upworthy
Internet

3-month-old baby shocks mom and sister by repeating full sentences. It may have a name.

"He is a baby genius start showing him math problems."

baby talk; talking baby; video of talking baby; echolalia in babies; baby repeats mom; talking infant
Photo credit: Canva

3-month-old baby repeats full sentences shocking mom

Babies can't talk. This isn't something that needs to be studied and researched, it's a pretty common fact that humans have. The reasons babies cry is because they can't talk to tell us what they need, at least that's what the general understanding has been for centuries. But what if some babies could talk and we simply haven't been exposed to them because the world is so big?

Thanks to social media, the world has gotten a whole lot smaller when it comes to being able to take a peek into other people's lives. This means we get to be exposed to things that may otherwise gone unseen. Mekeia, a mom of two recently uploaded a video of her 3-month-old son talking. Not the cute baby babble that we like to call talking, but repeating actual short sentences.

Mekeia was recording her daughter playing with the baby when they captured the moment on video.

The little girl holds the baby's face and says, "say I am two months," before Mekeia corrects her, "say I am three months," the little girl pipes back up. Clearly the baby was trying to join in the conversation with what was expected to be baby babble when the mom instructed the older child to let the baby have a chance to "talk." It was then that the baby shocked everyone by sounding like he repeated the same phrase.

The two are visibly and audibly shocked not wanting to believe the baby actually repeats what the other child says. Mekeia is on the phone with a friend when the entire thing happens. Presumably thinking this is a fluke, the mom attempts to put the phone up to the baby's mouth. When he just babbles, she tells the baby, "say hey Bam." Nothing. Just more babble and drool.

Just when you think your ears were playing tricks on you, the baby does it again when the mom tells him to say, "hey Quintin." Clearly the baby still sounds like a baby but you can clearly hear him repeating the sound and cadence of the words so much so that it sounds like he's fully saying the words. His older sister is overwhelmed with emotion and begins to cry while Mekeia seems to be so shocked that she begins to laugh while the person on the phone is just stunned into confusion.

@foxondemand

Watch until the end 😱omg🥹🥰!!

♬ original sound - Mekeia 💖


People in the comments were eager to jump in with exclaiming the baby is a genius with one person writing, "he is a baby genius start showing him math problems."

Another person jokes, "next thing he's writing emails and making appointments."

"Talking so clear would scare me sooo bad he's so intelligent," someone writes.

Others explain the phenomenon with a condition called echolalia. "Echolalia is a normal part of child development. As children learn to talk and understand words, they imitate, copy or echo the sounds and words they hear. Over time, a child usually learns to talk by connecting new words together to make unique little phrases or sentences,” according to Speech and Language Advisor Claire Smith when interviewed by the BBC.

While echolalia can be a sign of autism, that's not always the case. Many kids grow out of it by the age of three and continue their typical development.


This article originally appeared in August.

From Your Site Articles
video of talking baby
Badge
Subaru
Subaru
Joy

5 things that made us smile this week

People supporting thousands of local charities? Yes, please.

True


Good news—you know we love it. And we know you love it, too. Which is why we’ve searched the internet high and low for things guaranteed to brighten up your work week, such as:

This former cheerleader busting a movie

You're only as old as you feel—at least, that’s what Michigan woman Ilagene Doehring seems to think. Now 97, Doerhing was reminiscing about her time as a high school cheerleader 80 years ago at Merrill High School—a squad she helped create after noticing her school didn’t have one of their own. Caretakers at her nursing home reached out on social media to see if someone had an old uniform Doehring could wear one last time—and the current cheer coach at Merrill High School, Jena Glazer, went above and beyond. Glazier and the entire cheer team showed up to her assisted living facility to deliver the uniform and perform a cheer with the current team.

This company's way to support hometown charities

The annual Subaru Share the Love® Event is a chance to help local communities in a big way. Subaru and its retailers will donate at least $300 to local charities for every new Subaru purchased or leased through January 2nd, 2025—and by the end of 2024 (their 17th year of hosting this event), they’ll have donated nearly $320 million to charities across the nation. We love seeing local communities getting the support they deserve!

This mom’s “magic answer” to her kid’s Tooth Fairy and Santa questions

Most parents dread the moment when their kids start asking about mythical creatures like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus—but it turns out you can preserve the magic of childhood while also being honest with your kids. TikTok creator KC Davis, who is also a licensed therapist, showed this perfectly when she shared about the time her 4-year-old asked if the tooth fairy was real. She asked them “Do you want the magic answer, or the grownup answer?” Utter perfection. (Her daughter chose the magic answer, by the way.)

