We are all staying at my parents at the mo' (house reno's nearly finished) and as a result Monte has a fair bit of stimulation all week.
He has had his fair whack of "No, don't touch that" "Look at this!" and " Come here!" .
He has been grabbed for cuddles, hands held to try and urge him to learn to walk, pulled away suddenly from the sausage dog and rescued often from the jaws of the dishwasher.
The little sod just wants to make sense of the world around him - but he has giants coming at him from every angle and telling him to "Be Careful!"
I feel for him!
He is curious about stuff , and so he should be.
So today I took him outside, which is where it is at - as far as he is concerned.
I said and did nothing.
I didn't pick him up or urge him to look at things I thought he should look at.
I didn't talk to him or give names to the things he was looking at.
I just sat and watched him and let him be.
Let him soak in what he wanted to soak in.
I didn't know just how fascinating a gumnut was until today!
He looked at gumnuts and leaves in great length and tried clapping a couple together, as he does.
Everything is clappable.
He watched the little butterflies weave around him in fascination.
Every now and then almost hyperventilating from the excitement of it all.
After a little bit he would look back at me to see if I was looking , give me a smile- and go back to what he was doing.
I just sat there and watched.
I actually fell into a really tranquil state just trying to see the world through the eyes of an almost 1 year old.
I really conjured up the power of now.
Ekhart would be proud.
For a few moments I detached myself from my head and just listened to the thoughts going around:
"He should have a hat on, I hope he doesn't eat that gumnut, it's probably too hot...."
I just let them swirl by without giving them any heed.
I could smell eucalyptus, I could hear buzzing of flies and insects - the hum of the air-conditioner on the roof - birds chattering, I was lying on the grass and above me were great big trees overlooking the river - it was beautiful.
When Monte tried to crawl the gumnuts weren't so pleasant on the knees so he got up on his feet and crawled in the funniest style I have ever seen!
He then gave up.
He looked over at me with the most massive grin.
He crawed over and flopped on me and nuzzled up to me.
I'm pretty sure he was saying "Thanks Mum for just letting me be"
