The Quirks of a Genius

Corbin is a genius. This is old news, ask anyone. I'm not just a proud mother trying to convince people of something that isn't true, he really is the smartest kid ever. He could point out and say every letter of the alphabet, count to 10 and carry on a coherent conversation before the age of two. He has been easily navigating the Internet for close to two years now, and can even get onto youtube to find his favorite curious George videos. It will only be a matter of time before he is hacking into the CIA to find out all the governments secrets, probably by the time he is 5! All this is kind of beside the point, people say, every genius comes with quirks, and Corbin is no exception. Here is a list of some of them.

1. Corbin has a "No Pictures Policy". This policy consists of him refusing to wear ANYTHING that has pictures on it, including: Shirts, underwear, coats, and jackets. And pretty much anything counts as a picture: stripes, numbers, logos, anything, no matter how big or small it is. This policy is impossible for him to enforce due to the fact that he only has one pair of underwear without pictures, and like 4 shirts (and I refuse to give in and wash them everyday!) He doesn't have a jacket without pictures, so when I try to get him to wear one, he freaks out and insists on his coat, even when its like 65 degrees outside.

2. He is obsessed with time. He has been able to read a clock for a while now, but he still always asks what time it is, even if I told him 2 minutes earlier. If he's not asking me what time it is, he's telling me what time it is. He also wants to know what time everything will happen. "What time will we eat lunch?", "What time will daddy come home?" Even things that are unpredictable, for example, "What time will Dexy wake up from his nap?", or "What time will it stop raining?" It's cute, but irritating.

3. Corbin hates when timers or alarms go off. If he is in the kitchen and I put something in the microwave, he instantly takes off running and won't come back until after it beeps because he doesn't want to hear it. His Grandma Marde has a couple of clocks at her house that chime every hour, so whenever they are about to go off he will run out until after they have stopped. He also has an alarm clock in his room (to encourage his weird fascination with time I guess) which he wants to set for 7:30 every morning, but can't because he doesn't actually want to hear it when it goes off.

4. He is also obsessed with gardening. It's actually kind of cute. Ever since he saw a couple episodes of curious George that involved vegetable gardens, he has wanted one. We planted some carrot seeds a couple of weeks ago and he goes outside everyday to water them and rake the dirt. He is a little confused about them not growing overnight, but is really looking forward to picking them when they do. It's going to be a challenge to keep him from pulling them before they're ready.

Anyway, I am hoping he grows out of most of these things before it gets too OCD, except the gardening. Maybe he will start pulling weeds soon!