Too Smart

Carter has been advancing very quickly. I am pretty sure I am not keeping up with him.

Last month, he wrote his name on this name tag. He got ZERO HELP from me. Someone put the dots on the tag for him to trace. When I tried to help guide his hand, he gave me a fierce NO! He did this 100% on his own. I can actually see that this could be his name.

At preschool yesterday - another day another post - we learned the letter F f. Carter turned his picture over and copied the lower case f. I was stunned. He brought it to me to show it off and I was speechless. It looks like something I would have drawn.

He LOVES his "Daddy time" - when I have a meeting or a class. It usually turns into Lego time because he is really into the little Legos right now.  

He really surprised me the other day when he had a list of things he wanted to do with Daddy: "First we're going to play tag, then we're going to play ball, after that we're going to play band, then we're going to play Legos."

I was blown away when I sat down after "Daddy Time" was over and watched him build this, completely on his own!

Carter has excellent language skills, he always has. It is really cute when he can't pronounce a word properly. My favorite right now is 'Turn Signal'. Carter pronounces it "Dang Snagle". He is quick to point out when someone doesn't use one. He is very aware of traffic - especially when someone cuts me off (AND NOT BECAUSE I SAID ANYTHING). He likes to tell me that the other drivers should have said they were sorry, and that they are not very nice. Even though he is still rear-facing, he can see SO MUCH. He watched as a bus ran a red light earlier in the week and almost took us out. It was a very scary experience. I was so glad it was not raining so I was able to slam on my brakes and stop in time. 3 seconds sooner, and we would have had a bus hit the side of the car where Carter was sitting. Ever since then, he has been asking about the buses and if they are stopping when they're supposed to. 

Another word that he hasn't quite mastered is 'Bulldozer'. He pronounces it "Bullzoder". 

We try not to focus on the words that he doesn't say properly because it embarrasses him. He does NOT like it when people don't understand him. He will stop talking to someone if they have to ask him what he is saying. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does he shuts off. 

I would LOVE to get these words he misspeaks on video, but he shuts off when I pull that out now too. Sometimes he doesn't even like me to take his picture - like on Sunday when I tried to take this picture:

I caught him sitting in the kitchen with his laptop (a broken one I got for free at a garage sale), and was able to get a successful picture before he decided he didn't like it:

I also caught him building jack stands with his blocks - for his truck (that he doesn't actually have) - this morning, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Carter says so many things that seem to come from nowhere.

This morning I asked him to do something, and as he walked out of the room I heard him say (kind of under his breath) "Why when you're a 3 year old, you do everything your mom and dad say?!"

Before we left for a play-date this morning, I went into the bathroom to curl my bangs one more time. When I was finished he exclaimed "There!! Now you look like someone!" I asked him who he thought I looked like. "Grandma!"

While we were on our way to his play-date he was requesting songs. He asked me to sing with him. He apparently hadn't heard me. So I told him I was singing already. "No, sing it loud like it is your favorite song." Who knew you were supposed to sing your favorite songs loud?

The other thing that I am amazed with is his ability to translate words he has never heard before. 

Last night I was telling David about our neighbor who fell and hit her head. She had some swelling on her brain from a fluid build up. I used the term "fluid". Carter asked me why she had "water" from her "bonk". I didn't use either of those terms - yet, he was able to reform his question with words he did understand!

Then today David said something about how Carter sure had a lot of "urine" in his diaper after his nap. Carter laughed and said "A lot of potties!!"