We have neighbors living behind us the past few years. He’s blond. She’s gorgeous.
Actually, they’re both tall, thin and gorgeous. Their children are adorable and well mannered. It’s as if a Crest commercial had come to life.
“You look like the couple on a wedding cake,” I said earlier as they marched by with their five month old baby girl and three more blond daughters.
“I’ll take that as a complement,” he said.
It was. Absolutely.
I walked up to see the baby. At the moment she’s the only one in the family with body fat.
Her piercing blue eyes caught me as I walked up. Her face turned serious. I was being scoped out. Stranger danger.
I learned a lot watching Stef grow up. She understood what we were saying long before she could respond. It wasn’t she was mentally incapable, she just didn’t have the fine motor skills and muscle control necessary to make the right sound. Same today with this little girl.
My niece Melissa and her husband Mark taught their daughter Charlotte sign language so she could ‘speak’ a little sooner. Welcome to 2016, featuring workarounds.
The world is this little girl’s puzzle. She’s working on making all the pieces fit. It’s a tough job for an infant and there are no instructions.
I sad goodbye and the family continued on. It looked like the happy scene in a life insurance commercial.
Geoff,
You have been the recipient of what my family calls the ‘little girl stare’ that a non-verbal female toddler uses to scope out strangers and rivals.
Interestingly, boy babys do not seem to do this–or at least none of our boys did.
Daughter, however, always cheked out strangers, and if the stranger was another little girl, the stare was even more intense. Almost like checking out a rival or threat in it’s intensity, tracking, and focus. Once daughter could talk, the stare was not as obvious.
Dunno why they do it, but you are not the only one to see it…its rather scary at times how intense it can be…
I like it, when you talk to them, their mouths move and happy sounds come out—just can’t get to words. My gr.grand dgt is just closing in on 4 mos. Oh how we wait for them to talk, then when they’re a bit older, we wish there was a “turn off switch”!
I’ve seen the stare too, as I don’t see her that often. People have busier lives now and maternity leaves are short.
My youngest Nephew, Mark, only within hours of birth, opened his eyes to my Dad wooing him. Mark pulled his head back as if to focus, and burned a look into my Dad’s eyes, like Who are you and why are you touching me?
I laughed, and said OH No….He’s just too smart.
He’s now going to be 26 beginning of October. Graduate of Penn State Nuclear Engineering program and a Second Lt. USMC.