I know because I CAN READ!

My son is exceptionally cute, hilariously funny, and usually fairly intelligent. As his mother, I say that with complete bias, but if you ask my mom, or any of Mark's other family members, I'm pretty sure they'll agree.

However...his intelligence, like his listening, is definitely selective. I'm afraid I've passed on my "Duh" gene to him somehow, tipping the scales one step closer to nurture in the nature vs. nurture argument.

We were driving home from the farmer's market this weekend, and I noticed the car in front of me littered with bumper stickers. Four of them said "I love my Irish Setter" and the other three had pictures and names Irish Setters. It was fairly obnoxious.

"Wow, the people in front of us really like Irish Setters," I observed sarcastically.

"Where?" Mark asked. He craned his neck to see what I was looking at.

"The car in front of us," I said. I pointed at all the stickers.

But my observant son still didn't get it. "How can you tell?" he asked.

I read each sticker out loud to him. "See, there are seven clues," I said. "Look at all the pictures of the dogs."

And finally the light bulb went on.

"Ooooh!" he said, nodding his head. And then he frowned, and asked, "But how do you know those are Irish Setters?"

I snorted and looked to see if he was being serious.

"A lucky guess," I answered.

And then the light turned green. I accelerated, and drove as far away as possible from that conversation. Because while my car idled aimlessly at the light, Mark's brain did the same.