Colin keeps on learnin'

I am completely amazed at not only how much children need to learn, but how quickly they learn it also! Here's a summary of where Colin is at right now, at 2 3/4 years:

1. He can count to 20
2. He knows his left and his right.
3. He can tell you how many of something there is without needing to count it (ie: on a walk yesterday: "Look, there's three pumpkins" and "where are the two girls and one boy going?")
4. He can transfer knowledge to another context (ie: When he came home from nursery school he came across his basketball, brought it to me and said "Basketball starts with a "ba ba ba" sound!" Earlier that day he had coloured a cutout of a basketball when he learned the sound at school)
5. He knows (and will tell you) that ladybugs eat aphids, but that birds will not eat ladybugs because they taste gross.
6. His vocabulary is astonishing. He uses a whole range of synonyms for the word "gross" (including, but not limited to: disgusting, yucky, chalky, terrible, awful.) He speaks in full, proper sentences, and often strings thoughts together using "and," because," "if...then." He understands verb tenses, also. He expresses his emotions like "excited" and "sad" and tells us he's not feeling well and needs to either go to the doctor, or in the ambulance to the hospital.
7. His memory of songs is always expanding. His catalogue now includes a whole host of Michael Jackson songs (thank you, James) including "Stranger in Moscow".
8. His memory alone is amazing. He never forgets anything. If you are talking about something when he goes to sleep at night, he wakes up in the morning and continues the conversation as though you had only pressed "pause". He will recall something months later a fact he only heard once. He reminds me of things I forget all the time, which used to be a little embarrassing, but which I am growing used to now.
9. He still loves to read, devouring on average 8 books a day. He commits the story to memory instantly and will retell it throughout the day. He can also answer questions about the story, and applies what he reads to what he sees in the world around him.
10. This is a phrase he used on me this morning that made me double over in laughter inside: "Tell you what, Mommy: if Caleb goes to sleep in his stroller, then we can all walk over to Every Kids Park, if you want. Isn't that a great idea? Yep, it sure is."

(Because of my seeming inability to get myself together to scrapbook, I'm hoping these entries will serve as a good alternative for my boys down the road when they ask me at what age they accomplished certain things. Hence the daily diaries on our lives!)