Signifying Something

We all have times in our lives where we feel small, insufficient, and ignored. Where no matter how much we fight to be heard, we are left wanting. Being a child is that feeling all of the time. Your presence is known, but not given much respect. We learn to lash out, yell, scream, and make as much noise as possible to announce to the world that we will be heard. So unlike he who would be King hereafter, my sound is fury because it is new. And as I grow my voice will become as I intend it now - signifying my presence and determination.

Today's Readers Are Tomorrow's Leaders

In the loveliest town of all, where the houses were white and high and the elm trees were green and higher than the houses, where the front yards were wide and pleasant and the back yards were bushy and worth finding out about, where the streets sloped down to the stream and the stream flowed quietly under the bridge, where the lawns ended in the orchards and the orchards ended in fields and the fields ended in pastures and the pastures climbed the hill and disappeared over the top toward the wonderful wide sky, in this loveliest of all towns Stuart stopped to get a drink of sarsaparilla. - Stuart Little, EB White.

I love it when friends and family take the time to read to me. And while most of it is of the ABC and 123 variety, they also read older kids’ books and occasionally books meant for adults. Dad tells me that the more I like being read to now, the more I will like to read when I finally learn. I keep trying to beg him to teach me now, but like many things, he doesn’t understand me. I cope by chewing on as many books as possible.

I am happy for now just listening, even though sometimes I surrender to sleep before they are through. But know that if you are reading to me and I doze off, I am not commenting on your inability to grasp Seuss’ intricate rhyming schemes. It just means I want to better imagine the worlds and characters in the books until I can read about them myself. So until someone finally relents to my pleas for reading lessons, I’ll listen as much as I can, and am happy with just about anyone who wants to take the time to read to me.

My Morning at the Botanical Gardens

This morning my Mom and Grandma Joan took me to meet some of my friends at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens that are at Clemson University. We met at the big red caboose that was donated to the park by the alumni. The older boys we climbing all over it and I can't wait till I am big enough to do the same. Once everyone arrived, I got in my stroller and we started walking. We walked under an arbor with a huge patch of gourds growing on one side. We also walked past many different kinds of trees like pine, maple and oak, as well as other plants like pansies, hostas, monkey grass and many others I don't know the names of. After we had walked for about an hour I got sick of being in the stroller and started to complain, loudly. Mom finally got the message and decided to carry me. She put me up on her shoulders for a little while and it seemed like I could see forever. After walking for a little longer we came to a pond that had ducks, turtles and fish. My friend's mom had packed some seed and bread so we could feed the animals and it was fun watching them all swarm around as we tossed the food to them. It had been two hours since we began our walk and I was tired and hungry. Mom fed me when we got back to the car and I slept all the way home.

Humongous Homunculus

I am now wearing six to nine month clothing and outgrowing things daily. Recently my Grandma Joan and Grandpa Edgar were gone for a week and, upon their return, all they could talk about was how much I’ve grown. A week ago it was my Grandma Sherry and Grandpa David who couldn’t stop raving about my size. I’m a baby; growing is what we do; so let me be and I promise to keep letting you people buy me adorable clothing every couple of weeks.

I am a Savage Beast

Lately I haven’t been sleeping so well. I wake up screaming and I’m not sure why. For hours following my awakening, I’m a loud, arrogant, savage beast. That is, until my parents realized how to tame me. It all started when my Dad played Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue during a screaming fit at 1am. Immediately, I couldn’t cry - and all I could do was listen.

This morning as Dad and I were playing on the floor, he turned on something called Henryk Górecki and his Symphony No. 3. Mom usually puts on something like Barenaked Ladies or Queen. But no matter what is on, I love to listen. Music is what feelings sound like, and I want to feel everything!

Firsts

Every day seems to be loaded with new things. Today we took a trip to the park and I got to go down a slide and ride on a swing for the first time ever. It got me thinking, I do a lot of firsts. In the last six months I’ve been to another country, driven across the US twice, and flow in four airplanes. There have been ponies, kitties, doggies (lots of them), and fish that I’ve met. A couple of weeks ago I moved from one side of the country to another. I’ve been to concerts, restaurants, the ocean, lakes, rivers, museums, pools, picnics, a wedding, parties, flea markets, the mountains, and a Greek festival.

Not to bad for a six-month-old. I wonder what firsts are coming in the next six months?

Learning Curve

My parents tell me that I’m learning at a tremendous rate. Starting to stand, responding to some simple commands, recognizing situations and people, but all of that seems normal to me and it’s very frustrating.

Here I am not able to fully communicate, working to comprehend everything, still losing my fight with gravity and balance, and they think that I’m “coming along nicely”. Who in the name of Mordor do they think that they are kidding?!?! I want to run, I want to climb trees, I want to read books to myself, and I want to explore everything now.

“Coming along nicely”

Humph.