Mukilteo Musings

Little Mr. Geography


Part One
Lucas, my beloved son, complained that I did not write enough about him on my blog. These days I spend a lot more time with my Golden Retriever, Apolo, than I do with him because he is away at college. So today, I will write about Little Lukie.


Two year old Lucas--1987--Seattle

Lucas has an ability and it came to light very early. Before he was two years old, he started to attach names to shapes and it became an obsession. I used to put him on the bath mat in the bathroom with a basket of Duplo blocks to play while I took a shower. Lucas was very active and walked early; I did not believe in play pens so this was the only way to keep track of him while I washed my hair. He could say "block" but one day, his cute little hand with a Duplo appeared inside the shower curtain with a "What's dis?"

I responded with confusion, "Lucas, that is a block!"

His little hand appeared again with a Duplo of a different color and he said, "NO! What's dis? Mommy, what's dis?"

"Oh my," I thought. "He is not even 20 months old and he is asking me about colors?" "Lucas, that is a YELLOW Duplo block!"

"Yes, Mommy, what's dis?" he asked as he held yet another block.

"BLUE, a blue block!!" I hurriedly got out of the shower and within a couple of hours Lucas knew all of his colors--just like that--including "brun" and "lello". It wasn't long after that while in his high chair being fed by me his babyfood out of a jar, that he pointed his little finger at the letters and asked, "What's dis?"

"This is your applesauce, Lucas."

"No, Mommy, what's dis?" as he pointed to an individual letter "A".

"Ah, sweetie, that is an 'A'?" I said with shock. This was not in the baby books and believe me I read everything before he was born. I was 33 and had been practicing law in Seattle for six years and I did nothing without a lot of research including having a baby. What you have to understand is that Lucas was completely uninterested in feeding himself because his hands were too busy pointing out letters and numbers and he learned them all before he was 21 months old.

To be honest, he embarrassed me because he had a loud little voice. Trips to the grocery store were great adventures of letters and numbers. He used to point out the letter "P" and then start giggling, "Peeeee!" People would look at me. I remember a trip to the mall to look for a gift in the Fine China section in the Bon. I was holding him in my arms at the check out stand when he pointed at the wall and shouted loudly each letter "N-O-R-I-T-A-K-E". The store clerk looked at me and at the baby in my arms and asked me how old he was. I specifically remember replying, "21 months." She then asked me if he was a genius or something.

With letters, numbers, and colors mastered, dinosaurs were next. And trucks. "Big big big lello front end loader with big big black tires!" The Halloween he was 2, he wanted to be a "monoclonius" but we convinced him to be a stegosaurus instead because making a stegosaurus costume was a lot easier than trying to figure out a monoclonius. I was pregnant with Kaley after all. He could name every obscure dinosaur and every type of truck in existence. (I really hated the truck books) Lucas had dinosaur puzzles and letters and number puzzles but it just was not enough.

On his third birthday, with new baby sister in arms, I managed to find a United States puzzle where each of the states was an individual puzzle piece. Within a week, we could hand him any puzzle piece and he could name the state. Lucas was not interested in reading though he loved to be read to. I realized that these were not steps he was taking to begin reading but simply a unique ability all on its own of attaching a complicated word to an interesting shape. He loved pronouncing the words as much as identifying the shape. "Kentucky!" We had a dilema; the America puzzle lasted a mere week. My Mom has always purchased for us a subscription to National Geographic so we had a gigantic World map. I push pinned it on the wall in the play room at three year old eye level. And literally, the world was opened to him. My little three year old boy did not care about using the potty nor could he name baby animals. But my oh my, did he love playing geography with his Hot Wheels in hand! More later!