The Baby
The baby takes two swigs from his bottle,
Holds it forth with two hands and loudly proclaims
“BA…BA”
then takes two more swigs.
There is a primal need to speak what is important to us.
The baby points at his mother and says MA,
his father and says DA, his dog and says DU,
a car and says CA.
Then he points at his shoes and says SHOOOZ.
One never knows when sophistication will pop out.
The baby walks along the low concrete wall bordering
the playground.
He runs his hands on the smooth surface,
Every once in a while he comes to a small protruding bolt,
and picks at it for minutes.
One must pay attention to irregularities.
The baby says his words with clear meaning,
BA, DA PA, MA loudly, forcefully, with enthusiasm.
But, when the baby shares what appear to be streams of gibberish.He often has a thoughtful look,
an eyebrow raised now and again for emphasis
His tone is quieter and modulated.
Will the pattern hold?
The baby toddles around the plaza while guardians
protect him from passersby and vice verse.
When he sees a manhole cover he stands on it and crows.
And then another, and another…
Some things are beyond our understanding.
That baby hurt his left foot and couldn’t toddle.
But he could enjoy holding his truck puzzle pieces up and saying something like “truck” before putting them not quite randomly in their home spaces.
He could also enjoy making the light switch go up and down,
sliding himself backward on his stomach on a wood floor,
and many other activities.
Is this what is meant by “Playing hurt.”?
The baby’s grandfather texts everyday to find out how the baby’s foot is progressing.
The calls can’t possibly help the baby or his parents.
Somehow it helps the grandfather.
The baby’s truck puzzle board has six trucks in it.
They are all colorful. The pieces are flat and a quarter inch thick,
The trucks on them are visually one dimensional. The baby can’t quite fit the pieces into their spaces on the board yet.
Nonetheless, he disdainfully pushes a puzzle piece off the board and tries to insert one of his 3 dimensional toy trucks.
Has the baby already studied Magritte? Or, perhaps Magritte studied the baby.
On a subsequent day the baby keeps moving his truck puzzle pieces (see above) on the puzzle board.
Pretty soon one or two actually get fully in the spaces designed for them.
Then, as acts of will, more get in their spaces.
I think it is time to start calling the baby the little boy.
Or maybe the toddler
The grandpa juggles, not great, but you’d have to call it juggling
When the toddler wants the grandpa to juggle, then elbows in, he holds his hands out and moves them up and down quickly,
surprisingly quickly.
One day the baby holds his hands out to ask for two of the balls.
He makes his hands go up and down a few times then drops a ball and says” Whoops”.
The mistakes are part of the show.
The baby, now the toddler loves to dance.
He dances to the radio every day with his father and mother
He dances with his grandma and grandpa.
The baby’s mother asks the grandpa to bring his harmonica
The grandpa is hesitant, he only knows a mournful two songs.
(Not as good as he juggles.)
Nonetheless, he plays simple happy tunes he makes up on the spot.
He never remembers them, so plays a new one every time.
The toddler dances with vigor and joy,
He doesn’t realize the grandpa really doesn’t know how to play the harmonica.
When the toddler sees another child near his age, maybe even a year or two older, he points and says BABY.
The grandfather, a psychologist, thinks: “How cute, the toddler still lacks self objectivity.“
Later, the grandfather is in a train station;
He hears an old coot rattling on and thinks, “What an old coot.”
As the coot continues to rattle, he mentions his age, which is 4 years younger than the grandfather.
Self objectivity, once achieved, does not appear to be a stable trait
The toddler is playing with a box full of his toy cars.
Among them he finds a small blue plastic stick like thing and asks where it goes.
The grandpa says he doesn’t know,
as do the Mama and Grandma.
The toddler asks quizzically several more times, and then episodically throughout the evening
Youth wants to know.
– H Lipke
