As the oldest of 6, the mother of 4, I have always been fascinated by children's individual differences. Anne and I have been speculating about what kind of a child Michael will be since he was born. She was an explorer, walking and climbing stairs at 9 months, walking up to early large dog in Central Park at 1, mastering slides, climbing structures, ice skating, cartwheels, head stands much earlier than her friends. However, she never showed any interest in electric outlets.
My youngest, Carolyn, resembled Anne, but was considerably more ambitious. She crawled before she was 5 months; delighted to pull herself up to a stand leaning on our kitten. She needed three sets of stitches on her face before she was 2 because she always ran in a small house, colliding with stairs, pianos, and coffee tables. Michelle and Rose, my middle daughters, required entire different childproofing, because they had far more advanced small motor skills, so knobs came off stoves, electric outlets were barricades, cabinets had more complicated locks.
At 7 months, Michael clearly has the small motor skills of Michelle and Rose. I hope he is less challenging because he doesn't have older siblings unchildproofing as fast as I could childproof. Michelle loved to make "potions"; I dreaded a phone call to poison control explaining that the baby had drunk a liquid containing bees, dandelions, contact lens solution, detergent, desitin, chocolate, yogurt, perfume.
Childproofing is considerably easier in a 2-bedroom apartment than a 2-story house, except for the terrace on the sixth floor. Michael is clearly demonstrating the persistence and determination all my daughters showed in their different ways,
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9 comments:
So cute!
And how interesting to hear the different stories.
My mother is sympathetic to me when I whine about my kids driving me batty but then says something along the lines of getting what was coming to me LOL.
My younger has good motor skills and good verbal skills.
My older is a still water than runs deep.
It's all good.
GL with childproofing. I find kids can out-think it faster than I can think it up. They have less to think about and more time LOL.
Julie
Using My Words
I still cannot believe they live in a NYC studio with a child. I would lose my mind.
I do find it fascinating how some children love electrical sockets and some just don't care. My kids were both category 2.
Emily,
There is a method to their studio madness. They live in what is widely considered the best deal in Manhattan, an extremely nice, incredibly affordable coop. The catch is that the waiting list is over 10 years (if you win the lottery to get on the waiting list). Only the studio waiting list was open when Anne applied. They knew that they would get a spacious 2-bedroom apt. about six months after Michael was born. They both work for nonprofits; this apt. is the only way they could possibly afford Manhattan.
The advantage of living in a studio with a baby is that a two bedroom apt. seems like a palace.
Julie,
When children are grown, it is fascinating to look back at their early years and see how their temperament persisted.
Twenty years ago, if someone had listed four careers and ask me to match the daughter with her future career, I would have guessed right each time.
Still waters can run astonishingly passionate and eloquent.
He really is a dear, and I miss those days when my kids were into everything. I can't imagine how delicious it will be to be a grandmother. I hope I am one day.
My daughters justly complain that I am a hypocrite. All their lives I encouraged them to pursue education and ambitous careers. Then about 5 years ago, I started saying, "When grandma was my age, she had 6, 7, 8, 9 grandchildren."
Being a grandmother is totally delicious. Taking care of Michael is the best job I have had since staying home with my daughters. As my daughter Rose pointed out, this is the first time I am confident I know what I am doing and have only one child.
Yes, you're right. A smaller apartment is easier to childproof than a double storey house. I live in an apartment in Hong Kong and I find it so much easier keeping an eye over my toddler in such a small space. When we went back to Malaysia once to visit my parents, taking care of him suddenly became so much more difficult, esepcially the stairs part!
cute picture.
My granddaughter loves our stairs. When we retired to where we wanted to live, geographically, we looked for a house big enough to accommodate all family members should any want to live here. It was a short-lived experiment that repeats itself in shorter installments from time-to-time. It looks very likely that our children with children will not be able to afford any fantastic single-family dwelling without a lot of support from us, so, in the meantime, the grandparent house is kind of an oasis and we like that, oh yes we do!
~Cynthia
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