Too Clever By Half
Eli’s crib is in one corner of his room, with the foot of the crib facing the corner. On the wall next to the foot of the crib is his bookcase; together the crib and bookcase form an L. This morning when I went in, he had one hand stuck through the crib slats grabbing a book from the shelf. Since the book wouldn’t fit through the slats, he passed the book to his other hand, which he’d draped over the side of the crib. He then lifted the book into his bed for reading, joining the ten or so books he’d worked through in the previous thirty minutes. “Hi, Daddy,” he said before going back to reading.
This kind of problem-solving generally freaks me out. Eli’s gone from being a philosophy major, observing and commenting without actually doing anything, to being a physics major with two sub-critical pieces of uranium who wonders what happens if he smooshes them together.
I’m certain I was nothing like this as a child.
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Comment by Vika
Maybe you weren’t, but being around all those lasers must’ve enhanced the scientist part of your DNA.
Maybe he’d enjoy a molecule construction set, once it ceases to be a choking hazard. Oh, and Legoland.
Posted on May 5, 2006 at 10:20 am
Comment by Geof F. Morris
See, I thought he was on his way to being an engineer, since he was actually solving a problem and not just gazing at his navel …
[I am getting my ass kicked for this comment, I'm sure.]
Posted on May 5, 2006 at 11:03 am
Comment by May
Stephen, first, yes you were just like this. You continually amazed your Dad and me; especially when we discovered you were reading and not just from memory at the age of three. Second, this past weekend, I watched Eli throw his ball into his crib and then try and bring it out through the slates. When that didn’t work, he put his hands through the slates of the crib and then he gradually worked the ball to the top of the side and then reached up and brought it over; mission accomplished and we were able to happily play ball once again. He is truly your son!
Posted on May 5, 2006 at 11:31 am
Comment by Joyous
Wait until he gets to be about 12; then he’ll be a lawyer, looking for loopholes in all the rules about why he can’t do this and when he can do that…
Posted on May 5, 2006 at 11:39 am
Comment by Stephen
Geof:
See, I thought he was on his way to being an engineer, since he was actually solving a problem and not just gazing at his navel….
Ah, you seem to have confused doing boring things where the principles have all been worked out ahead of time with actually doing something new.
Posted on May 5, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Comment by Geof F. Morris
I feel like there should now be some ritualistic dueling.
Posted on May 6, 2006 at 7:33 am
Comment by Jeff
Nah. Nothing good can come of an engineer/scientist duel. If the scientist loses, then that’s not good. We all know the real purpose of science is to discover/develop new technologies that we engineers can use to actually build things. So, we kinda have to keep them around.
And, well, it’s obvious that the engineer getting killed is a bad thing.
Posted on May 6, 2006 at 2:21 pm