Do As I Do

When Keilana was tiny, she often got the technique of something before she truly understood the meaning. For instance, she learned the pattern of knock-knock jokes long before she knew what would make them funny. So, about a hundred times a day, we would hear jokes like this: “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Door. Door, who? Don’t forget to shut the door!” Which, of course, would make us howl with laughter from the absurdity but what she interpreted as us succumbing to the hilarity of her humor. And it went on for a really long time. Another one is Keilana’s version of Peek-a-boo. I recently watched the video of her first birthday and, in between tears of nostalgia, was amused to see that we had caught her particular brand of the game on film. She learned Peek-a-boo very early, but she thought the point was to hold something over your head, thus rendering you invisible. So, she would dangle something over her head, without covering her face in the least, and chuckle to herself when we couldn’t “find” her. Then she would pull the thing down past her chin and we would suddenly “see” her again. It was really hilarious and a perfect example of how perspective is very, very personal. And a warning to remember that babies only see what you do, not what you intend. In Margaret Miller’s Peekaboo Baby, all sorts of babies hide and seek. I wonder if any of them know they are learning about life.

http://www.amazon.com/Peekaboo-Baby-Look-Books/dp/0689844336

http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/14585/Margaret_Miller/index.aspx