We’ve noticed a "thing" regarding being parents that’s maybe just in our heads: When we mention something regarding his state of being it immediately ceases to be true. There outta be a law to describe this, I may call it Ijah’s first law of behavioral impertinence or Ijah’s first law of contrary activity (suggestions welcome). His Second Law: Ijah’s new state – the one he goes to when we open our big mouths – is equal and opposite the one he left previously, magnified in magnitude by how blatantly we screw up with the first law. Thankfully we’ve made a correlative discovery: Speaking about Ijah’s state of being in the PAST TENSE negates this behavior. Ijah’s Third law.
An example.
Walking around the lake with Ijah in his stroller will cause him to fall asleep. It happens, that’s one of the reasons we walk. But at some point, one of us gets reckless and says something like "It sure is nice to have some quiet time to talk" or "He sure is sleeping well right now". Blammo! Awake. First Law
The second law really applies more to us and how we approach the first. If we say: "It’s really nice be able to talk about the world (rather then the baby)" he may wake up and do something cute; a relatively benign opposite reaction causing us to talk about him. If we say "It’s nice to walk and just enjoy the silence" then it’s a whole new ball game; wake up screaming, inconsolable.
One day we were walking and dealing: He had slept, woke up, slept, woke up, and was in a fragile sleep when I almost lost it and commented, but said instead "He wasn’t sleeping this well at this point in the walk yesterday."
….
He slept on.
Amanda looked at me like I had kicked her – we had by this time discovered laws one and two. We walked along, pale and silent, waiting for Vesuvius Robert to erupt again. He didn’t. The rest of the walk went along fine. As we reached the building Amanda put forth another test… "well I would have enjoyed the walk more yesterday if he would have slept through it".
He slept on. Ijah’s third law.
This all happened a while back. But it crossed my mind today when I was dealing with a computer that seems to do exactly the opposite of what is asked of it. I wonder…
One Comment
Elijah….are mommy and daddy telling lies about you now? With that adorable smile and total cuteness? You can come live with me. (did I just invoke the 1st law or the second…just trying to help out here) Must say..it is so much fun sitting back and watching reruns of kid raising…wahoo..go Elijah!!