Holy COW!

Forgive me for indulging in what will seem like shameless bragging about my child. But you've got to hear what just happened.

The TV was on, and tuned in to World News Report with Charles Gibson. They're doing a story about salary caps on executives of institutions who have received federal bailout money. Anyway, there was a piece of footage of President Obama talking in a press conference or something. Here's the conversation that ensued:

Cole: "Who's that?"

Me: "That's the president."

Cole: "What's a president?"

Me: "He's the man that is in charge of our country."

Cole: "Oh! That's Barack Obama."

Me: "What??"

Cole: "That's Barack Obama!"

Me: "WHAT?"

Cole: (looking shy) "That's Barack Obama."

For those of you who don't know, Cole is 3 years old.

Please note that I didn't say, "That's President Obama." I just said, "That's the president." Now, I'm sure that Cole didn't come up with the name of Barack Obama by listening carefully to a newscast. He's not quite that advanced. Brian is really good about telling Cole things that I never think to tell him, so I'm guessing Brian has mentioned Barack Obama to Cole before. But I never in a million years would have guessed that he would be able to recall it like that! Wow.

While I'm bragging, I should mention that for Christmas, Santa gave Cole a wooden puzzle of the United States of America. Personally, I thought that it was a little early for such a present. I didn't know if he'd be interested, and I was sure it would be a couple of years before he'd possibly be able to put it together by himself. I sent Santa a letter arguing my point, but apparently he knows my child better than I do. Cole has been obsessed with that puzzle ever since he got it. Lately, a common thing I hear from him is "Momma, where's Arkansas?" or "Momma? Have you seen Louisiana?" As of about one week ago, he can put the puzzle together with absolutely no help from me or Brian. He does this several times per day. And speaking of listening carefully to newscasts, yesterday I was listening to NPR in the car and they said something about India. Cole piped up, "Hey! I have India on my state map!" I explained the difference between India and Indiana, and then he was quiet for awhile. Then they said something about China and Cole said, "Momma? Is China on my state map?" I said, "No, China is another country." Cole said, "I need a map of China."

Well, for what it's worth, I don't take any credit for how smart Cole is. In part, Brian is a really great teacher. And, in part, he was born that way. But I am a little concerned that Cole's going to be significantly smarter than me by the time he's 5 years old.