Derek

In just two short months Derek will turn 2 years old. It hardly seems real. Just a few months ago I thought he would never start talking and now he comes up with new words every day. Watch what you say in front of him.
He's been amazing us with how quickly he's learning things. The other day he was playing with magnets on our refrigerator and he started counting them. There were five. I just sat at the kitchen table with my mouth hanging open. Who taught him that? Are there counting elves coming in at night and tutoring him? It doesn't make sense to me that the interactions we have are that educational.
Furthering my bewilderment, we were playing with his Fisher Price ABC learning zoo...courtesy of Grammy...and he started picking up animals and reading the letters off their chests. Out of the 26 animals he got 21 letters right. I'm wondering if I should give him credit for the vulture that he had turned upside down and therefore called the V an A and the D that sounded suspiciously like a B to me but not to the other judges present. That aside, holy cow. He's brilliant. I mean a real toddler Einstein. I'm not even saying he's smarter than other kids his age. I'm just in awe about how much he knows when it seems like just yesterday he wasn't doing anything besides babbling.
His progress is a huge blessing to me because I've been seriously stressing about homeschooling. I know, I know...he isn't even 2 yet. I have several friends that are doing a round robin home preschool for their 3 year olds so I've already started thinking about all the work I'm going to have to put in keeping Derek home. I'm feeling the burden of being responsible for making sure he gains the knowledge he needs when he needs it. Part of me is sure that I'm making a huge deal out of nothing but I'm not the parent who was homeschooled. And the unknown is seriously terrifying for me. And since I'm baffled by how much he knows already I don't even know what I'm doing right.How I wish I'd kept my human development textbook...all I remember is nature vs nurture theories. *sigh*