Lest anyone think that reading comic strips is not an intellectual pursuit, let me present exhibit A: Edward Kenyon, avid reader of "Get Fuzzy" and "Calvin and Hobbes" (if by reader I mean, one who pages through looking for pictures of fat dogs and creepy bugs), who was rejected from a University of Iowa study today because his vocabulary is too large for his age.

The study is one for which Mary signed him up that was to judge the vocabulary and comprehension of children with cochlear implants when compared with those without. I took Ed this morning and the researcher showed him about 100 sets of four line drawings, then asked him to point to one of them. For example, there would be a page with a guitar, a trumpet, a drum and a violin, and she would ask him to point to the drum. He did very well, getting many of them right. Too many, in fact. She said his vocabulary was at the 93rd percentile for his age, and they wanted someone more average. They should have said that before they called us in. We could have told them he was many things, but "average" is not among them.

I was impressed by the things he knew, as he picked some things right that I wasn't sure he would understand. Other times, he missed things I thought he would know. In a couple of instances, he did this because he was playing a game we have where Mary or I will say the wrong thing while reading a book and then wait for him to correct us. He picks up on this and will say the wrong thing, too. If we agree, he then corrects us. He did this a couple of times today and I caught on to it and had to explain to him that we weren't playing that game. Other times he would be asked to identify something on a page that had a train or a plane or a tool, and he would say, "I want to do the plane first, then I'll do the other." The researcher would agree, and then he would do just what he said.

She asked me at the outset to try not to coach him, and I was able to maintain decorum. A couple of times I cringed, however, knowing that he knew the right image to go with the term in question, where other times I wanted to give him a high five for getting something right.

He was clever. At one point she asked him something he clearly didn't know. He waited a beat, then looked up and said, "Which one do you think it is?" She stifled a laugh and explained that she was more interested in what he thought.

There were a couple of gimmes. He was asked to identify both a cactus and a palm tree, something we saw a lot of two weeks ago in Phoenix. I told the researcher as much, and she said reading and travel are two great ways to increase vocabulary. He also identified "swamp," something I attribute to the book I Love You Stinkyface.

Meanwhile, Edward's younger brother is also exploring the world. He loves to go outside, and will bring his shoes to us if we don't get the hint. If we delay, he tries to put them on himself. He can't manage this yet, but it's certainly not for a lack of effort.

Tonight, taking advantage of a rain storm, we went outside to stomp puddles (don't knock it, it's really quite fun). Edward has some ladybug boots that he inherited from a neighbor who grew out of them, and they're great for stomping. After we had come in, Daniel decided that he wanted to try them on. We finally gave him a hand, and he then walked with big, tentative steps around the foyer. His curiosity got the best of him, however, and he soon was bending down to get an up-close look at what was hiding his toes. It won't be long before Ed grows out of them and Daniel into them, so it was a nice chance to take them for a test drive.