Mum, What Do You Know About Ducks?

When I hear that question, or that same question in regards to any other animal, bug, sea creature, or extinct animal – including all dinosaurs – mentioned by my little fella Lex, I know I must stop everything I’m doing and give him my full attention, because for as long as I am willing to be his audience, he’s going to teach me everything there is to know about ducks.

Lex with a baby chicken in Vietnam

I’m going to learn about: what they eat; how they have babies; the different breeds; the different habitats; whether or not they’re predators; and so much more. I have come to appreciate that my mind is going to be blown in these learning interludes and I love them.

When Lex decided to start sharing his learnings consistently – which was only a few months back – there were many times when I asked if he was right. He always responded with ‘I think so’ and then we consulted trusty Cortana. One such question was about sharks. Do sharks have babies or lay eggs? I thought they had babies, he thought they laid eggs, on further search, it appeared we were both right. Who knew? Now I do.

He then kept speaking about the Sonori Desert (always singing Sonori) and I’m like, are you sure it’s called Sonori mate? You’re not speaking about the Sahara Desert? Nope, always the Sonori. On further investigation, there is a desert in the US called the Sonora Desert. So Lex was right again in his own special way. I’d never heard of it, but looks like a fabulous place if you want to meet a rattle snake – he knows all about them too.

Another recent fascination was the Gela Monster – a venomous lizard that lives in the Sanora desert of course. He kept saying Heela Monster and I am searching for it, with a h and not having much luck. Then a link suggestion comes up for Gela Monster. I know all about them now too.

Jax was loving it too 

To say I’m pretty chuffed with my Lexy is an understatement. This is the lad who’s had a hard time catching up with his speech and getting ahead at school. I’ve always said he needed time and love, because he’s smart as hell, so when I hear him speak now, shite, I get blown away. Enunciation is still an issue, so I’m thinking acting or singing could be the answer? I don’t know. We’re on the final hurdle it feels, but it’s been a long haul let me tell you.

Another bonus is it might get Jax to stop watching crappy toy videos. Last week Jax declares: “Lex is really smart mum.” Well of course that got a lot of: so are you mate, you’re super smart, etc, etc, etc… But then I sat down with Jax and said, you know why Lex knows all these things? Because when he’s on YouTube he’s watching Discovery Channel or National Geographic learning about them. You’re watching videos of spoilt kids getting too many toys. Maybe if you watch things that teach you something you can share your knowledge with us too?

This morning, I took Jax to his swim lesson at school and Lex came along for the ride. All the way there, both boys were competing for my attention to share their latest creature learnings. We covered lemmings, barnacles, sea snakes, star fish, slugs, leeches, and so much more. It was awesome. Now they need to learn to give each other a turn when speaking, but we’ll leave that for another day.

When you’ve been waiting to see a passion revealed in your child, it’s really awesome when that day comes, don’t you agree?

Yours, without the bollocks

Andrea