I mentioned the other week that Many has taken to shrieking as a form of entertainment, but she’s recently been taking it to a whole new level. She’ll be lying there happy as can be, then she’ll start squealing and shrieking loud enough to wake the dead, a big grin on her face the whole time. It takes a bit of explaining to concerned onlookers in public before they’re convinced that this is her happy sound. Remember that scene in the Lord of the Rings movies where Frodo and Sam cower from the shrill screams of the Nazgûl Witch-King as he circles overhead? It’s like that, only more piercing and deafening.
And for those of you who just read that and are thinking “what a dork,” well, you’re just jealous that you don’t have a little Nazgûl baby.
Sam is also prone to shrieks lately, though they’re not quite as cute. Let us just say that Sam is hard at work exhibiting her growing independence, and that sometimes it’s very trying. It seems like every interaction with her is one in which I’m telling her not to do something, telling her to do something else, or she’s demanding that I not do something or do something else. Playing with Sam has continued to be less of a game and more of an opportunity to be bossed around by someone who changes her mind about what you should be doing every three seconds. Sam still usually demands that we play with her, but she feels the need to direct EVERY nuance of the game, often to the point where I can’t do ANYTHING on my own without her spazzing out. This strikes me as odd, since we’ve never been that way with her. Well, at least not with play. We do often insist that she not punch the cat, but exactly how she doesn’t punch him is left entirely up to her.
Still, we realize it’s a phase, and Sam retains the almost magical ability to make me forget it all just by looking at me, smiling, and saying “Hi, Daddy.” It’s amazing.
As an example of how things might move on past this, Sam is starting to make friends. There’s a little girl who lives across from our back yard, and the two have become quite chummy lately. It’s fun to watch them interact, mainly because it’s so striking how different they are in some ways. This little girl, who is almost exactly Sam’s age, has several older brothers and has apparently benefited from their instruction and example in doing all things physical. Sam still can’t swing herself, but this girl can not only do that, she can swing standing up and hang upside down from the jungle gym. I’m pretty sure that she could hang drywall if I asked her to.
The funniest thing, though, is watching them run. The neighbor girl runs like an Olympic champ, pumping her arms and springing her step. Sam, on the other hand, can most charitably be described as a flailing mass of arms, hair, knees, and exuberance. She gets from Point A to Point B, but it ain’t graceful. Still, Sam is tall and full of energy, so I’m sure she’ll grow into it in no time and totally stuff the little neighbor girl when she’s going for a layup. And then I’ll totally pump my fist and get all in that little girls’ face. It’ll be awesome.
This was a good entry for me to read…we totally relate to distinctive personality traits.