Thursday, November 30th, 2006.
Today's photo is my
favorite from last Sunday's photo shoot. I know it's just because I'm his
parent, but I think Ben is at a terribly cute age and size right now.
Today's other photo is
from a picnic we had outside the library yesterday following Ben's story time.
Amy packed enough food for all three of us and we met during my lunch break.
I like the picnic collage because it shows a very big part of Ben's personality.
You may notice that in two of the photos he appears to be focused intently on
something off camera. Ben is very, very suspicious of strangers and extremely shy in
public. Two city workers were blowing leaves on the library grounds and
Ben would not take his eyes off them. If it's an option, he'll peer like
that from behind something, like our leg. A couple of times during the
picnic he leaned
so far toward me while watching the workers, that his forehead ended up resting
on mine. Many times in public he'll be having a grand time,
laughing or singing, then realize that someone is smiling at him causing him to completely
shut down. The funny thing is that he isn't like that at all with
children. If he sees children playing, he'll run up and jump right into the
game. That's the total opposite of Jackson. Jackson gets quiet
around other children his age and if other kids on the playground don't ask him
to join their game, he assumes they don't want him to play with them. At pre-school, Ben runs into the
room and throws himself right into whatever game the other kids are playing.
He'll walk up to children he doesn't know on the playground, start a
conversation and ask them if they want to play. Jackson would never do that, yet I
don't remember Jackson ever being aware of adults or crowds. Jackson has
always been more than happy to talk to any adult that would listen. Ben didn't say a word for the first hour at our last dinner
club meeting because of the number of adults there. It's funny how
different your children can be. I don't know if it's
environment, genetics or both. Jackson was in daycare from four months to
twenty months where Ben has always been at home, so that environmental
difference could explain a lot, but I honestly think they were just born
with very different personalities.