This guy who drove 11 hours to be with his grandma

@jodiegarner12 @TheModernGolfer drove 11.5 hours to surprise his queen as it was her late husband’s birthday today. Never forgotten and will always look after his grandmother ❤️🌹#loyalty #family @Rosalie Gessey ♬ These Memories - Hollow Coves

Holidays can be painful when you’re dealing with the loss of a loved one. Which is why on the anniversary of his late grandfather’s birthday, professional golfer Jordie Garner drove eleven hours to spend time with his grandmother so she wouldn’t have to be alone. This adorable video shows Jordie showing up to surprise his grandmother, with flowers and a present in hand. Now that’s true love.

This mom's sweet "I love you" surprise

@goodnewscorrespondent

Daughter is surprised when her mom, who is non-verbal with Alzheimers, replies I LOVE YOU! ❤️ As a daughter of a mom with ALZ, this had me in tears. 😭💞 Cherish these moments. @momolarks800

♬ original sound - Good News Correspondent

Tiktok user @momolarks80 caught an unexpected (and heartwarming) message when she filmed herself and her mother saying hello. Living with Alzheimer’s and mostly nonverbal, her mother surprised her with a rare “I love you”—to which the daughter responds by planting a kiss on her cheek. Talk about wholesome.

For more reasons to smile, check out all the ways Subaru is sharing the love this holiday season, here.

From Your Site Articles
uplifting
Education

The one sign that someone is highly intelligent, according to literary genius Leo Tolstoy

He was a master of understanding the human condition.

en.m.wikipedia.org
File:L.N.Tolstoy Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg - Wikipedia

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian novelist known for epic works such as"War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina.” His life experiences—from witnessing war to spiritual quests—profoundly influenced his writings and gave him profound insights into the human soul. His understanding of emotions, motivations and moral dilemmas has made his work stand the test of time, and it still resonates with people today.

Juan de Medeiros, a TikTokker who shares his thoughts on philosophy, recently shared how Tolstoy knew if someone was highly intelligent, and his observation says something extraordinary about humanity.

“The more intelligent a person is, the more he discovers kindness in others,” Tolstoy once wrote. “For nothing enriches the world more than kindness. It makes mysterious things clear, difficult things easy, and dull things cheerful.”

@julianphilosophy

Intelligent people are kind #intelligent #intelligence #kindness #smart #tolstoy #men #women

De Medeiros boiled down Tolstoy’s thoughts into a simple statement: “Intelligent people are unafraid to be kind.” He then took things a step further by noting that Tolstoy believed in the power of emotional intelligence. "To have emotional intelligence is to see the good in other people, that is what Tolstoy meant, that to be intelligent is to be kind," he added.

It seems that, according to de Medeiros, Tolstoy understood that intelligent people are kind and perceptive of the kindness in others. The intelligent person is conscious of the kindness within themselves and in the world around them.

Through the words of Tolstoy, de Medeiros makes a point that is often overlooked when people talk about intelligence. Truly smart people are as in touch with their hearts as they are with their minds.


This article originally appeared last year.

From Your Site Articles
kindness
Nature

A sea lion jumped on a woman's boat to escape a group of orcas and the footage is wild

Orca sightings are usually exciting, but this is a whole other story.

Screenshots via @castrowas95/Twitter

In the Pacific Northwest, orca sightings are a fairly common occurrence. Still, tourists and locals alike marvel when a pod of "sea pandas" swim by, whipping out their phones to capture some of nature's most beautiful and intelligent creatures in their natural habitat. While orcas aren't a threat to humans, there's a reason they're called "killer whales." To their prey, which includes just about everything that swims except humans, they are terrifying apex predators who hunt in packs and will even coordinate to attack whales several times their own size.

So if you're a human alone on a little platform boat, and a sea lion that a group of orcas was eyeing for lunch jumps onto your boat, you might feel a little wary. Especially when those orcas don't just swim on by, but surround you head-on.

Watch exactly that scenario play out (language warning, if you've got wee ones you don't want f-bombed):


Ummm, yeah. An orca sighting is one thing, but this is a whole other story. Orcas have been known to knock large prey off of icebergs, so the whole "orcas don't hurt humans" thing doesn't feel super reassuring in this scenario.

The footage came from TikTok user @nutabull, whose now-deleted account stated she was from Vancouver Island.

