Curiosity of Children

Our son has reached the wonderful age of almost 3 where memory starts to really take hold and curiosity is at an all time high.  In addition to that, his imagination is running rampant and his perseverance in any activity is astounding.  So now that I have all my superlatives and descriptors out of the way, let me get down to how awesome my son's age is.  Not that I don't love my daughter just as much, its just that she is at a different stage in her life being only 8 months old.  Never fear, I shall be spending time talking about her as well, but for now, I'll talk about my son.  As when I went on sabbatical back in May (yes, I am calling it a sabbatical because it sounds like I meant to stop writing that way), every day brings something new from our son that is amazing and awesome.   While he has his moments of throwing tantrums, they are not a constant presence, and all in all, they are not as bad as I sometimes envisioned them being.  The only part of the tantrums that really get under my skin is when he gets calm, looks you right in the eye, and does exactly what you don't want him to do.  He knows he is doing something wrong, he just wants to get under your skin.  I still love him through it all.  While we have rules about what our son can and can not do, when it comes to trying new things, we don't inhibit him.  If he wants to climb up on the stool that is taller than he is, we let him try, and often to our amazement, he gets up it by himself.   Once he sets his mind to doing something, he often times accomplishes what he set out to do.  If he can't, he'll ask for help at which point I will show him how to do something and he will do it by himself.  Perhaps the ultimate came the a few weekends ago when I was watching him play outside.  I was sitting in a chair up on our patio and when he saw me sitting there, he told me he was going to bring the ladder up there so we could do some work.  Mind you, this is a six foot aluminum step ladder.  So I said, "OK, go ahead."  He started dragging the ladder up, but didn't make it too far as it is much bigger than he is and a little awkward to carry.  So instead, he decided he was going to set it up.  He didn't ask, he just laid it flat, grabbed it by the top, and walked it up to a standing position at which point he pulled the legs apart and proceeded to walk up it.  I think if I had seen myself watching him, I would have seen my jaw on the ground.  I had never showed him how to set up, especially not walking it up from the top like he did, and yet he managed to put the ladder up all by himself.

Its not just putting up a ladder, but its exploring anything and everything and making an attempt at doing everything himself.  There is nothing (unless its extremely dangerous) that we won't let him try by himself.  If he wants to pour syrup on his pancakes, we let him, even if it means pouring the lake of syrup that has inundated his pancake back into the bottle.  If he wants to pour himself some milk, we let him, even if it means cleaning up the flowing river of milk that escaped the cup he was attempting to pour the milk into.  I live his independence and drive to do things himself.  Do things take a little bit longer sometimes?  Absolutely, but its worth it in my mind.  I would rather have things take longer and allow our son's confidence in his own abilities to grow than to just do everything myself in the effort to speed things along.  Whenever our son has a question about something (which happens to be all the time), I do my best to take a few extra minutes, explain things to him, and even go show him things if possible (such as cranes, lifts, excavators, bulldozers, tractors, etc.)   Its not just our son who is curious about everything, but our daughter, now that she is past the half year mark by 2 months, is growing more and more curious about the world around her.  She watches everything her brother does with wide eyes with what I'm sure is the intent of replicating it when she is old enough.  I think a lot of the curiosity that my son exhibits and that I'm sure my daughter exhibits as well is due to the fact that they must interact with the world without a screen in front of them.  We still do not utilize phones, TV's, or computers as babysitters and I feel that it is doing them a world of good.  Our son, having occasionally watched my wife and I use our phones as actual phones, has a few pretend phones that he likes to carry around and call people on.  It is the cutest thing, he will tell us who he is calling and have a brief conversation with them.  Sometimes, he asks us to call them on his phone at which point we get to have those awesome one sided conversations.  His imagination is definitely taking hold and showing itself in a big way now.  Just within the past month or two, he has really made leaps and bounds with his imagination, memory, and even his overall understanding of the world and how the pieces fit together.  Trust me, he is still a long way from figuring everything out, but then again, I would have to say the same thing for myself.  None of that matters though.  At night when we put our daughter to bed first, he still always gives her a kiss and says, "I'll see you tomorrow!"   Its the cutest thing and I wouldn't trade it for anything.