Jackson had an explosion of baby babble this weekend: OPA (a word that Greek people use for no reason at all), TATA (Costa Rican word for father), and BABA (his endearing word for MAMA). Beyond the above preciousness, there were lots of ear piercing digraphs to be heard in rhythm - TH, CH, WH, and SH were most audible following the ear bleeding.
The words that the monkey uses on a regular basis are DADA, HI, BYE, BALL, and MAMA (to be used in the desperate occasions that he REALLY wants something and can't get my attention with BABA.) His barrage of new sounds this weekend, just got me to thinking about how amazing the feat of acquiring language really is. I think about all of the sounds that he is exposed to on a daily basis. Every moment of every day, from when he is lifted into the crib until we say goodnight, he is flooded with words that just absorb in his little brain and then baby neurons just fire off the words to different places in order to make make sense of it all . . . then it all spills out later when we least expect it.
I thought for a moment, is there ever a time in the day when he isn't overloaded with language and can just sit with his own thoughts? Would he sit with his own thoughts? Should he be expected to if we can't? I took a walk this evening and shelved the IPod. Mostly because it was late, and I was walking alone, but also because I wanted to just try walking for a straight hour in my own head. No one to talk to, no music to drown out thoughts. Just me, myself, and the night sky. It was boring and very difficult, but I'm going to challenge myself to do it. How sad is that? I can't even walk for 60 minutes without singing songs in my head that would have been on my IPod. I blame it on the constant overload of stimulation that feeds into our everyday lives. From the moment I get out of bed, I turn the TV on for background noise while I get ready, and don't sit in silence until I am closing my eyes to go to bed at night. There is something to be said for meditation, or some kind of relaxing from the overload. Sitting with your own thoughts can be a good thing, though difficult at first.
What I realized tonight, is that I don't necesarily make that extra effort to let Jackson revel in silence during the day either. I'll always rush to turn on music to keep him interested and engaged. I read aloud every book that he hands to me, every single time, instead of encouraging him to flip the pages and read by using the pictures. There is a lot to be said about the value of silence and the way it decompresses you and energizes you in the same breath. I'm taking a challenge to shelve the IPod for a bit and learn to get lost in my own thoughts. For Jackson also, giving him a chance to be in relaxing silence for some portion of the day would be a gift.
1 comment:
The other take on that is that if walking is supposed to relax you, but instead you let yourself drown in thinking, you've now taken 1 hour of "you/relax time" OUT of your day.
Maybe don't try too hard to shun the music.
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