Principles of relativity...

All parents wants to believe that their kids are geniuses. Even when we're being self-deprecating, we're still bragging. When a mom complains about "how willful" little Connor is, what she really means he's so independent--ergo, he is a genius. When Kaylie is taking a long time to potty train, we are to understand that it is because she is developing rapidly in so many other areas--ergo, she is a genius.

I am the exception to the rule, however. I'm pretty sure my kid is NOT a genius. When we took Dan in for his 12 month checkup, his doctor asked me "so, can he point to his toes?" I looked at her blankly--as blankly, in fact, as Dan did, when put to the test. The doctor sort of blushed and said, "I'm sure he can do it for you, maybe in the bath." Enter the uber-mama, albeit somewhat belatedly. You can be sure that Dan has been repeated quizzed at bathtime about his head, shoulders, knees, and toes, knees and toes. To which quizzing, he has generally responded by a) peeing in the bathtub and b) pulling the hair of the interrogator.

However, my other kid is apparently developing normally. The picture Ginny made (above) last week is a portrait of herself and her little brother. I was gushing over it when I first saw it, thinking it was pretty dang good for a three-year-old. However, her teacher set me straight when she told me that kids this age are working on perspective-building, so it's a nice indicator of normal development that she painted herself larger than Dan. Oh, I thought, crestfallen. She's normal.

But in fact, we need these kinds of reality checks. Like Ginny, we're all trying to figure things out, trying to determine where we are in relation to other people, what we are in relation to the universe. And the fact is, we're all pretty insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. Which is kind of deflating, in some ways, but also reassuring. This too shall pass. It's nice to know that there is always someone bigger than ourselves, bigger than our problems, even if He's not actually a part of our personal self-portrait.

PS--I actually do think my kids are both geniuses, in spite of any evidence to the contrary. But you knew that...