The second video is even more intimidating.

The viral video sparked a debate about whether the sea lion should be kicked off the boat or not. The woman kept telling the sea lion it "had to go" with a frank "Sorry, buddy, that's life," message, though she never actively tried to push it off. Many commenters joked about yeeting the sea lion off the boat to avoid a potentially disastrous encounter with the orcas. Others were on #teamsealion, saying they wouldn't have the heart to boot the poor thing.

The reality is orcas eat sea lions—the circle of life and whatnot. Most of us just don't find ourselves in the middle of that circle, having to figure out whether the apex predators surrounding our boat are going to patiently wait for their lunch to come back or take it upon themselves to bump it back into the water.

Thankfully for the woman, the sea lion seemed to decide on its own that its options were limited and dove back in to take its chances with the orcas. But phew, that encounter would be harrowing for just about anyone.

Best of luck, sea lion. Hope you're an exceptional swimmer.


This article originally appeared four years ago.

From Your Site Articles
Community

17 sights, sounds and feels that only children of the '70s will ever understand

Remember getting wrapped up in a super-long phone cord?

via Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr

Kids at Seattle Center during Bumbershoot, 1973

A lot has changed since the 1970s. If you took a 20-year-old from 2024 and put them in a time machine back to 1974, they’d have a hard time figuring out how to use a telephone, get a good picture on the television set with rabbit ears, or buy tickets for the Pink Floyd or Jackson 5 concert.

They’d also probably be appalled by the number of people who smoke, the massive amount of litter on the streets, and the general lack of concern for the safety of children. In certain cities, they’d also be blown away by the amount of smog in the air.

A Reddit user directing a production that takes place in the '70s wanted to learn what life was like in the “Me Decade,” so they asked the AkkReddit forum for “some behaviors from that time that have disappeared,” and he received over 2,400 responses.

Some were bittersweet remembrances of a carefree and unsupervised childhood. At the same time, others recalled a time when children were often the targets of abuse and subject to many traumatic experiences that they were discouraged from speaking about.

We looked at the thread and chose the 17 best responses to behaviors from the ‘70s that “have disappeared.”



1. Playing with the phone cord

"Fidgeting with the long coiled cord while talking on the phone—like twirling your finger into the coil."

"We had a long cord that you could swing like a jump rope."

"Answering every phone call with some variation of '<last name> residence, <first name> speaking.'"

2. Smelling cigarette smoke

"Smoking everywhere all the time."

"I remember the teachers lounge in my grammar school oozing smoke."

"4 hour drives to see Nannie, all windows closed, both mom and dad smoking. Think of it, three 3 small kids getting poisioned from the 2nd hand smoke, pleading to stop or open the window and Dad saying 'get used to it, the world smokes' andMom saying the cracked open wi dow was 'too noisy'. Breathing through our coat sleeves with the arms opening under their car seats, where the fresh air came out. Four hours of constant nausea and illness that lingerd for 30 min after."

3. Soda cans for candy

"Returning soda bottles to the store and getting enough money back to buy a candy bar."

"Yes, having work and save up for the candy bar or pack of gum. Or being lucky enough to find a penny for the gum ball machine outside the grocery store. "

4. Clothes lasted forever

"The lengths everyone went to make things last, all our clothes were patched or sewn up and handed down. New clothes shopping was maybe once a year. Or whenever the Sears catalog came out."



5. Payphones

"Checking the change slot in the phone booths in case people forgot their coins. I also remember when phone calls were a dime!"

6. Calling the Time Lady

"367-1234. At the time the time will be 11:22 and 20 seconds — beep”

7. Playing outside all day

"When being sent outside to play meant you were given a radius to stay in like 'our neighboorhood,' and a time to be home was 'when the street lights come on.'"

8. TV was appointment viewing

"Reading TV Guide for program times."

"There was no way to record a show until VCRs came came out, so you watched a show when it was scheduled to be broadcast, and missed it if you didn’t turn it on at the time it started. So, families had to negotiate if there was more than one show on that people wanted to watch. Prime time was a big deal because that was when the three networks played their top shows."



9. Rabbit ears

"Wrapping tin foil squares on 'rabbit ear' antennas."

"When the picture got fuzzy, slapping the side of the TV set to correct the picture."

10. The phone book had many uses

"That big phone book was the booster seat for the youngest kid at the table."

11. CB radios

"References the cb radio culture during normal conversations. Everyone understood."

