Sometimes I Wonder What Children Think When They Do Things

Sometimes I wonder. Few years ago I was sitting on my backyard and I was enjoying nice weather. It was kind of loud, because children in other backyards were playing. I didn't really mind. However, I overheard this one incident that made me laugh.
- 'What did you do that for?' - a mother asked one of the twin sisters; in the mean time one of them was crying.
Silence, and no answer from the sister in trouble. Now its all mother talk.
- 'How would you feel if someone put your head under the water?' - a mother asked.
- 'How would you feel' - she asked again.
Silence continued and mother kept talking trying to discipline the twin in trouble.

So sometimes I wonder why children do that. Explore. Have Fun. Discover. Action and reaction. All that probably. Since that incident I have now my own child, and sometimes I wonder what he is thinking too. The other day we went to the playground. At that time there was a grandmother with two children, a boy and a girl. He was trying to play with them, but at the age of almost two you think they are playing together, yet no. If you observe carefully they are in their own worlds. Just hanging out close.

Matthew

Matthew is very happy and polite boy when comes to playgrounds, but when he sees other kids running around and doing crazy things, he laughs and then he joins them. My heart sometimes stops - running without breaks, sand flying. However, today he wasn't so bad. He was playing in the sand and moving the sand from one place to the other. Then who would thought. He takes his full hand of sand in his hand, and puts it all on the girls head. So spontaneous, that I didn't have time to stop him. So innocent too, because he started to laugh (really laugh), while I am trying to clean the girls long hair.

- 'Its okay' - the grandmother said.
- 'No no it is not' - I said.
- 'I am sorry again' - I said.
- 'Mathew why did you do that for?' - I said to Matthew.
- 'Why do that' - he asked.
- 'Yes, why?'- I said.
- 'Why?' - he said.
Finally I caught on to his play on words game.
- 'Matthew, please say you are sorry' - I asked.
- 'Sorry' - Matthew said.
- 'Its okay Matthew' - the grandmother replied.
Matthew laughed.

Children? Things they will do. I think I prefer when he hugs girls instead, because if they fall at least it was a good intention.

Someone Little Enjoys His Food

My Matthew who sometimes looks like a little man in the baby clothes is definitely growing. Not just physically but mentally too. His little brain is processing everything he sees, and everything he sees he wants to do - one of them - eat like we eat.

You Are Getting Your Own Dinner Plate. It was time to give Matthew big dinner plate, and let me tell you why. Every breakfast, lunch or dinner Matthew would reach out for our fork or spoon, and dish full of food. He wanted to eat what we eat. It was fun for while, but us eating spaghetti with the spoon did it. 'Matthew you are getting your own plate' - we said. He absolutely loves it now as he can choose from three different foods I put on his dish. To our surprise Matthew started to pick his own food with his fork right into his mouth. The nice thing is that he knows when he does something new, and he is so proud of himself - the big smile on his face tells it all.

Spaghetti Time. Matthew is now almost 15 months, and he got total of four teeth - two on the bottom and two on the top. We thought that eating spaghetti would be tough, but we were wrong. Matthew would grab this long pasta and grind into pieces with his four teeth, and then with more shredding on the back and then its all gone. The best of all is to watch him how sometimes he would try to put long pasta onto the fork and then into his mouth. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work, and this is when his face looks like tomato smugged in the ground beef.

Let Me Clean Your Face. No not Matthew's face. In fact my face needed to be clean one day. With few sneezes around food, and with Matthew sometimes eating from my dish and then grabbing my face for a small hug and kiss, it is hard for me to keep my face clean. In addition, Matthew likes to pick small crumbs around him with his little fingers and eat them. So one day Matthew finds a small bread crumb attached to my face, picks it and eats it. This time I laughed.

Chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate yet?... Yes Matthew loves apple cinnamon chocolate loaf !!!

As life goes on, we continue our messy breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners. One day when I am old and washing my floor around the table, the greasy stains will remind me how wonderful and precious eating times we had together.

My Baby is Showing Affection - Unforgettable Moments

My reflections - unforgettable moments with Matthew.

'The first touch,
The first smile,
The first eye to eye contact,
The first hickey, a hunger call,
The first lick on the face, a wet one,
The first hug, for the bear,
Very shy every time,
Then snuggles to me,
- its all my baby.'

I was sitting on the sofa and watching Matthew playing. He is now 11 months plus. With his little hands he takes the white Easter bunny and hugs him on the left, then on the right side, and playing shy at the same time. That was so so cute, and I wish I had the video camera, but I knew soon as I get one all will be over. I continued to watch, to my surprise, Matthew is now talking to his prayer duck, of course in his own language. Then I get up and get the camera, but the unforgettable moments are now over. Truly unforgettable.

Earlier today we went to church for Ukrainian Easter Good Friday. It was his third visit to the church. Unfortunately we were not able to take him on regular basis on Sunday before, because of his eating and sleeping schedule, especially that he likes to eat and sleep at the same times as all the church masses. Well on the parking lot we ran into two priests who knew my father and came up to greet him. One of the priests immediately ignored my dad and dived to play with Matthew. Matthew responded by pointing and reaching out to him - next thing the priest is kissing his little hands. Another unforgettable moment.

Matthew started to show true affection around nine months but earlier around six months Matthew had these interesting ways to express hunger. When hungry he would latch to my chin and give me a hickeys. He would also make suction motions with his lips where we though it was hunger, but no he was massaging his gums. But try to explain this to his uncle who insisted that I feed him - I guess he got paranoid when Matthew made a move on him with his lips. Another unforgettable moment to share.

The true affection surfaced when Matthew started to hug his blue plush bear and a big brown bear. It was and still is so cute to watch him as he embraces the big brown Bear's head with his little hands. And then it is nice to watch him when he embraces the small plush bear with his little hands and brings close to his body to hug him. Many many unforgettable moments.

'Matthew can I have kiss kiss' - we would ask. 'Matthew I love you' - we would say all the time. 'Matthew eeee eeee eeee' - we would squeak. And there he goes with his mouth wide open and tongue across my face, a wet wet lick. Unforgettable feeling.