Memorizing

I'm sitting in the dim light of Isaac's bedroom as he wiggles around in bed prior to falling asleep. Some evenings he babbles nonsense words or hums to himself, but tonight he is talking absently.

He is saying, "Black. Steam. Engine."

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That's from Donald Crews's Freight Train, which Craig read to Isaac tonight. Isaac can usually recite all of the cars on the train from memory, and I think I can too: red caboose, orange tank car, yellow hopper car, green cattle car, blue gondola car, purple boxcar, black tender, and black steam engine. Of course, I've read it aloud several hundred times, both as a children's librarian and as a mother, so I should have it memorized by now. Although Isaac has heard it far fewer times, he has the astonishing verbal memory skills of a toddler. Kids were born to learn words.