Slim Jim

The day after Tim turned 18 months, we went to see Dr. Oliver for his well-baby check up. Tim is extremely healthy (two colds and a couple of minor fevers so far; no allergies; no extra limbs), so scheduling this check up is mostly just for me to show him off to my doctor.

So, besides being an obvious genius, Tim measured in the 75th percentile for height, and the 25th for weight. He's a skinny minny! Or, as Dr. Oliver so astutely observed: you've got a runner there. No kidding? Where on earth would he get that from?

And seriously, this kid is all legs. He can scale vertical surfaces like nobody's business -- just swings one of them foot-long legs up and voila! He's on the dining room table. Or sitting on the barstool at the kitchen counter (which is where he insists on eating breakfast now -- a bowl of cereal or pb toast, depending on what his brother and sister on either side of him are eating.)

Language, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. Although it's clear to me that he's a genius because he's created his own language, in which he chats constantly, Dr. Oliver says he's "delayed" because he doesn't say five words fairly clearly. I'm not sure what to think of this. Tim doesn't say any English or French words yet, but has many words, gestures, and facial expressions that he uses consistently for a variety of things to the extent that it's pretty easy to figure out what he's telling us or asking for. (Cutest: when he makes the motion of swinging a tennis racquet to indicate that he'd really like to play Wii. Which actually consists of Dad or Ben playing Wii golf or tennis and Tim watching, rapt.) And Tim often looks at us like we're just stupid when he babbles a question and we stare at him dumbfounded. Like "people! What about gaw-gi-gaw-gi buggla-bug don't you understand? I'd like to eat berries on the porch chair, duh!"

My theory is that he can't be bothered with these simple individual words and has skipped right to full sentences, existing language be damned.

Or he's delayed. Whatever. This weekend we're heading out to Nova Scotia, where Tim will hang with his cousin Lucas who has way more than five words in his English vocabulary. Maybe Tim will learn a thing or two (and maybe teach LuLu to scale hutch). Though from what I can tell, Lucas is more of a car and truck dude, while Tim is a dog and cat guy.