She can't read but...

People universally love to give unsolicited advice about child bearing and child rearing. Whether they think you have too many or too few children, should space them differently, or want to tell you something lame like "you need to relax to solve infertility," people love to get in your business. It's no different here. Shortly after Samara turned two, we were playing at the playground and a lady noticed that Samara wore a diaper still *gasp* and that she wanted to sit on my lap and play with my hair while she drank from her sippy cup *the horror*. The lady was staring while she sat on my lap, so I mentioned, to end the awkward stare, that Samara likes to play with my hair while she drinks as a comfort device. She said, "Hmmm...and she's not potty trained yet either? You must really coddle her." Needless to say, we avoid that lady like the plague.

The other day we were out at the park talking to a woman we'd met before. She asked Samara's age. I told her she turned two in March. She then asked, "So, does she like to read?" I said yes thinking she meant look at books or be read to. She said, "Oh that's great she's already reading on her own." Confused, I replied (thinking "do most kids read at this age?"), "No, she doesn't read by herself yet. She loves books and being read to." She then asked, "So, she's sounding out some words then?" Still confused, I replied, "No, she remembers some of the words if we've read the book before." She finished off with something like, "Oh, that's nice" in a tone of "I'm sorry your child is remedial". So regardless of the fact that Samara can't read, she's got street smarts, which have got to count for something. She can even hail a cab all by her bad self.

I learned she had this skill a few weeks ago when we were walking home from the park and she asked, "Can we take a taxi home?" I said "no" and proceeded to explain why this wasn't cost effective, which I am sure was sinking in and completely understood. In the meantime, she proceeded over to the curb, put out her arm and said, "Mom, I want to ride on taxi. I don't want to walk home. It's too far."