Getting some smarts

Today Emmett was playing in the living room and Malcolm was watching from the couch at a safe distance from E's reaching arms. For a while Emmett tried to get Malcolm then went on to other objects, but a few minutes later I asked him "where's the kitty?" and he got this excited look on his face turned around and went back to trying to attack Malcolm. I think this is the first sign of a word/object relation for him---a intelligence skill that the cat does not have, so perhaps we are reaching the point where Emmett will be smarter than Malcolm.