Amazing Age

There really isn't a bad age...at least not yet.

Yes, she's almost 2 and a half. A lot of people like to remind me of her age when she's gone "wet noodle" on me and is freaking out because it's bedtime, or whatever else she doesn't want to do.

Nora's 3'3" tall now. Yes. 39 inches of tall skinny fireball energy that goes from 7 a.m. til 8 p.m. without a nap.

And today she wow'd me.

I mean WOW'D ME.

Miss Nora loves to paint and color. She's plowed through three sets of water colors, one set of tempura-style Crayola (thank god they're washable) paints, and a full set of crayons and fingerpaints, colored pencils, and several coloring books.

Today, as she peeled me away from the computer studies, saying "PLAY! PAINT! PLAY! PAINT!"

I decided to rebel and play with the crayons.

I started to draw letters just to see how far we could get.

A, "A" she said.

B, "B" she said.

I draw C, and "C" she said (this is about as far as she's gotten before.

How far did she get today without making a single mistake today?

R.

That's right.

R, as in RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING!

My kid knows letters A-R without struggling.

And she knows S...And T...the rest, well, they're a little harder.

Besides, T looks like I.

So today as I went through about 15 letters past where I thought she was, I praised the bajeezus out of her and couldn't believe it.

After that, I found an awesome site for learning letters and sounds (reading through Phonics) at Starfall, an educational website...and she watched it with rapt attention (take a look at the alphabet part and you'll see all of Nora's favorite animals being listed...TIGER goes ROAR T, TIGER (Sound T)

She danced around my room while I played each letter, circling around and around the room, in an alphabet tizzy.

Then she collapsed into bed at 8 p.m., exhausted from proving her mettle.

My girl knows an awful lot of her ABCs, and her Mommy couldn't be prouder.

What an Amazing Age.

Really.