{"id":542,"date":"2007-08-11T10:49:22","date_gmt":"2007-08-11T01:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-08-11\/542"},"modified":"2007-08-11T10:49:22","modified_gmt":"2007-08-11T01:49:22","slug":"kids-say-the-most-amazing-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-08-11\/542","title":{"rendered":"Kids Say the Most Amazing Things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Anthony is always saying things that are surprising or interesting (to\nus, at least) for one reason or another, and today he had a couple<\/span> of\ngems.<\/p>\n\n

We were doing our God Blesses before bed, and he said that he wanted to\ndo a special<\/span> God Bless for Mommy in Japan. Our normal<\/span> pattern is that I say<\/span>\nsomething that he then repeats, so the conversation went like this:<\/p>\n\n\n
Me:<\/td> A super<\/span> God bless for Mommy in Japan...<\/td><\/tr>\n
Anthony:<\/td>I don't<\/span> want to do the one that you say, because I love<\/span> Mommy more a super<\/span> lot.<\/td><\/tr>\n
Me:<\/td> Oh, okay, well, say what you like!<\/td><\/tr>\n
Anthony:<\/td>God bless Mommy super super super super super super super super suuuuuuuuuuuuuper super suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper....  (long pause)<\/small>   I forgot<\/span> what I say<\/span> after that.<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n

We eventually worked it out \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

The other one that struck me is that while we were making a “space\nship” out of a cardboard<\/span> box, I remembered<\/span> having seen news of a\nrecent<\/span> Space Shuttle launch, so I thought<\/span> to show him some pictures of a\nSpace<\/span> Shuttle launch. I pulled<\/span> up some shots with my web image\nviewer<\/a>, and eventually found a nice<\/span> one showing the Shuttle on the\nlaunch pad, with the two solid boosters on the side of the big external\ntank.<\/p>\n\n

I started to tell him how the people were in the part that looked like\nairplane, and that the other parts were... at which point he interrupted\nme. “I know<\/span> daddy,<\/b>” he said as he pointed to the two\nsolid booster rockets, “those two parts go away like\nthis....<\/b>” He then brought his hands together as if in prayer,\nthen quickly peeled them apart to the sides, exactly how any adult who has\nseen a video<\/span> of a Space<\/span> Shuttle launch would describe how the solid\nboosters fall away.<\/p>\n\n

He then pointed to the big external tank and the shuttle itself, and\nproceeded to explain how the big tank would fall away a bit<\/span> later, again,\nusing his hands exactly how any adult would do it.<\/p>\n\n

I was shocked. Where do kids learn these things?! I asked,<\/span> and he said\nthat he saw it in a book.<\/span> Wow.<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Despite Anthony being the smartest kid in the world :-), other kids have\ntheir own surprising moments. A few days<\/span> ago, my brother and his wife (the\nones who welcomed their\nsecond child two days ago<\/a> were snuggling with their two-year-old,\nGrace, and asked her about something they had never discussed before:\n“Grace, do you know your last name?”\n\n<\/p>

\n\nShe had no idea what they were talking about, so they told her “Your\nlast name is Friedl,” at which point her eyes brightened up and she\nsaid “Oh, Friedl!   F · R · I · E\n· D · L.   Friedl.<\/b>”<\/p>\n\n

At just a bit over two years old, Grace is much too young to be able to\nspell, so her parents were stunned and dumbfounded, to put it mildly.\n(“We both about fell off the bed.”)<\/p>\n\n

Of course, anyone with the last name “Friedl” knows that\nyou're forever having to spell it for people (who want to write Friedle,\nFriedel, or any of a number<\/span> of other misspellings), and Grace had obviously\noverheard her parents spell it over the phone a thousand<\/span> times during her\nshort life.<\/p>\n\n

This perhaps also explains how after spelling her last name and\nrepeating it again, she then recited their phone number<\/b>. (Wow!!!)<\/p>\n\n

My first reaction upon hearing the story was to suggest asking her\nwhether she knows of a cure<\/span> for cancer.<\/p>\n\n