A Swinging Good Time
Many early childhood milestones are expected and predicted with reasonable accuracy. They're the ones you read about in What to Expect the First Year: rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking, first words, etc. After about the 14th month of life, when new milestones slow down, you stop waiting and watching every movement. So when something new happens long after you've been paying attention, it's a beautiful thing.
One of these sunny days I took the kids out in the backyard to get some wiggles out. Harrison hopped on the playgym swing and started swinging, by himself. He leaned forward and back in overextended motions, but managed to lift himself higher and higher. Nowhere in the books does it say that at 55 months your child will swing by himself. This is HUGE.
If your idea of a good time is pushing a swing for half an hour, then maybe it sounds like I'm exaggerating. But if you'd rather be digging for worms with your teeth, then you'll understand my excitement.
Watching it happen before your eyes is positively thrilling. The swinging starts with barely perceptible movements, like the click-click of climbing to the peak of a roller coaster. The increments continue and show definite progress in the right direction; you're rolling over the coaster's peak and can see the precipice below. The swinging gets higher and faster and you can hardly believe what's happening; you're barreling down the coaster, letting out your giddiest scream. I whooped so loud I'm certain the playground three blocks away heard me.
It was one of those exhilarating moments that makes every day so worth it. Thanks, Harrison.
One of these sunny days I took the kids out in the backyard to get some wiggles out. Harrison hopped on the playgym swing and started swinging, by himself. He leaned forward and back in overextended motions, but managed to lift himself higher and higher. Nowhere in the books does it say that at 55 months your child will swing by himself. This is HUGE.
If your idea of a good time is pushing a swing for half an hour, then maybe it sounds like I'm exaggerating. But if you'd rather be digging for worms with your teeth, then you'll understand my excitement.
Watching it happen before your eyes is positively thrilling. The swinging starts with barely perceptible movements, like the click-click of climbing to the peak of a roller coaster. The increments continue and show definite progress in the right direction; you're rolling over the coaster's peak and can see the precipice below. The swinging gets higher and faster and you can hardly believe what's happening; you're barreling down the coaster, letting out your giddiest scream. I whooped so loud I'm certain the playground three blocks away heard me.
It was one of those exhilarating moments that makes every day so worth it. Thanks, Harrison.
posted by Anne at 9:30 AM
6 Comments:
That's pretty cool - I can only imagine how interesting and exciting it must be to watch your child develop. (I do not have any children.)
I have a niece who is almost 2 (in March) and every day it seems like she learns something new. She's this incredible sponge. Quite a little marvel.
That was a touching post.
Thanks. :-)
The new developments do make it all more interesting and fun, that's for sure.
What has amazed me most, from the very day they were born, is how innately excited and motivated they are to be better humans. The immense effort they make to overcome their inexperience, whether in walking, talking, taking risks or simply in the everyday challenge of waking up happy, is inspiring. I wonder where most of us lost that passion along the way.
Oh, I might have an answer to that.
Age 13.
It's when most lose the urge to be good humans.
;)
(For the record, that gives you roughly 101 months left to enjoy.)
In that case, I'll take advantage of the inspiration while I can! :-)
What I found most interesting over the past few years is watching Cole become... and this sounds really weird I'm sure... but "aware". Kids really aren't aware of themselves and others for a very long time.
When it happen - when they realize their actions have costs and benefits, that's a really interesting thing. Critical thinking rapidly builds from that point as well.
Reading RE's comment made me think of the movie Kids and Thirteen. Ahhh... kids...
:)
And for the record we've been playing Rock Band and Cole has really loved it. Unfortunately he just bought Enter Sandman on iTunes cuz it's in the game.
Maybe he hasn't become aware yet. I take back my previous comment.
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