Can Your Kid Do This?

I'm sure at some point we've all been in a conversation with parents where they start bragging about how brilliant their kids are. I'm not naive enough to think my kid is the brightest and/or most talented, but it kind of would be cool if Faith was some superhuman prodigy and I could break out with an "I walked on the moon" story like Brian Regan tells.

However, we all know pictures don't lie, so I just had to post this one of Faith performing a two-handed dunk at some of our new neighbors' house today. We went to the park and were swinging. While I was lost in thought, wondering if that Nationwide commercial about life coming at your fast was going to be my reality, Faith begins pointing at a teenage brother and sister combination shooting hoops. It only took a few minutes before she made friends and was suddenly engaged in a friendly game of horse.

Now, before you think Faith is superhuman, dunking on a 10-foot goal, her new best friend, the teenage boy, lowered the goal to 8-feet. Before I knew it, she was throwing down two-handed dunks she learned while watching an NBA game without me (mostly because I don't watch the NBA anymore due to continual abuse from being forced to watch the Hawks while living in Atlanta). Me and her new friends begged her to try some nasty one-handed slams, but she told us to "Get real! My hands aren't big enough to palm the ball yet!" Any minute now, I'm expecting a call from Pat Summit.

OK, OK. Faith isn't really that articulate yet nor did she jump up on her own. Here's what really happened.


However, she needed no coaxing to know what to do around the basket. She was jamming away, much to the delight of her new friends.

But who knows? Maybe one day, Faith will be running a team from the point or even palming the ball. The sky is the limit.

A tribute to Faith...

So, Faith has thoroughly enjoyed moving...or not. It means she doesn't get as much attention from Momma as she usually gets. So, she invents new games and creative things to do, to pass the time. Like in these pictures, for instance. She takes this puzzle box out of the drawer, moves it to the desired spot, steps up on it, makes sure she is balanced and then watches what is going on with her thumb in her mouth.






I will have to give Faith some credit in helping us move. It is hard, when you are a baby and you are not getting the amount of attention you usually get. She has definitely been a trooper. If it weren't for her, I don't think we could have done the move! Here she is climbing in the closet shelves, to make sure they are sturdy enough for us to put our sweaters. In this second picture, She is helping Daddy hammer her crib back together again. And in the third picture, she is just being plain cute (which is a stress relief for all of us:)

Life from 2 Feet off the Ground

When it comes to perspective, there's nothing like getting a dose of it from someone three and a half feet shorter than you. One minute you're thinking that your view from 73 inches off the ground is a mighty fine one and that you can see all you need to see. The next minute you're squatting down next to your toddler and peering at the strangest things, wondering why you never noticed it in quite that way before.

These days, Faith likes to point at things and utter sometimes incomprehensible words. I'm doing OK on learning the Toddler language, which at this point slightly edges out my grasp of Vulcan. That's why the pointing helps. If I didn't understand her unintelligible squeak, at least I know what's on her mind. It's very similar to how I behave when traveling in Latin America and I just have no idea how to ask for directions to a town we should've seen miles ago. So, I pull out a map and point to the town I want to go to and with full inflexion deliver, "Dirrecion?"


At this point in her life, Faith's most useful words are those that describe how she feels and what she wants. "Eat" is quite popular these days as is "water." But when it comes to dotted lines that appear three feet apart on the walking path, it's just so much easier to point and squeal.


... at every one of them ... for miles.


... or stomp on them, another one of Faith's favorite pastimes. But there's only so much a parent can take, which is why she got the honor of riding piggy back for the rest of the way home.


Faith obviously didn't mind too much. ... Who knew white lines dividing a walking path could be so interesting?