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"Don't hang out with the parents of little girls," our pediatrician advised. "They'll make you think that your little boy is stupid."

Wise advice. Because while little boys are wonderful, it's true that little girls are usually more verbally advanced.

For example, yesterday I took Sam to the park. There was a little girl, Emma, there with her dad. Emma was only a few months older than Sam, and yet . . . she sounded a whole lot different.

"Daddy, I want to go higher," she told her father, as he pushed her on the swing. "But not too high. Just high enough."

"Wow," I said, impressed. "She has a great vocabulary."

"Yes," Emma's dad said proudly. "She was an early talker. Although . . . she talks a lot. All day long. She doesn't really ever stop." He sounded a bit weary. "Is Sam talking?"

"Um. No. Not that much," I said. "But he can climb up onto the kitchen table and grab onto the overhead pendant light. I’ve found him swinging there, like a little blonde monkey."

"Daddy, what kind of a bird is that? Is it a crane?" Emma asked, pointing at the elegant bird that was flying over the intracoastal waterway.

"Bird!" Sam said excitedly. "Bird! Cloud! Bird!"

I did a mental eye-roll.

"He said 'bird,'" Emma's dad said, throwing me a bone.

"Moon! Train!" Sam said happily, as I pushed him on the swing. This might have been more impressive if there were any moons or trains in sight. But, in fact, there were not. Sam is just obsessed with moons and trains.

"What did he say?" Emma's dad asked.

"Erm, nothing," I said. “Did I mention that Sam knows his alphabet? The entire alphabet?”

Posted 14 January 2006 at 05:43 PM