What to do when all you hear is "Mine!"

Just starting this week, my son has had an odd new habit in the mornings.  Whenever it's time to leave for school, right as we're heading out the door he'll grab one of his toys, or maybe a favorite book.  If you try to convince him to leave it at home, he'll just hold onto it more tightly and yell.

Given that the last thing we want to do right before work is defuse a toddler tantrum, my husband and I have been just letting him carry the possession into the car and hold it during the ride to preschool.  Sometimes we can get him to leave it in the car, other times, he's insistent on bringing it inside.

His teacher, the lovely Mrs. B, has also informed us that he's starting to use the words "mine" and "no" a lot more frequently.  This bothers us a little.  He's always been great about sharing with other kids, and he's normally pretty agreeable.  But lately, we've been seeing him act out this way at home, too.

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Breaking News: Giant Baby is still Giant

My son, the 8-pound preemie himself, had his 18-month check-up today. He scaled in at 31.2 pounds weight, 34.5" inches tall, and 51 cm head circumference. He was in the 95th percentile all the way across the board.

Which puts him at roughly the same size as the average 2 1/2 to 3-year-old.

So, it looks like his growth rate is not going to slack off any time soon. Which is cool, because Mommy likes the idea of retiring young to be supported by her professional athlete son.

But, as it turns out, apparently my kid is really smart, too. I'm not especially surprised; I figured he was bright. But they gave him an assessment at his pediatrician's and he scored in the 87th percentile on cognitive development and 95th on motor.

However, now that I've found out my kid is really advanced for his age, it makes me curious how he is doing in other, less easily measured areas of development. So I'm doing some assessing of my own...

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It's not "uh-oh" if you do it on purpose!

All you parents of toddlers know exactly what I'm talking about. We look forward to baby's first words for so long, it seems so incredibly adorable when they pick up that first phrase: "Uh-oh!" Your eyes shine with adoration, and your heart melts with pride. Not only is your baby parroting words, he or she is conversing. Your baby said "uh-oh" when there was an uh-oh. This proves association! Language recognition! This is a major milestone in development and can you believe what an absolute prodigy your child is! "Uh-oh" is just the first phrase! Soon it will be "Yes please," and "Thank you," and, yes, someday soon, "I love you mommy."

So when we hear that first "uh-oh", we do everything in our power to encourage. "You're right baby! That is an uh-oh! Good job!" And....herein lies the problem. Babies are the greatest. They are. My son is the most perfect and wonderful thing to ever happen to me, and I know there's nothing I could ever do to deserve him. But that doesn't change the fact that babies are master manipulators. You know it, and I know it, so let's not kid ourselves.

And it only takes about, oh, 4 minutes for your precious little angel to realize that they can pull off just about any misdeed if they throw an oh-so-sweet and innocent little "uh-oh" behind it. Which is when mommy and daddy learn a new phrase, one the average parent repeats an estimated 2,872,143 times over the course of their child's first 26 years:

It's not "uh-oh" if you do it on purpose!