I need not worry

At some point in Sacha's early years, I had a slight concern about his development. I wasn't concerned about his intelligence per se but when we got back his first speech pathology assessment I must say I had some of those anxious concerns all parents have. But Sacha has had three conversations with me of late that have allayed any residual concerns.

1. I have an illustrated anatomical dictionary. One day Sacha and I started flipping through it and he asked all manner of questions about every picture. He learned about "where poop comes from" and other fancy things. It is now known as the "poop book". So he may have developed a slightly more keen knowledge of anatomy than most his age, but I didn't realize how keen.

I was at my yearly physical and to give Sarah a break I brought Sacha along with me. During the "coughing" part, Sacha says to me, "Daddy, what the docker feewin yo tessicles for?" Dr. Unger, trying not to cry from laughter says, "I'm just feeling for lumps and bumps." Sacha: "Why dere be wumps and bumps in dere?" Me: "Well, sometimes men get sick in their testicles and the doctor just needs to check to make sure daddy's aren't getting sick." Sacha: "Oh, okay. Dat good." Dr. Unger whispers to me later, "How on earth does he know what they're called?"

2. The anatomy book strikes again. One morning Sacha asks me where pee pee comes from. I told him, in my typical no holds barred, give him the whole truth fashion, "Well, when you drink juice or water, it goes in your stomach. Then it gets absorbed into your blood where's it's filtered into your kidneys. From their it goes into your bladder and when your bladder gets full it says 'Hey, Sacha, it's time to go pee pee' and then it comes out of your penis." Sacha: "Kidneys? What dey?" Me:"Oh, kidneys, they're something in your body that helps you make pee pee." A few minutes later we're sitting on the couch and Sacha says, "You got daddy knees" and then starts laughing. I said, "What, daddy knees?" Sacha says, "Yeah, daddy knees, not kid-neys." I laughed for so long I barely recovered. When I did I told my son he's a genius.

3. There is a small roadside attraction about 5 minutes away from our house that is the historic site of Mackenzie Cairn, across which lies Fort Fork, one of Alexander Mackenzie's stops on his journeys. There is a nice little path that meanders down to the Peace River where Sacha and I go once in awhile to kill time and throw some rocks into the river. Just a couple of days ago we went and had some fun. Then tonight we were going on our biweekly trip to Weight Watchers, followed by Dairy Queen. As we went to turn left out of Shaftesbury Estates to take the back road to Weight Watchers, Sacha got upset, because usually we turn right. He said, "No, not dat way. Dat way to Makenny caywin. We not go to makenny caywin. We go Weight Watchers." I said, "What? Where does this way take us?" Sacha: "To Makenny caywin where go down by wiver." I responded, totally incredulous, "This road takes us to Mackenzie Cairn?" Sacha: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we not go dere. We go Weight Watchers den Daiwee Queen." After assuring him that this road also led to Weight Watchers, I thought about how amazing it is that my son, who is turning 3 in August, not only knows directions to local landmarks when exiting the Estates from a different exit than usual, or at all for that matter, but that he knows the word Cairn. It's the best part about having kids. They never cease to amaze.