Where's the horsey?

I was reading Elijah his favorite book, "Tootle," for about the ba-zillionith time the other day, and got to the page where a big black horse challenges Tootle, the baby locomotive, to a race to the river. This causes Tootle to question his "trainhood" as it were, and then puff that he can't let a horse beat him if he wants to be a big fast locomotive someday. Tootle then jumps off the tracks - a big no-no, as he learned in train school - first for the race, then to play in a meadow of buttercups repeatedly. Tootle's willful defiance culminates in Engineer Bill needing to teach Tootle a lesson. Tootle learns his lesson, apparently, as he becomes a "big" locomotive in the end. Highly riveting literature people, I can assure you.

Anyway, back to the partner-in-Tootle's-crime, the big black horse. When I got to the page where the horse throws down the gauntlet to our Thomas-the-Tank-Engine-in-Training, I said, "the big black horse," and Elijah put his cute little index finger on the horse on the page! And then looked at me with his impish little grin.

Well, I figured that was a fluke, so the next time I read the book to Eli, oh, about one minute later (he seriously requires me to read this book to him 20 times in a row. I've resorted to actually hiding this book from him under the couch cushions so I didn't have to read it. And you can ask my Mom - that's a sad, but true, fact), when I got to the horse page I asked Eli, "where's the horsey?" And he promptly pointed to it and giggled! When Jon got home I made him read Tootle to Eli, and when Jon asked him where the horsey was Elijah pointed to it again. He's a genius! Okay, that may be a little over the top, but he's my little genius at the very least. It's really cool that his little spongy brain is actually learning things!