The Blog I Shouldn't Write

This isn't the blog I should be writing today.  I have been absent from the blog because life has been crazy (and we have a ton going on for Gominic), and I have intended to update those of you who are still standing by me patiently.  But I don't feel like writing that blog today.  Today I want to brag.  So if we are frien-emies, you may want to quit reading right here.  This blog is going to be all about how I have won.

I don't write about Vincent much.  In life he gets every bit as much attention as Dominic does, but in the virtual world, he is very little known.  I am just going to put this out there. Vincent is a genius.  Not in a way that all parents think their kids are geniuses; I truly expect for him to cure cancer. Or find a way to use his looks to get him everything he wants and not work a day in his life.  The kid has it all.  I used to be vain about my looks, but since having that kid I am reminded on a daily basis that a boy can actually be prettier than me.  It's a tough pill to swallow, but I've adjusted.  I digress.  Vincent is trilingual.  He is of course fluent in English, can count to ten in Spanish and sing Move It Move It in a language I cannot recognize.  I'm just going to assume its Mandarin.  From the best I can tell, he is functioning at a four year old level at least.  I don't want to bog you down with the stats of all that he can do, but each day I find out more and more of what he knows.  His Montessori teachers have confirmed that he is frighteningly intelligent.  So I know what you are all thinking, supermom, right?  I must be working with him constantly to teach him everything.

That's the thing.  I am a surprisingly a care-free mom when it comes to Vincent.  Sure we read, but I didn't ever show him how to count.  I had to remind myself how to count in Spanish.  I can't alphabetize without repeating all the letters from the start in my head.  Also, this is embarrassing to admit as an engineer, but I still count on my fingers.  I have done nothing to teach him these things.  I do have a secret weapon with Carolyn who until recently had kept him every day since he was 4 months old; I know she taught him an incredible amount of things.  For all I know, she probably spent hours teaching him Move It Move It in Mandarin.  With Vincent I have been more like the fun Aunt; we trash the house with our art projects and pretty much just have a good time.  He potty trained himself for goodness sakes.  All I did was buy him a potty.  No I take that back, Nonnie bought him the potty.  I did nothing.  It never occurred to me that I should teach him things.  Maybe because I never needed to.

I can't say that I have been all that surprised with Vincent's level of intelligence.  I'm pretty smart and so is his father, but even more so he is part of legacy.  His great-grandfather is P.C. Vaidya.  Now unless you are a super nerd, you won't recognize that name, but he was a great man who did incredible things.  He did many great things for the academic and physics community, but his greatest accomplishment was writing the solution for Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  Yeah, I just said that.  I'm not sure what that actually means, but I said it.  He had arguably one of the most incredible brains of all times.  I think of him often when I think of my boys.

Dominic was not the first son I was told had brain damage.  You see, Vincent for unknown reasons also has some brain damage, although slight.  When I first heard that about Vincent I thought a lot about his great-grandfather, and I prayed that my son had gotten just a portion of those brain genes.  When we first found out about Vincent's brain damage, he was 9 months.  He was a little behind with his talking and not very interested in toys.  At the time, it was devastating and I didn't know what I could expect.

Now with Dominic's diagnosis I pray for the same thing.  When neurologists tell me he won't do much, I think to myself, that they have no clue what kind of brain my son started with.  I don't think Gommy needs the other half of his brain.  I think he started out with a brain more amazing than any of us could ever fathom.  I think had we never gotten CMV, he probably could have cured cancer or at least confirmed that Pluto is indeed a planet.  I think now, he can use that incredible brain to learn to walk and learn to talk and learn to eat.

I still hold out hope for Dominic to live a normal life despite every expert telling me different.  Maybe I am naive and have no clue.  Or maybe I am just following Dominic's cues.  We recently got an IPad for him (I am not above spoiling children).  On his favorite game, they tell you which animal to find and you chose from 3.  We soon realized that HE GETS EVERY ONE RIGHT.  His speech and occupational therapists confirmed it.  He knows his animals.  Again, I didn't teach him this, and he is only 1.  I can only assume he learned from Vincent.  So I can't just listen to what experts say, I have to listen to what Dominic says.  Either way, I know he has an incredible brain.  I expect incredible things from that kid.