The toddler's mind - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Last Friday, Cooper, our son and second child, turned one year old. Some of his family was around on Thursday for a little party and then, on Friday, I took the day off so we could spend it together.

He seemed to have fun, though he has a number of teeth coming in all at the same time, so that’s been tough for him. Aside from that, though, he had a great day with his family.

 

Over the course of the day, we marvelled that we had a one-year-old in the house, asking him if he could believe he was one year old now and asking his sister, Tallulah, if she could believe that her brother had turned one.

 

As he played one of his favourite new games (crawling around the floor as we stack Jenga blocks two, three and four tiers high for him to topple over - his face just lights up as he sees one of us building a stack and he starts crawling over quickly so he can be the one to take it down), I couldn’t help but think about how much he had grown in the past year. Sure, he had gotten a lot bigger, but he had learned so much. Even right there, he was crawling.

 

Then, a silly thought popped into my mind as I watched this unbelievably happy boy play with his blocks. 

 

Here we were, on his birthday, assuming that he is really happy about it. Turning one - hey, it must be exciting, right?

 

But... what if we’re wrong. Coop’s a quiet little guy (when he’s not laughing hysterically while playing with his sister or grumbling because his teeth are bothering him), so I got thinking that maybe he’s one of those old souls you hear about and that he was thinking of the passage of time on the event of his birthday and questioning what it means to be one.

 

When a child turns one, a baby becomes a toddler. As Coop sat there, clanking shaped blocks together or pressing buttons on his phonics bus, was he lamenting the loss of his baby days? Sure, it’s great to crawl and have agency over more of your movement, but will he miss all that time in his parents’ arms? 

 

Looking ahead, is he not quite sold on what being a toddler will mean to him? Is he thinking, in the most pensive Larry David (co-creator of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm) way possible, about his newfound moniker? “Am I truly a toddler? Sure, I’ve dabbled in toddling, I’ve toddled before, but does that make me a toddler?” Plus, just as he’s become a toddler, Tallulah has been exiting toddler status and moved on to being a pre-schooler. Will he be lonely as the only toddler in the house, or will he welcome the monopoly?

 

Maybe he thinks, like we do, that this unstoppable freight train called time is moving entirely too fast. Toddler today, pre-schooler tomorrow and a high school student before long - where does the time go?

 

Perhaps he thinks we’ll be expecting more of him now. Crawling is great, but surely it’s just a gateway to walking, so that will be next on the list. Is he worried it will take him too long to learn? Is he really hoping that he does it the right way, so he doesn’t disappoint us? 

 

Man, it’s hard to be a toddler.

 

Well, hopefully he hasn’t let any of these pesky existential concerns creep in, ruining the first in what will hopefully be a very successful series of birthday celebrations. 

 

Then again, maybe his quiet time was just him wondering when more food was coming or why his parents and sister weren’t stacking up blocks for him to knock down when he clearly - clearly - wants to be doing that. How could there be any confusion around this?

 

Ah, the mind of a toddler - it’s all about food and Jenga blocks... at least, we hope so.