Claire's mind at work

So what do you think of when you see this? It is a picture of an unusual wood grain formation in our kitchen table. I've always thought it rather freaky-looking, kinda like a raccoon or something. Evidently Claire sees a cat. We were sitting at the table eating supper the other day when she pointed at it and said "Meow meow, key cat". I was amazed and praised her for her imaginativeness, but I tried not to get too excited. I didn't know if Doug had pointed out to her before and suggested that it looked like a cat. (He was at work when this happened.) So I told him about it later, and he was equally impressed as he had not prompted her about it at all.

Claire surprises us like that. Noah was not even talking at this point (20 months). He didn't try to communicate w/ us verbally until he was just over 2 years old. So maybe he thought about these kinds of things, but wasn't able to tell us about them. He did sign language and could be quite creative w/ that, making up his own signs that actually made sense (in other words, we could understand what he meant). But Claire is different, which makes it fun. I can't wait to see what the next baby sees in the wood grain, because I'm sure it will be just as marvelous to see his/her little mind at work.