How you know your kids are smarter than you are....

Last night the 3yo and I were watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on cable. If you know my kids or have read my posts you will know that although this may seem a strange choice for your typical 3 year old, F is far too creepy to be bothered by this movie. Anyway, if you have seen it you will know the scene when Ron has been taken into a tunnel under the Whomping Willow by the black dog and Harry and Hermione follow them until they all arrive in the Shrieking Shack. At which point we finally meet Sirius Black. A few moment's later (sorry if this is a spoiler for someone in 2013, who has managed to avoid both the book and the movie) Peter Pettigrew is exposed. 

All of a sudden F starts in, "Mommy, who is that?" 

I reply, "Peter Pettigrew"

her, irritated, "Mommy, who is that MAN?"

me thinking (right, she has not read the books and we have seen these all out of order), "Honey, that is Peter Pettigrew, he is also Scabbers" 

F taking it to the next three levels of annoyed with me, "MOMMY, THE MAN. Who is he?" 

Me, "OK. Peter Pettigrew was a friend of Harry's mommy and daddy at school. Everyone thought he died the same night that they died.."

F cutting me off, "NO!" now pacing in front of the TV

Me totally confused, "Honey come sit with me and watch the movie, it's OK." who was I kidding? This kid was not worried about that guy or anyone else in the movie. 

Now she was standing in front of a book shelf, "Mommy I need the movie book!"

Me (tired after a long day), "F please come sit down. We are not changing movies now. I'm sorry if you are tired of this movie, we can turn it off and find something else to do, but..."
F, "MOMMY I need the book! That man is in this book!" 

Me finally starting to understand, "The man who plays Peter Pettigrew is in another movie?"
F with such relief, "YES!" 

So I take down the binder with all the kids DVD's in it and she begins to sort through the pages beginning with A Adams Family, The. 

F touching each DVD lightly with one index finger, "not this one, not this one, not this one"
when she reached E she said, "This movie mommy! That man is in this movie!" As I said she is 3 and not reading yet (even though she insists she can read many words including Exit and party on the boat) so I went over to look.

There she was with the book open to 

F "Mommy! He is in this movie! Mommy what is the name of this movie?"

Finally! I understood! Me to F, "That's Enchanted. Honey, you have seen this man from Harry Potter in this movie?"

"Yes! Yes! He is a bad man in this movie toooooo!" I figured she meant the spineless man servant who betrays the prince for the faux love of the queen and congratulated her on her ability to recognize the actor so quickly. 

This morning, just to be sure I checked on IMDB. Sure enough Timothy Spall is in both Harry Potter and Enchanted as well as several other children's movies.  

So there you have it. 3 years old and she is already more observant than her mother.