The Child of an Engineer

Em got her 15-month shots a couple weeks ago. She won't have any more shots in a long time, thank goodness.

Her check-up was pretty interesting. We now see Ann Evenson, a nurse practitioner. We like her a lot. We used to see Dr. Goldfinger [go ahead and giggle if you must], but Nurse Evenson is more our style. She sits and talks with us for as long as we need to (and much if not most of the time, she's the one who wants to sit and chat!). She's so friendly and seems very knowledgeable about pediatrics.

Now, not to brag or anything (how many times does the average mother say that in her lifetime? ;-), but Evenson could tell that Emily is awfully intelligent just by looking at her. She said that she could see Emily observe and try to analyze everything.

I told her a little story about how the other day, Emily was playing with one of Gracie's toys. It's a VTech laptop-type thing that has letter keys and buttons all over it. Em was playing with it for a good while, and then, when she decided she was all done, she took her pointer finger and very deliberately placed it right smack-dab on the "off" button! After I told her this story, Evenson asked me if I work, and when I said "no", she asked if my husband's an engineer! I replied, "Yes, and so are all of his brothers, his dad, my dad, and my brother." She said, "There you go."

"Huh?" [Translation: "How on earth did you know that?"]

"There are studies out saying that children of engineers are very analytical and can figure things out rather quickly. Is she doing puzzles?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Well, there you go."

Apparently this conservative (ugh) columnist named Thomas Sowell has a bunch of stuff out about children of engineers and how they think and act. Aside from having the above-mentioned characteristics, these kids also tend to start talking late. I haven't read the studies or his write-ups, but from my understanding, this is the basic gist. It'd be interesting to read why.

Evenson told me that Em's very smart and that she's "ahead of the game". I asked her if most babies act the way she does, and she said, "No, they'll just kinda sit there and won't 'get it' 'til later."