Who Has Been Teaching My Kid?

I have had many a moment over the past many months where I stand amazed at the things Toddler has learned. I was impressed when he knew who Chip and Dale were when we went to Disneyworld. I was stunned when he could count to 20 and I had to sit down when he counted from 12 to 1 backwards.

From time to time, though, Toddler comes up with things that make me wonder who is teaching him things behind my back. I mean, we go lots of places, but always together. He isn't in preschool, and we don't have unsupervised play dates. We don't even go to other kid's houses very much. I haven't seen most of this stuff on TV, so I'm at a loss where he is picking it up. I'm beginning to suspect netherwordly intervention, or possibly reincarnation.

A few weeks ago, Toddler surprised me by being able to recognize Barney the purple dinosaur from a book. For reasons of my own personal sanity, I have restricted access to the "Barney channel" in the house. I knew he probably would like it, but I have a low tolerance .... I figured when he pointed at the book and said, "Arney!" that I must have slipped up a few times more than I realized. I only recalled one episode being on when he was in the room, but obviously, I missed some.

There are other incidents, though, that I just cannot explain, try as I might.

For example, a few weeks before football season began, Toddler began walking around the house singing, "Na, na, na, na! Na, na, na, na! Hey, hey, hey ... Goodbye!" Of course, this is very appropriate for a child of a football family, but where in the world did he learn it? (I have to admit, he is very good at it. You can understand completely what he is trying to say ... no problems whatsoever. He even has the right attitude to go with it.) I wonder if I had ESPN Classic on too much in the background ... but even so ....

Starting a few days, ago, too, Toddler has come up with another song. He sings the words to the song, "Lullaby and Goodnight." Now, I've no doubt where he learned the tune. His musical bedtime toy sings that song. But where did he learn the words? He is singing WORDS! The problem is that I don't know the words to the song and I can't figure out what he's saying. I can hear him say, "Lullaby and Goodnight" and after that it is all too difficult to distinguish. I tried to Google the words, and I get about a dozen different versions ... and so far no luck in figuring out which one he is saying. But all of this is guesswork is beside the point, which is this: "HOW DID HE LEARN THE WORDS?" Was Big Bird singing them when I wasn't listening? I can't figure this one out.

This morning I am fairly certain I heard him sing the opening bars to "2001: A Space Oddysey." I'll admit, the song is rather ubiquitous, so I suppose he could have picked it up anywhere, but I think it a bit odd, don't you? Just to be sure I wasn't imagining things, I Googled the song, found a YouTube video and played it. Sure enough, Toddler came running over and started humming along. There is no doubt in my mind now that he knows the song.

This last one is quite a bit more confusing. Toddler will repeat most music he hears -- no surprise there. He has heard an awful lot of music by this point. He has a toy piano with a "jukebox" function that plays a bunch of songs -- some I know, many I don't. Buried among them, for some strange reason, is a quick ditty that sounds a lot like the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It isn't a perfect match, but it is fairly close. Wouldn't you know it, but that is the song he latched onto, singing it for nearly an entire day in the car ride from Florida to Virginia? Why that one? Is in he touch with some cosmic wavelength or something? I'm not sure I really want to know. Even now he will still sing it from time to time ... spooky.

I could go on and on, but the long and short of it is I think Toddler has a hidden source of knowledge and information that I need to find. I may have to look into that Manchurian Candidate theory again.