I have long claimed that the best compliment I was ever given was this "Most people just think really shallow thoughts about deep things, but you think really deep thoughts about shallow things." I hope that, to some extent, this is still true about me. I hope that as the days go by, I don't just passingly contemplate the meaning of life, I would hope that, instead, I really dig into the here and now; that I treasure the little things. With that thought in mind, here are my Top 11 Little Things.
11. Tags. My son loves how they look and feel. Given almost any toy with a printed tag attached, he will feel it and stare at it. I'd like to think he's having a very positive interaction with print and that it is good for all those pre-literacy skills. If nothing else, he loves they way they all feel a little different.
10. Teeth on Cloth. Although I could write an entire post about my son's recent vampiric ways, his fascination with biting cloth has really intrigued me. He has figured out that biting the skin under the cloth is bad, but I've let him play with just grasping the top layer of fabric with his teeth. He's really good at this. I can't think of a time when this will be a really important skill for a tiny vegetarian, but it's interesting to to watch.
9. Fractals in Velcro. With my son in cloth diapers, I spend a lot of time staring at velcro tabs. I have recently noticed that they attract strings and dog hairs and what not in almost perfect fractal shapes. I have had some interesting flash backs to working for the math teacher in high school... I've always been interested in patterns, and this is an odd place to discover one.
8. Wrinkles and Freckles. Jax loves staring at my face, and more recently his face. We've spent quite a bit of time looking at ourselves in the mirror. I have always hoped I would have happy wrinkles around my eyes and have been delighted to see a sort of permanent smile emerging there. Even more intriguing is the way these wrinkles start to hide some of my freckles. It's like a new set emerging as others are hidden; getting to discover a new skin pattern all over again.
7. Gurgling. I have never been able to make the cool wookie sound like my husband. Jax makes it often when babbling. I have had an interesting time exploring my glottal and vocal control in imitating his visualization. As with learning Portuguese, I'm intrigued by the sounds I simply cannot seem to make with the accuracy I desire.
6. Puree. Mashed up foods have been sliding down my gullet for decades, typically thanks to my amazing teeth. Pre-mashing food with intent to serve is a more recent amusement. The variety of texture in "baby" food and pureed foods is really amazing. You'd think by the time you blended something to a liquid form, that the consistency would be, well, more consistent. The difference between a squash, a sweet potato, a banana, and a pear are really something to behold.
5. Hair Color. I'd never really had dark hair before this September. I've been pretty much a dozen shades from blond through red, but but dark brown was something new, and mostly, for the Miss Klingon Empire beauty pageant (which I'm sad to say has since turned into a Star Trek Universe pageant and hence gets judged on things like... well... beauty). At any rate, I am amazed that no matter what color my locks are dyed, folks seem to be fairly equally split on whether or not they like them that shade. I, for one, don't really care. I tend to like red best, but, given the culture freedom to do so, would go back to being clean bald.
4. Nails. I like having nails longer than my finger tips so I can make my favorite sound. I discovered while taking piano lessons in eighth grade that my teacher had fingernails which made the slightest click as she played each note. I adore this sound. Just the light tap of a fingernail on the ivory before the note sounds. Lovely.
3. Asphalt. While on the topic of odd favorites, my favorite smell by far is asphalt when it first starts raining. I'm sure this is some sort of noxious chemical fume that is causing cancer in lab rats by me merely mentioning it. It is just such a friendly smell, reminding me of a barefoot childhood, running up the road towards the house to escape the summer soaking and, instead, splashing about in a frenzy of muddy puddles and slick cool grass between our toes. For now at least, just the smell in a parking lot will do.
2. Jumping. I love to jump. Trampolines are especially fun, but really, I just like hopping and skipping. (I admit to enjoying these much more when I'm in better shape and not encumbered by certain parts of my anatomy which serve to nourish my son's tummy and my husband's eyes). I love the moment of weightlessness before tumbling to earth. I adore the rules of physics that mean I tug equally hard on the earth to join me as it does to bring me back down... but it wins because despite my current obese state, the mass of the earth is still greater. Most of all, I love how it brings out the wiggling giggling inner child in me.
1. Sharing. I like to share my words and thoughts. I don't really need everyone to read them, or anyone to really care about them, but I love the idea of the nebulous "someone" being a part of my innermost dialog. I get little chills that the power of the internet means someone somewhere might be sharing my world. I love the power of being literate meaning I can share in their world when they comment. I like that it makes a window from my world, no matter how dark, to peak and and see the rainbow when it comes.
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