"Ten four"

"Breaker, breaker"

"You got that right, good buddy."

12. Long distance was pricey

"Making local calls vs long distance calls. Had to keep calls short to relatives because they were long distance. Making collect calls."

"Right, and you might add the cost of long distance calls was X amount per minute. Also, moving into a new place required a call to the telephone company to have a phone installed in various rooms and you had to preorder the types and colors."

"If you wanted to make an overseas call, you had to call the international operator at least a couple of hours before the call to schedule it."



13. Fake collect calls

"Making fake collect calls to your parents to come pick you up. 'You have received a collect call from … ‘we’re done and out front!’… do you wish to accept the call? Nope. Already got the message."

14. Before scrolling, we read

"Reading. Reading the newspaper. Reading the cereal boxes at breakfast. Reading on the toilet. Doing crosswords and word games. Before phones, you had to engage more with what was around."

"If there was no Reader’s Digest in the bathroom, you had to read the shampoo ingredients. Sodium laurel sulfate, etc."

15. The bank line

"When Friday rolled around, and you needed money for the weekend, you went to the bank, stood in line and made a withdrawal."
"We took our checks to the bank on Friday to be cashed, some for the checking account and some for spending cause everything was paid for with cash."

16. Unsafe seating in trucks

"No seatbelts, but drivers could get in trouble if car was overfilled, so a mom would yell 'duck' if she saw a cop. This would be a Volkswagen Bug with 7-8 kids piled up going to the beach or park. Totally normal to pile kids in the bed of a pickup truck - sometimes with folding chairs. Also common to grab the back of a car while you were skateboarding (there was a word for this I don't remember)."

17. Staring at the sky

"Laying down in the grass and looking at the sky. Leisure time died when portable entertainment became a thing, particularly nobile phones. The level of disconnection that's required to just stare at clouds or stars (and be happy doing it) is sorely missing nowadays. At least I miss it."


This article originally appeared last September.
From Your Site Articles
1970s nostalgia
Health

Anthony Hopkins gave up alcohol 49 years ago. His celebratory message may help others.

"I've had more fun these 49 years than ever."

Photo credit: Elena Torre from Viareggio, Italia

Anthony Hopkins has been sober for nearly five decades.

With the popularity of Dry January rising over the past decade, the new year is now a many people to experiment with sobriety. For some people, giving up alcohol for the month is a temporary break, but for others it's the start of a lifelong lifestyle change as they trade in beer, wine and cocktails for mocktails and non-alcoholic drinks.

Anthony Hopkins knows a thing or two about living life without alcohol, as he quit drinking nearly five decades ago. In a video shared with his fans just two days shy of his 87th birthday, the legendary actor celebrated his 49th sober anniversary and his message may help others who are on their own sobriety journey.

"Forty-nine years ago today, I stopped [gesture indicating drinking]," he shared. "And I was having such fun. But then I realized I was in big, big trouble because I couldn't remember anything and I was driving a car, drunk out of my skull. On that fatal day, I realized I needed help." Hopkins realized he wasn't unique and formed a group with others who had a problem with alcohol use. "And that was it, it was over," he said.

"I've had more fun these 49 years than ever," he added, countering the common perception that a sober life means a boring one. Alcohol is synonymous with fun in many people's minds—even Hopkins himself said that drinking was fun—which makes giving up alcohol seem like a big bummer. But Hopkins found, as so many do, that going alcohol-free doesn't mean missing out on life's pleasures. "I got sober—it sounds a dull word—but I've had a wonderful life," he said.

People who give up alcohol or other drugs do often miss the "high" they provide, which is why it's important to be aware of how "euphoric recall" can pull people back to dependency. “Euphoric recall is the act of remembering only the pleasures associated with stimulant use and not the adverse consequences," according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA). "Euphoric recall is a potent relapse risk factor because it minimizes clients’ perceptions of stimulants’ danger, promoting an ambivalence about quitting.”

Though a sober life isn't boring, it might seem boring at first. Writer Chelsey Flood has shared how she handled the perceived "agonizing boredom" of early sobriety and what she recognized as the alcohol-driven reasons for that feeling five years later:

1. You are used to being able to change your mood in seconds.

2. You falsely believe you need alcohol to do certain things.

3. You are not used to the way you feel.

4. Everything else takes more effort than drinking.

"Alcohol makes you feel good immediately after you drink it," she writes. "It gives you a rush and quietens the part of your brain that worries about everything. After you quit, you have to learn ways of doing this without turning to beer. At first, every alternative seems to take a lot longer to create the same effects to a lesser degree. This sucks. And there is no way around it, except to stay on the path of sobriety and learn new coping strategies and relaxation techniques."

