Passions

My friend t (who comments now and again on this blog) talks sometimes about how her 17-month-old son, S, loves books. From what she says, it sounds like books--requesting them to be read over and over again, sitting independently with a book and flipping pages, etc.--are one of S's passions.

What are R's passions?

Not so much books. She'll look at them for short periods. She likes to pull them off of whatever shelf they're on. If they're not board books, she spends more effort crumpling the pages to hear the noise it makes than looking at the pictures (which is why she doesn't really have access to many non-board books unsupervised). And only when she's tired--before a nap, and before bed, if she's not antsy to nurse--will she sit quietly and let us read a book to her. Even then, she's usually more interested in flipping the pages herself, often to the very last page before we've even read the first page. When we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar (one that she likes quite a bit), she lingers on the pages where the caterpillar's eaten through the fruit, because she likes to feel the holes. She also likes Pat the Bunny. Her favorite page there is trying on Mummy's ring. She tries it on every which way.

Really, we do try to read her a lot of stories. Sometimes we do this when she's sitting and eating, as entertainment. Sometimes I read them to her while she's playing and doing other things. I'll just sit on the floor and have the book open. She'll come over and listen but not always for the whole book. She likes books fine, but she's not really into them.

So. What is she passionate about?

First, without a doubt: Music. She loves music. If it is playing, she starts dancing, no matter where we are. In restaurants, she moves back and forth in her booster seat. When we are out and about, carrying her in our arms or in the Ergo, she'll wiggle in response to music playing in a store. Sitting on the floor, she'll move her head back and forth, and sometimes do this really nifty shoulder move. Standing up she bobs up and down or moves her head back and forth (here's a video of her doing this). And she makes the hugest smiles and sweetest laughs when she hears music she likes.

Now that we have her CD player in the living room, all I have to do is say to her, "R, turn on your music," and she crawls over there and turns it on. When we sing to her (yes, even when I sing to her--which I don't do in front of people other than J and R) she dances and laughs. She loves things that make noise. If she gets a hold of something new, the first thing she does is shake it to see what kind of noises it makes. She loves to crumple paper, and rip it to shreds, I think because she likes how it sounds.

The other thing she's passionate about is Food. The girl has not met food she doesn't like. Except maybe green beans--these she wasn't too interested in when we started her on pureed baby food, but she's eaten them plenty of times since. She just doesn't go after them with the same gusto she goes after most other foods. R loves to eat. Oh man. If there's food around, she wants it, and she usually wants it now. I can't really think of any food she doesn't devour, although she really isn't interested in drinking milk. She loves water, but pushes away milk after the first sip.