The World’s Most Intelligent Toddler Chooses Colors, Eats Pizza
By Charlie Fern

Elliot H., who turns two soon, has added the title of The World's Most Intelligent Toddler, to his long-claimed title of The World's Most Photographed Child.

In our home office, the entire bottom shelf of a bookcase is devoted to children's books of all shapes, sizes, and reading abilities (the majority being right around Elliot's age-level).  The bookcase is in a corner of the office, with a little Elliot-sized chair nearby and a good reading lamp that we leave on most of the time.  Elliot knows he can go into the office any time and pick a book or 10 to read. Most often I'll find him sitting on the floor with his legs straight out in front of him, surrounded by books, sometimes nearly buried in them, actively engaged with several open books at a time.  

This morning, our Pride and Joy, a.k.a. The World's Most Intelligent Toddler, demanded a slice of left-over cheese pizza for breakfast. (I know how to pick my battles.) Shortly after I presented him with the pizza, he disappeared.  A few minutes later I found him in the office, sitting among a pile of books, cooing and exclaiming quietly to himself.  Next to him was his "breakfast", which had been set (obviously with some care and attention), on the cover of a closed board book of roughly the same dimension as the half-eaten slice of pizza.  

He had the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"  in his lap (paper pages, not a board book!).  I asked him what he was reading.

He looked up at me and said, "Cookie!"  and pointed to the cookie on one of the first pages.  I said "Yes, that's right."  He turned a few pages and pointed to the mouse, and said "Mouse," and to his tail, and said "Tail." 

I moved a few books aside and sat down by him so I could look at the open book in his lap.

He turned a few more pages -- and stopped on the page where the mouse has a crayon and is about to color a picture on a blank piece of paper.  Elliot pointed to the mouse and said, "Color in book!" 

(For those of you who aren't parents, this is what you call a "moment".)

I said "Yes!  That's exactly right!"  He pointed at the yellow crayon and said, "Yellow!" 

I cheered. 

Then he pointed to the blue crayon and said "boo boo!"  and I said, "Yes, blue!"  

He pointed at the green crayon and said, "color!"  And I said, "Yes, that's a color, that's a crayon, and it's green."  

Then he pointed to the brown crayon and said "orange!"  And I said "No, that's brown."  He got up and toddled over to Emma the dog, and pointed to the fur on her back and said, "orange!"  And I said "Emma is brown, too."  

Next, he ran over to the fax machine, picked up the phone, said "No!" into the receiver, and placed it back on the hook. This he repeated several times, then off he went, into another room.  I found him hiding behind the curtains in the living room.  He was behind them, sitting in a window sill, eating the pizza. 

Elliot started stringing words together into mini-sentences over the past week.  The first series was, "Daddy airplane!" (meaning "My father travels quite as part of his fascinating job with Apple Inc."), and "Airplane in sky!" (Meaning, "I do believe that is a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 bound for Dallas; could be the 5:10 flight out of Austin.")

Then, to me in the back yard this weekend: "Bone for Daisy." (meaning, "Oh dear, our dog has left her chew bone out on the sidewalk and I'm certain she'll be looking for it later.") 

A day or two ago he said to Brian, "Daddy car" (meaning "Please tell me, father, that you didn't drive your Volkswagon here to pick me up. Much as I like spending time with you, I do prefer the Honda with the DVD player and roomy interior.")

I think "Color in book" is the best sentence ever.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I am almost certain that only very, very intelligent children can name some of their colors before age two.