If you thought it was poop.....?

My son, Mason was playing outside today, with what was minimal supervision at best. I must interject right here, that I have a patio area that is roughly 200 square feet and surrounded by walls on all sides and 5.5 foot gates that lock, so it is really secure, and with the door open I can hear everything.

So, when I heard him chanting "Ucky poop, ucky poop," I got very, very scared.

Turns out, it wasn't poop, it was a snail. Which of course, begs the question, if you thought it was poop, why would you pick it up?

God only knows where he found it, there is nothing in the patio area that would be the least bit appetizing to a snail, but I decided to look at it as a lucky learning opportunity.

Now, my son, is only 22 months, and I think that he is pretty darn smart. Is he more advanced than other kids his age? who knows, but he is really quick when it comes to learning new facts. (Maybe one day he can be like his mother, full of useless trivial information.)

So, I started naming the anatomy of the snail, in simple words he could understand of course, and he was repeating them back to me. We got some cabbage so that I could show him where the snails mouth was, and he giggled at the site of the snail chomping away on the leafy greens.

It was pretty amazing to see just how interested he was in learning about the snail. I think a lot of people underestimate how much 2 year olds can understand. I "teach" him like this all the time. He now knows the kinds of flowers that humming birds eat from, how bees make honey, and that different apes and monkeys have different names (for example orangutans, lemurs, gorillas, chimps). Does he fully grasp what all of it means, probably not, but it is giving him a good foundation for understanding. And, I would be lying if I said that it doesn't make me super proud to hear him telling others all the fun facts that he knows.

He knows all of his colors, including silver, all of his shapes (even octagon), green means go, red means stop, and so much more. He amazes me daily. I am truly blessed to be his mommy.

Hopefully, we will always have this much fun learning together.