Building

Today Ben and I both have colds, so we had a slow morning at home instead of rushing all around to get to his class at the Y and run errands. After entirely too much TV, I suggested he try his blocks.

At first he seemed uninterested, but when I showed him how to make tall towers, he decided building was fun. I watched him stack blocks on top of each other and marveled at his sense of balance; the last time he had played with blocks, he hadn't been able to build nearly as high. Sometimes I wanted to reach out and straighten the tower, but I resisted--I wanted this project to be his. As the tower grew, every block he added was cause for jumping with excitement, and each time I watched the line of blocks move slightly, but stay up.

I am amazed by all the things that Ben can do now: build block towers, assemble puzzles, identify letters and colors and numbers, and even sometimes blow bubbles. But when I tell nonparents what he is up to these days, they often seem not particularly impressed. I think the problem is nonparents compare kids to adults--so the fact that a toddler can stack blocks precisely one over the other is not that big a deal. But parents remember the tiny infants who could only cry and sleep and wet diapers, and so to them every little milestone--grabbing, saying a word, eating yogurt with a spoon--feels miraculous.