"I AMN'T"

I know, it took me a minute too. This was something Ellie said to us tonight. While I know this isn't a real word, if you think about it, why isn't it? She used the rules to make the contraction, am + not, and of course, it was spoken emphatically as are most things she says. I can't remember now what we were calling her or telling her that she was going to do, but that was the reply. "I AMN'T!" English is a funny language like that where rules apply in certain circumstances and not others, and I have heard it said before that it is one of the hardest languages to learn, but I had to laugh at this tonight.

I do think Ellie is bright. I read a statistic once in a parenting magazine about the percentage of parents that believe their child is gifted and I forget the exact number now, but it was staggering, like in the 80's I think. It is hard for me to tell, as she is my first child and while I was around my cousins a ton when I was young (they are 11 and 13 years younger than me) I don't have much to compare this to. I ran into someone I knew in high school the other day, and she has a 3 year old, and she was telling me how bright her son is as he corrected other fans at a Sabres game on how to cheer for the team. I stood there smiling, and thinking..."yeah, well...Ellie corrects Mickey Mouse's grammar!" I resisted the urge, and seriously I would never say something like that, but sometimes I have to wonder, do I really have a bright kid, or am I just a normal parent?