Just how smart is a 2-year-old anyway?

Yesterday I had an afternoon appointment to be shown the latest in trade show displays at the place that sells them way out in the suburbs. I dragged Sarah and Lexi along with me in the car so they could have an outing. I was done by 4:00, and while I had gotten my usual afternoon coffee at the place, I wasn't able to eat my usual afternoon snack while there. So we stopped at Wendy's for a Frosty before we got on the highway for home. As we slowed down on the street to turn around and go into the Wendy's, Lexi exclaimed, "Ceam!" (her way of saying "ice cream"). How does this little girl know that Wendy's is where one goes for ice cream? We have gone there two or three times before for this purpose, but it's amazing how quickly she's picked up on identifying the place and purpose. Sarah says she's done the same thing near the place where we like to go get ice cream in our neighborhood. (Why are we getting ice cream so often, you may ask. It's summer, isn't it? Who doesn't enjoy a regular treat of ice cream when it's hot?)

On the other hand, there's this story that shows she still has some work to do with other foods:

The other day at work we had a meeting that we had a catered lunch for. I brought home some of the pita sandwiches for Sarah, and one was roast beef. Sarah was eating it for dinner that night. Lexi saw it and pointed that she wanted it, but we weren't quite sure what exactly she wanted. She finally said "chocolate" when we pointed to the roast beef on the sandwich (because of the color).

Is it the Swiss blood that she has in her from birth, or have we conditioned her on chocolate so much already? Recall that Lexi also thought there was chocolate in one of the lunar landers at the Air and Space Museum because it was wrapped in shiny foil - like a chocolate bar.