Saturday, November 24, 2007

Secretly gaining mad skillz

You know the theory that babies and young children start acting all difficult and cranky right before a developmental leap? They'll stop sleeping through the night, or will throw extra-big tantrums, and then the next day they can suddenly hop on one foot or something. It's like the kid's brain is working so hard on that one new thing that the rest of the brain goes all limp and flabby.

Anyway. Over the past few days, Tallulah, who is almost four, exhibited some serious regression in various areas. Besides the barfing (which isn't really "regression" and which I think was caused by a bad coughing fit and an unhealthy fries-ketchup-milk dinner), she has been sleeping poorly, with lots of tearful night wakings; and she even wet the bed, something she has only done once before in her entire life. But the day after the bed-wetting (yesterday, that is) she WROTE HER NAME for the first time. She had only ever written single letters before. I was truly amazed. She even allowed us to be proud of her!

So when exactly does a person age out of the whole behavior regression --> developmental leap phenomenon? I sort of thought it ended sometime around age three, but perhaps Tallulah's past few tumultuous days proves me wrong. So what if you NEVER age out of it? It would be great if that time* I was feeling all cranky and out-of-sorts meant that the non-bitchy part of my brain was busy finally understanding string theory. Or what if that time I couldn't fall asleep a couple of weeks ago was because I was gaining the gross motor skills necessary to pole vault? I just need to keep trying out new things right after I sleep poorly or have a bathroom accident (the WORST! Am I right, ladies?) to see if my theory is correct.

* - and by "that time" I mean "almost all the time"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This theory is excellent. I intend to apply it to my patients immediately, although I need it most myself. Perhaps THIS THEORY is itself a burst of innovation!

Gramma K