One thing I've learned: 6 week edition
Yesterday marked the boys' six-week birthday. Here is something I've learned: tiny babies are astonishingly smart and aware of their environments.
I suppose this would have come as no revelation to Darwin, but it's been a big surprise for me. I thought that babies were mostly unaware of adults and our mystifying ways for at least the first several months. Not so. These babies are already trying to train me.
For example, both of them can tell when I'm leaving them temporarily to visit the bathroom, vs. when I'm cruelly deserting them in their crib until the next feeding. They don't cry when I leave their room, as I might have expected. Instead, they wait and listen to what I do in the hallway when I leave the bathroom. If I turn right and take one step toward the stairs, they immediately start to yell. If instead I turn back toward their room, they wait quietly and contentedly in their crib for me. The latter is the equivalent of patting me on the head and giving me a cookie. Good Mommy.
Maybe this behavior doesn't seem like much, but it's much more complex interaction than I anticipated (I figured that babies simply cried until someone shoved a breast or bottle in their mouths). It takes observation, and patience, and abstract pattern recognition. The difference in sound between one step toward their room and one step away from it is pretty subtle. And yet, they can tell the difference, interpret what it means and spring into action if needed.
It's impressive, considering that babies come into this world with absolutely no context at all, and have to somehow assimilate so much at once. Meanwhile, I get lost for hours when I make the mistake of simply going to a new grocery store -- even though with the same products, same checkout lines, same everything, there's really very little assimilation required on my part. Babies who didn't know what it was to breathe six weeks ago are already running their little world; but merely switch the frozen food aisle with the pet supplies on me, and I'm helplessly wandering around like Moses.
It's a good thing we adults are bigger than these babies, because I think they're smarter.
I suppose this would have come as no revelation to Darwin, but it's been a big surprise for me. I thought that babies were mostly unaware of adults and our mystifying ways for at least the first several months. Not so. These babies are already trying to train me.
For example, both of them can tell when I'm leaving them temporarily to visit the bathroom, vs. when I'm cruelly deserting them in their crib until the next feeding. They don't cry when I leave their room, as I might have expected. Instead, they wait and listen to what I do in the hallway when I leave the bathroom. If I turn right and take one step toward the stairs, they immediately start to yell. If instead I turn back toward their room, they wait quietly and contentedly in their crib for me. The latter is the equivalent of patting me on the head and giving me a cookie. Good Mommy.
Maybe this behavior doesn't seem like much, but it's much more complex interaction than I anticipated (I figured that babies simply cried until someone shoved a breast or bottle in their mouths). It takes observation, and patience, and abstract pattern recognition. The difference in sound between one step toward their room and one step away from it is pretty subtle. And yet, they can tell the difference, interpret what it means and spring into action if needed.
It's impressive, considering that babies come into this world with absolutely no context at all, and have to somehow assimilate so much at once. Meanwhile, I get lost for hours when I make the mistake of simply going to a new grocery store -- even though with the same products, same checkout lines, same everything, there's really very little assimilation required on my part. Babies who didn't know what it was to breathe six weeks ago are already running their little world; but merely switch the frozen food aisle with the pet supplies on me, and I'm helplessly wandering around like Moses.
It's a good thing we adults are bigger than these babies, because I think they're smarter.
posted by E. at 12:16 AM
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