“You won’t go hungry around here, nine, nine”. My 2 1/2 year old son kept repeating this over and over again while we were eating at Bob Evans. His speech wasn’t very clear yet and we had a hard time making out what he was saying. My mom and I kept giving each other confused looks. “What’s he talking about?” my mom said. “I have no idea”.

He turned his head, pointed and said it again. We both looked where he was pointing. A graphic on the wall. It said “You Won’t Go Hungry Around Here!” I had my suspicions before, but that is when I realized that my son, at 2 1/2 could read. REALLY read. Not remember something I had told him, but read words….and numbers, too. He thought the quotation marks were little 9’s.

He was a late talker, and very difficult to understand. In fact, at the docotor’s office for his 2 year check up she had noted that she was concerned that she didn’t hear him say anything. She asked me if he knew at least 50 words.

“Well, he knows the alphabet…does that count as 26 or not? ” I said, “He knows numbers up to 10…and he knows all of the sounds animals make, so I guess if that counts, he does”.

“Hey, buddy, what do you call these?”, she asked, tickling his toes.

“Toes”, he said

“Hmmm, I don’t know”, she said, “he doesn’t know ‘feet’”.

“He said TOES”, I said

“Hmmm, I think he was just babbling”, she said “Be sure to let me know if he’s not talking better in the next 6 months”.

“I will”, I said, then very worried.

But here we are…he’s reading. Difficult to understand, but most definitely reading. …but what to do about it? I decided to wait and see how it developed and to encourage him as much as I could. This blog is about my adventures. My adventures as an older mother with an interesting son and baby daughter, working full time, thinking about starting a business, how I got here and where I end up going. Follow along for some interesting stories. I’m happy to have you!