The age of discovery

It could easily be argued that as soon as you are born you are discovering things.  As an infant my son seemed very thoughtful, wide eyed and absorbing everything.  But I feel there is a difference in discovering you can move your arms and legs (which was at the time very exciting) and later discovering your belly button.

In the beginning a lot of what your child is actively experimenting with is there own body, to try and answer the question: how do I operate this crazy contraption?  "coo" did I make that sound? That's funny! Hehehe! The sound of laughter is even funnier! (As an infant my son was easily amused and would laugh at almost anything.

Then there is the discovery of locomotion. Being able to transport oneself from one part of the room to the next is big news too.  But it is only after the self discovery does the magic of the rest of the world truly seem to call.

When I take my son for a walk, he wants to pick up everything.  He'll pick flowers, grab sticks, pick up rocks, pet the fire hydrant, and hug street signs. He'll squat by the dirt and wave his hands through it if given the chance, and every puddle is beckoning tiny feet to do a stomping sort of dance.  Even when we are walking in the mall he will run to the potted plants to touch the leaves, and hug the columns that support the building.

And then the shy excitement of seeing other children or small animals.  His whole being seems to shout "I want to touch it! I don't know if it's a good idea but I want to touch it!  Mommy are you going to stop me? Because I'm going to touch it!"  He has a little dance where he looks at what he wants to touch then back to me then back to it, sometimes he pushes me towards what he is interested in if he's unsure, as if to say "Hey mommy, there is a thing, and it's cool, you go first!"

Other kids seem to be the most interesting and most confounding, to my son.  He has figured out that little girls like it when you hand them flowers, but doesn't really understand that once he gives them the flower, they are going to want to keep it.  Luckily flowers are plentiful and generally I can quickly replace the one he has given away with a new one.  So far most other things he hands children (like books at the library) the other kids seem to be willing to receive and give back.  So we are learning about sharing! Fantastic! We are also working on saying please and thank you, but you know, one thing at a time.