Reflecting on reflections

Kyle and Kelsey were always intrigued by hearing stories about themselves when they were babies. So one day when they were persisting on the topic, I started making up things about how they were born; i.e. "Kelsey, the day you were born you came out on a skateboard." and "Kyle, the day you were born you came out with your nose in a book." From there we would let our imaginations go and embelish even further with outlandish ideas of how each came out doing cartwheels or playing soccer or whatever. But one thing is for sure, Kyle came out with a vocabulary far beyond her 1 second old being.

Really, does it surprise anyone who has read any of her blogs that the child had an innate sense of words? She did not necessarily begin talking at an earlier than average age but by the time she was about one and a half she was already speaking in complete sentences and using a very large vocabulary. When she was right around that age I remember I was driving somewhere and she was strapped in her car seat. She confidently announced to be "Mom, I can see my reflection in the mirror." I was flabbergasted to hear such a small person use such a big word. And later on during that same outing all of a sudden she called out "Mom, watch out. Don't hit that boulder!" I mean, at a year and a half, it wasn't just a rock, it was a "boulder." The funniest thing about that was that the boulder was way off on the side of the road and I wasn't even close to hitting it. I really think she just wanted to try out her new vocabulary.

Kyle's appetite for books was insatiable and her attention span was very long for a little person. I read to her from an early age. At any time of the day we would sit and read through piles of books. We went to the libarary on a weekly basis and took out 20 to 25 books at a time. By the time she was 4 years old she listened to me read the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series and by the time she was 5 she read them all back to me.

Of course, I'm sure it helped that I made costumes for her and her brother to dress up in so they could play out the characters. Kyle was always Mary and Kelsey was always Laura. They loved to wear the bonnets and aprons. Kelsey was too little at that time (about 2 years old) to think anything about the fact that he was dressing up like a girl. So while Kyle was thriving on this I may have done Kelsey some severe physcological damage but I hope not. Hopefully they were both learning how to use their imaginations!

In first grade Kyle was reading at a 6th grade level and in 6th grade at a twelth grade level and now she is a spead reader. Honestly, she reads about three times faster than I do. It is really amazing. And now I can only imagine that she has got to be a speed writer too to do all this blogging. If only I had the same talent!