We grow flowers in our gardens and pretty little girls in our families. Notes on that precious flower of Grandmother, Kaitlyn Mae
Kaitlyn's Never Ending Quest to Walk
In the picture above, do not let your eyes deceive you, baby Kaitlyn Mae is NOT genuflecting.
Indeed, the girl child continues onward in her relentless pursuit to walk on her own two legs and this is but another adaptation in her methodology.
Via this method, Kaitlyn manages to use her right leg to propel herself forward while her left leg acts as a brace to keep her torso upright.
Now Grandmother understands, Kaitlyn Mae, that this method of locomotion shows a little bit of genius in that on this day of our Lord 11/24/04, Kaitlyn one month shy of a year old, cannot quite stand upright, much less walk, just yet.
As Grandmother sees it, Kaitlyn wishes to have her torso upright that she may see what's going on the world around her but has adapted this method in lieu of baby legs not quite ready to do the deed.
Well it was the just the funniest sight Grandmother's sore eyes had seen in a month. There was sweet Granddaughter Kaitlyn "walking" all over the place during a recent visit to Grandmother's, in this crazy gait that had me scolding her parents for allowing such a thing.
"Yeah, that's her new way of crawling," your mother responded rather nonchalantly to my scold.
"She looks like one of those legless people that ride around down town on skateboards," I responded, my sensibilities temporarily offended.
Yet Kaitlyn pushed her right leg and braced her left leg all over my house until eventually mine eyes couldn't handle the funny sight for fear of bladder loss. I wanted so bad to pick my baby Granddaughter up and assure her that she will not always have to look like this comical torso "walking" all around via the only method she could use for proper locomotion as well as complete sight of the world around her.
Actually, Kaitlyn, this walking adaptation shows a form of baby genius not that I'm not your Grandmother or anything and would see it this way.
At times you did resort to a more normal baby crawl but this was only to get you quickly to a direct object of your desire, such as one of Grandmother's cats. And Kaitlyn my sweet babe, you are extremely proficient at this crawling thing. Thus Grandmother comprehends your impatience to get to the next phase, which would be to "walk" around with an upright torso and get pass this crawling nonsense.
But the infamous "torso" gait that so amused me was not the only source of my smiles that day of your visit in November in this year of our Lord, 2004.
For Kaitlyn has mastered only four words in the English language and there were times when she had to give me instructions and words failed her.
There was that bit with the pacifier. Which your parents call your "binky" for some unknown reason.
You were sitting on Grandmother's lap, reading my Blog with rapt fascination. There you were reading the Blog of your namesake when suddenly you got it into your head that you would throw your binky on the floor. Grandmother had to sit you firmly on the kitchen counter, retrieve your binky, and wash it off as it had been on my dusty floor.
Your parents warned me that this was a favorite game of yours, this obscene fascination your baby self has with watching grown-ups stoop up and down to retrieve items you've thrown just to witness this very sight.
Only in this case your motives were a bit different, at least after your initial toss. It was after I retrieved Kaitlyn's binky for the 54th time, performing the whole routine of sit Kaitlyn on counter, retrieve the thrown object, rinse it under the kitchen faucet, and hand it back to Kaitlyn, that I figured it out.
Finally Kaitlyn extended her left arm full length, binky firm in your hand. You were definitely pointing at the kitchen faucet, Kaitlyn, Grandmother saw this plainly and then dawn broke over my marble head.
You wanted to watch the water pour over your pacifier, Kaitlyn! And with your vocabulary consisting only of Bear, Baby, Hi, and Mom, well, words just failed you. Yet you achieved your goal Kaitlyn, by those series of actions that eventually provided you with the sight you sought.
Which was Grandmother rinsing your pacifier under the faucet waters. Which sight must have been fascinating to you and this concept fascinates Grandmother.
But then I remember that Kaitlyn is but a baby human with so many sounds, sights, tastes and touches to yet assimilate into that baby brain. Your binky being wetted by a kitchen faucet must have been something you'd never seen before, Kaitlyn, something you probably hadn't thought possible.
We did have a lovely day together sweet Granddaughter. As much as Grandmother loves the animals of birds of this world, it is the development of a baby human that intrigues her the most.
All day you were wide awake, fighting sleep like a demon because sleep, Granddaughter, one of those human things you've already learned, tends to make one unaware of the world around them. Kaitlyn, with so much to learn and during an all too rare trip to Grandmother's, was not to be deprived.
I don't blame you, Kaitlyn. Grandmother hates to be bored. The day will come, child, when sleep will be a welcome reprieve from a mind that constantly spins in the daily pursuit of life.
We ended the day with a round of "peek-a-boo" which you did, like most human babies before you, love to play.
You would position yourself around a corner wall as Grandmother positioned herself on the other side. For several minutes we laughed and giggled as if watching the finest comedian. Grandmother would peek around the corner and adopt a surprised visage when to my amazement, on every peek there would be Kaitlyn around the corner just waiting to jump, act shocked, then emit baby giggles at Grandmother's surprise.
At times Grandmother wouldn't peek around that corner and Kaitlyn, unable to resist, would slowly look around the corner for her delayed Grandmother. Then I would look surprised, jump in amazement and yell "Peek-A-Boo".
Well Kaitlyn Grandmother's never met a human baby that didn't love this game. It's like kittens with yarn. Thus I must wonder just what is it about the peek-a-boo game that human babies so adore. And like the kittens with the yarn, behind the play some specie's instinct is being honed.
Grandmother thinks it's nature's plan to make certain baby play so appealing to specific animals' fun and interesting or else the species would never bother to practice.
I really don't know what human instinct is being honed with the peek-a-boo game. Perhaps it's a way of making the unknown fun and not so scary. It's a big wide world and human babies, unlike the rest of the animal kingdom, have so very much to learn.
Anyway, later that night I played peek-a-boo with my dogs. I would cover the big Belgian Shepherd's eyes with my hands, then would spread my fingers open and emit a gasp of surprise that THERE SHE IS!
The dog, well she enjoyed the play but it all made no sense to her. The Shepherd, Jo-Ann, loves to play and she was canine wise enough to know that her mistress was smiling and laughing with this peek-a-boo thing and from a dog's perspective this can only be a good thing. Jo-Ann suffered the hands over her eyes to my smiling end but a certain reticence on her part convinced me that she didn't get the whole concept.
As for the little dachshund, Cleetus, he didn't want to have anything to do with any human being covering his nasty eyes, not for any reason and not even if the beloved mistress smiles in the process. While Cleetus didn't outright bite me for the insult, he did trot away from me in disgust.
I always heard that a dog has the intellectual level of a human two year old. And human two year olds love to play this game. The dogs, however, would prefer the toss of a ball, perhaps a game of tug-of-war with the rag toy. Such canine fun actions evidently satisfy some dog instinct they must hone.
As for peek-a-boo, covering the eyes, gasps of surprise at the revelation, well, Kaitlyn Mae, this is not something a dog particularly wants to do.
Go figure.
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