Noah transposing; Evan really wants to crawl

In February, I bought Noah a $15 keyboard as a reward for "finishing" potty training. He has played that keyboard every day since getting it, and can now pick out songs and transpose them into any key (major keys only, so far). His ear is getting so good. Today, I was singing something, and he asked, "Mommy, why are you singing in C#?" I checked on the keyboard, and it was either C# or C. Later, when we were having lunch, my fork tapped against my bowl, and he said, "That's a C." And it was.

He's also starting to read. I bought him some easy readers about the planets and solar system, and he could read all of the planet-related words (learned from the Planet 10 website and other reading with us) right away. Today was our second pass through the books, and he can read them pretty well now. Tomorrow, he'll be exactly three and a half years old.

His precociousness is fun for me, because he learns as fast as I can teach, but it's also unsettling. I just want him to have a happy, fun childhood, and I think that getting labeled as gifted is not the way to go about that. I want him to see himself and be seen as normal, for as long as possible in his development. So when he does something amazing, I try to be supportive and enthusiastic, but not overwhelmed (though it's hard sometimes). I'm putting a lot of thought into how to help him develop, with the hope of ending up with a happy, stable, successful man. If he's super smart, that's icing on the cake.

It's worth noting that socially he is not advanced. Au contraire. At school this week, he was reprimanded for hitting his friend Matthew, many times. I told him not to do it anymore. The next day, I asked if there was any hitting, and he said, "No. No hitting. Well, a tiny bit of hitting." (He still says, "I hitted.") More on Noah's social contrariness later.

Evan is a much more active baby than I remember Noah being at his age. He can get on all fours pretty well, as of today. When he does, he rocks back and forth, like he's trying really hard for a big launch. I marvel at the imperative to push the boundaries of his physical abilities that he clearly feels. When he's on the verge of mastering a new skill, he practices relentlessly until he gets there. If he had an adult brain, he'd probably just keep lying there. It's not so bad, lying around all day. He is still such a happy baby - so smiley. And his goofy laugh is the most beautiful sound. He is still spitting. And now that he's eating food, it's even less appealing than before. Green bean spit-up is really gross. It's completely unfair that he should start crawling before he stops spitting. I wonder if I can find a bucket to hang around his neck. Much more than I remember with Noah as a baby, I have the sense with Evan that he is fully fledged human being. Every day with him is precious because he is growing so fast.