When Noah was 6 (months)…
Actually, he must have been a little less because it was right before my mom came to visit. Anyway, Noah wanted to get mobile really early. He started scooching around when he was about 3 months old and by 4 months, was getting his little tushie in the air trying to crawl. By 6 months, he was pulling himself up and trying to cruise (you know, where they hitch around holding onto the furniture). When I told the pediatrician this at his 6-month check-up, she didn’t believe me. She thought I was pulling him up and making him stand. Noah was on the exam table and she was lecturing me about how their little hips weren’t ready for standing and that I shouldn’t be pushing him. Just then, Noah somehow pulled himself up on the wall and started crowing triumphantly. As the doc turned to look at him, he lost his balance and slid sideways down and across the wall then started scrambling back up again. Her mouth dropped open then she turned to me and said, “You ought to start baby-proofing now.” He took his first steps just before he turned 9 months old.
Noah was a very serious baby. He had this stern little expression that seemed to throw people. He and I rode the bus to work together 3 days a week and he would push himself to standing on my legs and stare at all the other passengers. If they tried to engage them, he wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t get shy. He would only stare at them severely until they got embarrassed and turned away.
He has gotten more affectionate and more child-like as he’s gotten older but that serious part of him is ever-present. He is very clear about what he wants and what he doesn’t want. He doesn’t want a sibling (although he has reluctantly accepted the fact that I do) and he doesn’t want any schooling (he told me yesterday that he is “learning fine by myself” and that I should leave him alone entirely). I have a theory that in a past life he grew up with 14 brothers and sisters and was sent to a strict boarding school.
Yesterday we were at his best friend’s house and A. said, “You know what? We read Charlotte’s Web and a very sad thing happens in that.” A.’s eyes got big and he lowered his voice. “Charlotte died!”
Noah calmly munched the strawberries. We read Charlotte’s Web a month or so ago and while I sniffled my way through it, Noah was unmoved. I said as much to A.’s mom.
A. was listening and he turned to Noah and said, “Noah, you must not be very respectful of people like Charlotte to not cry.”
“Actually,” said Noah. “It’s just a story.”
Despite his dispassionate reaction to Charlotte (although he loved the book), he is very sensitive when it comes to real life but can be shy about some of his feelings. (Yesterday I asked him about an incident where a friend hit him for no good reason and Noah said, “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s really my own business.”) We can tell that there’s a lot going on in his wee head that he’s just not going to share. That’s hard for me, being the sort of the confessional person that I am. (Witness this blog.)
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about that serious little baby lately. When I see Noah being a silly big kid — making funny noises, cracking jokes — I realize that although he’s diversified, he’s still a stoic little boy (that’s what the doctors used to say about him, that he was “stoic” baby, which is such an odd way to describe an infant but was so appropriate for him). He can still “throw a study” on things, climbing up someplace high on the playground to watch the kids play around him. Who he is has expanded to include a whole range of behaviors but at the center of it all is my familiar baby Noah, watching the world with a serious expression.
LOL!! Sounds like quite the yang to your ying.
Wow, I think Emi might be Noah’s soulmate! Also an insanely early walker (9 months, and also everyone thought I was coaching her or forcing workouts at home), and also quite serious and sensitive. Only in the past few months has she become so much more brave about talking to people and participating in things instead of just standing back and taking everything in. I always try and walk that fine line between validating her sensitive sensibilities and giving her ways to cope with a world that often won’t.
I loved that conversation with Noah about being a calm mommy! Oh, if only it worked that easily…
Noah is apparently an old soul, on the move.
Josie is a very young soul; she’s extremely sensitive and yet unreservedly giddy. If this isn’t her first time around as a human, I’d be surprised.
And I loved the “calm mommy”
Wow, how old is Noah? He sounds quite precocious!
Thanks for stopping by my blog/journal/site earlier! I hope you’ll come back often.
Oh, I got dWitchy’s comments to work, mabye it was just an MT glitch or something at that point.
Take care!
That pediatrician story just cracked me up!! Alice walked at 8.5 months and hasn’t stopped since, so I can totally sympathize. I’m hoping Sammy will go a little more slowly, but she won’t, I can tell — she’s already trying to crawl (1 wk shy of 3 mos).
These kids today and their MTV and their microwave ovens, always in such a hurry!