Week of July 10, 2002
Owen continues to be a contradiction. At times his mental gears seem so alert and savvy that I half expect him to start showing me how to work the remote. At other times he jams a cube into the round hole in his sorter and I think "hmmm."
It's hard to tell if he's trying to understand something with his sorter ("Why won't this damn thing fit?") or fine-tuning his understanding ("What happens when I try something other than a ball in those round holes?"). I'm hugely entertained when he just by-passes the whole shape sorting option and puts things in and out using the side door.
No signs of walking yet, but he's such a speedy crawler that there's little incentive for him to go to the next stage. We're enjoying the respite while we have it, I know walking and climbing will be tough. With luck the cautiousness he shows with the stairs and the couch will continue. I'm still impressed that he figured out how to turn around and get down while on his tummy, I think he must have been watching the other kids in daycare. I get the impression he's spending a lot of time watching the other kids and making mental notes.
He's speaking more, and there are times when the words seem to clearly have meaning, but we don't know what he's trying to tell us. He is very expressive with gestures, and is waiting for us to understand him, but I think he's frustrated with our blank looks. It makes me feel quite dim, not understanding his vocalizations, perhaps that's why he's so good at gesturing. At least now he can assume we're not getting him what he wants because we're too dim to understand what he's saying (even as he gestures wildly toward a balloon). All too soon we'll be tussling over the concept of No. For now, being "the idiot parent who doesn't understand that he wants a balloon" is much better than being the meany who says no.
Cats are still at the top of his list, verbally and otherwise. Cat is the one word he says loud and clear ("tat!"). He can pick cats out of pictures and from a good distance away. The favorite pictures in his books are the ones with cats in them. He's been following Noah around a lot lately, trying to head butt him, and Noah is bemused and unhappy with the turn of events. He's still hanging out at floor level in the same room with Owen, but he looks much more wary. Owen's enthusiasm is a little intense, and I fear at some point Owen will get scratched and the bloom will be off the rose a little bit. The irony of this is that Noah spent his first three years head butting everything around him, especially us. He'd often go for our noses and butt us quite hard, we called him our Billy Cat. It was endearing but also a bit of a torment, so to see Owen doing the same behavior toward Noah is irresistible. Strangely, Noah rarely does this anymore, so how is it that Owen happened to fasten onto this particular behavior?
Owen's become more shy lately. Six months ago he would grin at anyone and everyone, the big toothy smiles that make you feel like "ah, he senses my essence and judges me wonderful." He put his whole body into those smiles, and they made you feel so good. Shy people ourselves, we felt kind of thrilled to have a social creature who would seek out faces to make eye contact with and grin for. Well, Owen is still a social and happy kid, but he is definitely more reluctant about who he bestows those smiles upon. He has to be in the right mood, and it has to be the right person, and they should be trying their best to be engaging and smiley. Then he'll perform. But at other times you can stand on your head and reap nothing but dour stares. But it's good be his parent, because he smiles all the time for us...
One ritual we have that makes him grin (or even giggle) is watching the umbrella stroller fold up. He loves watching us pack it up and put it away into the trunk of the car. Unfolding is okay, but folding is better. I wonder if he'll grow up to be a packer-upper like his father. :-)
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