Speed

(This is my second post for today, does that count for one of the days with NaBloWriMo, ahhh, never mind.  Lol.)

I am participating in the 1000 words and a picture.  To learn more about the 1000 words and a picture prompt and to participate, click here!

The word options for this week are:  Speed, Sports, and Flight.  I’m just barely squeaking this post in for the first week of October and had to really consider the options.  (In advance, I apologize for the content of this post, any horrible spelling errors, etc.  Next 1000 words and a picture will be better thought out :)

Ok, to the options:  Sports, bleh.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled that the Saints are 5-0 – Woot and a Who Dat!  But 1000 words on football?  Not going to happen.  Flight?  Haven’t been on one in a while and though we have many winged animals, I don’t know enough about them for a post.

So, Speed was left.  No, I don’t drive fast.  In fact, my husband will tell you that I drive like a Granny.  I’m Ok with driving slow or I should say THE SPEED LIMIT, because I don’t drive much, which leads to less road rage.

However, I’m not here to write about driving.  Speed, the first thought that came to mind was my son.  That sounds odd, doesn’t it?

He is only seven and a half months old, what would my son know about speed?  There’s nothing fast moving about him (other than his legs which can kick the daylights out of you)…. 

In the grand scheme of things, what is 7 ½ months?  It’s not a year, not a full term pregnancy.  It’s just a blip of months that typically zoom zoom by, for most people.  But I’m slowing life down and looking back to appreciate the here and now.  Yes, the topic of speed forced me to slow down and look back!

I remember the first visit to the pediatrician.  The nurse said, “Your son will grow faster in his first year than the rest of his life.”  Her comment surprised me.  It made sense, of course, but it made me take a step back and consider all that a body must do from birth.

My son, that joyful little bundle, was a bottle, burp, puke and poop machine in the beginning and yet here he is 7 ½ months later… sitting up on his own (and daddy is trying SO HARD to get him to stand and walk already!)…  he is no longer a little “lump” of cuddly. 

Let’s think about the milestones, which every parent is nervous about their child achieving.  How crazy that we get so nervous about the milestone reached for our baby yet the baby will learn at his or her own pace and in his or her own way.  Yet, I’m guilty of watching, waiting and wanting those milestones for him.  The milestones of sleeping at night, of rolling to his tummy, of rolling to his side, of sitting up…  If you don’t know how to do these things, it’s a LOT to learn!  Yet parents rush and tumble over ourselves, right along with the baby.

Look at the speed of his learning!  And I’m not just talking about his physical abilities, but also mental.  He had to learn recognition of parents, based on our voice.  To be honest, I believe my son even knows my footfalls, because he turns his head when I enter a room, without speaking.

He has also learned habits!  My husband and I agreed to create a bath time routine – bath, bottle, bed at 7pm.  Our son picked up on this quickly and within days of doing this, he was sleeping throughout the night!  And now?  When he gets cranky, it’s always close to bath time.  Then, when we get him ready for the bath, he goes from cranky to happy.  He knows the routine.  He learned it!

Our son has recognized consequences.  I was on the floor with him, as I worked with him sitting.  Each time he swayed to the front (about to fall unto his face), I’d catch him and sit him upright.  We were on a padded mat, but I didn’t want him to fall.  Then, one time I let him fall.  He had an expression on his face as if to say, “You let me fall!”  I said, “This is what happens when you don’t balance.”  I’m not kidding when I tell you that within minutes of that happening, he was doing a thousand times better at balancing!  He learned a consequence and adjusted his behavior.  It was amazing to watch the speed of his self-education.

The speed of learning… my son, in 7 ½ months, went from the comfort of everything being done for him within the womb.. to a loud cry welcoming his birth in a crazy unknown world, to the recognition of his parents, from a hungry lump of a feed/poop machine to baby who can now sit… and know a routine… and is mumbling words (he knows “baba” for bottle and he has said “dada” but the little bugger won’t say “Mama” no matter how many times I say it to him).

It’s amazing to see how my son adjusts to change, the view of the world, the movement of his body, everything around him is new and different.  He accepts the changes so well.  Will he always be like this or will he grow up and not like the instability of change (like his mommy) or will he find change as a challenge and take on the challenge with gusto (like his daddy)….

I think about everything he has learned thus far and I wonder… when does it change?  When do we slow down our learning process?  Because that seems to happen… 

Is it when the child enters standardized schools?  “This is the time that you learn, when you go to school.  You go to school to learn.”  When a timeframe is created for education (going to a building for learning) in such a method, does it put a speed bump on the road for the ability to take in new things quickly?  Is that the mentality and where the learning ability changes and slows down? 

Because I tell you what… there’s no way that I could learn THAT many things in 7 ½ months as an adult, as my son has learned thus far! 

Do you think you could accomplish so much as a baby first born?  Can we get back the speed to learn or at least maintain the speed of education?  Can we achieve the speed of soaking in knowledge, like that of a baby, in our adult years? 

When we look at a baby, we think about how much we can give and teach the child… but the child’s ability to learn is a lesson to us… don’t let life put speed bumps on knowledge.