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Mar. 31st, 2006 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaWarm, beautiful spring day today. On our second walk, I took Alex to the "park" - not a real park with lawns and recreational facilities, but the strips of grass and landscaping that surround the Washington Monument, a few blocks from our house. I took her out of the stroller and set her down in a patch of grass.
Her first patch of grass. She was just a tiny baby last summer, and the winter has been long. And so, as she crawled around, everything she encountered amazed her. She patted the grass, grasped it, tried to pick it up. A couple of acorn fragments held her attention for at least five minutes. She spoke beguilingly to the pigeons in an apparent attempt to encourage them to come closer. She amassed a collection of small sticks, scooching along in a sitting position so as not to have to put them down to crawl. And along the way, she kept up an extensive but completely unintelligible running commentary.
My fear had been that I would be chasing after her at top speed, preventing her from darting out into traffic. That didn't happen. Instead, we made an inch-by-inch inspection of about twenty square feet of the dullest sort of urban greenspace. And Alex's sense of wonder was so powerful that she dragged me into it as well. I really saw that patch of nondescript grass, in a way that I haven't looked at grass since... well, since I was a kid.
Her first patch of grass. She was just a tiny baby last summer, and the winter has been long. And so, as she crawled around, everything she encountered amazed her. She patted the grass, grasped it, tried to pick it up. A couple of acorn fragments held her attention for at least five minutes. She spoke beguilingly to the pigeons in an apparent attempt to encourage them to come closer. She amassed a collection of small sticks, scooching along in a sitting position so as not to have to put them down to crawl. And along the way, she kept up an extensive but completely unintelligible running commentary.
My fear had been that I would be chasing after her at top speed, preventing her from darting out into traffic. That didn't happen. Instead, we made an inch-by-inch inspection of about twenty square feet of the dullest sort of urban greenspace. And Alex's sense of wonder was so powerful that she dragged me into it as well. I really saw that patch of nondescript grass, in a way that I haven't looked at grass since... well, since I was a kid.
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Early Development
Date: 2006-04-01 04:59 am (UTC)Adrian
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Date: 2006-04-01 01:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 02:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-01 07:21 pm (UTC)At about that age, my niece hated grass. If you tried to set her down on the lawn, she would lift her feet up and try and turn around and climb back up your body. It was pretty funny.
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Date: 2006-04-01 07:30 pm (UTC)You really are downtown. That makes you pretty close to the Walters? Jeff and I had one of our first dates there (geeks).
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Date: 2006-04-01 08:00 pm (UTC)I'm not surprised you went on a date there! They have a very cool medieval collection, as I recall. Michael and I were particularly impressed by the Islamic arms and armor.
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Date: 2006-04-01 11:25 pm (UTC)I'm sure Sarah will want me to say Hi to Baby Alex on her behalf.
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Date: 2006-04-03 09:13 pm (UTC)Remember how you felt when you got sucked into her sense of wonder. You should be able to do that pretty much at will from here on out!