The effort is worth it, according to Flood. "Now I’m almost five years sober, the idea of not drinking being boring is laughable," she writes. "Life has improved ten times over since I quit drinking."

People are taking the opportunity to share their congratulations as well as their own sober success stories on Hopkins' Instagram.

"Congratulations on 49 years sir! I just celebrated my first year sober this past month and I wouldn’t give up my sobriety for anything in the world."

"I shall be a year sober tomorrow and I’ve had the best year!! I’ve tried before but this time is different and I LOVE sobriety ❤️"

"Amazing. I'm 15 yrs sober now.We are so lucky to be living our best lives. ❤️"

"Thank you for this important share! 😊 I have been sober 3 years and 7 months 🙏 I am so glad that I can share this path with one of my favorite actors ❤️"

"Congratulations! Thank you for the post. It’s 32 years, 6 months and 5 days here! Forever a challenge and I am staying vigilant!"

One person wrote, "If I’m doing the math right, I was also 38 when I quit alcohol. I have two years now, I can only hope to be so lucky and look back on 49. Congratulations!" Hopkins himself responded, "Congratulations on 2 years. One day at a time. You will find a life beyond your dreams. Wishing you a healthy 2025."

As Hopkins said, there are lots of resources for people who are looking to change their relationship with alcohol. SAMHSA has a National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or go to findtreatment.gov. Alcoholics Anonymous also has a self-assessment quiz that can help you determine if you might have a problem with alcohol.

As Anthony Hopkins, Tom Holland and others share the joy of sobriety and more and more non-alcoholic alternatives become available, there's never been a more opportune time to experiment with giving up alcohol—even if it's just for Dry January.

From Your Site Articles
healthy living
Education

'One-step-ahead' sneaker store owner found a genius way to stop thieves during a break-in

All they had to do was look in the window.

via Canva/Photos

Some thieves try to break into a store.

On Monday, December 30, a car driven by thieves plowed into the front window of DripOnDrip, an athletic shoe store in Fresno, California, and a team of robbers ran into the place. But after they entered through the busted window, they ran around the store confused for about 30 seconds and then returned to their cars. Why? They couldn’t find anything to steal. The store’s owner, Roman Gonzales, was a step ahead of the thieves by making sure there was very little in his store to take. All they made away with were a few backpacks and some shoes that Gonzales planned to donate to charity.

Evidently, the thieves weren't that bright. “If they would have looked through the window, they would have saved themselves some time and energy from even trying to break in,” Gonzales told KTSM. “They would have noticed that there is nothing here on the floor for them to take.” After having his store gutted by thieves about a year ago, Gonzales ensured it’d never happen again by using clever anti-burglar tactics.

When the store closes every night, he removes all visible merchandise, clears almost the entire floor, and takes every last dime out of the cash register. He even leaves the empty register drawer open by the front window so thieves know there’s nothing they can steal before they bother to break into the place.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

He also ensures that all of the shoes on display are right-footed because there’s not much you can do with just one shoe.

“There’s no value once you take this shoe. I mean, you can’t just buy a left-foot shoe online, either. So you’re not going to be able to use that item or even resell it. It’s just pointless,” Gonzales said. One of the only things left out was some shoes he planned to give to those in need. "They did take some donation shoes that I give away to the community here for teenagers that come in, and I want to make sure that they have some new kicks," Gonzales said.

Gonzales’ approach to preventing his store from being robbed is pretty simple: Don’t give them anything to take.



After the recent break-in, Gonzales spoke to the people who run the shopping center about having some large concrete blockades installed between the street and his store to prevent cars from smashing into the window. Ultimately, he hopes the people who broke into his shop will be deterred from doing it again. “Let’s hope they get caught and learn from this situation,” Gonzales said.

This story comes as California is dealing with a jump in property crime that started during the COVID-19 pandemic. This bucked a 40-year-trend in the state where crime had dropped for 40 years. Since 1993, the state's violent crime rate has decreased by 49% . To reduce the state’s prison population, the state passed Proposition 14 in 2014, reducing many property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. However, the state passed Proposition 36 in November, which returned many crimes to felony status to reverse the rise in property crime.

From Your Site Articles
crime
Trending Stories