I love hearing these memories.

I remember one more thing about that time in DS's life. Like your DS, mine would want me to read to him for HOURS. Sometimes, I wouldn't be able to, because I'd have to do something else (cook dinner, use the bathroom, clean the house, etc.) and he would bring his books and follow me wherever I went and try to figure them out himself.

I remember that when we'd bring in new library books every week, he would look through them, stop in the middle, go and grab one of his own books, and open it to a certain page, and then go back to the new book. What I didn't realize right away was that he was probably using his own books as "dictionaries" to help decode the library books whenever he came to a word he was unsure about.

At the time, I had no idea this was scary-smart behavior for a child under 2 because I didn't have much exposure to other same-aged kids. Now, I have a friend with a 3yo dd and I think to myself, "when my DS was her age, he was already bored with Magic Tree House books." It's just so odd...

Tara

My son definitely could not read that well at 17 months but I think he was reading some words. At 12 to 13 months he was interested in the names of all the spices in our spice rack so I would pick him up and tell him the names as he pointed to them. He would then repeat the names--a little hard to understand what he was saying but I could make it out. He especially liked "Tarragon" and probably because he has a sister named Tara, but he sometimes laughed when I would ask my husband "is Tara gone?" He got to the point where he could point and say the names of some of them, but I knew he could have memorized the position of the spices in the rack as well as their names, so I knew that didn't count as reading, but he seemed interested in letters and words. He liked alphabet books and word books at that age. I think it was before he turned two that we got a McDonald's toy with Bugs Bunny dressed as a fortune teller. You could ask a question, pull a lever and words like Not Sure, Ask Again or Hopefully So would appear. He played with that enough that he could "read" the answers and that was definitely sight reading, but when I tried to get him to show his dad, he wouldn't do it and my husband kind of teased me about thinking a baby could read. He didn't tell me his older highly gifted son had read extremely early without being taught. He let me think I was crazy for a while.

At 2 1/2 when we discovered that we could spell out words and he could identify them and that he even liked to spell some words, we knew that he was really able to read. But even then, he wouldn't do it every time you asked him to. If he didn't feel like doing something, he just wouldn't do it. If we got the video camera, he would just laugh and clown around, so we quit trying.

I love this board - I'm so glad to find a place that really, truly, sometimes freakishly, relates. My DS4 got an Arby's "oven mitt" that did the same fortune telling when he was about 2 1/2, and he read those words too. We had to bring Oven Mitt everywhere for a few weeks! He started reading the road construction signs at 2 - 2 1/2, then quickly learned tons of words from then on.

It's hard for me to remember ages, and that was only 2 years ago. But I do remember that DS's first word after Mama and Dada was "book," and he wanted to be read to for hours (still does). Also, about sign language, I remember I started teaching him signing just before he was 1, but since I'm lazy, I quit teaching signs because he could already talk.

And your husband is very naughty to make you think you were crazy!

That is impressive! (just watched the video clip). Isn't it funny (strange) that my heart goes out to her parents a little (feeling sorry for them), knowing how hard it is to have such a bright kiddo.

Wow- isn't it weird how these precocious kids can have really odd things in common? The fortune teller devices, for example, and I've heard several stories of PG kids doing things that one of mine did, like biting cheese into shapes or discovering the shape of Nevada in a tortilla chip!

Wow, I didn't know the food thing was gifted! We just called it a "food game." and were very clear that we did not care what state=shape his toast was in--he just had to eat it or put it down, not parade it around the house!

So these people who see Elvis or the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich and then sell said sandwich on EBay may really be PG?

<snort>

Personally I had an image of Al Bundy sweating Elvis on his T-shirt.....

LOL!

At least my grilled cheese concept would smell better!