Look Who's Talking

Many proud parents relish the opportunity to point out how extraordinarily gifted and advanced their child is compared to "average" kids. Some parents love to tell everyone they meet how they rank on various percentiles, their scores on internet IQ tests, their progress on cold-fusion research, etc... And while I am sure the IQ test for 6-12 month old babies developed by Fisher Price (seriously!) is completely legit, I did not want to score Collin's development based on some simple questions. I wanted hard, measurable science. (plus there was that whole Fisher-Price IQ-killing lead-coated-toy recall thing). So I developed my own, completely scientific, method for determining how gifted a baby truly is. While Collin still has room for improvement in some areas, I think it is obvious that he is truly exceptional. I'm already working on bumper stickers.

2009 Standardized Poop Assesment Test:
Output and Frequency: >97th percentile
Bouquet: 95th
IPFD Test: >97 (Immediately Pooping in a Fresh Diaper)
Containment Avoidance: 75-90
Self Removal: 25-50 (he hasn't figured that one out yet)
WIHT Test: 75-95 (The WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT? Test)

On a slightly more serious note, it's official. Collin got his first word badge for consistently saying "juice" even though it sounds like "yoose" or sometimes, "ayoo" we know what he means. I can definitely see how he could have 40 or 50 words that would sound like complete nonsense to a stranger, but we would know exactly what he was saying.

We probably could have given him the badge sooner, but I wanted to be sure there was a repeatable cause and effect. He's been babbling for months now and has been saying mama and dada and even "addy" for a while, but we still can't tell for sure if he's talking to us, the cat or just making noise. "Hi" has also been around for a while, but with juice there is no mistaking it. He only says it when he is referring to the sippy cup and gets very happy with himself when he says it and we give him the cup.