Every once in a while you are allowed to have one of those “that’s right” moments. This weekend my wife’s younger brother was visiting with his wife and two kids and they, like every other parent, think their kids are brilliant. Luckily we had our kids handy.

Their youngest is 14 months old. We were having a pleasant lunch talking about how lame the rest of the family is when the sis-in-law prompts a response from the baby by saying “are you done? All done? Hmmm…all done?” Like a proper child she responds with “ah-dah” and her mom lights up and smugly praises her by saying “you’re the smartest girl ever, yes you are.” She then picks up the baby and walks into the other room presumably to see if her other child is running around screaming and on fire (he wasn’t). At that time our 13 month baby was trying to grab at some french fries on the table. Lisa’s aunt handed her one and she said “tak yoo.” We all went silent save for the thumps of our jaws hitting the table. With no prompting she said what none of us were expecting and fully impressed the aunt. Point for us.

Nifty enough, but I have better. Lisa’s brother was trying to make us laugh by showing off his son’s intelligence. No really. That’s his sense of humor. It went like this: How old are you?! Do! What’s your name? “Baagh! That’s right your name is Nathan. Who’s your favorite parent?! Baagh! That’s right you love your daddy. So, Lisa says to him “my son (Byron 7)…can multiply any 2 single digit numbers. Just ask him,” “Okaay, what’s nine times nine?” Pause. “Yeah, I didn’t know- ’81!’ -either…….whoa. Uh, what’s two times eight.” “Um…16.” And so on. Point and match.

That’s right.