to tell the teacher, "He can't count. He doesn't know his letters. But he can identify every piece of heavy equipment in this book. And he likes to do it over and over and over."

And I've been watching for some time as our sweet friend Dalby plays pretend so daintily. She likes to mimic the things she see's....cooking, getting the mail, taking care of babies. At first I thought, "Oh no, Clinton doesn't pretend play." And then I realized he does...he's just not copying me. He lines up his matchbox cars and runs over them with his monster trucks. He takes his dinosaur around the house and let's it "eat" Heidi's bows, his matchbox cars, Heidi's leg...whatever it's hungry for. He rams his ride-on dump truck into the walls and yells, "Trash-Trash" like in his book..."Smash! Crash!".



So, to sum up...he's not behind....he's just different. And I love every little different thing about him!

Trying to take a "First Day of School" picture and he refuses to look at me....typical Clinton.


And while it doesn't appear so in this picture, Clinton was really excited to go back to school! And so was MOMMY!


Loving 2 Blue Monster Trucks and 3 Red Race Cars,